I sit content

I never bothered with reading poems until a few years back. I think I probably started at the time I was using twitter a lot. It may be a coincidence, but I still have little enthusiasm for reading verse if it stretches for much more than a page. I have a Walt Whitman book and whenever I pick it up I think this is GOOD. But as you can imagine I don’t often last long or get very far into most of his poems. So it was a lovely circumstance for me to find a few lines of his in a collection my son had bought me for Christmas. I could read the three of them, re-read, reflect, enjoy. All while not feeling any guilt at all at my inability to be a proper appreciator of Mr Whitman’s work because I had given up on it after five minutes.

I exist as I am, that is enough,

If no other in the world be aware I sit content,

If each and all be aware I sit content

from Song of Self

To be honest I don’t think he wrote the lines in the way I interpreted and applied them. But hey. What struck me is that you could use these words as a guide when you are meditating. You can sit comfortably enough, breathe well enough and then “that is enough”. And you can sit content no matter what happens.

Maybe your mind is all a thick March morning mist and you are groggy and blurred. Like there is no “other in the world”. Well then, sit content. That is how it is. Notice that. What is it like? Be curious.

Maybe your mind is full to overflowing and there appears to be no calm, insight, wisdom or peace at all. Everything is shouting at you and you can’t stop darting from one thing to the next. Like “each and all be aware”. Well then, sit content. That is how it is. Notice that. What is it like? Be curious.

So thank you Finn for my Christmas present. Thank you Mr Whitman for your words. And thanks to you if this wasn’t too long for you and were able to read to the end.