A garden inside me, unknown,
secret, neglected for years,
the layers of its soil deep and thick.
Sometimes, as the fresh warmth of spring awakens us, we feel called to bring our attention to a renewal of our journey. For some of us, we are also confronted with facing that place in our interior world where the light of awareness does not shine; perhaps where matters have gone unattended for a long time. Somewhere in each of us, there is inevitably fertile psychic soil that has gone unused, ignored or even abandoned.
Spring’s insistent arrival can pull our attention down towards these lifeless places lingering in us, in order to overturn the soil of our psyches, and although this can unsettle us, it can also bring new life either to or from those places which have become fallow. We often have to work to resist a reflexive impulse to continue ignoring that which we have left unattended, as it may feel daunting or frightening to begin to look at what we have not paid attention to for so long. This is where we need courage and support from others, so we can stay the course, and face the disrepair in us.
~Michael Mervosh
(Part 1 of a 4 part reflection of David Whyte’s poem- Spring Awakening)