982: Rain

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

American Public Media

Arts, Performing Arts

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2023

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s poem is Rain by Adrian Keith Smith. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual.

In this episode, guest host Shira Erlichman writes… “Today’s short poem is by an extraordinary young monk, four year old Adrian Keith Smith. He may not be ordained, but he is a tremendously wise noticer. Like the Buddha, by simply observing the world around him, he grasps a mammoth truth that most adults struggle to accept.”

Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, today's episode is hosted by friend of the show, Shearer Erlichman.
0:06.0	Hang tight, and I'll be back on October 30th. I'm Shera Erlichman and this is the slowdown.
0:17.0	And this is the slowdown. Life is messy. I'm sorry. My dear friend A apologizes to me while she cries. I'm falling
0:40.4	apart, she tells me. I take her hand as she fidgets, clearly uncomfortable with
0:46.7	the influx of wild emotion. And recently I learned that my friend Kaye stepped out of his home into gorgeous weather, only to have
0:55.8	his foot run over by a car running a red.
1:00.6	And the infant in the seat next to me on a three hour plane ride reached
1:04.6	operatic heights and nothing nothing this father tried hushed her.
1:09.8	And while their new puppy made the neighbor's kids vibrate with joy, I hear the new puppy also won't stop shitting all over the house.
1:20.0	I don't want to get too excited. My beloved S says about a crush. I don't want to hope.
1:27.1	It's as if he is intuiting that one of the ducks he's finally gotten in a row is about to wander into oncoming traffic.
1:37.0	In one of her many darma talks, the American Buddhist nun Pemma Chodron advises that the goal is to stop trying to get your ducks in a row.
1:47.0	Your ducks will never be in a row.
1:50.0	No thanks, I immediately thought. I am working very hard to get all my ducks in a row. Is it going well? No. Will I stop trying? No. You know the ducks. The duck of work, the duck of relationship, the duck of kids, of money, of health, the duck of rest, the Duck of Enlightenment. I would very much like them all in a row.
2:17.3	But I know she's right. For every few minutes that they chach-cha in stride, there's the next few minutes that they cha cha cha in stride there's the next few minutes where one or two have
2:25.9	gotten distracted or worse flattened by the grills of a Mack truck.
2:31.2	Children wants us to know that this is the human condition,
2:36.2	impermanence, change, ducks be duckin.
2:42.0	It's not her personal theory. It's not even the Buddhas.
2:46.0	Buddha simply said, look around. It's the truth.
2:50.0	Our urge to get it together, to finally put things in their proper order, or to control chaos, will be upended at every turn.
2:59.0	Even if you attempt to superglue those cute little duck feet down, That's not going to superglue the seasons or your
	...

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