by DAWNA MARKOVA
This poem left me feeling deflated.
I felt I was being bullied,
and chided for living a quiet life.
I am much more encouraged by Anais Nin's gentle words,
"And the day came
when the risk to remain tight in a bud
became more painful
than the risk it took to blossom."
For me, the same sentiments are expressed
but without the motivational rhetoric.
"The fruit my life will pass on is ..."
I chose to write with a fabric pen on the whitish sheet I had.
I then used this as the fabric for my intuitive doll.
I cut the fabric into random sized pieces and then reassembled it.
I chose again to use the extended torso with stuffed arms and legs.
I created a circular skirt on which I had written the fruits I feel my life has borne.
But as so often happens when creating intuitively,
this doll refused to wear it!
Such impudence!!
The fruits I wrote on the skirt are:
compassion, recovery,
witness, soul friend, teacher,
empower-er, encourag-er, enabler,
storyteller, empath, listener,
creativity, perseverance, companion,
lateral thinker, fidelity.
Marcus Aurelius gently encourages me,
"At dawn,
when you have trouble getting out of bed,
tell yourself, 'I have to go to work - as a human being.
What do I have to complain of,
if I'm doing the things I was brought into the world to do?'
'Don't you see the plants, the birds,
the ants and spiders and bees
going about their individual tasks,
putting the world in order as best they can?
And you're not willing to do your job as a human being?
Why aren't you running to do what your nature demands?"
I will sow seeds, blossom and bear fruit.
I will stitch and write and companion.
I will run to do what my nature demands.