Start with Joy Harjo because this poem, Remember, is an invocation to me, a way to land back in our bodies and belonging. She reads it here, as it’s become the most exquisite picture book.
Remember
1951 –
Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.
“Remember.” Copyright ©1983 by Joy Harjo from She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Sometimes, when I have facilitated a group or given a workshop or presentation, I have started with this poem, as a way for us to drop out of our manic minds and into our bodies, the moment, the space… and I’ve asked people if they would just read a line, as they follow along, out loud, unprompted by me, just responding to their own inner prompt. It’s kind of an exercise in trust, in being okay with awkwardness, silences, pauses, wondering what comes next… and each time I’ve done it, I’m undone by it, I’m brought to tears hearing the lines come to life, as they’re voiced by someone in the room, or some stranger’s voice on the zoom.
One of the lines that undoes me every time is “remember your birth, how your mother struggled to give you form and breath. You are evidence of her life, and her mother’s, and hers.”
No matter what is between us, what unresolved things, what frustrations, disappointments, unsaid things, unsayable things, this is true always and forever.
As is the following line: “remember you father. He is your life, also.”
Relationships are not always easy. But acknowledging where you life comes from, is simple, and clear.
Then, stir in Nikita Gill’s two poems, recently shared in instagram, which feel like they could be wonderful journalling prompts, if there are any takers out there… “In another universe, I meet my father when he is a child.” “In another universe, I meet my mother when she is a child.” What mysteries could be resolved. What magic could be swapped. What understanding could be transmitted.
I asked my son once, “I wonder if you could have met 10 year old me, what you would have thought. I’m 100% sure I would have liked you… but would you have liked me?”
“I don’t think you’d be my type,” he said. Hahahaha. Good thing I get to be your mama, then. Because nothing can hold me back from loving you.
The Wellness Almanac 