The fragility of this poem hits me every time I read it. Death is a clarifier. I am sitting in a hotel preparing for my beloved aunt's funeral. Reflecting on her life, her work as a pastor, focused on justice issues in her neighborhood, embracing the transient nature of life with a laugh and drink in hand. The practical side of this poem invites me to hold the tender, fragility of life though the lens of life that is always being subtracted in its cyclical ways (the mysterious sums are less jarring most of the time). The mystical insight for me is the fidelity of unbreakable love becomes the only purposeful (does it become choiceless?) way.
Subtraction offers an invitation to grieve what’s gone; the gift of a sharpened, focused attention to see what remains; and energy to attend to what’s now new.
I *loved* the prayer for this fall season, thank you for choosing it, Paul! 🤗 I cannot wait to share it with my family, especially my daughter who's responsible for the dishes every night. May we invite the Beloved to warm with his/her Love and light with his/her Peace in all the places we labor 🙏.
The fragility of this poem hits me every time I read it. Death is a clarifier. I am sitting in a hotel preparing for my beloved aunt's funeral. Reflecting on her life, her work as a pastor, focused on justice issues in her neighborhood, embracing the transient nature of life with a laugh and drink in hand. The practical side of this poem invites me to hold the tender, fragility of life though the lens of life that is always being subtracted in its cyclical ways (the mysterious sums are less jarring most of the time). The mystical insight for me is the fidelity of unbreakable love becomes the only purposeful (does it become choiceless?) way.
Subtraction offers an invitation to grieve what’s gone; the gift of a sharpened, focused attention to see what remains; and energy to attend to what’s now new.
So beautiful and profound! Thanks for sharing, Janet! 🤗❤️🙏
Janet, thanks for this sharp insight!
I *loved* the prayer for this fall season, thank you for choosing it, Paul! 🤗 I cannot wait to share it with my family, especially my daughter who's responsible for the dishes every night. May we invite the Beloved to warm with his/her Love and light with his/her Peace in all the places we labor 🙏.
Glad you dug it, Marizol. I love its groundedness in the everydayness of life.