Pieces No. 14, paper collage, 2022
Every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.
Viktor Frankl
even now an atom in the drowning sun a wilderness on its knees invokes a whisper as if to suggest absurdity is a prelude to happiness a woman underwater is an orchid without wings donāt be fooled by these eyes full of chemtrails this laughter is a map to the stars a pair of sneakers in a vintage photograph ā¦if the poem doesnāt go if this playing card spills with sunflowers and destruction if youāre clinging to your suffering youāll never be free ā¦but a coffee table in G minor a sonata in eggshells hacks the galaxy

It takes greater courage to do whatās good for us than it does to give in to bad habits and destructive impulses. Most often, I think, we refuse to let go of habits, relationships, situations that are bad for us and that multiply our suffering because of what they mean to us, the importance we attach to them. That is, If I stop doing āx,ā Iāll lose āyā.
I suppose there are many ways to relieve ourselves of these negative, self-destructive kinds of attachments. One way to is align with a higher goalāto have a reasonāsomething thatās more important to us than the negative attachment, something that’s, ideally, greater than we are.
But it doesnāt always work that way. That is, we donāt always begin with a reason. We may even find ourselves in such a low place that we canāt find a reason. So we begin where we are. We begin by listening to a quiet inner voice thatās trying to compel us to action, thatās telling us something needs fixing. We may become more creative. We may rekindle old passions and interests. We may reconnect with nature, or with religion, or with whatever we feel connects us to the source. And we can go on like this, sometimes for a very long time, without actually facing the proverbial elephant in the room, the negative attachment that needs severing. But, as the Frankl quote at the top of the page suggests, we never lose the freedom to do so.
I like to think (and Iām talking about women now) that going through the process of rediscovering our creative power, of learning or re-learning how to nurture, and most importantly, how to listen to and honor our intuition, helps us build the strength we need to address our destructive impulses. To walk away from what no longer serves us. We may not begin with a reason, but, in effect, we end with one. The inner woman grows stronger and stronger until she finally stands up and says, Enough. And it’s something like a kick in the teeth: the thing you thought you couldnāt do is the one thing you have to do. And it turns out itās not as difficult as you feared it would be. Itās nothing short of hacking a galaxy, after all.
Prints for the artwork in this post are available in my Etsy shop.
I’ve also added some new artwork to the Pieces gallery.
12 responses to “When We Face Ourselves in Daylight”
One of the best posts I have read in AGES – loved it. Bravo.
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Thank you very much!
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Brilliant and empowering! Your poem and your essay. š
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Thank you so much, Michele! š
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Wonderful!
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Thank you, Bob!
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Staggeringly brilliant, dear L.
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Thank you for the wonderful compliment, J.
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[…] When We Face Ourselves in Daylight […]
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āIf youāre clinging to your suffering youāll never be freeā..such truth in this lineā¦and also such power..we can always choose to change and that is actually so comforting when we are confronting āthe thing we thought we couldnāt do.ā Well written poem and accompanying entry š
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Thank you very much, my friend! I’m happy you enjoyed this post.
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Very nice collages
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