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POEM: Remember who you truly are

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By Christi Ortiz

We are a species of contradictions
So intelligent, so powerful, with minds and hearts and creativity and ability so wide
yet vulnerable and perhaps blind to our shadow side
 
Why is it that we can’t seem to get a handle our exhaust
So craving for production, efficiency, getting to the top, we find ourselves lost
So striving to get ahead we don’t look back at the trail we leave 
for the generations who follow
 
not noticing our consumption and striving for more 
is killing the world and other species
producing more trash and toxins than we can hold 
 
Why is it that we can’t seem to get a handle on our exhaustion
Revved up on coffee and speed and rushing and business and busyness
to notice a neighbor in need, to care for a stranger, to have wholesome restoration
 
Why is it that we can’t handle our pain
Numbed out on television, pain killers, and worlds of fantasy
Why do we run and doubt our ability to handle it, to live and growth through it
 
Why is it that we can’t handle our vulnerability
giving our health over to the care of a broken system
losing touch with our innate healing ability
 
hiding behind picture perfect Facebook lives
forming a mass of friends and likes and views and lies
all the while feeling more isolated and alone and unloved as ever
 
Why have we forgotten to ask for help, to realize our inter connectivity
believing lies that we can’t be weak and have to do it alone 
when all of history and civilization and biology tells us otherwise…

Why is it that we can’t seem to get a handle on our technology
our lust for knowledge and power and speed and innovation
blinding us to discernment of what is helpful and good and what is destructive
 
Why is it that we see danger in the stranger
and build borders and walls and masks against each other
don’t we realize that we too are the other?
 
Why is it we can’t handle our wrong doings? 
vitriol and vile are plenty 
while a paucity of forgiveness, understanding or graciousness or mercy flow
Why is it those with money or power or prestige go free
While those without fall prey to our power 
forever trapped, branded, discarded, detested, feared, damned
Are we afraid because deep down we know we are like them too 
that our failures are abundant and pervasive
Do we despise that which we can’t bare to love in ourselves? 
Do we judge and criticize the other 
while we blind ourselves to the same fault that lies inside?

I pray our species won’t need to hit rock bottom
or cause our own auto destruction
while we are zoned out on autopilot

I pray we can give our attention before it gets us
I pray we will choose
to pause 
to reflect 
to notice 
to slow down 
to see 
both ourselves and the other 
and the beauty of our light and dark sides, 
our glorious potential and our failures along the way, 
 
may we recognize and remember our goodness,
who we truly are, what we can become, 
from where we come and where we are going
so that we can be here now 
with a new level of awareness, wisdom, 
consciousness and conscientiousness, 
compassion and care
 
For when the sand figure enters the ocean 
and realizes it is part of a much bigger whole 
it releases the destruction, the disease, the lies, 
the divisions, the labels, the loneliness and isolation,
to be restored and become part of the flow 
that heals and renews
 
I believe we are doing this
I believe we can
I believe we must
I believe we will
 
Will you join me in hope, 
in believing and trusting 
that we can live into 
the goodness and beauty of our humanity, 
and also recognize our humble place 
in the whole cosmic and universal balance
 
We are at a tipping point 
which way will you fall?
will you answer your call?
will you join our downward or upward spiral? 
will you choose fear or faith?
Empathy or apathy?
Hope or despair? 
War or peace?
Hatred or love?
Death or life?
 
I know getting up again is not romantic or easy 
I know there’s always a pull to our fallen side,
but I also know we are strong and resilient, 
we are just as blessed as we are broken, 
we are courage and compassion, 
we are hope and healing, 
we are whole and holy,
 
We never wander too far to be redeemed, 
we just need to wake up, 
to say yes to who we are, 
to take a different path, 
to change and be transformed
to have the courage to swim upstream if need be
to follow our evolution to goodness, 
to find our way home

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Christi Ortiz
Christi Ortiz
Christi Ortiz is a licensed marriage and family therapist by profession and a poet by passion.  She enjoys trying to put to words to that which is wordless and give voice to the dynamic and wild spiritual journey called life. She lives in Spokane with her husband and two children, Emmanuel and Grace. She loves the outdoors and meditating in the early mornings which gives rise to her poetry.

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