Soft Spots

Sarah Blondin is a free weekly newsletter. If you love it, consider supporting it financially. For $7/mo, you’ll gain access to my monthly Q&A and my serial-Folding In. The work I create here is reader-supported, hence the lack of ads and sponsors. Thank you! Dear Friend, Sometimes I record my children's voices to store their perfect sounds. Listening to their tiny sweet octaves echos in me and reminds me of some far-off home. This untouched landscape is full of innocence and sweetness and soft loving tones. It reminds me of who I am and what I often forget. The song Hugo is singing is his favorite song. He sings it with me every night before slipping into dream. The first time I sang it to him, he shuddered with some eerie understanding of our primordial origin. He permitted me to share it with you because he says this song "helped me know I am not caught in my body, and it might help other people too." Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, prolific author, poet, and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh would sing this song while he sat with the dying. In one of his books, he told a story of a restless and fearful dying man soothed and deeply comforted by these words. He instantly stopped his moaning and became still, as if being anchored in a storm. I think this is the feeling that washed over Hugo too when he heard it, some knowledge or homecoming, some acceptance and clarity rang through the body. You don't have to believe in God, an afterlife, or reincarnation. This song is about releasing ourselves into surrender and trust in the cycle of life and death. Of the wide oceans and stars with many galaxies. If anything at all, may it simply wake a small tenderness in you, and if it feels like home, rest there for a moment, inside the warm embrace of recovery. Have a beautiful weekend. love, Sarah Lyrics “This body is not mine. I’m not caught in this body. I am a life without limits. I was not born, I have never died. Over there the wide oceans, and the skies with many galaxies, all manifest from the basis of conciousness. From beginingless time, I have always been free. Life and death are only a door we go in and out. Life and death are only a game of hide and seek. So smile to me sweetly, and take my hand and wave good-bye. Tomorrow we shall meet again, or even before. We will always be meeting on the paths of time/life. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahblondin.substack.com/subscribe