To name a goblin Tim
Front Door Greeters: Death, Tim, Fang, and Skeleton Pup
Suds soft and rainbow
with the kiddo humming as we together clean a thing they don’t yet know is not fun to tend to. We are easy together today in sensation, action taking and sunshine
dappling through the window with its ledge orchids in rest cycle, and rescue plants who’ve decided to like their new pots, and the tiny clay pitcher I got from a garage sale free box when I was just their age
of 6 whole years. And us both with vocabulary abundant as our need to describe all the angles of a pain or a joy. Less abundant still than our noticing though
of ways to make a thing more tasty -like today’s maple syrup on butter pecan ice cream while we made silly alliteration sentences like “The cat’s canary couldn’t carry the cage full of cans”, or tomorrow’s plan for the first snow’s hot chocolate leveled up with the fluffy trilogy of stuffy, blanket and mom to cozy next to
which kiddo asks for so easily. Their hunger for soft and sweet a welcome thing here
in the house they have also deemed haunted for the month of October and placed spiders and snakes and homemade adorably fearsome creatures all around while lowering the key of “The ants go marching” and adding goblins and packs of werewolves to the journey -singing these spooky innovations
while smiling from the pleasure of playing in the dark
that I fear more than they, having had a different childhood of which I am un/re learning how to hold the exquisite of shadow and green
as delicious enough. Fearsome enough.
To name and want and
sometimes hum howl a change of song about.
Reflection Invitations:
(or just stop at the poem's end. It is often more than enough to just feel.)
This one may touch your bright, your hope.
And/Or it may open the deep, the grief.
Hugs for either, if you want them.
Some gentle offerings:
Are any of your goblins ready for a softer name? What if you tried having a conversation, offering a cocoa and asking that part of you what they want you to know, what they need, what next?
What did you long for as a child? What are you longing to feel more of in your life now?
What motion, what big want, what peace enough might be available if you could let life hold Both And?
Life is both horrible and delicious, is both joyful and full of ache. What freedom to feel, to be With your actual Now could come if you can allow (embrace) more than one thing as true, as present at the same time?
If support around naming your Longings and/or having more capacity to be With the joy ache, horrible delicious, tangle wonderful of this Both And of life would feel helpful,
I’d love to journey with you in a 1-1 session. These topics of longings as compass, being and befriending paradox, and learning to play in the dark are my favorites.
And
If little you came up in a big way when reading this poem, support from a therapist may be better than what I am currently trained to bring. IFS therapy, DBT, ACT, and especially somatic modalities have been most helpful in this area for my little me. Psychology Today has an excellent therapist-finding tool you can use to search for modalities, gender, insurance etc.