Sez Kristiansen

For when you wish to escape

Sez Kristiansen Season 1 Episode 48

The word 'Distraction' has found itself in such a negative light - but it comes from the original meaning, “to draw away from the mind.” Being drawn away from the mind can be a fundamental healing process right now that guides us back to our hearts and returns us to our lives with a very different perspective.

I hope you say ‘yes' to those healthy distractions that draw you away from the mind and into the heart. It’s medicine for these times (not to mention for our creative businesses) where we are all feeling this new sense of exhaustion.

Questions for today:

  • What are my healthy distractions? (activities, hobbies, practices that draw me away from my mind)
  • What am I curious to try but haven’t because I feel it’s irresponsible/too expensive/not practical etc.?

Thanks for listening, sharing & commenting! Sez

words by @sez.kristiansen

POEM LYRICS

It Took Me Away

I took a break 

for a while.


Not for any reason 
other than 
I heard the rustle 
of a wild bodied
animal in the 
dark woods
and decided
to followed it.
And it took me away...


It took me away from what

I knew,

and it took me away

from the place I 

had been standing still

for so long in.


It took me away from even

my most meaningful work,

It took me away...


And when I left the woods, 

I came across a dragonfly,

I wanted to see my own reflection

in its mosaic wing

so I followed it too,

and it took me away.


It took me away 

from myself

and even from the things 

I most love,

it took me away...


And when I came across a 

heaving field of oats, I wanted

to know why a tree stood in 

its center, 

and so I followed its furrowed

lines into its core.


And when the berry black

raven perched

high up on the oak's eaves 

invited me to follow it, 

I willingly said yes - 

and it took me away.


It took me away

and weaved me so 

tightly around the land

that I began to loosen

my bearings

and before I knew it

I didn’t know my way back

and all I knew was 

that I was away.


And when I came to a small

cleft in a rock

where the rainwater pooled

down into the earth,

I followed its trail

and it took me away,

it took me away from the woods,

the raven, and the dragonfly.


It took me away and I kept following 

the stream down and down, 

away and away

until I stood at the mouth of a

great ocean

and there was nowhere left to go.


But now I was no longer away, 

I was here, 

in this body, 

in this heart

and I no longer needed

the distance nor the distraction.


And with one deep breath,

I took the first wind current home, 

back to where I had once stood

in the woods,

but everything was different

everything was bathed in light.


And all the things I thought were

so important were now meaningless

and all the things I found little importance in 

were full of urgency.

Support the show

✨ If you’d like to explore more of my work, you can find guided meditations on Insight Timer, weekly unpublished poems on my Substack, and offerings for deeper support on my website. I’d love to walk beside you. ✨