I love poetry. I get that from my mother.
I recently heard a poem on an Oprah podcast with Eckhardt Tolle called Lost by David Wagoner. It stopped me in my tracks.
“Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes behind you are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, and you must treat it like a powerful stranger. Must ask permission to know it and be known.”
Stand still. Ask permission to know it and be known.
This is a “be careful what you ask for” moment for me. I asked for success. I asked for prosperity. I asked for a way to share what I’ve learned and what I love with the world and The Universe said, “Absolutely… Yes!” And now, I find myself on a Friday night seated mid-cabin on a 100% full Southwest flight bound for Minneapolis from Grand Rapids via Chicago. And my Tom? He’s driving somewhere on a lonely 395 Highway in the middle of the Californian desert in a fully-loaded Nissan Murano accompanied only by our sweet Sierra bound for Echo Lakes and our “Silver Firs” cabin. Hmmm.
Stand still. Wherever you are is called Here.
It would be so easy to sit on this flight and lament where I am not. Not with Tom. Not with sweet Sierra. Not in a Nissan Murano on the 395 headed to our cabin at Echo Lakes. Instead, I’m stuffed into a Southwest flight on a Friday night somewhere over the Midwest.
But, Wagoner’s poem reminds me that where I truly am is called, “Here.” And “Here” is the result of a company I’ve groomed and grown for this very moment. “Here” is a tipping point of success where the LionSpeak message has reached a mass audience and is transforming into an undeniable force. “Here” is a fully vested body of work I’ve always wanted to do. “Here” is an amazing space if… I will not try to be “There” instead.
I will join Tom at the cabin soon and this year, because of his retirement and career change to organic farming, we’ll spend the entire month of August and most of September living and working from Silver Firs as our summertime home-base. So, I’ll not try to be There when I am actually “Here.” As David Wagoner suggests, I’ll treat my “Here” as a powerful stranger and ask permission to know it and to be known.
You can bet this poem will make its way into our cabin journal this year. I adore its wisdom and truth. This week, join me in embracing our “Here,” loving our present, and being grateful for all that has brought us to this moment in our lives. And then we can simply be eager for more and look forward to “There.”
Lost by David Wagoner,
from Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes behind you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to the Raven.
No two branches are the same to the Wren.
If what a tree or a branch does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
“Life gives you plenty of time to do whatever you want to do if you stay in the present moment.” ~~ Deepak Chopra
