The first time I wrote this, Come 2007,* was when I was living in Teton Valley, Wyoming.
Monday was the first day of 2007, and what a day it was! Alone in my tiny lodgepole pine cabin, six thousand feet above sea level, I beheld clear blue skies, pure white snow, and a gauzy languid mist – water in its most mysterious incarnation – swirling around the magnificent Tetons. Later, sweet magical twilight, a study in stillness and nature’s infinite pastel palette on snow, sky and land.
“Blessed am I,” I said, startled to hear myself utter the never-before-used phrase.
Inspired by weather and physical geography throughout the day, the following surfaced in me. I tweak and prune a little each year, and I suppose after seven years it’s become my annual bonsai poem.
COME 2013
Come 2013,
Love.
Love yourself first,
nurture a healthy spirit
so that you have more love to give others.
Come 2013,
Exercise kindness.
For kindness given and received
creates a more joyous existence for all.
Come 2013,
Forgive, forgive, and forgive.
For no matter how enlightened,
life will always offer pain and suffering.
Your response to this offering
shapes your life experiences.
Come 2013,
Never again be complacent about death,
killing, violence, war.
For every life taken is a life extinguished
from our common humanity.
Come 2013,
Remember that money serves as energy,
and flows best when all are fulfilled.
Come 2013,
Experience beauty as a blessing,
a universal gift to share and enjoy,
never possessed,
never taken for granted.
Come 2013,
Always speak the truth,
so that its light shines out of you
and around you.
Come 2013,
Know, once and for all,
that each of our gods point us
to the same perfect place and time,
and it is only we, in our puny humanness, who err,
spreading misery in the pursuit of our exclusive beliefs.
Come 2013,
Be all that you can be,
in mind, body and spirit.
Surround yourself with people who help
rather than hinder this process.
Come 2013,
Be loyal to universal values,
like kindness, wisdom, compassion, humility …
love.
Even if doing so projects an illusion of fear.
Come 2013,
Exercise peace,
within and without,
so that we experience life without boundaries
among peoples and nations and nature.
Come 2013,
Understand that you are the architect of your life,
so build well and strong,
true to plumb.
Come 2013,
Know there is nothing you can do about the past,
but that the present forks to infinite possibilities.
Come 2013,
Take responsibility
that by giving life to your children,
you are their first gods.
Be godlike, then,
now!
* Inspired by the content and structure of Arundhati Roy’s poem Come September in the aftermath of 9/11.
Well written…across the page…good layout too
Thanks, mate!
G
This is magnificent and awe inspiring. I’m so aware as I catch up on 2 weeks of emails and blogs how the theme for everyone’s new year is centered on growth, love, compassion, light, and fierce being.
Thank you for sharing your prayer.
Thanks, Brenda. I so appreciate your feedback.
G
There is so much wisdom here (in this post and your blog in general)!
Thanks!
G
thoughtful words with great meaning and understanding
wishing you a most favorable 2013!
Thank you. And a most favorable one to you, also, dear sir.
G
So G., quite the year.
I like so much the refrain, “Come 2013.” I imagine you saying it almost like a challenge. Come, for I’m ready. Ready for whatever you bring. Content in the not knowing. Bring it on. I’m ready to feel the joy and the pain- open and ready. Just to be alive, in each precious moment.
A beautiful piece of writing from a beautiful soul. Finding you is surely one of the great blessings of my year past.
Snow covers the ground here. Walking my dog this morning, I saw our friends, the two hawks and the herd of deer that live in the woods behind my home. Alive now. Present.
All blessings, Gigi, for the wonders that lie ahead.
Tom
Tom, yes quite, quite ;,)
Opportunities lurking amongst all the bloody fracas that goes on in one’s skull. Hopefully building blocks and springboard effects as we mark a new calendar year.
You totally got the intention and trajectory behind this thought piece. Fulfilling, that is. So thanks!
Thanks also for the two timely compliments; needed to hear that, as currently in Brisbane, Australia, with my mom and coping being physically around a loved one who has such a relentless and continuously negative take on life; it’s tiresome at best and intensely hurtful at worst – unhappy people generally being rather on the unpleasant side.
But, lots of writing fodder for the near future; hopefully enlightened works just describing the tragic comedy that is life with family.
Wait for it with bated breath, eh Tom? (Laugh).
All blessings to you too, Tom. Put down the psychic whip of self-laceration in 2013, once and for all.
Aloha nui, mon ami
Gigi
Gigi,
Yes, LOVE is a wondrous thing – it is the power that makes the universe go ’round.
Tru dat!
Thanks for your comment.
G
Thank you, Gigi and Thank you, Arundhati Roy. Those messages touch most of the problems we fight all the time.
Roy rocks!
Thanks,
G
Hi GG
Liked the poem a lot. Quite a reminder to be all that we can be in the best way every day we are alive.
The picture of the Grand Teton brought back a lot of memories for me. I used to go trout fishing from Jackson Hole up through the south side of Yellowstone a lot in years past. I love the rugged beauty of that country and all of the grandeur that it offers. It truly is one of the earth’s magic places.
Paul
Thanks, Paul.
Yes, it’s pretty breathtaking country. I lived in Alta, Wyoming, on and off for close to 15 years before leaving for Hawai’i. Couldn’t take the long winters no more.
G
Hawaii is quite a step away from long, cold winters, and Wyoming does have their share of cold. Did a Yellowstone winter trip one year and it was fantastic.
Wow! (k, a person of not so many words)…….I love you sister G!
Thanks, SGS sis! Right back atchya!
G
Beautiful, inspiring, exactly what I needed to read at this moment.
Thanks! Glad the timing was right.
G
Simply beautiful!
Thank you.
G