“O for a life of sensations rather than of thoughts!”
John Keats was an English Romantic poet whose writing was characterized by vivid imagery, great sensuous appeal and an attempt to express a philosophy through classical legend. His poems had only been in publication for four years when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25. Though his work was received indifferently during his lifetime, his fame grew after his death. He is considered to be one of the most remarkable of the English poets.
I spend a lot of time in my head.
Things can get very swirly in there. There are a lot of voices. I have a whole cheering section filled with hecklers. And they are not loyal. They turn on a dime. At any given moment I am too much, I am not enough. I have said too much. I should have explained myself better. In my head I am certain you looked at me funny. Or maybe you didn’t.
My head, though very powerful and convincing is just one small bit of me. When I am fully in the rest of my body, is when I truly come alive!
Sensations
Have you ever noticed how many shades of green there are? Or how blue and endless the sky is in May when the cottonwoods release their little seed ambassadors into the breeze and it’s like watching a delicate snow. But it’s warm and it’s springtime.
Have you heard how the trees call to us in a light wind – shhhhh. If you listen, you’ll hear their gladness in bloom after a long winter of bare rest. Not to mention the chickadees and little finches in their endless debates over the best seeds, the best spots. The deep-throated songs of the robins early in the morning and so late the sun has set hours ago. What magnificent thing do they know that compels their songs from dawn to dusk for an entire season?
Have you smelled the freshly cut grass? Or the blooming lilac, the wild roses? Baking bread? The first cup of brewed coffee in the morning?
Have you had your hand lightly touched by the hand of someone you just might love? Have you held a baby creature, soft and new and fragile with life?
Our senses are amazing!
This one and only Earth life that we get to live with them is hard and tricky and desperate and heart-wrenching, if we’re being honest with ourselves. This is the reality of world we live in together. This world outside of ourselves that we all share together.
There is absolutely value in being inward. As an introvert, it is essential for me. But Oh! for a life of sensations in addition to my thoughts! My life is at its fullest when I’m standing barefoot in the grass under a sea of constellations in the cool evening dark. The resident owl asking his endless question: Who . . . who . . . who?
If you are an over-thinker or a worrier, if you haven’t had your bare feet in the grass in a while, let’s step into the gift of sensations, and let’s be friends~
