Caretakers and Cohorts




The second poem of the year comes this week.

March has been about the self. Last week, I asked what could you do to help the other members of your tribe or forest. This week is a request to remember who helps you navigate the forest.

This poem had an extra layer of meaning to me as I read it this morning, after watching the March for Our Lives marches and speeches around the world. The student activists have to be flying on adrenaline right now. “There are times when we feel unstoppable.” They’ve acknowledged the people who have come before them and who are helping them today. “It’s a rare one, however, who can do it alone.” They spoke from a variety of religions, ethnicities and experiences, both offering and receiving empathy.

We all need someone standing by our side. Do we recognize them all?

It pays to consider who we feel is by our side. Who we feel we need by our side. Who might be by our side but we don’t realize are. Who we might also consider asking to be by our side.

My last two posts on my main blog, verbostratis.com relate well to this idea of cohorts and caretakers. Yesterday, I wrote Answers to Ponder, where I proposed a few questions that might help us see the lives and the range of experiences people have today. Those realities affect us and who we feel surrounds us. The 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s are connected, whether we want to believe it or not. On Wednesday, I wrote It Pays to Bend: The Benefits of Emotional Flexibility, where I was inspired by Dr. Susan David to see that if we deny those links, we’ll suffer immensely, risk destruction and never grow beyond what we are today. Denial is like the young T1D artist’s smiling demon drawn with teeth.

Best wishes to you through this last week of March and the days leading up to Easter!


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