While driving in the car today, I was thinking about how long life is. It takes an entire lifetime for each of our stories to be told. Try as I might, I can't wrap my mind around eternity, and in my minuscule understanding time, a human life seems like forever. Nothing of significance happens quickly. I suppose we won't understand the full narrative of our lives until after the fact, until we are reading it page by page, perhaps on some cloud in heaven.
This all feels a little daunting to me, which is perhaps why poetry feels like a more inviting place to camp out these days. Poetry...it can tell a story...but typically that story is contained within a moment. One scene. One finite flash in time.
As Dean Young says,
"Poetry is an art of beginnings and endings. You want middles, read novels. You want happy endings, read cookbooks."
In a poem, it's okay to just be where you are in a given moment. There's no concern for how it's all going to turn out in the future or how this one particular scene will drive the plot forward. It's here. It's now. It has no ulterior motive. There's something refreshing to me about that.
Totally off-topic:
I bought these shoes today.
They are fluorescent pink. The photo doesn't come close to capturing just how bright they are. They are loud, impractical, and trendy. As I was in the store today, I was trying to decide if they were totally cute or absolutely atrocious. These shoes are so many things that I've tried not to be for a decent portion of my life...so I bought them. It's time for a change. I'm really not as practical as I try to be anyways.
Another thought today:
The word FERVENT. You usually hear it in the context of prayer. I have been fervently praying about Ren. I have wondered if it's possible to be fervent and restful at the same time. I want to be like the persistent widow, knocking on God's door until He gives me what I want, and I also want my hands to be open, trusting His plan for us.
How do the two coexist?
It's one of those tricky things where the right state of being is smack-dab in the middle of the tension...the least comfortable place to exist. Dang it, why does that seem to be the answer to everything? In the tension. Live in the tension.
Ah, well. These neon pink shoes make me smile in the midst of it.
What tension are you existing in right now? What makes you smile in the midst of it?
this was the perfect post for my day. I am so glad you wrote it.
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