A friend recently shared the poem ‘The Invitation’ by Oriah Mountain Dreamer in which the following words deeply resonated with me:
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
I sat with the words and pondered how they were relevant, especially for someone like me who desires a family life. I strolled through the Rose Garden in St Anne’s Park, North Dublin, and listened to what nature was saying to me.
I saw the rose (pictured) and wrote this poem (a Haiku) afterwards:
“I want chocolate!”
Little rose face of the sun
– Won’t vanilla do?
I imagined that my daughter challenged me by demanding chocolate ice-cream when I was bone-weary from my own stress and suffering. I tried to respond with all the love in the world while letting her know that she had still much to learn.
I tried to teach her that we don’t need the best ice-cream or conditions to be happy. Vanilla ice-cream or similar things that parents provide for their children are surely satisfactory, are surely good enough.
Especially when we see their beauty every day – like little rose faces of the sun!
Gratitude In All Things 