What If You're Not Lost?

I hope you're doing ok in these very last days of summer. Next week brings the fall equinox and the second eclipse in two weeks. Times like these can feel unsteady ~ as though the ground shifts under our feet just when we think we’ve found balance.

It isn’t only the sky that feels unsettled. Our collective experience right now is intense. The news cycle keeps reminding us how precarious and divided things feel. It’s easy to wobble, to feel knocked off center.

And yet, alongside the fear or discouragement, there are moments of joy. This past weekend I ran into an old friend who loves chocolate chip cookies in a major way, and I just happened to have a bag of chocolate chip cookies 🍪 Really good ones, too!

It was so fun to see my friend after several years, have a cookie and laugh together ~ just synchronicity and simple fun made even more sweet because it was unplanned. Glimpses of happiness can feel startling in contrast to the heaviness around us ~ like a beam of sunlight momentarily breaking through clouds.

The poem below reminds me that even when life feels uncertain or overwhelming, we are not necessarily lost. We can pause and let ourselves be found by the moment we’re in. Balance doesn’t always come from exhausting effort ~ sometimes it arrives quietly, when we stop moving and notice what’s here. And notice where we are.

Lost
by David Wagoner

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

from Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems (University of Illinois Press, 1999)

This poem reminds us that even in moments of confusion or imbalance, we are not truly lost. Wherever we find ourselves is still Here ~ and in pausing, we can reconnect with the wordless steadiness that’s already holding us.

Would you like to practice with this a bit more? Try putting a hand on your heart and taking three breaths.

With each inhale, say to yourself: If the trees are not lost

With each exhale, say: Maybe I am not lost

When you're finished, notice how you feel.