Brooke Gale LouvieR

“It soon became clear that I was not so much preparing for an important experience, as I was having one.”

– Wendell Berry

it’s important to walk on grass with bare feet
important to smell sweet magnolia blossoms
important to spend time talking
long conversations uninterrupted
it’s important to sit here writing my thoughts

because it what keeps me sane
reminds me I am whole
lets me know that this is all worth it
this living thing I do every day
this creating thing
immersing myself in the story
in art
in expression

it’s important because it’s who I am
because no one else thinks like I do
because so many feel alone
because so many want to be free

it’s important to eat slowly
to savor food I make with my own hands
it’s important to forgive quickly
to be thankful for every little thing
yet always dreaming for more
for bigger, for wider

It’s important to discover
to celebrate small things
to know life is slipping away so fast
surely I can be patient for just one more
year. month. day.

It’s important to love myself
and yet not take myself too seriously
to not forget the faces, the voices
to not forget the suffering

yet to know the world is wide and beautiful
that light dances off every blade of grass
it’s important to know that everything is a miracle
when I am reminded of this I know
why I am here:
to somehow use my few weak words to remind others
to say,

“Do you see this life? Do you see this world? Do you see the wonder all around us, inside of us, all over us? Do you SEE?”

I don’t write these things because I always see
often my eyes are closed and it is darkness
it is despair, it is emptiness
it is broken dreams
it is searing pain that sits in front of me
the holds me so I can’t breathe the right way

then, through the dark
through the selfishness, the disillusionment
I’ll see that subtle ray of light
a reflection, bouncing

I’ll see the green, the blue
and in it, I’ll see the hope
I’ll quickly begin to unroll these thoughts
in order to hold on to it
In order to remind myself, and remind the world
there is good left after all
in order to sing a song, slightly off pitch, voice raspy, cracking
on how grace surrounds us

On how redemption really is here
And we begin to see
This is how we see
how important this is