lights from other windows

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    When the room gets too dark to see, the best thing I can do is stack up the words of others so I can climb up to look out the window for little flickers of light. In these days when I’m daunted by books, I’m even more grateful for poems. Small as they are, they stack up big; a few choice words well placed make the light easier to find.

    My stack today started with Stephen Dunn, then W. S. Merwin, then William Stafford, and then Naomi Shihab Nye.

    Lights From Other Windows

    Driving west tonight, the city dissolves behind us.
    I keep feeling we’re going farther than we’re going,

    a journey that started in the deep inkwell

    out of which all our days are written.

    Nothing is said to indicate a monument,

    yet I perch on the edge of some new light.

    The hills could crack open and a pointed beam,

    like the beams on miner’s hats, could pick us off this road.

    Signals blinking, we arrive in a bright room

    of greetings and hands. But when the stories spill,

    I feel myself floating off alone into the night we just left,

    that cool black bag of darkness, where black deer

    nibbled invisible grasses and black fences divided one thing

    from the next. A voice in my earliest ears not this, not this
    and the lit windows of childhood rise up,

    the windows of houses where strangers lived,

    light slanting across black roads,

    that light which said what a small flicker is given

    to each of us to know. For seconds I dreamed their rooms

    and tables, was comforted by promise of a billion other lives.

    Like stars. Like knowing the Milky Way

    is made of more stars than any naked eye can count.

    Like having someplace to go when your glowing restlessness

    lifts you out of rooms, becomes a wing,

    takes you farther than you will have traveled

    when your own life ends.

    Sometimes Ginger and I walk down to the beach at night. We are fortunate to live far enough away from the primary sources of ambient light in our area to be able to see lots of stars. There is a row of large houses along the sea wall, most of which are only inhabited in the summer time. I get frustrated when we get to the beach and one or two of the houses have left their outside spotlights on, washing out my view of the stars. I don’t always want more light. They have their reasons for the lights being on; I have my reasons for wanting them off. Neither of us is particularly concerned about the other.

    The earliest helpful definition of depression I remember being helpful defined it as “anger turned inward.” Over the years I’ve come to understand turning inward is the primary motion of depression, regardless of what is turning. Whatever depression is, it is overarchingly self-focused. Part of that comes, I think, from not having the energy to look out and from seriously needing help without always knowing how to ask for it. But the lie is that there is no energy. It’s there. Since it can’t get out, it bores deeper into the darkness inside, pulling everything with it like an emotional black hole. As the depth of the darkness increases, so does the call to stack up whatever I can find so I can keep looking out the window – outside of myself – for lights from other windows to pierce my darkness and help me see something else.

    Gracie woke me about six-fifteen this morning and I came downstairs with the pups so Ginger could sleep a bit longer. I let them out and fed them and, after a few tosses of various toys, Gracie and Lola were ready to sleep again. I was awake with only infomercials, music videos, Walker: Texas Ranger, and the news channels to keep me company. Though most of the news outlets were talking about Lebanon, all they were talking about was us. The reporter on MSNBC asked someone from the State Department who was working with evacuating Americans, “How long before you will be able to get all the innocent people out?” She was speaking only about the Americans, as if all the Lebanese were not innocent.

    I could not ask for a better example of the destructive power of a self-focused life. The battle raging in the Middle East is not about us, no matter how hard we try to make it so. As long as we insist on making ourselves at the center of attention, we will not be a part of bringing any kind of redemption to the situation.

    I’m working hard to take those words to heart in my own life. I’m depressed and struggling. In comparison with life in Beirut, my struggle hardly registers. Both things are true. The only life I can live is my own. I am not the center of things.

    I need light from other windows.

    Peace,
    Milton

    7 COMMENTS

    1. We are all challenged by the temptation to make it all about us. Presently the shadows steal your light, but you are not alone.

      Praying for you still.

    2. Lighting a candle for ya… there, now we can see enough, let me help stack up boxes.

      “When the room gets too dark to see…” reminded me instantly of a some song. Think Tank Pundits? No… wait, got it:

      Now Be Thankful
      Written by D Swarbrick / R Thompson
      Full House-Fairport Convention (1970)

      When the stone is grown too cold to kneel
      In crystal waters I’ll be bound
      Cold as stone, weary to the sounds upon the wheel

      Now be thankful for good things below
      Now be thankful to your maker
      For the rose, the red rose blooms for all to know

      When the fire is grown too fierce to breathe
      In burning irons I’ll be bound
      Fierce as fire weary to the sounds upon the wheel

      Now be thankful for good things below
      Now be thankful to your maker
      For the rose, the red rose blooms for all to know

    3. All I can say is WOW! Your words drew me in and I coudn’t stop reading…until my son started bugging me about my promise to let him have computer time.

      I got here from Kevin’s blog and I’ll definitely be back. Thank you for the words you share and leaving your mark!

    4. I hope you know that your writing helps others. At least it speaks to/guides me. We have a child who struggles somewhat with this. I love “the energy is in there.” You are right. Thank you.

    5. moved to read these (old) thoughts of yours – today, january 27, 2019. for the light shared. thank you for the blessing!

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