Circles of CareA principle for scaling attention |
Begin with your body — how does it feel?Does it need movement, a nap, or a meal?Or does it feel rested, nourished, and fitPrepared for the actions to which you’ll commit? |
Move on to your mind — what is its state?Is it filled up with worries and wishes and hates?Or does it feel empty, steady, and clearReady to welcome whatever appears? |
Now to your home — do you love where you live?Is it asking for something it needs you to give?Or does it feel cheerful, cozy, and cleanProviding a shelter for tending your dreams? |
And then to the various people you love — Do you fully accept them as more than enough?Do you meet them with honesty, joy, and respect?Do you speak from the heart every time you connect? |
And then to the work that you do every day — Do you come to it gladly, as if it were play?Do you put into practice your personal giftsCreating improvements and positive shifts? |
And then to the help that you give and receive — Enlivening wishes and answering needsNurturing people and projects and placeSupporting the health of our planet in space. |
And then to this curious world that we share — With its structures and systems and circles of careEach of us playing our own little partFinding our medicine, messages, art. |
For what is this world but a series of livesReflecting each other with myriad eyes — Each with their lenses and visions and viewsEach with the feeling of needing to choose? |
And what is this world, but a story we tell — A dream with no end, an alarm with no bell?To wake from the story and see it as suchTo swim in the dream, and savor the touch. |
These Circles of Care — an invisible map — To help us awaken, embody, adaptTo the story of life that we choose to createAnd the world that emerges to which we relate. |
From body, to mind, to home, and to loveTo work and to help — below as above — These are the scales of the story of youShaping the world that you call into view. |
For you’re in the worldAnd the world is in you.You make it; it makes you.It’s ancient; it’s new. |
So what feels aliveMost fertile, and true?What are you sensing,And what will you do? |
✹ Written and illustrated by Jonathan J. Harris |
Circles of CareA principle for scaling attention |
Wisdom for all ages Sent by Sunlight — Santa Fe, New Mexico Sunday September 22, 2024 |