Coming Out

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This fall, Sounds True is publishing a box set of teaching conversations based on the poems in my book Reduced to Joy. The poems are the teachers and unfold the journey from our head to our heart. For the next two months, I’m happy to be previewing poems and reflections from the box set.

Both being and doing are necessary, the way two hands are necessary, or two legs, or two eyes. It’s our job to discover the very personal way we use both being and doing to see, to walk, to hold and build, to care. Like the mind and the heart, I’ve found that my doing is healthier if it comes from my being. This poem explores the power of being.

Coming Out

While there is much to do

we are not here to do.

Under the want to problem-solve

is the need to being-solve.

Often, with full being

the problem goes away.

The seed being-solves its

darkness by blossoming.

The heart being-solves its loneliness

by loving whatever it meets.

The tea being-solves the water

by becoming tea.

A Question to Walk With: Tell the story of a time when your presence alone contributed to solving a problem.