Soul Ajar
Today I am grateful for a scenic morning run yesterday and for the challenges and rewards of parenting.
One of the gratefulness.org quotes earlier this week was from Emily Dickinson. It said:
"The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience."
I have always liked and respected the poetry of Emily Dickinson. I am no expert on her or her work, but I know that she lived a pretty isolated existence and that her poetry is often stark and grabs the emotions of the reader. That is my kind of poetry. Her work was not publicly recognized during her lifetime, only posthumously. But what an impact her poetry has had since her death in 1886 and the first publishing of her work in 1890.
I would like to think that I have a couple things in common with Dickinson. She wrote prolifically, writing over 1,800 poems. My pace has slowed in recent years as I have ventured more into essays and blogging, but I have over 1,500 poems I have penned. There was a long time I wrote from a place of loneliness and pain such as you find in Dickinson's words. I know my poems helped free me. I can't know what her poems did for Dickinson. Did they lead her to ecstatic experience? Was her soul ajar?
Soul standing ajar, ready to welcome life. What an idea. What a loaded possibility. Soul ajar. Willingness. Readiness. All made more feasible, more open and awaiting, when there is mindfulness. And gratitude in this present moment helps bring the mindfulness. The ecstatic experiences, small ones and more significant ones, seem to follow when we are paying attention.
One of the gratefulness.org quotes earlier this week was from Emily Dickinson. It said:
"The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience."
I have always liked and respected the poetry of Emily Dickinson. I am no expert on her or her work, but I know that she lived a pretty isolated existence and that her poetry is often stark and grabs the emotions of the reader. That is my kind of poetry. Her work was not publicly recognized during her lifetime, only posthumously. But what an impact her poetry has had since her death in 1886 and the first publishing of her work in 1890.
I would like to think that I have a couple things in common with Dickinson. She wrote prolifically, writing over 1,800 poems. My pace has slowed in recent years as I have ventured more into essays and blogging, but I have over 1,500 poems I have penned. There was a long time I wrote from a place of loneliness and pain such as you find in Dickinson's words. I know my poems helped free me. I can't know what her poems did for Dickinson. Did they lead her to ecstatic experience? Was her soul ajar?
Soul standing ajar, ready to welcome life. What an idea. What a loaded possibility. Soul ajar. Willingness. Readiness. All made more feasible, more open and awaiting, when there is mindfulness. And gratitude in this present moment helps bring the mindfulness. The ecstatic experiences, small ones and more significant ones, seem to follow when we are paying attention.
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