Video Credit: Horseshoe Falls by Elizabeth Morana
Water sometimes has to go
over a ledge and
drop
without knowing
what comes next
you panic
there is nothing to
hold onto
no email with information
you needed
to orient you
The drops of water
too are disoriented
they rely
without forethought
on gravity
They don’t know
which way is up
either
Oh, Angels!
Teach me to be like
Water
Elizabeth Morana
This leaves me breathless. And…..then finding a water-connection within me. Beginning to understand that IT knows in its own way of “knowing”. And that part of its “knowing” is its ability to move along, to drop and swoop and recover and join the other streams of the larger flowing.
Then a tightening at the base of my skull lets me know that dropping and swooping and not knowing are not—yet—familiar or safe experiences for Me.
Who is not yet fully of water.
This is so lovely, “teach me to be like water”…I like this prayer!
I can feel the panic of ‘nothing to hold onto’…oh to be so free, to surrender, to let go like the water.
This is something to hold onto.
Thank you for it all.
Thank you, Lynn! You show me more about paying attention to all that is within me, including that which is not yet fully of water either.
I turn back now, wondering more what ‘water’ is pointing to in me–some kind of life energy in me that recognizes water as its ‘cousin’….
Your poem resonated with something that happening in my head that felt so scary, something like the waterfall so out of you control. For me it was a bright light that seem to take me over and I had nothing to hold on to! It happened several times in my headspace, but something in me just went with it and I knew I would be alright. Thank you. Kevin
Yes, Gabrielle, your words say it, “oh to be so free, to surrender, to let go like the water….” The wanting itself, a kind of happy wanting, and seeing it as a ‘good thing’ to be able to just flow forward with my own life fully and completely there, happily there….
elizabeth
I picture that light that came to you as a ‘blinding light’ that causes you to lose your bearings…..and then you ‘just went with it’ and you knew you’d be alright….so this helps me to see that someone else can also face a deep-not-knowing, experiencing it differently than me, and also accept it and know somehow it’s ok….
and oddly enough (to me), now: more of my own fear of disorientation shows itself….
thank you,
elizabeth
“no email with information
you needed
to orient you”
I wanted to point out the brilliance of this line—our reliance on all things digital to help us through life when what we really need is our connection to who we are — water — and the laws of gravity. These two forces can keep us safe and supported. …And all we need to find that connection is to ask the angels to guide us. Nothing fancy, just the essence of life.
Diana
HaHa! “Nothing fancy—-just the essence of life!”
And I see humor in your noticing how we rely “on all things digital” as we write here, in this way….
and even better, we can notice the ‘background feeling’ of panic/unprepared in looking for an email….or anything, for that matter….
elizabeth
Reading your poem Elizabeth I went over the edge as if in a roller coaster. I could feel the lump come up in my throat and wondered at the water that accepts the plunge with grace and trust…. When life’s big challenges happen, how can I be like the water and go with the flow with grace and trust.
Oh, Angels!
Teach me to be like
Water