Season of Mending, by Robbi Nester

[Lisa Walford]

July 4th is upon us. Many revel at the fireworks, a chance to host a party, barbecue, sparklers. When I think of "freedom" and all the pain that comes with it, I can only pause, and turn to those who we have left behind. Almost everyone reading this is privileged, we know this, I do not need to remind you. Yet. In yoga, we vow to follow values that will help us free ourselves form the shackles of our inner fears as we pledge to help those around us. 

Robbi's closing line in this poem - With these small gestures, let me

mend the past, repair the world - reminds me of a verse in The Bhagavad Gita, II.19: Strive constantly to server the welfare of the world.. Do your work with the welfare of others always in mind. Now, lest we judge our own contributions, that one person's service is superior, the Gita says: II.35: It is better to strive in one's own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another. Nothing is ever lost in following one's own dharma.    

I love the honesty in this poem, and am inspired by our yoga classmate Robbi for her gifts as a poet. She has a new website: 

https://www.robbinester.net/ 

All my life, I 've left a trail of broken things- 

first mangled toys, lost game pieces, missing

cards, buttons that won't

stay sewn. Relationships as well

break down: harsh words can't

be unsaid; candor cools lifelong alliances.

At first, I never tried to fix such breaks,

just moved on, hoping for better luck.

Now, buried in the drifts of what

I've left behind, I turn to mending.

From the drain, I extract

a lost earring, from a pile

of papers a letter I meant to send

but never did. I apologize

for everything I said or didn't,

for not expressing what I felt

or speaking when I shouldn't have.

With these small gestures, let me

mend the past, repair the world. 

See you the day after.... July 5! for pranayama! 

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