2011: SAY YES

Hallelujah for NEW BEGINNINGS. I welcome the START of 2011 with open arms and CURIOSITY. What is possible in the next 12 months? What discoveries will I make on my ARTFUL and SOULFUL PILGRIMAGE? What PILGRIM will I meet who will make that significant difference in my JOURNEY? In what NEW ways will I contribute to the LOVING SOULS in my life?

A FELLOW SOJOURNER and POET, Alice Teeter speaks to me through the poetry in her book, “When it happens to you…”. Today, one particular poem, “Say Yes,” is speaking to me. The first three lines of the poem suggest:

Say Yes

Step off into this unknown

Into this marvelous and terrible Yes

Oh PILGRIM! We know part of the JOY of the GREAT MYSTERY is that it is simultaneously “marvelous” and “terrible”—beckoning and pushing us away at the same time. It takes SOULFUL COURAGE to step into YES!

Alice Teeter creates multiple ways for us to say YES. We can “float,” “carry,” “blow,” and “scatter” YES. We can even “lean” into YES, watching it like a maple seed spiraling down in front of us!

Saying YES is like creating a “seed” that we can plant along our JOURNEY. By saying YES, we send a positive message out into the universe surrounding us.

And just think—it is possible that other PILGRIMS might hear our saying YES. Alice Teeter’s poem concludes:

You are standing on the sweet spot of the stage

Your voice will carry for eons and leagues

In your softest song say Yes to me

I hear you from this thousand miles away

Hallelujah for saying YES! And for being HEARD! I am BEGINNING my 2011 saying YES joyfully to both the marvelous and terrible! And you PILGRIM, what will you say YES to this year? SOUL BLOG with me at Coffee with Hallelujah, so I can HEAR YOU!

For your delight, below is Alice Teeter’s poem, “Say Yes,” in its entirety.

Say Yes

Say Yes

Step off into this unknown

Into this marvelous and terrible Yes

Yes to unknowing, Yes

Fling your arms wide to Yes

Be light and say Yes

Say Yes softly in a whisper

Float on Yes

Carry Yes like a feather you find floating

That the wind will take away

Blow Yes like a dandelion seed

Scatter it to the winds

And me, I say Yes waiting for your Yes

Leaning in and watching for it floating down

A maple seed on the breeze spiraling

Wisps of white floating across my field of vision

My ears are listening for that whisper

You are standing on the sweet spot of the stage

Your voice will carry for eons and leagues

In your softest song say Yes to me

I hear you from this thousand miles away

From When it happens to you…, poems by Alice Teeter