Here's to everything undone today

It is enough

This week I’m unofficially passing he mic to a selection of other humans and challenging myself to express in three sentences, or less, what their words have meant to me. I hope they offer you the nourishment they have offered me this week.

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This poem gave me permission to stop. Something I resist, even when navigating the vilest of funks, which is how I was passing my time on Wednesday. Reading it was like taking a long, deep breath.

Ode

Here's to everything undone today:
laundry left damp in the machine,
the relatives unrung, the kitchen
drawer not sorted; here's to jeans
unpatched and buttons missing,
the dirty dishes, the novel 
not yet started. To Christmas
cards unsent in March, to emails
marked unread. To friends unmet
and deadlines unaddressed;
to every item not crossed off the list;
to everything still left, ignored, put off:
it is enough.


- Zoe Higgins
From The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy Edited by James Crewes. Published by Storey.

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As I googled the editor of that beautiful book [from bed] I discovered this poem of his on Instagram, which gave me another level of permission to feel what I was feeling.

Learning to Stay

I'd rather run away, but today
I give in to grief, decide to stay.
Not because I love the pain,
but because I trust what happens
when the eyes have been rinsed,
how the world seems to shimmer
like the yard after a storm:
every leaf on the maple polished,
every yellow and pink petal
brighter once the burst 
of battering rain has passed.


- James Crewes
Shared on Instagram

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Part of me wishes I didn’t love the next quote as much as I do, because of who wrote it. But since a friend shared it with me, I’ve found myself reading and re-reading it. It is like a shot of adrenalin. A wake-up call:

“If you say the truth, and nothing else, you will have a tremendous adventure as a consequence.

You won’t know what is going to happen to you, and you will have to let go of clinging to the outcome.

The truth will reveal the world in the way it is intended to be revealed, and the consequence for you is that you will have the adventure of your life.

And the other part of that ethos is this: Whatever makes itself manifest as a consequence of the truth, is the best possible reality that could be manifested, even if you can’t see it.”

-Jordan Peterson

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Finally, Chela Davison - a mentor of mine - generously shared this video about her return to social media after a 2.5 year break, and what she’s noticing about the impact on her attention. I’m grateful to Chela for sharing her experience and highly recommend her newsletter. When she drops into my inbox, it also feels like a long, deep, breath. Much like the first poem above. Except she’s funny too.

And on the topic of social media - I’m pretty certain as humans we’re not designed to have the access we do to so much information, at such a pace. I know without doubt that’s the case for me. When I allow myself to be pulled into that world, I usually regret it [Wednesday’s funk is a case in point]. I long for more long, slow real-time actual conversations. Stillness. Nature. In-person experiences. May it be so.

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I broke the three sentence rule. Never mind.

Thank you for being here :)

With love,

Claire

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Find me elsewhere:

Live on Zoom on 30th October 2023: How to Write More Like Yourself

Instagram: @clairemackinnonwrites

Website: clairemackinnon.com

LinkedIn: Claire Mackinnon