I want a word that means
okay and not okay,
more than that: a word that means
devastated and stunned with joy.
I want the word that says
I feel it all all at once.
The heart is not like a songbird
singing only one note at a time,
more like a Tuvan throat singer
able to sing both a drone
and simultaneously
two or three harmonics high above it—
a sound, the Tuvans say,
that gives the impression
of wind swirling among rocks.
The heart understands swirl,
how the churning of opposite feelings
weaves through us like an insistent breeze
leads us wordlessly deeper into ourselves,
blesses us with paradox
so we might walk more openly
into this world so rife with devastation,
this world so ripe with joy.
For When People Ask by Rosemary Wahtola Trommer
Invitation: “I want a word that means ...”
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"I want a word that means
okay and not okay,
more than that: a word that means
devastated and stunned with joy.
I want the word that says
I feel it all at once." Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
This response in "For When People Ask" resonates with me and my daily, if not hourly., experience of striving to maintain a life of balance in the midst of the chaos of this political era. It is as if I am being strung like a yo-yo up and down by one more terrible news story after another -- and all of this is manufactured for malicious purposes. In a binary-oriented either/or world, I hear Trommer calling for both/and when it comes to emotions and life experiences.
Beauty, brokenness,
breathe alongside each other.
Deep truth paradox?