sing then.

********

giving voice to what is inner is essential to surviving what is outer. 
no matter where we live or whom we love, no matter what we want
or what we can't have, 
this is the lesson. 
when everything in life presses from outside of us, 
we have no choice but to sing like scared children relying on their song
to stop the pain, 
the way that fire stalls the cold. 
this is the secret of all spirit, why it cannot stay inside, 
but must be brought from within us into the world. 
for it is the song from within that keeps the pain of living 
from snuffing our lives. 
it is the song from within ignited, 
again and again, 
that keeps the world going. 
as night and day take turns on this massive earth spinning nowhere,
the song we share within takes turns with the catastrophe of living. 
when we go silent, the age goes dark. 
sing, then, in whatever tongue your pain has taught you. 
sing, though you have no training and never went to school. 
sing, because the cry from all the places you have kept quiet
will stall the cold, 
will soften the danger, 
will keep the world possible for one more turn….

~ mark nepo, december 29, the book of awakening. 


****

i woke early, this day. 

i lay'd a-bed and shed some tears, viewing a long string of thoughts and feelings

as they ran across the viewfinder of my mind. 

i felt my heart slamming shut, 
and that is why i wept. 
i rolled out of bed, hit my knees, and asked for help to keep my heart open. 

….and then, i sang. 

******