You and Me and a Tree
Maybe it’s social media; maybe it has been around longer than that, but we have a tendency to forget that when someone shares something, it’s coming from them, not from one of us, who’s the receiver, not the creator. So we judge, and think, and opine, and comment on how we would do things differently, all the while unconsciously trying to conform to whatever notion of authority fills our heads and our hearts.
I have struggled with ideas about what I should share here on the blog for this coaching business site (and its accompanying Substack publication), finding myself hemmed in by what others have done and would advise me to do or not to do. Then, in myself, there’s the critical voice, trained since childhood to always be seeking someone’s approval and confirmation that I’m “doing it right.”
The problem is that none of these: not the receivers, not the critical voice, not the representatives of “authority” are ME, and since this blog, this website, this business are all creations of mine, it doesn’t really make sense to try to “do” any of it the way someone else would, does it? After all, if someone else can do it better, why on earth would you bother with me?
What’s more, since my business is about our poetic anatomies, not our prosaic ones, there’s a good chance you’ll find poetry here, beginning with this, some verse that has long been meaningful to me:
Me by Walter de la Mare
(from Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris, and published in 1957)As long as I live
I shall always be
My Self—and no other,
Just me.Like a tree.
Like a willow or elder,
An aspen, a thorn,
Or a cypress forlorn.Like a flower,
For its hour
A primrose or pink,
Or a violet—
Sunned by the sun,
And with dewdrops wet.Always just me.
This poem fires my imagination, and I find myself considering the disappointment that might be felt by any of a multitude of creatures (perhaps a particular moth) and other plants (a moss, perhaps?) that depend, in some way, upon a willow or elder if either turned into an oak or a pine. Like those trees, we were created to be You and Me (not someone’s idea of you and me), and interestingly enough, it turns out that members of the plant kingdom can be quite good at helping us remember who that is.
So, I am here (with my flower essences, coaching skills, energy modalities, and poetry) to be Me, and I bring value to those who can receive it—perhaps You.
I set up a new Substack publication for my coaching business blog. This is Poetic Anatomy Post Number One. If you’d like to receive more like this, please head over to poeticanatomy.com. Thank you.
