Emotions are like an ice cream truck
that assembles itself in a foreign part of your body
and before you realize it
and just when you are ready to take a step outside
they hit you.
There are no casualties
just some pain from the difficult emotions being expressed,
the ones I locked in the trunk,
but I can still have a relationship with them
as long as I don’t follow their directions.
Different emotions
have different needs
and this is what leads
to motivation, action and tendencies.
My emotions are built on the reflection of the body experience
that comes from living.
Feeling them rise and feeling them get into motion
reminds me what’s important
and that there really isn’t enough space in the back seat for anger.
Values are what give me joy,
they are how I orientate myself
and they help me know that I moving in the right direction.
A Patient Voice 
Great piece, Harlon. I love that line about having a relationship with an emotion even if you don’t have to follow its directions. So true! It is a fine line between putting on our government employee hat and asking them to take a seat in the lobby, thereby setting them off even further, and inviting them in to our homes for a meal, by the end of which they are quite pleased and we are ready to dive out the window. I guess our emotions are a little like children, and we just have to know how to direct them properly. Anger, to the playground if needs be. Sadness, to the Children’s Theater. Vulnerability, to the Art Therapy Class. It makes for a lot of parenting and driving everyone to the various activities, and maybe it is a means and an end simultaneously– cleaning the car so there is space to take them where they need to be!
Peace
Michael
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I’m with you my friend…I’m with you! My back seat is a bit full…driving down the road…tossing the heavy bags out on the highway…don’t really care if it’s called littering…or if I get pulled over for the load is being lightened..and it feels good 😉
Love Me♡
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It does feel good doesn’t it? And for me, if feels so gentler when I am able to share these feelings and be welcomed by compassion and empathy. Much love, Me too.
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Very well said.
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Thank you, it was a bit of stumbling and juggling act to get it out of my mind and on to a keyboard. Your support means a lot to me. Peace, Harlon
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