I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
- Theodore Roethke
This poem has lived in my heart for over 20 years. The line "[I] take my waking slow" has resonated with me for so long that it something I've held near my heart as comfort when the world seems to push me into a pace that is not my own.
This full moon is a revival. A remembering. In its brightness we are being called to ask what is it that our hearts whisper and need and long for. Letting the light stream into the deep crevices of the center of your being to bring a bit more clarity to what it is you are missing. What aspects of self have been left on a shelf or in a story or in a memory that need dusting off and a reemerging into your presence. What do you long for? How are you moving closer to your beloved truth of being? How do you continue to move further away?
Sometime between now and the next full moon find a moment of quiet ease. Don't make it formal and forced. Lay down on the bed, on the rug, in the grass. Let your mind fall back so far until it is no longer seeking and questioning and it too gets to taste the sweet treat of ease. Let the lens go wide to take in the sounds around you and let none be resisted. The lawn mower, the cars, the birds, the fan, the conversations; let them all exist without aversion. Feel the temperature of the air, the support of whatever is under you, your clothes, your breath. Let them all take equal importance in observation. All serving to keep you moving towards wider and wider expanding acceptance. Let all the senses be open and when the mind jumps in to play a little story, don't try to stop it but instead widen yourself ever more to allow for it to mix with the song of the wind and the subtle pulse of your heart. Notice the spaces between all things that connects them as they are truly. Widen more. Undo until there is no more undoing and then undo some more. Let ease pour over you like a warm blanket of comfort. No more trying, no more efforting, no more ambition. Let yourself begin to blur. The edges of separateness gets softer. The edges of separateness have their turn at ease too. As each and all things become less separate there is unity in the ease.
When you are ready slowly bring yourself back and come to a seat. Take a piece of paper and on one side write the following three questions:
~ What do I long for?
~ What is in the way?
~ What will light my path?
Flip the paper over. Connect with the spacious, wide, ease and the light of the moon. Answer the questions. Take this paper and some objects of meaning to you (crystals, plants, or anything that you want to infuse with a clear path to your longing). Place it outside or in a window to charge in the moonlight. Use this blessing;
Mother Moon, please guide my path home to my heart and my truest self. Light the way with your vast perspective and gift me with your sight. Let me know clearly my obstacles so that I can swiftly and effortlessly move past them. Let this path be one of spacious ease and connected unity. And so it be.
In the coming days and weeks, pay attention to your dreams, look for signs, and stay connected to the wide interconnected ease within you.
Blessings and love
xo
Jessica