My writing class started up again Monday night. It was so good to be back into forced practice. If you haven't yet checked out Women Writing for (a) Change, you can take a look and see what the school is about--it's pretty cool.
So here is my response to the prompt: "I'm making space for..."
I'm making space for forgiveness. Forgiving myself my imperfections and allowing the "work in progress" idea to dominate. Forgiving my food transgressions. Forgiving, or allowing myself to screw up, to try, to breathe, to soar. I so want to soar above the grounded earth and make my life sing.
I get mired in the day to day; I lose sight of the bigger picture. That is what has happened in the time I have been away. I have missed the mind setting.
I'm making space for reading good books.
I'm making space for breathing air into my lungs, inhaling deeply and letting go.
I'm letting go of potty training, food insistence. I'm tempted to let go of bedtime struggles. But that lack of structure might just kill us all.
I'm making space for outdated clothing, old recurring thoughts and new dreams. Renewal with my husband and making time to rediscover what drove us to date in the first place.
I'm making space for moving my body, for spending money on babysitters, eating chocolate extra-decadently.
French verbs
Birthday cake icing
The number 33
My parents' quarrels
I'm making space for big dreams and bigger goals, smaller garbage piles and more organization in my writing space. I'm making space for space, if that makes sense at all.
I'm making space for enjoying my children
Valuing myself
Validating my true friends
And letting the others lie.
I'm making space between myself and those who drain my energy, make me tired and sap my strength.
I'm making space for good beer, fine wine and comfort food. Comfortable food. Oh mac and cheese, oh how I miss you.
I'm making space for breathing in and breathing out, over and over again.
So, what are you making space for?
5 comments:
I'm making space for failure. For imperfection. For adjustment. Latitude.
Making space for sleep and dreams. For what may come and what will be.
I'm making space for busy days and busy nights. For junk drawers and cluttered desktops.
I'm making space for wisdom and compassion. One breath at a time.
I'm making space for all the small stuff that supposedly isn't important and all the big stuff that often as not is supposedly too important.
I'm making space for perspective but not tolerance.
I'm making space for the open road, the cold winter air, the tired mornings and the exhausted evenings.
I'm making space for God.
L., are you saying you accept perspective, but do not tolerate it?
Since I'm pretty uptight, I am probably not making space for anything. I frequently defend my space to the point of excluding all else, or at least its enjoyment. I hate small stuff and I hate domestic entropy. Quel dommage.
T,
In a sense, yes. I can understand someone has a different point of few, but I don't have to agree with it. These days many people use the term tolerance to mean agree and I think that's bullshit.
i always thought that to tolerate something was to allow it to exist. you can tolerate something and disagree with it.
[dictionary use of 'to tolerate' means to put up with, to endure, to bear or carry.] i guess i don't know people who confuse 'tolerate' with 'agree with.'
racism would be an easy example of people tolerating something they (say they) disagree with:
white people tend to tolerate racist comments they hear among other white people, i've found. they will listen to someone be a jackass and not confront them about it. they'll only laugh about the jackass when he's gone.
would it be more accurate for you to say that you'll make space for perspectives, tolerating their existence, but not condoning or agreeing with them?
when someone is described as "intolerant," they usually are a form of the jackass mentioned above, someone not-so-liked. an intolerant person is considered ignorant at best, informed but closed-minded at middle-ground or just plain "stupid" at worst.
the world would be interesting if people actually confronted the things they tolerate on a daily basis but happen to disagree with.
we are not taught the language besides "that makes me uncomfortable" to use in such situations, though. have you met people with the balls to just say, "you sound like a racist" and take the consequences (like "you're over reacting")? i have only been able to do that with people i know well, not acquaintances or friends of friends or folks i just happen to meet on the street (which i do a lot of).
muslims of the world right now are showing that they do not tolerate cartoons that use images of their prophet, for example. they disagree with both the use and the message. and they're saying so.
the connotation of intolerant is negative, is all.
Tracy,
I think we agree on a good deal. Much of what you said I would certainly agree with.
You said, "would it be more accurate for you to say that you'll make space for perspectives, tolerating their existence, but not condoning or agreeing with them?"
This is true to an extent, but it does depend on the perspective. I don't tolerate people strapping bombs to children (or anyone for that matter) and sending them into crowded places to detonate. That's certainly a 'perspective' (they believe they are martyring themselves to get rewarded in the after life) but I'd be hard pressed to want to sit by and say I'll 'tolerate' it's existence.
Others perspectives, like your racism example are also ones I don't like to tolerate. If someone says something racist, I'll be glad to point it out. And yes, I'll be glad to be told I'm over-reacting or whatever, it's their opinion after all and they're intitled.
And I agree big time with you on how we are taught language. It's a shame that most people today have a smaller vocabulary then the entirety of all the new words that Shakespeare invented. English is a beautiful and diverse language (albeit difficult to learn :D) it would be wonderful and exilirating if everyone would partake.
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