“Pay attention to what they tell you to forget.”

Muriel Rukeyser

Pay attention to the sadness in your heart, the numbness of your soul.

To the places they tell you not to look.

Do not avert your eyes.

But breathe deep and look deeper.

Pay attention when you feel you have been punched in the guts, stabbed in the back.

Face the pain and flash it back in your eyes. Do not close them. Or forgive too fast.

But feel it deep.

Listen to actions, not just words.

Pay attention when your child holds you close. When the flower blooms.

Taste the love on your tongue, tinged with fear and hope and joy and need and more than you can ever know.

Pay attention to the moon in all her phases and the sun as it sets.

When the weather seems out of sorts – too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry.

Pay attention to the callings of your heart, the longings of your soul.

There is always enough time for art, enough need for music and laughter and tears.

Let there be moment upon moment when colour lights you up and words touch your soul.

Pay attention to your passion, your desire.

They are yours, your precious gifts. Hold them close. Share them far. Feed the hunger in your heart. Do not allow your spirit to be in famine whilst chasing the riches of the world.

Pay attention when you feel like you are falling apart.

They will tell you to be quiet. To ignore it. To shut down or shut up.

They will tell you that they are busy. That it doesn’t matter.

That you’re imagining it. Making it up.

That worse things happen at sea and don’t you know how lucky you are.

They will tell you all this. And it may be true.

But their eye is on the clock, the bank balance, the next one coming in behind you, the lies they are hiding, their uncertainty, their fear.

So please.

Pay attention to what they tell you to forget.. and you will find your way.

Back home. To your path, your health, your truth.

You will find your way back to your soul.

And each soul that is reclaimed fills up the larger soul, the world soul that is needing us all to come alive. To fight for life. For truth. For beauty.

Pay attention, pay attention, pay attention to what they tell you to forget.

There lies the real gold.