Loamed Lyrics for a Garden Party

I’m not someone who has a secret to share, or who has solved a mystery (even one self-made) that I can now help you unravel. I don't have a special prayer or several steps to offer you to live your best life. In fact, as I recall and apply the logic of Dr. Maya Angelou's words that, “When we know better, we do better”, it's worth considering that we are all currently living our best life but until we reach the end of ourselves, that's as good as our ‘best’ will be. Enough isn't enough until it is.

What I do have is another rainy day, another cup of coffee, and another round of letting go and the rising words of what would likely be another lullaby if I wrote the words down but I don't this time. Instead, I see in the lyrics risen such a clear expression of the reality of childhood experience and also, in making the exact opposite of these feelings a goal, an extremely simple formula for releasing the feelings as adults, when they are no longer necessary, accurate, or beneficial.

The words that came to mind, words as confessional as they are lullaby-like, were:

“I am small and scared and mean.”

“I am small and

          scared and

          mean,” I thought.

I liked the clarity and the logic that led, not without heart, but still straight ahead. How then do I feel 

          bigger,

          safe, and

          kind?

With as many clouds outside as in, I really appreciated the simplicity and big, bold lines that help me to see questions I could actually answer and movements I could make in real time to simply feel bigger (enough), safe, and kind.

For some of us who respond to music passionately, all three of those qualities - feeling expanded, safe, and kind, could be met by one song. Others will need muscles stretched by walk or weight, still others will pray and chant and sing. Many of us will need all those practices and more besides, and that's not only okay, it's been very good from the very beginning: to be enough and safe and kind and to tend our garden hearts and each other to grow a larger, safer, kinder garden world.

-pdk

4/12/24