A Poem from Another Poet: Bernadette Miller

Today I am grateful for comfortable shoes and my feet and toes that help carry me well in those shoes. 

As a writer and poet, I appreciate the words and poems of other writers. I try to do some reading every day and the beauty of poems is that they are often short. Short, but packing a real punch of meaning and inspiration, waiting for each reader to dive in. 

Questions to Consider When Waking by Bernadette Miller is part of the poetry collection provided on The Network for Grateful Living website, along with a wealth of other resources, readings, activities and videos. It's a great website. Check it out here.

These lines from the poem spoke especially loud to me as I reread it just now:

What would you harvest from heartache and pain

if you understood loss as a way to regain

the never-forsaken terrain of belonging?

The collective loss that has been experienced by humanity since the COVID-19 pandemic started is significant and ranges from lives lost, dreams put on hold, time together canceled, milestones left uncelebrated.  The list is long and we can each write our own. It's not a contest, and the loss game is one that has touched us all this last year in profound ways.

This is what takes Bernadette Miller's words "the never-forsaken terrain of belonging" right to my heart. In the midst of division and polarity and unrest, we share a story of loss and grief. We share pain that we can each understand, even if the details and languages we describe them in are different.

Heartache is universal. So are tears and smiles. So is the desire to belong. Let's not forsake belonging. Let's not shut out a fellow suffering human. While there is plenty of sorrow to harvest, the connections we make fortify us. 

Let's listen to one another. Truly listen. With gentle patience and kindness. Find our way back to the mountain of similarities that we have as humans, and not be side-tracked by the molehills of differences that trip us up. 

Thank you Bernadette Miller. Your words connected us today.