SHOW UP Joe Davis We were each called to this place, this time, and this season. You may not yet know the rhyme or the reason. You may not feel, think, or believe in the same things I believe in, but we’ve been asked to show up. Show up from wherever you are from. You can come here to be free. Bring your full self—both your head and your heart, your hands and your feet. And anything and everything, infinitely beyond any duality, your sexuality, your gender, your race, your age, or ability. We all have the ability to be. Without you, I’m incomplete. Without you, there is no “we.” I need you not just to survive but to thrive. To come fully awake and alive with potential and possibility. Join me at the table, for it is wide and there is lots of food to eat. So show up, and be fed, and feed others, satiating a different kind of hunger, fueling the fire in our bellies. No matter where you’ve been, or what you’ve done, all will be well where we’re all welcome to laugh, cry, dance, write, breathe, and bleed into the margins, and follow the call to the farthest reaches of who we are. Whether you run, walk, crawl—even if you fall we fall in love. Just show up. Show up, to answer a call to justice— to transform both the soul and the body that the soul inhabits. Show up with all your awkwardness and bad habits, show up with your doubts and questions. Know that here, you can ask them. Show up with your wounds and scars—we all have baggage. Just know that together, we can unpack it. This is no mistake—you are not here by accident; You are the only you that ever has been. You are not the magician—you are the magic! So show up. This place here, there is no grace period— there’s only grace, period. Bring your fears and insecurities, let us marvel in the mystery. Let us listen to each other to life with deep, holy listening. Can you hear it? Can you hear it? That’s the sound of the genuine within you. The spirit’s stirring near you, but if you don’t show up, how can anyone hear you? Show up, even if you don’t know for certain you may have the truth and healing for which this world is searching. In this grand universe, we are but small workers with a big purpose because of our hearts, widening the circle— hearts that are broken, hearts that are open so a little light can shine through, a little hope for the hopeless. Wherever you go, simply know: the spirit of this place goes with you. So go, readied with sleeves rolled up, always growing, never fully growed up, ready with all your heart, mind, body, and soul simply to show up.
(My thanks to Joe Davis. I could locate no definitive text for this spoken word poem. Please forgive any errors in my transcription.)
The Gentle Nudge
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WEDNESDAY: Creatives’ Coffee (Zoom, 4:00-5:30PM Central, at this link)
THURSDAY: Poetry Pick-Me-Up (Zoom, 12:00-1:00PM Central, at this link)
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Well, that was GREAT. I'm going to bookmark that to hear again. I saw two other posts this morning along the same lines....about taking risks (especially women) and about creativity. Reflecting on all of this, it feels like I am NOT showing up lately...mainly just phoning it in, as they say. I know it's wrong to feel like the party is over, especially based on age, but sometimes I fall into that trap. Clearly, between this message and the others I heard this morning, someone is trying to tell me something!
Love this! I shared it with the staff at the food pantry where I volunteer