In order to live in a new way, we need to think in a new way. We have to welcome new ideas, fresh words, and a different take on our day-to-day routines. What it all comes down to is making a choice. It’s our choices that determine whether we’ll step outside of old ruts and habits or not. We choose what’s new or next. We choose whether to rest or reflect, and we choose what we look to for inspiration and direction. Our choices form new perspectives, suspend old judgements, lighten us up, and finally let us laugh at what’s troubled us for so long.

That’s the day when we are ready to hear, be, or do something new.

The truth is a fresh perspective often needs more spaciousness rather than a detailed plan about what’s to come or where we’re headed. New visions emerge from less limitations and more wide-open spaces within. Even though this sounds relatively easy it is amazing how many years we keep ourselves stuck in the same holding patterns, thinking it takes an enormous amount of effort to switch it up when really all that’s needed is a minor adjustment.

Poetry is one of these minor adjustments and has the potential to shift everything one small step at a time. That’s because it reminds us of our truth, how we find it, live it, embody it, and grow miraculously through it. Some of these answers come easier than others. When I get to a place where all my words have lost their juice and feel a little tired or worn, I change it up with someone else’s words. It’s the breath of fresh air I’ve been looking for.

Poetry offers insight and introspection, and this helps us begin thinking in new ways. So this week when a cold took me down and all my words felt scrambled and murky, I picked one of my favorite poetry books, News of the Universe, and opened to a random page, 165. (There’s nothing like a little unexpected synchronicity to shake things up.) Then came the words that were like a breath of fresh air, words that offered a new way of seeing what’s been right in front of me the whole time. This is exactly the subtle shifting that helps us change course at any time.

In the end, it’s always up to us to open the window so the fresh breeze can flow in. What windows do you need to open? What helps you see more clearly or live like you’re in love with the whole world? Start small. The kind of small that comes in what’s easily overlooked and hiding in plain sight.

Here are the fresh words that found me, maybe they’ll find you too.

… a hawk on a boulder dripping with fog, ten deer in an autumn meadow, yellow aspens, bishop pines by the ocean. These all speak more as our stiff- ness re- laxes into new birth. The worth of things cracks open and shows the intestines.

Glittering gold trembling on darkness. – Michael McClure

We are always surrounded by infinite options. All we need is a breath of fresh air.

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