THE RITUAL OF FORGETTING

Posted by Paul Reynolds on May 7, 2022 in Blog, Inspired Readings, Western Insight | Comments Off on THE RITUAL OF FORGETTING

When leaving one home and moving to another,
The ancestors said goodbye to stale dreams.
They etched the rock with memory and mapped the way to change.
The ancestors
Said goodbye to their village made of earth and to
Shadows blurred by their own tears. They sang
The song of Ending and danced the Dance of Leaving,
So nothing would be misunderstood
About the necessity to start again in a place of light
They believed adjacent in their own hearts.
The ritual of forgetting took so long boys
Grew into bears and girls became butterflies
While waiting for those old lines of place
To disappear. The new village was the same
As the old village, except its edges were less rounded
With sorrow, and along its walls slid the shadows
Of regret in which they saw old familiar pieces of themselves.
The ritual of forgetting was the means by which
The ancestors prepared the ground for seeds of change,
While remembering the tears required to grow them.
—-Nancy Wood

Posted by | Paul Reynolds

“Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. Not any religion or cultural system…..” - Rumi

For over 30 years Paul Reynolds has collected and shared inspiration from a wide variety of sources. Embracing the philosophy that at the core of all these expressions is the reminder that we are loved and supported every moment. This unending stream of inspiration, imagination and wisdom is posted via his weekly ‘Living the Question Blog’, which has become ‘home’ for those discoveries. If you would like to receive the readings and share them with those you feel will benefit, please fill out the ‘Subscribe’ form to the right and Paul’s selections will come to your email every Friday.