Friday, June 24, 2011

What it will take for my city to rise

Ani DiFranco sings about the first time that she saw someone sleeping on the street in her song, Subdivision. She says that she thought to herself, "I can't just walk past here, this can't just be true."
Naturally, when we come upon new experiences that cause us a small level of crisis, we look around us to see what others are doing. Ani describes: "I learned by example to just keep moving my feet. It's amazing the things that we all learn to do."

I'm struck by this example. It highlights the briefest of pivotal moments, when we either choose for our eyes to stay open and listen to that uneasiness in our gut, or when we choose to live disconnectedly. She continues, "so we're led by denial, like lambs to the slaughter."


She makes me think about all the smaller ways that we deny ourselves the truths that we find self-evident. Some of us live in relationships that we know are not quite right for us, but question that sense constantly. We listen to the words of loved ones, and when a little pang in our chest tells us that something sounds off, we don't honor it with communication. We pursue careers that others have urged us to, not listening to what our own sense of self really has to say about it.
I believe that most of us live with an ability to sense more than we realize. And, if we listened to that self-sense, we would live more happily in relationships, in our world, and with ourselves.

Today I challenge myself to be true to my gut, the only gut that I'll ever have to love and listen to!