Variations on a Theme
A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me - a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic - or was it I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.
-Variation on a Theme by Rilke, Denise Levertov
I think we sometimes forget we are organic beings. Part of the earth, the sky, and all that lies between. My husband, a physician, is used to the bare bones truth of the organic human; part of an every hour, day after day, invisible medical team that carefully and conscientiously strives to put back together what folly, violence, accident, or disease has broken. We are easily fractured. Events toss us. A vortex with an aftermath that will bear scars, abide sorrow forever. The miracles of skill and mystery.
On call on a recent crazy hot summer August night at the hospital, he worked a nearly 18 hour shift of relentless traumas. There are always the knuckle-heads, the drunks and knife fights, the drug deals gone wrong, all we might cynically and collectively disparage as a parade of idiocy. But what causes any good doctor to pause and spend an extra moment or two with someone on a night like this are those caught up in the collateral damage. The innocent bystander, the "other driver" on the way home from a late work shift the drunk hits head on, the old and sick late at night and alone. Victims, families.
Denise Levertov's poem speaks to the living breath of a given day. Life itself is a pulsing entity, both directive and utter chaos. The fate of who we are, where we are, and what we do depends not so much on chance as choice. The capability within all of us to answer the challenge. To make a difference. To bring all that we can to a problem and endeavor to be part of the solution. Right or wrong, folly or misfortune - judgment is suspended. And in its place we allow ourselves to be "a bell awakened." To command the sheer power of being and step up. I can.
What is your "I can"? To make partner? Forgive? Win Olympic Gold, eradicate ignorance, fly higher, ease poverty, photograph the meaningful, paint fury, end a war? We are as great as we need to be. As we choose to be. Say and sing who you are.
there it was, confronting me - a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic - or was it I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.
-Variation on a Theme by Rilke, Denise Levertov
I think we sometimes forget we are organic beings. Part of the earth, the sky, and all that lies between. My husband, a physician, is used to the bare bones truth of the organic human; part of an every hour, day after day, invisible medical team that carefully and conscientiously strives to put back together what folly, violence, accident, or disease has broken. We are easily fractured. Events toss us. A vortex with an aftermath that will bear scars, abide sorrow forever. The miracles of skill and mystery.
On call on a recent crazy hot summer August night at the hospital, he worked a nearly 18 hour shift of relentless traumas. There are always the knuckle-heads, the drunks and knife fights, the drug deals gone wrong, all we might cynically and collectively disparage as a parade of idiocy. But what causes any good doctor to pause and spend an extra moment or two with someone on a night like this are those caught up in the collateral damage. The innocent bystander, the "other driver" on the way home from a late work shift the drunk hits head on, the old and sick late at night and alone. Victims, families.
Denise Levertov's poem speaks to the living breath of a given day. Life itself is a pulsing entity, both directive and utter chaos. The fate of who we are, where we are, and what we do depends not so much on chance as choice. The capability within all of us to answer the challenge. To make a difference. To bring all that we can to a problem and endeavor to be part of the solution. Right or wrong, folly or misfortune - judgment is suspended. And in its place we allow ourselves to be "a bell awakened." To command the sheer power of being and step up. I can.
What is your "I can"? To make partner? Forgive? Win Olympic Gold, eradicate ignorance, fly higher, ease poverty, photograph the meaningful, paint fury, end a war? We are as great as we need to be. As we choose to be. Say and sing who you are.
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