When Poetry Teaches
I shared this poem and reflections a few weeks ago with my paid subscribers. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the mosquito. I hope it’s a message of resilience that resonates for you this Sunday evening, too!
One of my favorite poetry books is Poetry of Presence, An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, edited by Phyllis Cole-Dain and Ruby R. Wilson. In this collection, I’ve discovered new poems, including the poem I’m sharing today!
I find myself drawn to practical, earthy poetry. This type of poetry teaches me to see the small moments of my life—the quotidian—more deeply through a poet’s eyes.
I’ve battled my fair share of mosquitoes, so to learn such powerful wisdom from such a challenging insect, well, that’s a poem worth spending some time with.
Instead of reading the following poem, let the poem “read you” by intentionally pausing before you read.
Spiritual Direction: Centering Practice…
Take a few centering breaths. Notice where your feet are and the support physically surrounding you. (The chair you are sitting on, the floor under your feet.)
Follow your breath from the start to the end for three cycles.
Let the worries of the day settle.
Read the following poem slowly.
The Mosquito Among the Raindrops
by Teddy Macker
The mosquito among the raindrops…
It’s equivalent to getting hit, the scientists say, by a falling school bus,
And hit every twenty seconds.And the mosquito lives.
In fact, she doesn’t even try to avoid the drops.
No zigzagging, no ducking. No hiding under eaves.How does she do it?
No resistance to the force.
She hitches a ride on the blow,
a stowaway on that which brings her down.She becomes “one with the drop,”
knowing that to fly again,she must fall.
We are taught, modeled, and shown that resistance is the way. We need to out-force, out-argue, and outsmart.
But then the tiniest, most annoying, blood-sucking (sometimes it feels like soul-sucking!) insect says, “Come closer, watch what I do; I have something to teach you.” She turns our resistance knowledge inside out.
What mosquitos know is innate in their very essence. Some mosquitos probably only experience one rainstorm in their short life, yet they know exactly what to do: ride the drop without resistance to the force until they can step off. (That’s what they do! This article has more details and a video. It turns out that this aspect of mosquitos is very interesting!)
The mosquito becomes one with the drop, the force that could and should, in theory, destroy it. Instead of “zigging and zagging” (which I find myself trying to do in the face of challenges, you too?), they don’t fight the raindrops; they work with the drops.
When my teens are feeling anxious, fearful, nervous, or any challenging emotion, I remind them of something I read, which is that negative emotions only last 90 seconds1. I remind them that instead of resisting the negative feeling if they can feel the difficult feeling, it will dissipate quickly. The more they resist and try to push away the big feelings, the bigger the feeling gets. It’s the same as the mosquito; if they can ride the drop and merge with the gravitational pull for a split second, they can quickly step off, none the worse.
In fact, she doesn’t even try to avoid the drops.
No zigzagging, no ducking. No hiding under eaves.
How does she do it?
No resistance to the force.
I’m still not a fan of mosquitos. If one lands on me, I will probably swat it. However, I do have more respect for the unseen wisdom they offer. I’m thankful for the poet, who, it seems, read about a scientist’s study and found the poetry.
No resistance to the force, it feels much easier read, than lived.
Spiritual Direction Questions:
How does this poem speak to your life’s storms, trials, and “falling buses”?
What do you need to stop resisting?
Where are you being asked to become “one with the drop”? (The researchers found that the mosquito only had to “ride” the drop for a split second to avoid disaster, but it did need to be in the air, not near the ground! There are so many lessons here.)
Thank you! This was a new bit of information to me and a nice little break - I will be thinking of the raindrops as I fall asleep.