Fire
If you are wondering how to be calm in an increasingly frantic and fragmented world I invite you to spend a few minutes reading this insightful poem.
What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.
So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.
When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of fuel
together, that make fire possible.
We only need lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.
by Judy Brown
Judy who is a writer, facilitator and poet is inviting us here to take some action to make sure there is enough breathing spaces in the fire that is our life. She reminds us that we usually know what we need to live a balanced, peaceful and happy life : ‘the flame that knows just how it wants to burn’. But like the fire we need a little space so that this inner wisdom can guide us to our own inner calm.
This poem has deep resonance for me at the moment when I am guiding a wonderful team of overworked managers through Wisdom’s Garden , amazingly skilled, committed people who even in their depletion and need for a safe space to build resilience, find carving out even the tiniest of breathing spaces for themselves very challenging. If this is you too, if you know how to support yourself to blossom as you, enough and happy and at peace, but somehow taking the tiny actions to ring you to this calm keep getting put on the back burner may I suggest three things :
1) Self compassion – be kind to you as you are doing the very best you can with what you have,
2) Get out into the healing green or blue space outside – even for a short time
3) Find an ally or a tribe who like my Wisdom Gardeners gently support each other into tiny and then expanding breathing spaces which will naturally bring you from stress to calm.
NEWS
I am delighted that I am now a mindfulness teacherwith Insight Timer the number one app for sleep, anxiety and stress, so if you have enjoyed my meditations and you are looking for ways to discover your calm,you will now find more and more of them free here on this app.
PS If you’d like to (re-)start your mindfulness journey because you’ve realised there are too many logs on your fire and you feel stressed, know you are in my tribe and you can get in touch with me whenever you feel is the right time for you to create a little breathing space for you ro help you to come home to your own iner calm.
If you would like a consult with me to get a little more help as you do this important work for future you you can book some time with me here: https://mindfulwithdee.kartra.com/calendar/consult
You might like to read this other recent blog about how to Manage Stress as an Over Busy 21st Century Human Being: https://mindfulfacilitation.com/how-to-manage-stress-as-an-over-busy-21st-century-human-being/