Tag: speech

Day 10

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

 

We were talking about Christmas jumpers in the kitchen after the Buddhist group meeting tonight.

I don’t have a Christmas jumper as such any more, having sent the one I had to a charity shop a few years ago. I do have a festive jumper though. It is warm and soft with a kind of Nordic pattern on it and I may wear that to the meeting next week.

We meditated on the ‘Om Ah Hum’ mantra with much of the teaching devoted to deepening our understanding of that mantra, which represents the body, speech and mind of Buddha.

Home to lovely Lydia, I give her a few treats and she’s now lying down on the other side of the room, ready I think for her ‘sleepy time’.

I’m not quite ready for my ‘sleepy time’ yet this evening. I may just sit up for a while and reflect a bit more on the mantra.

Talking

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment


First published 18 November 2020

Photo by Cup of Couple on Pexels.com

I’ve never been very good at talking.

At primary school I was cast as a mouse in the school play: all I had to do was say “squeak, squeak”.

The career advice I was given at secondary school was to become a librarian. 

I didn’t want to become a librarian (or be a mouse) – I wanted to be able to speak.

There have been times in my life when I felt, finally, that some degree of fluency was coming through. But I’ve never quite reached the point of feeling that I could say what I wanted or needed to say, in any given situation. I think that’s why I’ve turned to writing poetry, because however much the spoken word evades me, and for whatever reason, I can express myself in poetry, one way or another.  It doesn’t mean I don’t end up feeling ‘dumb’ and stupid in conversation when my brain can’t tune in to what is being said.  However, in more positive moments I can also reflect on the many facets of communication, and the importance of being heard, in one way or another.