Off Guard! Shedding the Defender

“Just be there, feeling off guard, not knowing what to do, hanging out with the raw and tender energy of the moment.”

                                                                                                                                            Pema Chodron

My fighting stance
gets me celebrated, look
how strong she is, see
how she rises
to defend us!
My fighting stance
familiar as old socks,
a habit of muscles and mind.

But now a new strength.
Like Sea Turtle’s shell,
my luminous field
protects me with
the strongest force on earth.
Inside the field of love
I need not stiffen or constrict.
I need not ready to defend.

I only need remember
I live inside its safety,
where every day of my life
comes from my larger Self;
gifts for growth, my own.
I only need
to live in trust
in a world of basic goodness.

When I wrangle with what happens,
I fight an illusion of danger,
tightening, as if my soft parts
were not already protected.
When I contract in fear or make a fist,
or avert from what I judge—
I render the energy negative,
and fight illusions I myself create.

Now I shed the pattern
of resisting and defending.
It’s my time to be
unhurried and knowing as Turtle,
time to transform
my way of seeing the world.
To practice daily remembering
that I am always safe.

On the surface, softness
may appear as weakness.
But from within
my brilliant field, I tell you,
swimming in the sea of trust –
that new habit
of muscles and mind, of heart —
is the strength that changes everything.

©Susa Silvermarie 2022