Out Like a Lamb

Pema Chödrön

She asks me to make friends with fear,
uncertainty, anxiety, and knowing not -
to sit with feeling I will absolutely lose my shit
to not turn on another episode of
Little House again, to not play Guster's
Come Downstairs and Say Hello another time,
to not reach for the book, the paint, the clay
the chips-and-dip, the cookie, coffee, not to make the cake -
not to nap or walk into the woods or light a joint
not to call a friend or launch the kayak, not to blog,
not to pop a pill or play pretend it isn't so -

She asks me to stay, allowing everything to flow,
to label every thought as thinking, every single
statement every worry, judgement, self-assertions
declarations affirmations disclosures revelations
all the junk and all the precious, everything I think I know or
hold or held or thought I had let go - wishes, prayer,
resentment, pining for my partner for a parent
for my only child gone gone gone and gone, forever
thinking, remember it is thinking, I am thinking

I hear you, Pema, but I've got to go
my favorite episode is on
and the theme song
is a lullaby.


note ▼

April 16—Friends

Pema Chödrön is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Chödrön has written several dozen books and audiobooks.