Time to tidy up your life... Brian Patten

My last posting mentioned the need to tidy up, and it reminded me of a great poem by Brian Patten. It is called "It is time to tidy up your life!" and seems especially appropriate now.

It's a moment to review and re-think. In our company/community, we are pushed to think again about our lives. It's a result of something very basic and simple, that maybe some of us took for granted, being moved.

Our job is possibly moving to UK, and some of us might forget that only a few weeks before, we might have sat and complained about how we didn't like our manager, or colleagues, or direction of company, leadership, pay, empowerment, etc...

We are focused on the unfairness of the possible job re-location and in many ways rightly so. On the other hand, we have to remind ourselves of what we felt some weeks or months ago. Were we really happy in the job? Were we fulfilled, confident that we could express ourselves? Did we have frustrations and were they even enough to think about moving along if we got around to it?

It's a difficult situation for all, and I know many people in difficult circumstances, who were perfectly happy with their job, management and colleagues. And for those who just bought houses, or have built up a life here, it is a serious and tough thing to deal with.

And there are those who were frustrated, and who did want to make a move already - so for those it can be a chance to think again, and tidy up.

I own a house here in Amsterdam, and have built up my life here with friends. So the idea of moving is difficult. But at least I have a choice as I am not so fixed and had been thinking of a next move already - I see it as a chance to think again and see outside my current life. I feel for those who don't have the flexibility to make the choice so easily.

Enjoy the poem.

It is time to tidy up your life!
Into your body has leaked this message.
No conscious actions, no broodings
Have brought the thought upon you.
It is time to take into account
What has gone and what has replaced it.
Living your life according to no plan
The decisions were numerous and
The ways to go were one.

You stand between trees this evening;
The cigarette in your cupped hand
Glows like a flower.
The drizzle falling seems
To wash away all ambition
There are scattered through your life
Too many dreams to entirely gather.

Through the soaked leaves, the soaked grass,
The earth-scents and distant noises
This one thought is re-occurring.:
It is time to take
Into account what has gone,
To cherish and replace it.

You learned early that celebrations
Do not last forever,
So what use now the sorrows that mount up?
You must withdraw your love from that
Which would kill your love.

There is nothing flawless anywhere,
Nothing that has not the power to hurt.
As much as hate, tenderness is the weapon of one
Whose love is neither perfect nor complete.