My Feelings Are A Gift, A Poem Inspired By A Visit To The City Of Refuge On Big Island Hawaii

Back in August 2012, my friend Dana and I took a walk at one of our neighborhood power places, The City of Refuge. As we turned the corner of the sacred temple site at the Pu'u Honua O'Honaunau, Dana asked me, "so, Kathryn Andren, how do you feel about feeling your feelings?"

HA! I laughed to myself internally and replied to her, that when she said that, my throat actually contracted. ( I was vehclempt!) Thanks to her expertise as a LMFT and a series of exercises called SRI, she facilitated a unique experience for me.  Here I got the ah-ha understanding when I feel my true feelings, my feelings are a gift to me. When I share my true feelings with others, I gift them as well.  To celebrate this event, I  wrote a this poem called “My feelings Are A Gift". I shared a revised version of this poem at a recent Poetry Slam, at the Gallery Meld in Kona on March 22, 2014.  It was this poem that brought me to the "bonus round" for 4th place.  What fun to deliver this poem and "Life At The Crossroads" from my previous post to a room of over 100 people.

"My Feelings are a Gift"
by Kathryn Andren c. August 2012, revised for 2014.


My feelings are a gift
For me and for you
When I feel my feelings 
Then I honor whats true

Happy, sad, joyful, mad
Blissful amazement, overwhelmed glad

My feelings are a gift liberating me,
When I share my feelings, all of us are free

At the City of Refuge we heard voices
To clear old beliefs and make new choices
A Stone Circle created in the sand
A Healing vortex on sacred land

Protected by the Beings sitting on the wall
We felt safe and strong to voice for all
Moving rocks we had some nerve,
But They knew we were here to serve.

Breathing deeper, we move higher, 
with wind and land, water and fire.

Transformed, awakened, dancing palms near
Whispering wind let us know loud and clear
These Hawaiian islands were once voiceless
Now Ancestors bless us to make new choices

An initiation, for expressing more.
This is what you came here for.
 

My feelings are a gift,
Liberating me,
When we share our feelings,
Then we all are free.

MARCH 25, 2014