Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT May 16th 2025

11 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem “We” by Joshua Bennett, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about what’s worth paying attention to.”

More details will be posted on this session, so check back again!

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

Also, we would love to learn more about your experience of these sessions, so if you’re able, please take the time to fill out a follow-up survey of one to two quick questions!

Take the Survey!

Please join us for our next session Friday May 23rd 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

We by Joshua Bennett

The money of  the mind is attention, maybe.

Which is not, initially, where I thought I’d begin,

but we’re already here now, using the language

of care and economy, though God-talk was truly

my first way in. Sustained attention is how we approach

a flesh and blood experience of the Divine I say to the

therapist nodding her head, only moments after

we disagree over whether her dress is coral or yellow

-based red, as opposed, of course, to a blue-based

red, like the square on her tartan scarf. My jacket

is the color of snow on television. My eyes

are as brown as my father’s when he lifted a stranger

off the ground he saw through the driver’s side window

beating a woman on Broadway. I am almost the age now

he was then, and am still studying the difference between

what a man proclaims in speech and what he says with his

body. Tomorrow marks another year on Earth for his third

son, and he is a father now, with a boy he is trying to teach

the benefits of apprehension. Who instead prefers to walk

on his hands, leap from the playground slide, climb

on countertops to watch TV from another room entirely.

Where does my influence, my aspiration, end and the child

begin? Who refashions the cosmos with his laughter.

Source: Poetry (May 2025)

11 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT May 16th 2025”

  1. al3793's avatar al3793

    What’s Worth Paying Attention To

    The world is screaming for attention

    And it is difficult to pick out of the din

    The voices of those most in need of attention

    As the voices of power and wealth have access to

    And often control of the channels of conversation .

    Can we learn to turn off the toxicity.

    If we knew there was poison in our water

    We would shut down our faucets.

    Can we attend to the counter voice,

    The soft, soothing voice

    The unction for the vulnerable, small,

    The expendable of our societies

    And listen to the tiny, whispering voice,

    Calling for help,

    “Tell someone that I am here”.

    Can we be that voice for them?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  2. Trevor Hebert's avatar vibrantfreelyb4ce26f285

    Life: the worlds greatest double entendre.

    The internal and the external, the physical and the spiritual, the calm and the chaos.

    The power you hold all lies within.

    The duality of man is constant: Back and forth as the ebb and flow in a stream of consciousness playing tug of war over your opinions and morals… just with an asterisk.

    The root causes of the issues: through every action there is a reaction. For every redaction, there is a hidden truth. But is a half truth a whole lie?

    To die on the sword is a noble death, while others say courage is the lack of wisdom for knowing harms way.

    Stupid. They call you stupid. Or brave. Maybe brave. But what do I call myself?

    Both. I call myself both.

    Welcome to my life.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Your speaker poses as complex questions as Bennett “posits” and I find myself in the poem wondering. That duality is constant and that our power lies within. The power within is to help us wend our way to wisdom and courage and not fear venturing out as we have something worthy to say and important to do. Life welcomes us to embrace it.

      Like

      Reply
  3. Stef's avatar Stef

    The Cat’s in the Cradle is one of the saddest songs I know. It always made me sad and each time I hear it, there’s a new nuance to it. 

    When I was a kid, it was just a song on the radio.

    When I became a teenager and my parents didn’t attend my functions, it became a haunt.

    When I became a wife and then a mother, the song became reality. There just wasn’t always time!

    When I became a teacher, I saw how many kids lived this song and how it showed in their lives.

    When I became a grandmother, the song hit harder because I finally knew better. And vowed to be better.

    When my grandsons became teenagers, the ‘we’ll get together then, Gran’ (emphasis mine) shows me the cycle never ends.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Stef,

      I love how your speaker pieced together a story in the form of Chapin’s. It is such a lovely story. I appreciate the risks you take sharing this. “The song hit harder because I knew better.” It sounds like you knew all along.

      Every time I stayed late at the hospital I’d remember these lyrics. I still remember an evening some 30 years ago, after attending to a cardiac patient, calling my daughter to say good night, tell her I love her and remind her to keep her little girl’s heart. A nurse, overhearing this, sobbed and told me she never heard words like that from her father. I had to convince myself that there were ways to be present even if away. It was important to find my way into that little girl’s heart. Her new boyfriend told me the other day that one thing he loves about her is that she “still has a little girl’s heart”! I had to fight back my sobs.

      Thank you,

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  4. michele348's avatar michele348

    About what’s worth paying attention to~~~

    I hear the ear-shattering blasts of bombs flying through the air
    in countries distant from my ears.

    I see children helping to bury their siblings,
    as they wipe their tears from blood-stained faces.

    I see the homeless of the world wandering the streets,
    no roof above their heads, no food to nourish their emaciated bodies.

    Are these not the thoughts that we should be paying attention to?

    Instead, it seems we focus on big oil deals arranged between powerful nations,
    where leaders line their pockets,
    while the poor and helpless struggle for daily existence.

    Mankind… we need to redirect our thoughts to what’s truly important…
    tending to the needs of the less fortunate, maintaining a sense of compassion
    and respect for all life… its people and the Earth we inhabit,
    and lastly, but most importantly,
    restoring health to our souls.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. al3793's avatar al3793

    Michlel,

    Your speaker is wise to observe that we attend to our souls when we attend to others’, the theology of the gift, giving away our gifts as quickly and often as possible. There are so many voices trying to distract the world from this voice in the interest of their own power and wealth. The ordering virtue is Prudence, and it is lacking, and I am not optimistic about the powerful acquiring this Virtue. Prudence, the good to pursue and harm to avoid, will direct us to “what’s truly important…”, “tending to the needs of the less fortunate, maintaining a sense of compassion and respect for all life.” On the other hand, we do have the power within to deploy the fruits of this virtue and collectively we can make a difference.

    Andre

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
      • al3793's avatar al3793

        Wisdom 7: 7-11

        When we have prudence and wisdom, know what to do with our “power and wealth.”

        7 Therefore I prayed, and prudence was given me;
            I pleaded and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.
        8 I preferred her to scepter and throne,
        And deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,
        9     nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;
        Because all gold, in view of her, is a bit of sand,
            and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.
        10 Beyond health and beauty I loved her,
        And I chose to have her rather than the light,
            because her radiance never ceases.
        11 Yet all good things together came to me with her,
            and countless riches at her hands;

        Liked by 2 people

  6. michele348's avatar michele348

    al3793, so I prayed and pleaded, and I was granted prudence and wisdom and was fulfilled. But when I looked about me, I saw others walking aimlessly, and I was saddened. Would they come to know what was bestowed upon me, or would they continue to choose to walk the roads paved in gold, only to find out those roads ended in despair? Who is to guide the blind, those who are left behind?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a reply to al3793 Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.