In a Perfect World
In these days of deep division and unrest, I can't help but hope for a better world:
All children are born to couples who cherish and love them, and who can provide for them the following at the very least (after basic shelter, food, and clothing): creeks and streams and wild woods to roam in, bedtime stories told by candlelight or firelight, picnics - more than rare treats, weekly trips to the library with family contests: each one looking for the oldest books you can check out that still look like good reading -saving them from discard for hopefully many more years. Cinnamon toast made in the oven, breakfast for supper - french toast, strawberries and scrambled eggs, clawfoot bathtubs and sundried towels, tin roofs for summer storm sleeping and early morning coffee time, options to crawl in parents' bed when those storms come, brothers and sisters who teach the lessons of caring and sharing and provide steady soul comfort in those formative years, diaries and record players, playing with friends in the dusky sunset- see you, tomorrow! Vacations to beaches, canyons, and rainforests, the opportunity to learn a foreign language, an instrument, a sport - even if it's inner-tubing down a lazy Ozark river with your lunch cooler tied alongside. Not too many prying questions from parents - momma don't need to know everything! Enough freedom to dare to do dangerous things, but not enough to succumb, soft hairbrushes, cotton sheets, cricket, and cicada serenades in the drowsy dusk, room and time for growing flower and vegetable gardens if you enjoy them, nice teachers, a best friend, and time to learn all the songs you love by heart...
When you leave home there will be employment that feeds your mind and soul, that truly satisfies you, that makes you bone-tired each night from the interest and care you took performing your duties, and thereby able to receive the deep restorative sleep that heals and rejuvenates, enough free time to travel and see this big wide beautiful world and share its beauty and mystery with others, enough spendable income to afford self-care practices like massage and dance lessons and yoga and further education and solo days at the beach or in the mountains, if you need them. To be able to say at the end of each workday - I work for me and I love what I do...
Relationships that last for as long as they provide grace and love and communing of spirit, without bitter endings, until the end of your life. Finding joy and wisdom in the times you are just you on your own, no partner. The emotional strength to consider the children produced as a priority if things end before the children reach adulthood.
An unpolluted Earth that is treated as if it matters, with each individual doing his or her part to ensure a sustainable future for coming generations, and a deep pleasure in exploring this amazing green blue brown sphere which we share with creatures as varied as jellyfish and grizzly bears. A love for our furred/finned/feathered companions on this spinning blue ball that engenders protectiveness and healthy community policies for their wellbeing.
Acceptance of change, age, death as part of this journey we all share. Fear falls to the wayside as there is less clamor for positions of dominance and control - because we all fade, recede, even the brightest and best, a willingness and desire to comfort and remediate the suffering of others who are less fortunate, who are less able. The grace to accept endings and tragedies as the inevitable suffering of life, no more no less, to let them burn us as they see fit, to accept that metamorphosis willingly, listening, watching, alert, and receptive. No need for extraordinary measures when we truly believe we are all just walking each other home. (Ram Dass quote)
Songs that make me feel connected:
~Oldgirl
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