Shake my tambourine at the world

Me atop Tabletop Mountain, Queensland, Australia
Copyright (c) 2008 Wendee Holtcamp (via Rin Burton)

Shake my tambourine at the world

Here good people of the world
would you like a sip
of my cup of confusion
or a taste
of pink marshmallow fields
where elephants fear to tread
Just leave it alone
Already
Do you want me to call an ambulance
or an army
of angels
to rescue our damned souls

We receive brown parcel packages
filled with stark white sheets
for our lives
Who will splatter on my innocence
before I’ve a chance
to build some muscle
Whose stark whiteness
will I soil
in my ignorance?
Where are my teachers of justice?

Right under my feet
and over my head
the stars, the ageless rocks, the trees
the ancient ones
who have seen a multitude of generations
they cry out in song and mourning
for all the lost
that gather gold
and fools around them

With simplicity and light
I build my tambourine
Wake up and hear the beat
With the melody of hope
the seeds of truth
the peace of God
the power of love
the knowledge of grace
the unity of color
the winds of change
I shake my tambourine at the world.

- Copyright (c) 2001 Wendee Holtcamp

more on anger

Mountain lion at the Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Center, Texas
Copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.”
- Anne LaMott

Another friend blogged in her Myself & Us blog about how as a child she was taught anger was a "bad" emotion and hence hid that. I totally relate to this. I was very quiet and shy as a child (unless I got to know people) and kept lots and lots and lots of what should have been rightful anger inside (can you believe I hid things and was quiet? ha!). When I got upset or hurt, I cried, I didn't get angry. But I've learned that "feelings are facts." They're not good or bad. It's how we act on them that can have consequences.

It's kind of funny (or not) because I can sound really angry by email or text or whatever, but when you see me I do not sound or seem angry in person. I hate internet and phone communication that way. Honestly I need to just cut myself off from it! Seriously! But I've read that it can be healing and fun and a good way to get out pent-up frustration to get a baseball bat and beat the crap out of a pillow and I'm seriously thinking of going out and buying myself a bat. I may not look angry right now, but inside my head, I'm hitting my pillow with a baseball bat in my head. Ha ha!