Prayers and Letting go of Past “Live with Intention: Rediscovering What we Deeply Know” by Mary Anne Radmacher (March 2012)

March 15, 2012
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Susan's Thursday morning note March 15, 2012
Honey in Your Heart: Ways to See and Savor the Simple Good Things by Mary Anne Radmacher
Live with Intention Rediscovering What we Deeply Know.by Mary Anne Radmacher
 
Good morning!!  Perfect filler with a little coffee added in, birds, tulips beginning to push through, windows open for first morning of the year…perfect chance to write!!  This week I’ve brought home two recent releases by Mary Anne Radmacher.  She is famous for the following quote:
 
Life with Intention
walk to the edge.
listen hard.  practice
wellness.  play with
abandon.  laugh.
choose with no regret.
continue to learn.
appreciate your friends.
do what you love.
live as if this is all there is.
 
Her new releases are Honey in Your Heart, Ways to See and Savor the Simple Good Things and Live with Intention Rediscovering What we Deeply Know.  Both books are collections of short poems, encouragements, quotes, and ideas for finding the joy in life.  For savoring moments.  For looking forward.  For being at peace with where you are in life.  Below I’ll write out just a few of her thoughts which have stayed in my mind since reading them.
 
All the Undone Things press their noses against the glass of her day and breathe heavily. 
She closes the shade. 
At the last moment she talks herself into being thankful.
 
Prayers Like Shoes by Ruth Forman
 
I wear prayers like shoes
 
pull em on quiet each morning
take me through the uncertain day
 
don’t know
what might knock me off course
 
sit up in bed
pull on the right
then the left
before shower before teeth
 
my mama’s gift
to walk me through this life
she wore strong ones
the kind steady your ankles
i know
cause when her man left/her children
gone/her eldest son without goodbye
they the only ones keep her
standing
 
i saw her
still standing
 
mama passed on
some things to me
ma smile sense a discipline
ma
subtle behind
 
but best she passed on
girl you go to God
and get you some good shoes
cause this life ain’t steady ground
 
now i don’t wear hers
you take em with you you know
but i suspect they made by the same company
pull em on each morning
first the right   then the left
 
best piece a dress
i got
 
In that split second when there’s opportunity for unkindness or a sharp retort: remain silent. 
The whisper of pause informs a better decision.
 
“Do you believe in prayer? she asked. 
Quietly, my heart answered, “My entire life is a prayer. 
I am a prayer.” 
I smiled and assured her, “Yes, I believe.”
 
…poem written to reflect on intentionally replacing her story of pain with one of creativity & friendship…
 
My pain stays in my wardrobe.
To wear it is always a choice…
The painful lyrics line my shelves.
Each page gives pain its voice…
 
My pain is in my history,
Giving impulse to my present view
It’s brought me where I’m standing and now
I’ll tell a bit to you –
 
For in the telling of the tale,  pain feeds its weary soul.
In the space it takes in telling are my hours and minutes – stole
 
From the freshness of this moment, from the truth of
this day’s dawn, pain steals and rakes and rolls upon the
soiled beauty I garden on.
 
My pain’s been ever with me.
But I tell you this time, clear,
It may have come this far with me,
but today – I’ll leave it here.
 
DIDtionary. My life:  defined by my actions.  My life: defined by my dreams.  My DIDtionary.
 
And, with those writings from her book, let’s go take on this new day.  New life.  New experiences.  New goals.  New joys.  If life hurts, remember the promise that there is a peace that passes all understanding if we will only look up to the hills, or drop one foot to our knees.  The gift of today.  Will we use the moments given to us and make them worthy of stone if we wrote the moments into stone?  Thank you for letting me enter your Thursday.  Have a great weekend!  Thank you so much for coming into our store when you need your gifts & to choose your books.  Your business and friendship means more than you’ll ever know.  If I’m not there when you come in, know I thank you when I see your name!  Susan 
Latin for this week:
gaudium – joy, delight, happiness

Works Cited:
Radmacher, Maryanne.  Honey in Your Heart.  San Francisco.  Conari Press.  2012.
Radmacher, Maryanne.  Live with Intention.  San Francisco.  Conari Press.  2011.