Remember (Joy Harjo)

I have now revived after about 9 weeks of feeling pretty awful on chemo.  The good news is my scans look great and I am off the Taxane that made my feel so very tired after about 3 months.  Feeling much better and able to get Christmas together with the family, and that is a wonderful thing.  Today is cold and snowy and quite the perfect winter day here, and even the dog is happy as she awaits some snowballs thrown in her direction.

I have been sitting here in the quiet kitchen thinking about how lucky I am, and how much I have learned about many things--myself, living with disease, living outside the shadow of disease, kids, husbands, taking time to reflect and pay attention.  That's important, isn't it--paying attention.  I hadn't realized just how much of life I wasn't paying attention to, and how fast it all ran past me.  Now, due to so many things I am infinitely grateful for, I am striving to be mindful and pay attention to my life.
enjoy this:

Remember

Remember the sky that you were born under,

Know each of the star’s stories.

Remember the moon, know who she is.  I met her

In a bar once in Iowa City.

Remember the sun’s breath at dawn, that is the

Strongest point of time.  Remember the sundown

And the giving away to night.

Remember your birth, how your mother struggled

To give you form and breath.  You are evidence of

Her life, and her mother’s, and hers.

Remember your father.  He is your life, also.

Remember the earth whose skin you are:

Red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth

Brown earth, we are earth.

Remember the plants, trees, anumal life who all have their

Tribes, their families, their histories, too.  Talk to them,

Listen to them.  They are alive poems.

Remember the wind.  Remember her voice.  She knows the

Origin of this universe.  I heard her singing Kiowa war

Dance songs at the corner of Fourth and Central once.

Remember that you are all people and that all people

Are you.

Remember  that you are this universe and that this universe is you.

Remember that all is in motion, is growing, is you.

Remember that language comes from this.

Remember the dance that language is, that life is.

Remember.

(Joy Harjo)