Ripples #982: Loosely Tied Bundles.
March 19, 2018
PEBBLE
Our hearts are loosely tied bundles of our quiet hopes, our insecurities, and our good intentions…and when I look across our oceans of different circumstances and physical features and cognitive pathways…I see art.
-Maya Dehlin, A Poem for The Unseen
BOULDER
Everyone you meet–everyone–has faced challenges, lessons, storms, tough situations, and difficult experiences. Everyone you meet has cried, has hurt, has felt fear, has grown, and has loved. Everyone you meet is learning, fighting, battling, living their truth, and working with the tools they have at this stage in their evolution. Everyone you meet is a piece of the whole, an expression of the universe, a part of your journey, and a reflection of you. Everyone you meet has love in their heart. Everyone you meet is your teacher.
-Creig Crippen (whose Instagram feed I found after dear Leslie of Cherokee Marsh put another quote of his on my radar. Thanks, Les! https://www.instagram.com/creigcrippen/)
PONDER
A few years ago, I stumbled upon a piece of performance art that began as a touching poem written by a high school student about her classmates. As part of a class assignment, she then asked the students who inspired her to help capture the magic of her words and their spirit.
The resulting video is captivating and significantly moving: https://youtu.be/oxDSSd3afTk. After watching it several times (and shedding lots of tears) I reached out to Maya Dehlin, the gifted poet and artist, to secure permission for sharing the video in some of my presentations. I’ve since become closely connected to her on social media, and shown the video to thousands of people from all walks of life. Audiences are always moved, and I’m never the only one tearing up.
One of these days I hope to meet her in person; until then, I’ll keep watching and sharing her remarkable poem, using it as a gentle-yet-powerful reminder to recognize the shared humanity in each of the souls I happen to bump into on a particular day. She’s so right, you know…we really are “just a bunch of Mona Lisa girls and boys….a story hidden behind every smile.”
Peace,
Paul
The Ripples Guy
