As I grow older,
I want to make myself
a better person
I want to put down my ego —
my self ego
and my human ego —
and see the world
with wide wonder
and compassion
I want to stop taking sides,
stop needing a defense
or a logo or a standard,
let go of my attachments,
my fear, my uncertainty,
wear my age loosely
I want to open my heart,
let love in
in big, scary ways
so I am full up
so instead of dying
maybe I just burst
like the jewelweed flowers
that explode with seeds
along the trail
seeds of love
and curiosity
seeds of magic
and dreams
seeds left to flower
in the oneness
when I am gone
This is a response poem because yes, some products are made in China, but so are Pandas and Snow Leopards, so grow up. Photo by Terry W. Johnson, Georgia Wildlife Resources Division. Poem @2023, Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gif
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2 replies on “How I’ll Glow Up”
If you don’t take sides you ignore the inhumanity that certain people/groups do to others abd they call it acceptance. Certainly open your heart and let love in, you’ll find as you do so that there is always room for more and you have more to share.
Leaving your seeds to flower is awonderful idea. In the meantime, brighten someone’s life with a hug (maybe your own life?) . Hugs
Hi David. When I wrote that, I was thinking about Krishnamurti’s teachings on the subject of social responsibility. (Note: I have not studied him near enough, but some of his quotes really hit home for me.)
This is the quote I was thinking of when I wrote that line about taking sides.
When there are nationalistic differences based on ideas, opinions, prejudices, a society in which there is terrible injustice, inequality – we all know this, we are terribly aware of all this- aware of the war that is going on, of the action of the politicians and the economists trying to bring order out of disorder, we are aware of this. And we say, ‘What can we do?’ We are aware that we have chosen a way of life that leads ultimately to the field of murder. We have probably asked this, if we are at all serious, a thousand times but we say ‘I, as a human being, can’t do anything. What can I do faced with this colossal machine?’ When one puts a question to oneself such as ‘What can I do?’ I think one is putting the wrong question. To that there is no answer. If you do answer it then you will form an organization, belong to something, commit yourself to a particular course of political, economic, social action; and you are back again in the same old circle in your particular organization with its presidents, secretaries, money, its own little group, against all other groups. We are caught in this. ‘What can I do?’ is a totally wrong question, you can’t do a thing when you put the question that way. But you can, when you actually see (as you see the microphone and the speaker sitting here) actually see that each one of us is responsible for the war that is going on in the Far East, and that it is not the Americans, nor the Vietnamese, nor the Communists, but you and I who are responsible, actually, desperately responsible for what is going on in the world, not only there but everywhere. We are responsible for the politicians, whom we have brought into being, responsible for the army which is trained to kill, responsible for all our actions, conscious or unconscious.
But wise men have been saying the same thing for centuries, right? And we’re still taking up arms against each other.
And aren’t I? Aren’t I taking up arms, too, when pick a side? I don’t know…I wrestle with this a lot.