The One You Feed - A Teaching, a Song, and a Poem 08/15/2019

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

Hi Everyone!Here is a mini episode that was made for our Patreon members called A Teaching, a Song, and a Poem (and sometimes a bad joke!)Teaching: We Can Always Grow and ChangePoem: The Trees- Philip LarkinSong: Tomorrow- James If you'd like to get one of these every week, you can become a member of our community by going to oneyoufeed.net/joinBy supporting and joining The One You Feed Community, you'll get access to:A Teaching, a Song, and a Poem mini episodesPost Show ConversationsAd Free Episodesand more!Your support is greatly appreciated!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together, our mission on the Really Know Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor, what's in the museum of failure, and does your dog truly love you? We have the answer. Go to reallyknowreally.com

and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead. The Really Know Really podcast. Follow us on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts hi everyone what you're about to hear is

one episode of a little show I do for our Patreon members called a teaching a song and a poem and sometimes there's a bad joke. So I'm going to give you one of these that you can all listen to. And if you'd like to get one of these every week,

you can become a member of our community by going to oneufeed.net slash join. And you can become a member of the community. You can get access to this every week, post-show conversations, ad-free episodes, and other goodies. Again, that's at whenyoufeed.net slash join, and you get the benefit of supporting something that can always use your help. And now here is an episode of A Teaching Song and a Poem. I hope you enjoy. Bye. Hello, everyone. Welcome again to another episode of a teaching, a song, a poem, and this month, a dumb parrot joke. I looked for poems just now to try and

find a poem that would say thank you to you guys so I could get more creative. And I have to tell you that every thank you poem I could find out there was truly terrible. They were not good. So I'm going to spare you those and just say thank you and say that I appreciate your generosity, your support of the show. Again, I feel like a broken record saying that I don't know how to say it better. But if I did, I'd say it that way. So thank you. better. But if I did, I'd say it that way. So thank you. And now I'm going to start this week off with the poem, because I want to use some lines from it in the teaching. And it builds on sort of what we talked about last week, this idea of new beginnings, old ways, and the poem is called The Trees by Philip Larkin. The trees are coming into leaf, like something almost being said.

The recent buds relax and spread. Their greenness is a kind of grief. Is it that they are born again and we grow old? No, they die too. Their yearly trick of looking new is written down in rings of grain. Yet still the unresting castles thresh in full-grown thickness every May. Last year is dead, they seem to say. Begin afresh, af say begin afresh afresh afresh that's the trees by philip larkin and i love that last year is dead the trees seem to say begin afresh afresh afresh now i am several months late for spring poems but here we are and I'm trotting them out.

And I do love spring. This year, I was able to really slow down and really kind of watch trees day after day as they slowly went from there being nothing there at all to just the glimmer of a bud. And then more and more and more until finally we have these flowers and beautiful leaves and everything is so lush and green and it just happens so quickly. It's so easy sometimes in our own lives to forget that however old we are, however stagnant we feel, we still have the capacity to grow. Things can change. Things can get better. And just like the trees, you may feel like you've got these frostbitten branches. Maybe there's just a bud at the very end of them. But change is possible. It's why we listen to this show. It's why we read books. It's why we meditate. It's why we do all these things because change is possible for us

wherever we are. We may feel so truly stuck, like things will never be different, but they can be. And that starts like a tree does with what seems to be the barest of motions, the smallest things, but the smallest things done over and over and over build. There's a Tanzanian proverb, little by little, a little becomes a lot. And so change is possible for us wherever we are, whatever we're going through, wherever we feel like we are, there is a positive direction forward. It may not be a giant leap forward. It may still feel really dark. You may still feel really stuck. But I do believe that wherever we are, there is a positive direction. There is a good move forward, even if that move is only in the

way we look at the world, the way we think about the world, the way we interpret the world. And so my challenge has always been when I start to feel really stuck or sad or depressed is to find some small step forward. Getting stuck, getting off track in life, it just happens. It's inevitable for all of us. Stagnation occurs. All that really matters is our ability to recognize that's happened and do our best to start moving forward again. Lamenting that we've gotten stuck again. Lamenting we've gone down the wrong alley again.

Lamenting all those things doesn't help. What helps is beginning again. What helps is to find a small positive step today, right now, right where you are, that you can take, that moves you in the direction of what you value, that moves you in the direction of growth, that moves you in the direction of openness or expansion. Any of those things is the way we want to go. Being stuck in stagnation feels like this closing down. It's this tightening. And in the same way to go back to the trees, what happens with the bud is it slowly loosens, right? It just, it's this tight little thing, and then out it goes. And that's the spirit that we're looking for. Whatever pulls us out, out into the world. Richard Rohr, in recent interview I did with him said, anything that's pulling you out

of yourselves to deeper engagement with the world, that's effectively functioning as God for you in that moment. And so look for that in your own life if you're feeling stuck. All right, parrot joke time. So, a policeman in the big city stops a man in a car with a miniature parrot in the front seat. What are you doing with that parrot? He exclaims. You should take it to the zoo. The following week, the same policeman sees the same man with the parrot again in the front seat with both of them wearing sunglasses. The policeman pulls him over. I thought you were going to take that parrot to the zoo. The man replies, I did. We had such a good time. We are going to the beach this weekend. I can't decide if that's funny or terrible. The joke doesn't fully hold together because the policeman stops him, but he doesn't really cite him. He doesn't mandate that he get it. It's not a fully well-constructed joke, but I do like the idea

of a parrot and a man driving into the car with sunglasses on on their way to the beach. That makes me feel happy. Okay. Our song this week is by the band James. Last time we used a song called Old Ways by a band called Booth and the Bad Angel, and I mentioned that Tim Booth is the singer of James. And so this song is called Tomorrow by James. The lyrics will make sense in the context of this episode. You know, basically, it says, your grip's too strong. We're talking about this loosening, this lightening, this expansion. It talks about keeping faith that your path will change. It says tomorrow, but I will say it can be today also. This idea of I'll do it tomorrow is often a perpetual putting off. If you're

struggling, find something today that moves you in the right direction. So here is the song, and I will leave you there this week. Thank you again for your support, your contribution, and I'll be back soon with another. Bye. I see you falling How long to go Before you hit the ground You keep on screaming Don't you see me here You keep on screaming Don't you see me here?

Am I a ghost to you? Now your grip's too strong You can't catch love with a net or a gun Gotta keep faith that your path will change Gotta keep faith that your luck will change Tomorrow Bye.