Honoring the Unseen: Reflections on What Keeps Our World Turning

What goes unseen often matters most. Today's meditation centers around six powerful words—loving, kindness, compassion, heart, hands, and head—inviting you to weave them into your own meaningful mantra. 

The heart of this episode features selected passages from Alison Lutterman's moving poem "Invisible Work," which perfectly captures the countless unacknowledged acts that sustain our world. From the young mother running "rings around herself" to keep her child safe with no one to validate her efforts, to the worms tunneling ceaselessly so the earth can breathe, to the bees that "ransack this world into being"—this meditation honors all forms of unseen labor.

During these unprecedented times, this reflection feels especially poignant. We pause to recognize frontline workers who have shouldered immense burdens throughout the pandemic, often without adequate acknowledgment. The poem reminds us that even in our most isolated moments, as the Chippewa poem says, we are "being carried by great winds across the sky." 

This gentle meditation encourages self-compassion by acknowledging the invisible work we all do to navigate difficult circumstances. It invites deeper awareness of the intricate web of visible and invisible support that sustains us daily. Take a few moments with this episode to honor not just the unseen labor of others, but your own daily acts of courage, patience, and perseverance during these historic times. Listen again whenever you need to remember that you're part of something larger—a world being constantly "stitched up" by countless invisible hands, including your own.

Link to the original poem: https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/invisible-work/

Opening Music by Jeremiah Alves from Pixabay

Closing Music by Aleksandr Karabanov from Pixabay

Chapters

• 0:00 Six Words to Remember
• 0:42 Invisible Work Poem Introduction
• 1:47 Reflections on Invisible Labor
• 4:09 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:20

Day 17 and the six words loving, kindness, compassion, heart, hands and head. Please phrase these words into whatever sentence makes sense to you. But I just wanted you to remember these words. And today I'm going to do something a little different. I thought I'd read you a poem. It's one of my favorite poems lately. It's called Invisible Work and it's a poem by Alison Lutterman.

Speaker 1: 0:52

I'm going to read only parts of it and some small parts. My apologies to Alison Lutterman. I'm going to rephrase some parts just because I'm reading just parts of the poem. I want to make sure that whatever I'm reading makes sense, so I'm making very tiny changes. I promise I haven't messed up the poem and I'm going to, of course, link the actual poem so you can read it.

Speaker 1: 1:16

And as you're listening to this poem, I invite you to keep breathing and recognizing that this poem invites you not only to recognize the invisible work that goes into helping the world run in general, but also the invisible work you do each day to make it, make it through the day, make it through this pandemic. And I also reflect on this poem a lot as I think of the frontline workers who've worked through the pandemic and even, as we know they're working. The amount of labor that goes into witnessing everything that they do is frequently invisible. So this poem is dedicated to all the invisible work we do. So here's the poem, parts of it Invisible Work by Alison Lutterman.

Speaker 1: 2:41

I think all the time about invisible work, about the young mother I met years ago who said quote it's hard. You bring him to the park, run rings around yourself keeping him safe, cut food into bite-sized pieces for dinner, and there's no one to say what a good job you're doing, how you were patient and loving for the thousandth time even though you had a headache. Close quotes I'm used to feeling sorry for myself because I'm lonely when all the while, as the great Chippewa poem says, I am being carried by great winds across the sky. Think of the invisible work that stitches up the world day and night, the slow, unglamorous work of healing the way. Worms in the garden tunnel ceaselessly so the earth can breathe and bees ransack this world into being. There are mothers for everything, and the sea is a mother too, whispering, and whispering to us long after we have stopped listening. Whispering to us long after we have stopped listening.

Speaker 1: 4:12

So yeah, that was a part of the poem and I'll link the poem below, of course, in the show notes. I hope you listen to it again and reflect on all the invisible work in your own life and the work that goes into keeping us going through these historic times. So that's it from me. Until we meet tomorrow, take good care of yourself. Bye.