Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Keep Death Close to your Fingertips

Keep death close to your fingertips
Let it remind you of the light still inside
Keep death close to your fingertips
Let it focus your eyes on the light in which
you reside
Don't be afraid of the impending void
Because emptiness has nothing to hide

Make a friend of death
Hold his hand when you walk through the world
Make a friend of death
He has secrets others don't know and are afraid
to find
Let the limitations of time lay naked beside you
And bathe in the river of this brief life

John Berryman told us to 'travel in the direction
of our fear'
We are not guaranteed a day, a week, a month,
a moment, or a year
Inhabit fully this life and transcend it too
And tell the truth with every tear

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Safe Spaces

My instinct tells me that people who are offended by the concept of the safe space (provided they know the actual meaning of the term and not just the grotesque caricature derided by talk radio), are possibly the people most in need of a safe space. Their outrage and mockery of the idea that a person in crisis might need a 'space' to go to and be surrounded by caring, supportive, non-judgmental people, suggests a history of pain that needs to be confronted. I can imagine them scoffing at the safe space concept internally by saying, 'who was there for me when I needed help?', and, 'what is so great about these people that they have these resources that I lacked?' One of the most important things I have learned as a social worker is to look past the noise a person makes and seek out the issue. Every lion that roars has some kind of thorn in their paw. Ignore the roar. Find the thorn.