Exactly what it is…..

Our reality and what it could be. A Still Point Curiosity & Contentment self enquiry

Here we are with our first Curiosity & Contentment post.

As the title suggests I am hoping these self enquiry prompts will meet you with curiosity, taking you down a path, well trodden or otherwise, of enquiry and reveal at least a morsel of contentment.  

A tall order perhaps, but since I started using prompts, or often poems, to spark a train of thought I have found my morning words follow a very different track to when they were more a brain dump or stream of consciousness. If you are anything like me with a mind that seems to run three shows in parallel and expects me to keep up with the plot in all of them, I’m left feeling woefully inadequate when I flounder.

Now I believe there is very much a place for getting all that tangled mess unravelled a little to enable more coherence and creativity to emerge, but personally, it leaves me feeling twitchy in my upper chest and the back of my throat with a sense of perpetual movement or flux, like a light switch going on and off. Other times, it’s like a swarm of bees moving from my rib cage, shoulders and into my skull, persistently buzzing and giving me no peace. 

What? I know! Bear with me though. When my journaling was only this form of writing, I stayed with these feelings in my body and remained stuck. Writing from a prompt of one sort or another can reveal what is real for me in that moment I am often unaware of but I feel the words leaving my pen in my body as a sense of openness, ease and calmness.

This awareness of what I am feeling has shifted the way I evaluate what's going on in my life and takes me well out of my head and my thoughts. 

As a result I am a big believer in finding a quiet space, taking a few easy, deep belly breaths to become aware of ourselves as a living entity rather than the constant noise in our heads. 

Breathing is the magic ingredient firstly as a means to leave your head for a while and secondly, because I think breathing is the answer to a lot of things and if in doubt it’s still worth a try. 

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Reality 

Before we dive in, here is a poem I wrote, inspired by a couple of poems (below)  which gave me pause to enquire what I feel about reality? 

What it is 

The reality of life, 
moving,
breathing, 
passing through the shapes of each day. 
The warmth of the woollen jumper on your back, 
the brisk cold air against your face.
This and that to be done, or not. 
Will it matter in 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 years? 
A smile, a gentle touch 
or a delicate kiss on the cheek. 
The cup of tea offered, not asked for, 
Space given to find presence, to share together.
A reality of what it is, when all is said and done. 

By Jacqui Taylor 

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Poetry Prompts

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams 
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

By Langston Hughes 

https://poets.org/poem/dreams

The Way it Is

One morning you might wake up
to realize that the knot in your stomach
had loosened itself and slipped away,
and that the pit of unfulfilled longing in your heart
had gradually, and without your really noticing,
been filled in—patched like a pothole, not quite
the same as it was, but good enough.
And in that moment it might occur to you
that your life, though not the way
you planned it, and maybe not even entirely
the way you wanted it, is nonetheless—
persistently, abundantly, miraculously—
exactly the way it is.

By Lynn Ungar 

https://lynnungar.com/poems/the-way-it-is/

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What is the reality of your life? It’s so easy to get lost in the stories around what we should have done or we should be doing and lose sight of what actually matters to us. 

Our reality can be what we make it because of how we choose to see it and we can also be content and grateful with what it is.

Question for today