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Callings (a poem)

There’s a bird in the summer whose song is like loose pocket change. And I wonder how much she’s carrying, and where it will be spent. With the cold and impending wetness of this new season, I think of her often, and wish her well in the warmth she’s found elsewhere. Oceans away. Now, the dawn owls and coyotes at dusk. Together, mostly. But also alone. They are sonnets unmatched in their bold and righteousness. So proud, the bird. So stealth, the dogs. It’s easy to lose sleep with it all. Eyes up toward the rafters, between alert and unaware. Hear them now? Hear them close? We merge together. A snap, but more fluid and with grace. And I’m asleep again. Until she comes back to my

I See You, Nose.

Mike and the boys did not hesitate to tease me the other night at dinner, when I pitched this blog post idea to them. But I'm going to write it anyway, because I think it might be a balance between fun and meaningful, at this time of gratitude and thanks giving. And it's about our noses. We all have one. It's located in about the same spot on all of our faces, just south of our eyes and a bit north of our mouth. Right there, in the middle - doing its olfactory thing day and night. Providing sensory information to our brains about how the world smells, or how food and drinks might taste. Just follow your nose! Keep your nose to the grindstone. And here's the thing I find most interesting:

Two Sides, Same Coin

These past few days, I've been stuck wondering how to balance content consumption with content creation. Basically, taking in other peoples' awesomeness vs. generating my own. Both take effort and time. Both are rewarding and beneficial. And there's a certain interplay between them too: intake and experience of others' work can have generous impact on our own. But it's a dance. And I for one, am tripping over my own feet. I mean, I can't tell you how many videos, articles, blog posts, research summaries and social media updates I have open across the top of my screen right now - each tucked into their own little browser tab, taunting me for not having read them by now. And then there's

Connect

We are in such dire need of community and belonging. We're divided across almost every line - culture, gender, race, political preference. Our President creates more dissonance and unrest every time he takes to the microphone or Twitter. Digital obsession wipes out connection with each other IRL (in real life). It's no coincidence live storytelling, like the Moth, is so popular right now. Or solo performances, music festivals, live theater, comedy shows. Or something like Daybreaker - the early morning, totally sober dance party I went to a couple weeks ago, held in 25 cities around the world. Their mission? To bring connection through dancing among hundreds of strangers, with reckles

 

©2017 BY SHANNON HUGHES, ENLIVENED STUDIOS