"Honeymoon with Big Joy" #11

Featuring Li-Young Lee and Oliver Shanti & Friends

Oct 16, 2023

Welcome to “Honeymoon with Big Joy”

Remember, you’re the co-creator of this dive. Do as much or as little as you’d like, when you’d like, how you’d like, with the materials I provide. Just keep gentle faith with yourself.

Set your intention

Take a moment to name the primary intention you have for this month-long deep dive and/or this particular session. Take a quiet moment to center yourself in that intention.

En-JOY the music

Read the poem

I invite you to read this poem twice—aloud, at least once. You may also listen to Li-Young Lee’s reading of the poem, perhaps with your eyes closed.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published


FROM BLOSSOMS
Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward   
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into   
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.


(from Rose)

Contemplate/Create

Use any of these questions however you wish—e.g., as openings for meditation or prayer, as prompts for journaling or poetry-writing, as sparks for drawing or painting, as catalysts for change-making . . . You may also ignore my questions altogether to go off in other directions!

Start with gratitude for a piece of fresh fruit. See where it leads.
Reflect/write/create in response to this stem: “I carry within me an orchard . . .”
This poem speaks to the transience of joyful moments. Eventually joy passes—even as blossoms fade and fall, even as peaches are eaten. But when we’re in the midst of joy, it has an eternal quality—”as if death were nowhere / in the background.” How does your own awareness of mortality and death impact your awareness of joy, and vice versa? Are these at odds? Or might they need each other?

Want to visit with other Rafters in the Deep Dive?

Here are two options: either leave a comment on this post using the button, or join the chat thread dedicated to this Deep Dive. (Note: if you haven’t created a Substack profile yet, you’ll be asked to do so before you can comment or chat.)

Join us on October 31 for “Rafter Refuge”!

6:30-8:00PM Central (7:30 ET, 5:30 MT, 4:30 PT)

Let’s close this Deep Dive with a time of voluntary sharing. (It’s fine just to listen!) Come and reflect with other Rafters on “Honeymoon with Big Joy.” Registration is required for this celebration.