Something I read once says that each of us can find ourselves in one (or maybe more) of the characters in the Winnie the Pooh stories. For instance, Eeyore with a dash of Rabbit and a smidgen of Owl feels like a decent description of myself. (In other words, sadsack with a penchant for agendas and a bit of a know-it-all.) But those three characters are loved in the Hundred-Acre-Wood, and the stories wouldn’t be the same without them. It takes a village, and all that . . .

I was sifting through some past morning pages (I try – key word is TRY – to write a little bit every morning), and found the following few paragraphs. I think this is what was in my mind when I wrote the poem I published in the last post:

I’d like to write bright shiny things, because I want to have bright shiny things to show to other people. Bright shiny songs to pull out of my back pocket. Bright shiny blog posts to bring smiles and good vibes. Bright shiny everything so I stop looking sad and depressed.

But in truth, I am sad and depressed. Not clinically, not chronically, just characteristically on a consistent basis. When I am smiling or laughing, it’s real. But when I’m not, that’s real too. I’m sorry, but I’m one of “those people” – whose mind says, “what for?” when her heart says, “let’s dance!” Who loves a good starry night, a brilliant sunset, but feels the chill of dark matter and endless space out there beyond the atmosphere. Who sees the transcendent qualities in her fellow humans and herself, even as she sees great apes dressed up in finery, bodies destined for decay.

What I’m learning is to let the mind be what it will, but not to let it rule me. My heart, which knows in different ways, also has bad days, but they don’t always coincide with my mind’s bad days.

And my body, in which heart and mind experience life, has the best record for good days. It’s my eyes, my skin, my ears and nose and tongue that find delight without needing explanations, without needing a context of future and meaning to enjoy the life coursing through my body every moment.

Which Pooh character (or characters) are you? And do you notice harmony and disharmony in your own experience of body, mind and heart?