Speaker 1: Hi everyone. What you're about to hear is one episode
Speaker 1: of a little show I do for our Patreon members
Speaker 1: called a teaching a song and a poem, and sometimes
Speaker 1: there's a bad joke. So I'm gonna give you one
Speaker 1: of these that you can all listen to. And if
Speaker 1: you'd like to get one of these every week, you
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Speaker 1: become a member of the community. You can get access
Speaker 1: to this every week post show conversations, add free episodes
Speaker 1: and other goodies. Again, that's it when you feed dot
Speaker 1: net slash join and you get the benefit of supporting
Speaker 1: something that can always use your help. And now here
Speaker 1: is an episode of a teaching song and a poem.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy. Bye, Hello everyone, Welcome again to
Speaker 1: another episode of a teaching a song, a poem, and
Speaker 1: this month a dumb parrot joke. I looked for poems
Speaker 1: just now to try and find a poem that would
Speaker 1: say thank you to you guys, so I could get
Speaker 1: more creative. And I have to tell you that every
Speaker 1: thank you poem I could find out there was truly terrible.
Speaker 1: They they were not good. So I'm going to spare
Speaker 1: you those and just say thank you and say that
Speaker 1: I appreciate your generosity, your support of the show. Again,
Speaker 1: I feel like a broken record saying that. I don't
Speaker 1: know how to say it better, but if I did,
Speaker 1: i'd say it that way. So thank you. And now
Speaker 1: I'm going to start this week off with the poem
Speaker 1: because I want to use some lines from it in
Speaker 1: the teaching, and it builds on sort of what we
Speaker 1: talked about last week, this idea of new beginnings, old ways,
Speaker 1: and the poem is called The Trees by Philip Larkin.
Speaker 1: The trees are coming into leaf, like something almost being said.
Speaker 1: The recent buds relax and spread. Their greenness is a
Speaker 1: kind of grief. Is it that they are born again
Speaker 1: and we grow old? No, they die too. Their yearly
Speaker 1: trick of looking new is written down in rings of grain.
Speaker 1: Yet still the unresting castle's thresh in full grown thickness
Speaker 1: every May. Last year is dead. They seem to say,
Speaker 1: begin afresh, afresh, afresh. That's the Trees by Philip Larkin.
Speaker 1: And I love that last year is dead. The trees
Speaker 1: seem to say, begin afresh, afresh, afresh. Now I am
Speaker 1: several months late for our spring poems, but here we are,
Speaker 1: and I am trotting them out, and I do love spring.
Speaker 1: This year I was able to really slow down and
Speaker 1: really kind of watch trees day after day as they
Speaker 1: slowly went from there being nothing there at all to
Speaker 1: just the glimmer of a bud, and then more and
Speaker 1: more and more, until finally we have these flowers and
Speaker 1: beautiful leaves, and everything is so lush and green, and
Speaker 1: it just happens so quickly. It's so easy sometimes in
Speaker 1: our own lives to forget that however old we are,
Speaker 1: however stagnant, we feel, we still have the capacity to grow.
Speaker 1: Things can change, things can get better, And just like
Speaker 1: the trees, you may feel like you've got these frost
Speaker 1: bitten branches, maybe there's just a bud at the very
Speaker 1: end of them. But change is possible. It's why we
Speaker 1: listen to this show, it's why we read books, that's
Speaker 1: why we meditate, it's why we do all these things
Speaker 1: because change is possible for us. Wherever we are. We
Speaker 1: may feel so true, really stuck, like things will never
Speaker 1: be different, but they can be. And that starts, like
Speaker 1: a tree does, with what seems to be the barest
Speaker 1: of motions, the smallest things. But the smallest things done
Speaker 1: over and over and over build There's a Tanzanian proverb,
Speaker 1: little by little, a little becomes a lot. And so
Speaker 1: change is possible for us. Wherever we are, whatever we're
Speaker 1: going through, wherever we feel like we are, there is
Speaker 1: a positive direction forward. It may not be a giant
Speaker 1: leap forward. It may still feel really dark, you may
Speaker 1: still feel really stuck. But I do believe that wherever
Speaker 1: we are there is a positive direction, there is a
Speaker 1: good move forward, even if that move is only in
Speaker 1: the way we look at the world, the way we
Speaker 1: think about the world, the way we interpret the world.
Speaker 1: And so my challenge is always been when I start
Speaker 1: to feel really stuck or sad or depressed, is to
Speaker 1: find some small step forward. Getting stuck, getting off track
Speaker 1: in life, it just happens. It's inevitable for all of us.
Speaker 1: Stagnation occurs. All that really matters is our ability to
Speaker 1: recognize that's happened and do our best to start moving
Speaker 1: forward again. Lamenting that we've gotten stuck again, lamenting we've
Speaker 1: gone down the wrong alley again, Lamenting all those things
Speaker 1: doesn't help. What helps is beginning again, what helps is
Speaker 1: defined a small positive step today right now, right where
Speaker 1: you are, that you can take that moves you in
Speaker 1: the direction of what you value, that moves you in
Speaker 1: the direction of growth, that moves you in the direction
Speaker 1: of openness or expansion, any of those things is the
Speaker 1: way we want to go. Being stuck in stagnation feels
Speaker 1: like this closing down and it's this tightening. And in
Speaker 1: the same way, to go back to the trees, what
Speaker 1: happens with the bud is it slowly loosens, right, It's
Speaker 1: just it's this tight little thing and then out it goes.
Speaker 1: And that's the spirit that we're looking for. Whatever pulls
Speaker 1: us out out into the world. Richard Roar, in a
Speaker 1: recent interview I did with him, said, anything that's pulling
Speaker 1: you out of yourselves to deeper engagement with the world,
Speaker 1: that's effectively functioning as God for you in that moment.
Speaker 1: And so look for that in your own life if
Speaker 1: you're feeling stuck. Alright. Parrot joke time. So a policeman
Speaker 1: in the big city stops a man in a car
Speaker 1: with a miniature parrot in the front seat. What are
Speaker 1: you doing with that parrot? He exclaims, You should take
Speaker 1: it to the zoo. The following week, the same policeman
Speaker 1: sees the same man with the parrot again in the
Speaker 1: front seat, with both of them wearing sunglasses. The policeman
Speaker 1: pulls him over. I thought you were going to take
Speaker 1: that parrot to the zoo. The man replies I did.
Speaker 1: We had such a good time. We are going to
Speaker 1: the beach this weekend. I can't decide if that's funny
Speaker 1: or terrible. Um, the joke doesn't fully hold together because
Speaker 1: the policeman stops him, but he doesn't really cite him.
Speaker 1: He doesn't mandate that he get rid it. It's not
Speaker 1: a fully well constructed joke. But I do like the
Speaker 1: idea of a parrot and a man driving into the
Speaker 1: car with sunglasses on on their way to the beach.
Speaker 1: That makes me feel happy. Okay. Our song this week
Speaker 1: is by the band James. Last time we used a
Speaker 1: song called old Ways by a band called Booth and
Speaker 1: the Bad Angel, and I mentioned that Tim Booth is
Speaker 1: the singer of James, and so this song is called
Speaker 1: Tomorrow by James. The lyrics will make sense in the
Speaker 1: context of this episode. Um, you know, basically it says
Speaker 1: your grips too strong. And we're talking about this loosening,
Speaker 1: this lightning, This expansion talks about keeping faith that your
Speaker 1: path will change. Says tomorrow, but I will say it
Speaker 1: can be today. Also, this idea of I'll do it
Speaker 1: tomorrow is often a perpetual putting off. If you're struggling,
Speaker 1: find something today that moves you in the right direction.
Speaker 1: So here is the song, and I will leave you
Speaker 1: there this week. Thank you again for your support, your contribution,
Speaker 1: and I'll be back soon with another bye. See you,
Speaker 1: fulling to go before you hit the ground. You keep
Speaker 1: on screaming, don't see me here, Oh my, go to you.
Speaker 1: Tod's too strong. You can't catch love the Netta gun.
Speaker 1: You gotta keep space that you pass will change. You
Speaker 1: gotta keep faith that jog will change tomorrow.