What a way to wake up. What if, as Rumi suggests in the poem above, we greet each day by raising the sails of our minds, knowing that whatever the weather, the conditions are right for loving.

Seems as if the world has been testing me a bit lately on my ability to find the love in each moment—the wind has been gusting and an open sail seems to send me careening out of control. Ever felt like that? Like you’re being tossed from wave to wave and barely keeping your head above water?

Of course, I’ve been writing about it as you can read in my new poems Repeat: You Are Not In Control and How to Wear Disappointment. On the same theme is my new column, When it Rains, It Hails. And if you catch yourself complaining about your situation, read the column Clearing the Air: How to Eliminate Complaining.

If you want to try writing a poem about some of your recent disappointments, check out my new exercise, Emotions 101: How to Write About Your Feelings.

What I have found is that my poem-a-day practice has really helped me to keep open the sail, to see each moment as a chance to be loving. You can see the emotional transformation in a poem such as Driving Home From the Restaurant We Disagree. This poem was inspired by prompts given to me from my friend, the fabulous poet Catherine O’Neil Thorne. You can try her prompts yourself by going to Feeling Out of Control? in my exercises section.

It’s not easy to find the chance for love to thrive in every situation. Like poetry, love is a practice. Or as Hafiz says, it’s a contest:

Hafiz

 It is all just a love contest
and I never lose.
Now you have another good reason
to spend more time with me.

What if we, like Hafiz, dared to put our names as the title of this poem? What if we went out into the world each day determined to be loving? Here’s the beauty: If everyone tries to win the love contest, we all win.

Let’s play. Rosemerry rosemerry@wordwoman.com