Quitting

Sometimes enoughness arrives and it is so clear.

There comes a time

To quit

Not quit

In a negative way

But quit to move on

Claim the amazing

The clear possibilities

Never known.

There comes that time

To say

Enough

Enough

This is enough.

Here I am

Eyes wide open

Ears waiting to hear

Here I am chanting

Enough

Enough

Enough

I quit.

Thank you, Kelly Flanagan, for your blog post this morning http://drkellyflanagan.com/ .  Yes.  

I have long had the skill to help people quit things.  I have also never figured out how to list it on a resume.  It tends not to be something employers are looking for.

I have become

The go-to teacher

For lessons

In saying no.

This shocks

The very blood

Coursing through my veins.

Minnesota blood.

I stand in parking lots.

People approach me,

On the sly

Almost as if I am

A drug dealer.

They say

So-and-so told me

You can help me

Quit this thing

I no longer want to do.

I stand next to parked cars,

In darkened hallways.

You have a choice

I say

You have options.

It is entirely possible

To say No

And move on

To the next thing.

It is then my blood runs cold.

Minnesota blood.

Me

The girl from the Upper Midwest

I deal out noes

Like candy.

Quitting

Two more conversations this morning helping people sift things and encouraging the bold step to quit.  It is not something that fits on a resume.   This is probably why I may never be hired, most anywhere.  Yes, it is most likely suited to a position on the edge of things.  

I am good at helping people

Quit.

There is no such slot

On a resume.

I suppose it is a kind

Of discernment.

Still

Discernment is so often named

In the positive direction.

No.

I help people quit things,

Hold hands

Give a shove

Create spaces

So God can work

In a more positive direction:

Find new space

For the woman

who coordinated coffee hour

For twenty five years;

The treasurer who could*t balance

Her own checkbook

To save her life;

I am good at seeing

Negative spin.

I know somehow

When things

Need to change.

I hold hands,

Give a shove,

Create space so God can work

However God

Will work.

This is often not

What employers

Want to see.

Simple

This weekend I visit my son in the city where I grew up.  I just had my birthday.  So many things converge.  I think it should all be more complicated, but instead it is somehow simple.  In talking with my brother I realize again we hold more in common than shared parents.  I may be the youngest, but we are both in the same stage of life, the time that it becomes more simple.  We have both quit what we were doing to start again.


It was simple
when I was young.
Now it is simple again.
I know what I don*t need to know.
Now everyone is important
and no one is.
Now everything is important
and nothing is.
Now there is a ring around the moon,
around the ant building the anthill
grain by grain by grain.
There is a ring
Around the child,
The man by my side,
The woman who brings me coffee.
Now we have all quit
to start again.
Now
The poet who lives in each of us
finds his expression,
Her expression.
We use different images.
Still the metaphors carry us
to the same place.
We have all quit
to start.
Somehow it becomes simple
Again.