These are difficult times. Events unfolding in the Middle East are unimaginably horrific. How do any of us imagine a way forward from the terrible violence we are witnessing now, and how do we find a new way that does not perpetuate more terror and pain?
I have returned to a poem by Denise Levertov that has long been important to me, and I am reminded by the poet that imagination begins with what is given. It is not independent of our words and actions; its power emerges, word by word and step by step, as we participate in making something new of what has been true before.
The video (which can be found at https://karenhering.substack.com/p/imagining-peace), and reading of this poem, is a message for all, because this is a time for sharing messages about peace with everyone, everywhere and every day. Please share it with others. And please add to it in the comments below, with your own messages, poems, and wisdom—anything that is helping you to imagine, to foster and to support peace in your heart and with others. We need one another, now and always, and we need the many paths to peace opened in our hearts and imaginations and in the new grammar of a sentence that can only be written together.
Years ago, I carried a copy of this poem in my coat pocket and memorized it, to have it on hand wherever I went. It’s back in my pocket now. If you wish to put it in yours, you’ll find it here, “Making Peace,” by Denise Levertov.
You are also invited to join me and others online Tuesday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. CDT, for an online session of guided reflection and conversation on the thresholding skill of “Imagining a Way.” Anyone can register through the program’s cosponsoring retreat centers: the Christine Center and Prairiewoods.
Let’s listen for the rhythms of peace, add to them and share them with each other.
—Karen Hering (originally published on her Threshold Times Substack on Oct. 12, 2023)
image by Aia Fernandez on Flickr