Lightly child, lightly.

~ Live & Learn

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Lightly the air
presses down on our shoulders
its great blue thumbs,
lightly, as if afraid to hurt us.
What will you do when the sky falls,
brother? See?
the sparrows hold it up:
pray to them.

—  Donald Finkel, from “Vogelfanger,” Poetry (March 1965)

 

Notes:

  • Oil Painting by Laura E. Pritchett . Poem: Thank you The Vale of Soul Making
  • Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

11 thoughts on “Lightly child, lightly.”

  6. Such a lovely oil painting…Read your offering and many thoughts came flooding in…Can’t help but think of Chicken Little…and also the weight of the world resting on one’s shoulders…and I wouldn’t “pray to sparrows”. “Lightly the air ‘presses down’ on our shoulders”, to me this implies that there is a downward pressure, present and it would be surrounding…seems like, perhaps he is implying more of a gentle kissing breeze upon the shoulders, leading to a releasing, shoulder rub? Lightening, the stress held in the one’s shoulders, which never has to be, carried by one but lightened by another who will help to bear the touch of life…perhaps a brother…”he ain’t heavy he’s my brother” (Bill Withers) “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” Ephesians 4:2.

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