Silk Cords & Paper Doors
Life can feel so very delicate at times.
Like a hand running along the edges of a
Japanese paper door…
One slip and eternity breaks through.
Beautifully impermanent.
A bittersweet ache woven in shades of silk and satin,
Forever bound to the lump in my throat;
Stimulating…soothing…terrifying…
…the lilt of the mood changing with the tension of my attachment.
To love is to lose and to grieve is to have loved.
My youth, my loved ones, my achievements…
…all matter yet all fleeting.
I want to cling yet I want to cherish.
Grasping at my great treasures,
I hear Spirit whisper…
…”firmly yet gently.”
BEHIND THE SCENES
It’s been a tough season of loss for many lately. From the larger scale of natural disasters and mass shootings to the personal loss of divorce and death of loved ones etc., it can sometimes feel as though suffering is much too common a place in life.
Existential themes begin swirling in our hearts like embers off a painful fire.
When I asked one of my clients what the death of a former best friend felt like, he thoughtfully replied, “like scratching through a shoji door.” Time slowed in that moment while the gravity of such a profound analogy blanketed the room.
The Buddhists speak of non-attachment yet so few Westerners truly understand the freedom in the beautiful tension of absolutely loving someone or something…even fiercely…yet not being crushed by embracing that everything ends at some point.
It doesn’t mean we don’t care or aren’t “attached” in the English sense of the word, but rather that we don’t try to control the outcomes. It’s like being handed the most precious object imaginable….you want to hold it firmly enough so as not to drop it, yet gently enough not to break it.
May we embrace all of life’s treasures with such care and reverence.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tamara Powell, LMHC is a licensed therapist, university psychology instructor, and empowerment coach who believes life should be lived as a journey that is “anything but ordinary.”
Passionate about holding sacred space for the rebels and mystics of the world – the healers, the visionaries, and the creatives, she guides them in bringing their soul driven purpose to the planet in a very practical and powerful way.