The Dense Forest of your Life

Friday, November 22

Today’s post is by guest author Heather Johnston. The text is the poem Clearing by Martha Postlethwaite.

Do not try to save
the whole world
or do anything grandiose.
Instead, create
a clearing
in the dense forest
of your life
and wait there
patiently,
until the song
that is your life
falls into your own cupped hands
and you recognize and greet it.
Only then will you know
how to give yourself to this world
so worthy of rescue.

---

I think most people want to feel they have some positive impact on the world. It’s natural to have a need for agency in one’s life and in one’s circumstances, and to want to help others. At the same time, I think a lot of people can relate to a feeling of constant busyness, juggling obligations of work, school, childcare, making appointments, buying groceries, doing the laundry. 

My theory is that when our days are packed full and we lack time for reflection, the natural human yearning to engage with our communities and to influence the world around us can become warped into an ambition that might better be called greed – for power, for money, for long vacations with no responsibilities. However what we really want is not any of those things. What we really want is to feel a sense of agency and of connectedness with the world and people around us.

Postlethwaite’s poem gives me pause. In my reading of this, she suggests that the urge to “save the whole world” might indicate a lack of spiritual clarity or of self-reflection. One part of me disagrees slightly. I say it’s a worthy goal to save the whole world, and if busyness or ambition or greed are what motivates you to do so, go right ahead! Better to have saved the world for fame and glory than to have stayed on the couch with pure motives. 

On the other hand, I find it viscerally true that taking time in contemplation helps me act in ways that are better aligned with what I really value. By taking a moment away from the day-to-day busyness of our lives, the path to influencing our world may become clearer. And she is right that the way that one chooses to do good need not be grandiose. For some it might happen at work, or in entrepreneurship, for some in raising money for charity, for some parenthood, for some politics, for others being involved with their local Parent-teacher Organization. 

Part of the value of this blog for me both as a reader and a guest author is the reminder to take a step back sometimes to contemplate what is sacred, and how I might in my own way give myself to this world.