It didn’t. Miraculously, none of the bottles broke, but four of the bottles exploded due to the carbonation. Passionberry kombucha everywhere.

Sticky. Smelly. It’s enough to make a gal say yes.

We can only say yes now to the sky, to the street, to the night.

Perhaps you remember singing these words along with Suzanne Vega over a decade ago. I do. Only then they were just lyrics. I don’t think I had any idea about how I would come to embrace these words as a way of life. Positive consequences follow positive thinking.

Yes gets the mess cleaned up. Yes talks to the toddler about his actions. Yes lets the evening move on.

My obsession with yes began on a walk with my friend Ulli, in which she challenged me to say yes to all the things that were bothering me. “It takes so much energy to try to deny things,” she said. “Once we acknowledge that things are the way they are, once we say yes to them, then we can go forward and put our energy into dealing with what is.”

Yes. You can find more on this in my article Oui, Si, Ja, Verdadeiramente, Da and Yes, Yes, Yes. And for numerous playful, poetic ways to say yes, check out my new poem, “Oh Mercy. Jesus and Uncle. How Many Ways Can a Woman Say Yes?”

When we say no to what is, we’re likely to start complaining (see my new article about this). When we say no to what is, we’re likely to miss the beauty in the moment (read my new sonnet, “Put Down the Magazine.”) When we say no to what is, we disempower ourselves.

Saying yes to what is does not mean we never say no. Self control and discipline require us to say no frequently. No to overeating. No to relationships that don’t work for us. No to the infinite solicitations for our money on billboards, commercials and ads.

And yes to this moment. And this one. And this one. 

Writing poetry is one of the best practices in the world for saying yes to what is. It requires us to pay attention to the details of the world around us and weave them into the emotional fabric of our writing. The more real you can be, the better the poem. If you want a few poetry exercises to help you get started, check out my essay on You the Poet, All Is Write With the World.

And to see how I’ve been incorporating yes into my life and work, check out my new book, Holding Three Things at Once, just out from Turkey Buzzard Press. Can you buy it? Drop me a line. I promise I’ll say “Yes.”

Let’s play. Rosemerry rosemerry@wordwoman.com