Hello Friends.

Today, I took some extra time for the sit. My attention has been tugged and pulled in so many directions lately that it took some time to sift through the thought pile to get to something that was connected deeper to the gut feeling that I am having. Would you believe I found it in a children’s song?

As kids, we would sing the sorrowful tale of the old lady who swallowed a fly. Perhaps she’ll die, we sang. So, she swallowed a spider (the one that wriggled and jiggled inside her) to catch the fly. Then a bird for the spider. A cat for the bird. And on and on, and who knows what she is having to swallow these forty-some years later.

I don’t have to imagine too much, though, because I now understand this woesome tale better. It was a misunderstanding. A simple mishap of telephone. It was not a fly she swallowed, but a lie. A small lie at first. But then she needed bigger and bigger lies to cover for them. She is me. And you.

We do this often. One small bit of information that we know may not be true, but some part of our identity desperately needs it to be true, so we swallow it. Then we just snowball into an avalanche of separation and loneliness. Sounds alarmist, I imagine; therefore, I believe you to say? Well, that is the point of children’s tales. To offer guidance, and usually away from something.

So we now are where we are, and simply by way of course. We steered our attention towards separateness, and we found it. Let’s steer back.

bell hooks is a great driving instructor in these matters.

Appalachian Elegy 34. bell hooks fierce winter cold mind whispers a lost landscape telling stories of how it was then seated near fire drinking homemade spirits sake and brandy wine spirits bring contentment for a time carry us closer to the sacred moving through bitterness our yearning to hold on to moments of ecstasy where we imagine we hear clearly destiny calling

Thanks for being here, in this place, right now.

All In Love,

Michael

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