“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”― Franz Kafka How often have we told people what they want to hear, rather than speak our truth? During the process of writing my second book, there […]
Speak Your Truth — LIVING IN THIS MOMENT
Karen writes about how challenging it is to speak one’s truth. We often conflate truth with opinion. Truth is about how we each experience a particular phenomenon. It always stands in relationship to others and how they experience that phenomenon. Truth comes from the Germanic word tröth, which is taking a solemn pledge or undertaking. We enter into a relationship with someone and/or something e.g., marriage vows. Each peson comes to understand the meaning of the relationship and the pledge slightly differently.
We live in a world which is sometimes referred to as post-truth.. In my view, this just moral relativism dressed up differently and allows people to ignore the humanity of others who may disagree with them or are different than them. It becomes easy to say whatever we want to and claim we are being cancelled when someone disagrees. When used in this manner, truth becomes irrelevant and a buzz word.
Truth has taken on greater importance with the recent findings of unmarked graves at or close to residential schools for Indigenous children who were taken from their families and communities. Canada has a Truth and Reconciliation report related to the way Indienous peoples and communities were mistreated and that is a gentle word to describe the process. This includes the residential schools set up by the government and run by several christian demoninations. It is important to note truth comes before reconciliation. It is acknowledging the wrongs of the past, which is essential to reconciling, making whole and healing.
The reports logo is based on the 7 sacred teachings found in some form in North American Indigenous cultures: Truth, Humility, Honesty, Wisdom, Respect, Courage and Love. Although these teachings form the basis for North American Indigenous traditions and dialogue, one can find them, in some form, in other spiritiual teachings. They should form the ground on which we enter into relationships with others, the world, and what we hold sacred.
What draws me to Mary Oliver‘s poetry is the humility she invokes in questions she asks in certain poems. My favourite is The Summer Day where she concludes her questions with “what is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Truth is preceded by humility and accepting their will always be questions we cannot answer. Truth needs the other sacred teachings as life opens up with questions we cannot answer and full grasp.
| Who made the world? |
| Who made the swan, and the black bear? |
| Who made the grasshopper? |
| This grasshopper, I mean– |
| the one who has flung herself out of the grass, |
| the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, |
| who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down — |
| who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. |
| Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. |
| Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. |
| I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. |
| I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down |
| into the grass, how to kneel in the grass, |
| how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields |
| which is what I have been doing all day. |
| Tell me, what else should I have done? |
| Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? |
| Tell me, what is it you plan to do |
| With your one wild and precious life? |
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 