With roaring indifference to the frail and imperfect,
wind flings dead branches and uproots bushes,
sending them sailing.
The trees and I moan under the weight of it all.
I toss aside a broken bough, pruning thoughts under clearing skies.
We survived Hurricane Henri and the remnants of Hurricane Ida. But a poem I wrote last year came to mind as I wandered the beach and then my yard, picking up branches and dead limbs. Those ruminating thoughts can be tossed, too.
A “cleaning of the clutter” periodically helps keep me sane and functioning. I listened to a Ten Percent Happier podcast the other day, a challenge based on the Ted Lasso show (which I love). Joseph Goldstein shared some “phrases for stress” I found helpful. One, “the thought of your mother is not your mother,” helps remind me that what I’m thinking isn’t real. It’s like a movie– no one is really being killed, no one is jumping off a cliff. In our lives, he says, thoughts can cause stress when we take the thought as reality. Some thoughts can trigger emotions.
Thoughts can exercise great power over our life, so remembering that they are only thoughts is helpful.