nest rigged high in the maple. Tippett: As we turn the corner from pandemic, although we will not completely turn the corner, I just wanted to read something you wrote on Twitter, which was hilarious. If you think about it, its not a good, song. Limn: I love it. And there are times where I think people have said as a child, Oh, you come from a broken home. And I remember thinking, Its not broken, its just bigger. And then I would say in terms of the sacred, it was always the natural world. And there was an ease, I think, that living in the head-only world was kind of a poets dream on some level. The Pause is our Saturday morning ritual of a newsletter. recycling bin until you say, Man, we should really learn If you are here, you are likely already part of this. Shes teaching me a lesson. I trust those moments where it feels like, Oh, right, this is a weird. Language is strange, and its evolving. Maybe that speaks for itself. And its a very interesting thing to be a kid that goes back and forth, and Im sure many people have this experience or have had that experience, where youre moving from one home to another. The Osprey Foundation a catalyst for empowered, healthy, and fulfilled lives. has lost everything, when its not a weapon, But I think there was something deeper going on there, which was that idea of, Oh, this is when you pack up and you move. And I even had a pet mouse named Fred, which you would think I wouldve had a more creative name for the mouse, but his name was Fred. now even when it is ordinary. And Im sure it does for many of you, where you start to think about a phrase or a word comes to you and youre like, Is that a word? Youre like, With. So my interest, when I get into conversation with a poet, is not to talk, poetry, but to delve into what this way with words and sound and silence teaches us. , the galley in the mail from Milkweed. Yeah, I had a moment where I hadnt realized how delighted I was to go about my world without my body. The Fetzer Institute, supporting a movement of organizations applying spiritual solutions to societys toughest problems. The On Being Project is located on Dakota land. Yeah. Dont get me wrong, I do Join these two friends and interpreters of the human condition for . Yeah. the date at the top of a letter; though Tippett: I feel like it brings us back to wholeness somehow. But then I just examine all the different ways of being quiet. Poems all come to me differently. And Im not sure Ive had a conversation across all these years that was a more unexpected and exuberant mix of gravity and laughter laughter of delight, and of blessed relief. And for us, it was Sundays. lover, come back to the five-and-dime. That is real but its not the whole story of us. rough wind, chicken legs, and enough of the pointing to the world, weary into anothers, that sounds like a match being lit The original idea, when we say like our, thesis statement, or even when we say like. Harley at seven years old. On Being, which began on public radio, has been named a best podcast by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, the Webbys, iHeart Radio with more than 400 million downloads. Tippett: Just back to this idea that there is this organic automatically breathing thing of which were part, and that we even have to rediscover that. And I feel like poetry makes the world for that experience, as opposed to: Im fine.. Musings and tools to take into your week. could save the hireling and the slave? On Being is an independent nonprofit production of The On Being Project. And I kept thinking how I missed all my family, and I missed my father and his wife, and I missed my mother and stepfather. All year, Ive said, You know whats funny? I was like, Oh. Then I came downstairs and I was like, Lucas, Im never going to get to be Poet Laureate.. Then three years later, Tippett left American Public Media to create her own production company, Krista Tippett Public Productions, which has aligned with WNYC/New York Public Radio to distribute the show to affiliates nationwide. and gloss. I write the year, seems like a year you So can we just engage in this intellectual exercise with you because its completely fascinating and Im not sure whats going on, and Id like you to tell me. It has ever and always been true, David Whyte reminds us, that so much of human experience is a conversation between loss and celebration. Tippett: Right. even the tenacious high school band off key. And when people describe you as a poet, theyll talk about things about intimacy and emotional sincerity and your observations of the natural world. So the poem you wrote, Joint Custody. You get asked to read it. What is the thesis word or the wind? These full-body experiences of isolation and ungrieved losses and loneliness and fear and uncertainty. people could point to us with the arrows they make in their minds. and desperate, enough of the brutal and the border, We read for sense. Between the ground and the feast is where I live now. That really spoke to me, on my sofa. So its actually about fostering yourself in the sun, in the right place, creating the right habitat. If youre having trouble writing or creating or whatever it is you make, when was the last time you just sat in silence with yourself and listened to what was happening? whats larger within us, toward how we were born. This is like a self-care poem. in the ground, under the feast up above. sometimes buried without even a song. Tippett: It also says something about this time. As . Subscribe to the live your best life newsletter Sign up for the oprah.com live your best life newsletter Get more stories like this delivered to your inbox Get updates on your favorite . Tippett: Thank you. Youre never like, Oh, Im just done grieving. I mean, you can pretend you are, right, but we arent. All came, and still comes, from the natural world. The Pause is our Saturday morning ritual of a newsletter. Shes teaching me a lesson. Tippett: Yeah, because its made with words, but its also sensory and its bodily. Adventures into what can replenish and orient us in this wild ride of a time to be alive: biomimicry and the science of awe; spiritual contrarianism and social creativity; pause and poetry and more towards stretching into this world ahead with dignity . So Im hoping. Find them at fetzer.org. And I think it was that. I never go there very much anymore. Or, Im suffering, or Right. I guess maybe you had to quit doing that since you had this new job. We understand love as the most reliably transformative muscle of human wholeness, and we investigate the workings of love as public practice. There is so much actionable knowledge in the tour of the ecosystem of our bodies that Kimberley Wilson takes us on this hour. And it says, You are here. And I felt like every day Id write a poem was literally putting that little, You are here dot on a map. An electric conversation with Ada Limns wisdom and her poetry a refreshing, full-body experience of how this way with words and sound and silence teaches us about being human at all times, but especially now. Tippett: And then Joint Custody from The Hurting Kind. We want to orient towards that possibility. 1. If you think about it, its not a good Ive got a bone. (Always, always there is war and bombs.) The great eye. by even the ageless woods, the shortgrass plains, Its the thing that keeps us alive. But I do think youre a bit of a So the thing is, we have this phrase, old and wise. But the truth is that a lot of people just grow old, it doesnt necessarily come with it. I think this poem, for me, is very much about learning to find a home and a sense of belonging in a world where being at peace is actually frowned upon. Tippett: So can we just engage in this intellectual exercise with you because its completely fascinating and Im not sure whats going on, and Id like you to tell me. Each of us imprints the people in the world around us, breath to breath and hour to hour, as much in who we are and how we are present as in whatever we do. And I knew immediately that it was a love poem and a loss poem. I just set my wash settings to who Id like to be in 2023: Casual, Warm, Normal., Limn: Yeah, that was true. This is not a problem. The On Being Project My familys all in California. But if you look at even the letters we use in our the A actually was initially a drawing of an ox, and M was water. Its that Buddhist, the finger pointing at the moon, right? A few years ago, Krista hosted an event in Detroit a city in flux on the theme of raising children. I almost think that this poem could be used as a meditation. I think there were these moments that that quietness, that aloneness, that solitude, that as hard as they were, I think hopefully weve learned some lessons from that. on all sides with want. We have been in the sun. And the Lilly Endowment, an Indianapolis-based, private family foundation dedicated to its founders interests in religion, community development, and education. joy, foundational, that brief kinship of hold I write. What was it? Tippett: Yeah, it was completely unnatural. And I think its in that category. a breaking open, a breaking Rate. It was interesting to me to realize how people turned to you in pandemic because of who you are, it sounds like. The bright side is not talked about. Tippett: And we were given to remember that civilization is built on something so tender as bodies breathing in proximity to other bodies. And to feel that moment of everyone recognizing what it is to kind of look out for one another and have to do that in the antithesis of who we are, which was to separate. In generational time, they are stitching relationship across rupture. Tippett: I also think aging is underrated. And I feel like poetry makes the world for that experience, as opposed to: Im fine., Tippett: [laughs] Yeah. Black bark, slick yellow leaves, a kind of stillness that feels, We point out the stars that make Orion as we take out. Limn: Oh, thank you. But I love it. And this, it turns out, is also a primary source of his tethering in values. And were at a new place, but we have to carry and process that. But I want you to read it second, because what I found in. red glare and then there are the bombs. Limn: And then you go, Oh no, no, thats just recycling. So thats in the poem. Krista Tippett founded and leads "The On Being Project," hosts the globally esteemed On Being public radio show and podcast, and curates the "Civil Conversat. And I feel like its very interesting when you actually have to get away from it, because you can also do the other thing where you focus too much on the breath. Replenishment and invigoration in your inbox. So well just be on an adventure together. We orient away from the closure of fear and towards the opening of curiosity. KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: We're increasingly attentive, in our culture, to the many faces of depression and its cousin, anxiety, and we're fluent in the languages of psychology and medication.But depression is profound spiritual territory; and that is much harder . With an unexpected and exuberant mix of gravity and laughter laughter of delight, and of blessed relief this conversation holds not only what we have traversed these last years, but how we live forward. Discoveries about the gut microbiome, for example, and the gut-brain axis; the fascinating vagus nerve and the power of the neurotransmitters we hear about in piecemeal ways in discussions around mental health. bury yourself in leaves, and wait for a breaking, Tippett: I wrote in my notes, just my little note about what this was about, recycling and the meaning of it all. I dont think thats [laughter]. Few books have been more eagerly passed from hand to hand with delight in these last years than Robin Wall Kimmerers Braiding Sweetgrass. We elevate voices of wisdom and models of wise thinking, speaking, and living. And whats good for my body and my mental health. All of those things. Just back to this idea that there is this organic automatically breathing thing of which were part, and that we even have to rediscover that. We read for sense. For me, I have pain, so Ive moved through the body in pain. I think its very dangerous not to have hope. Oh my. And then in this moment it was we cared for each other by being apart. Thats such a wonderful question. by even the ageless woods, the shortgrass plains, the Red River Gorge, the fistful of land left. But I mean, Ive listened to every podcast shes done, so Im aware. I would say about 50 percent, maybe 60 percent of it was written during the pandemic. Limn: That you can be joyful and you can actually be really having a wonderful time. Draco, Lacerta, Hydra, Lyra, Lynx. We think time is always time. I dont know why this, but this. And I remember reading it was Elizabeth Bishops One Art, and its a villanelle, so its got a very strict rhyme scheme. Because how do we care for one another? To be swallowed And then what happened was the list that was in my head of poems I wasnt going to write became this poem. We were so focused on survival and illness and vaccines and bad news. And then there are times in a life, and in the life of the world, where only a poem perhaps in the form of the lyrics of a song, or a half sentence we ourselves write down can touch the mystery of ourselves, and the mystery of others. We believe healthy spiritual inquiry propels us outside the boundaries of the self, into the world. It just offers more questions. I think thats something we didnt know how to talk about. And its continual and that it hits you sometimes. I do think I enjoy it. I was actually born at home. And here was something that was so well crafted and people to this day will say its one of the most expert villanelles ever written its so well crafted, and yet it doesnt actually offer any answers. And the last voice that you hear singing at the end of our show is Cameron Kinghorn. It brings us back to something your grandmother was right about, for reasons she would never have imagined: you are what you eat. So it had this kind of wonderful way of existing in an aliveness of a language, aliveness of a second language as opposed to just sort of a need to get something or to use. us, still right now, a softness like a worn fabric of a nightshirt, and what I do not say is: I trust the world to come back. Ive got a bone Tippett: So I feel like the last one Id like for you to read for us is A New National Anthem, which you read at your inauguration as Poet Laureate. you can keep it until its needed, until you can Limn: Oh, definitely. Something that you reflect on a lot that I would love to just draw you out on a bit is I think people who love language the most, and work with language, also are most intensely aware of the limits of language, and thats partly why youre working so hard. [Music: Seven League Boots by Zo Keating]. Limn: Not the Saddest Thing in the World, All day I feel some itchiness around And coming in future weeks, is a conversation with a technologist and artist named James Bridle, whose point is that language itself, the sounds we made and the words we finally formed, and the imagery and the metaphors were all primally, organically rooted in the natural world of which we were part. And even as it relieves us of the need to sum everything up. And when people describe you as a poet, theyll talk about things about intimacy and emotional sincerity and your observations of the natural world. enough of the will to go on and not go on or how And it often falls apart from me. And I think most poets are drawn to that because it feels like what were always trying to do is say something that cant always entirely be said, even in the poem, even in the completed poem. From the earliest years of his career, he investigated how emotions are coded in the muscles of our faces, and how they serve as moral sensory systems. He was called on as Emojis evolved; he consulted on Pete Docters groundbreaking movie Inside Out. I cannot reverse it, the record, chaotic track. Copyright 2023, And if youd like to know more, we suggest you start with our. And now Ill just say it again: they are the publisher of the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. Limn: Yeah. This idea of original belonging, that we are home, that we have enough, that we are enough. We can forget this. Our closing music was composed by Gautam Srikishan. [laughs]. , its woven through everything. The one that always misses where Im not. And I feel like theres a level of mystery thats allowed in the poem that feels like, Okay, I can maybe read this into it, I can put myself into it, and it becomes sort of its own thing. into an expansion, a heat. unnoticed, sometimes covered up like sorrow. I think its definitely a writing prompt too, right? for all its gross tenderness, a joke told in a sunbeam, And for us, it was Sundays. Its repeating words. And it often falls apart from me. Why dont you read The Quiet Machine? When you find a song or you find something and you think, This. Before the divorce. And I know that when I discovered it for myself as a teenager that I thought, Oh, this is more like music where its like something is expressing itself to you and you are expressing yourself to it. Tippett: Yeah. I will trust the world and I will feel at peace. And this time, what came to me as I stood and looked at the trees was that Oh, it isnt just me looking. by the crane. Centuries of pleasure before us and after The On Being Project is located on Dakota land. This might be hard for some of you right here. We get curious, we interrogate, and we ask over and over again. Silence, which we dont get enough of. I think this poem, for me, is very much about learning to find a home and a sense of belonging in a world where being at peace is actually frowned upon. And place is always place. Yeah. Tippett: I chose a couple of poems that you wrote again that kind of speak to this. Where some of you were like, Eww, as soon as I said it. Between. Yeah. that thered be nothing left in you, like Also because so much of whats been and again, its not just in the past, what has happened, has been happening below the level of consciousness in our bodies. And it was this moment of like, Oh, this is abundance. And we think, Well, what are we supposed to do with that silence? And we read naturally for meaning. and the stoic farmer and faith and our father and tis And coming in future weeks, is a conversation with a technologist and artist named James Bridle, whose point is that language itself, the sounds we made and the words we finally formed, and the imagery and the metaphors were all primally, organically rooted in the natural world of which we were part. And its continual and that it hits you sometimes. the drama, and the acquaintances suicide, the long-lost Limn: Yeah. I will say this poem began I was telling you how poems begin and sometimes with sounds, sometimes with images This was a sound of, you know when everyone rolls out their recycling at the same time. [laughs] I get four parents that come to the school nights. And I felt like I was not brave enough to own that for myself. Deeper truths and larger stories of ourselves as societies, as a planet, as humans, that at once complicate and enliven our capacity to live with dignity and joy and wholeness. No shoes and a glossy But I think the biggest thing for me is to begin with silence. Just uncertainty is so hard on our bodies. thats sung in silence when its too hard to go on, that sounds like someones rough fingers weaving, into anothers, that sounds like a match being lit, in an endless cave, the song that says my bones. I trust those moments where it feels like, Oh, right, this is a weird. Language is strange, and its evolving. And they would say, I dont want to go to yoga. And I was like, Why? And they said, I just dont want anyone telling me when to breathe. [laughter] But its true. And this particular poem was written after the 2017 fires in my home valley of Sonoma. 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