Jennifer Louden writes some great women's comfort books about doing retreats and other ways of taking care of yourself. I read a couple of her books years ago and recently came across The Women's Retreat Book again. I visited her website and signed up for an email series about self-trust inspiration. Yesterday's email was about making promises to yourself, being clear about them and noticing when you've followed through. I make promises to myself all the time. Sometimes I follow through and sometimes I don't but I realized I never give myself credit when I do.
One of the promises I've made recently is to not do things or be around people who make me feel bad and erode my commitment to what I want. It ain't easy though. I have the following excerpt from Transcendental Etude by Adrienne Rich posted in a couple of places in my apartment. It reminds me of what I want and that it isn't going to be easy.
But there come times –perhaps this is one of them—
when we have to take ourselves more seriously or die;
when we have to pull back from the incantations,
rhythms we’ve moved to thoughtlessly,
and disenthrall ourselves, bestow
ourselves to silence, or a severer listening, cleansed
of oratory, formulas, choruses, laments, static
crowding the wires. We cut the wires,
find ourselves in free-fall, as if
our true home were the undimensional
solitudes, the rift
in the Great Nebula.
No one who survives to speak
new language, has avoided this:
the cutting-away of an old force that held her
rooted to an old ground
the pitch of utter loneliness
where she herself and all creation
seem equally dispersed, weightless, her being a cry
to which no echo comes or can ever come.
I was looking for the complete text of Transcendental Etude to link to but didn't find it. I did find this video which I really liked and wanted to share though!
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