I believe some of you know what it’s like to feel as though you have died, and you so desperately want to come back to life. Or, you are just now getting glimpses of true living and you realize you have been sleep-walking.

Here is how cummings puts it:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

I believe God is, in fact, able to bring us all back to life—to give us back the warmth of the sun, to help us find a home within ourselves, and to bring us up and out of the water within which we are drowning.

In my last post, I lobbed out the question, “what is one goal you have for the month of June?”

I loved what you wrote. Everything from just needing to survive, to some ideas about how you might thrive. I love thinking about each of you in your own corner of the world—literally—striking out on a project or a mindset or a relationship or a discipline.

I really appreciate the courage it takes to name those goals.

I want this to be a place where you feel a sense of solidarity with others who are trying to do life in some of the same ways you are—alive, awake, showing up, participating, inspired, beauty-chasing. And that this is the place you stop by periodically for that shot in the arm you need to keep going, to be refreshed and inspired, to fill up when you are feeling empty, to know you are not alone.

So please . . . keep sharing, keep commenting, keep engaging, and keep stopping by. I believe it makes a difference when we gather together with others for support and hope and laughter and tears.

I believe it helps us to feel the sun, to be alive again today, to taste touch hear see breathe, to have our ears awakened, to have our eyes opened.

Take a line from the cummings’ poem—any line—and put it somewhere you’ll see it. Let it be an incantation to you as you walk/crawl/climb/run/wade your way into June.

My line is: “and this is the sun’s birthday.” Because I want to remember that each of these days matters. Life is happening now. Life is not somewhere I’m going to arrive in the future. Today is the Beauty.

I’m channeling my inner gypsy today . . . and her brave soul. Not just the fantasy: the effortless caftan—effectively accessorized—with the loose curls and bold lip color (maybe someday!). But the hard-won courage, the zeal, the beating heart, the fire-in-the-belly, the inner-me who is inspired to take on life. Calling upon that woman inside me who is alive again today. Giving her some space to breathe and to show me how to see.

What is your line from the cummings’ poem?