Category: Modern Life

Looking at how we’re evolving culturally, and how humanity engages with itself, for good and for ill.

Beth Caldwell’s impact on metastatic breast cancer

Carl Setzer

http://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2017/11/beth-caldwell-impact-metastatic-breast-cancer.html

Not a work of poetry, but poetic in it’s raw power. It also features evocative language. 

“The only thing that brings me any sense of meaning these days is to think of these fallen trees as nurse logs. Their memories, their lives, their children, their passions, their faces, their senses of humor, their wisdom, their spirits, their beautiful beautiful beautiful spirits are nurturing us, feeding us, giving us strength to go on, to demand change, to bring research to our friends, to fight against death death death so much death. Their falling leaves a hole in the forest canopy, but their souls are bringing new life to our movement and nutrients to keep us growing.

“And someday this forest will cover the world.”

As someone who lost my mother to breast-cancer far too young (pretty much the same age as Beth), this piece hits me hard. Tears, memories, so very much brought up. And, you may find it strange to share this Christmastime, but I always remember that first Christmas after my mom died. Really, though, I see this as a powerful way to honor her. 

Blessing to each of you this Christmas. Love well, love strong, love. 

This Painful Evening

Carl Setzer

​Over fifty-years 

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A Meditation On Rumi

Carl Setzer

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I adore Rumi. The wisdom within his poetry has long guided me. 

Within this small line: the importance of faith. Not necessarily directed toward any particular diety. Simply regarding our community. 

Our futures are unknowable until they become our past. Even then meaning slowly gets gleaned. 

I live with a dangerous mindset: desiring to understand all the ramifications of a choice before I act. This impossibility risks paralyzing me. Often, it has. Losing opportunity out of fear? That’s sad. 

I need to embrace that the way will appear when it needs to, and not a moment before. And that this way is good, it is for the best. 

Believe the unknown and uncontrollable are not reasons to hide, to wait, relegating opportunity to vapor.