“To take soundings” means, amongst other things, to drop a line down into the depths, to find out what is down there, below the surface, measuring how deep down the line will go.
In these Covid times, where very little is “normal”, we have been forced, willy nilly, to take stock of our situations and face ourselves to a degree which we may have rarely had to do before. In this pandemic, with mega-uncertainty about most things, with outcomes depending on many factors beyond our control and constantly having to make choices whether to do this or that without sufficient information, we are called on to look very deeply into ourselves, to “take soundings” to find out what is really important to us
and each in our own way, to find in these depths the resources to cope with it all. All this as horrors play out on the world stage.
And then there’s the lesser problems! We are learning that there is more than one way to do many things, work, shop, meet etc. Like most of us who are single and have no family in town, it’s not just that social isolation itself is a problem for me, but also the lack of connection and touch with “real”people.
Then today I remembered a poem which I used to keep pinned up on a bulletin board. The board has gone now but I still hold the poem in my heart. For when I need it!
IN ALL WEATHERS
only this is necessary
in rain or sun:
to follow step with step
and know the ground.
to reach out your hand,
or touch with eyes, or with the heart.
to praise, in gratitude and wonder, praise
the budding, blooming, withering worlds.
to see the forests and the trees
to etch no lines.
to weave yourself a garment or maybe even wings
with all your gathered threads
from questions, loves and wonderings,
a garment ending in a fringe
where Self or One, no question now, only depends
on where and why and and how you need to look
this moment.
here.
and in the end
to sit, or lie, or walk, or stand
open, breath by breath
hearing the one song pulse through all
the summing, sighing, shimmering, sounds.
or just to be
in silence
and to know
no whether.