The Waking (Theodore Roethke)

start of cycle 3 after our Wyoming romp!
posted by Lissa mcKinley on Friday, September 18, 2009 Edit


All, we have returned from the Grand Tetons and the Gros Ventre River Ranch, and re-entry has been.....slow! I just heard a dear friend's daughter give her senior speech at my old high school. Julia was amazing--poised, articulate, funny, poignant--all about her experience on a solo for 4 days during her time at the Mountain School. she talked about being alone, she wondered if we are ever really alone, she thought about the difference between being alone and being lonely, and then she talked about what we all could learn about ourselves if we ever allow ourselves to be alone.....amazing at 17....amazing at 100! And then I felt very alone leaving immediately to sit in this chair and watch poisons drip in...but then i got over myself and tried to think about this time and how much I value having alone time, even if it is while I'm getting chemotherapy. I think I have begun to know myself so much more through both dealing with cancer, but also by allowing myself time to be alone and think.....about priorities, about how I want to spend the rest of my time, about who I am really....you know, the big stuff. So, thank you Julia for validating taking time to know ourselves for who we are!

A pair of students gave me a wonderful poetry book with a CD of actors reading each poem. Try this one by Theodore Roethke:

The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Cheers to all,

more news next week at this time!