Postcard Poetry

Words and images to break into the present

Do you sometimes catch yourself drawing further and further into your mind, away from the present? Over a few days, weeks, maybe months. And then one day, something happens. Not anything big or pivotal; perhaps a thought or a reaction or a conversation but you realise, “I am not ok”.

This happened to me a little while ago. I also know this road, know that this noticing is a warning to get off of it. I know I have a lot of tools in my bag to maintain my mental health, thanks to a great therapist and group therapy in the past and good books and podcasts and my current counselor. I am so grateful that the Holy Spirit speaks to our souls so clearly. Highlighting the moments, bringing us a flash of clarity in our haze.

I am a big believer in routines and rhythms and habits to maintain mental health, but that is a whole blog post in itself. I also do a check of the basic physical side: sleep, hormones, nutrition, is my iron low again? Then looking at possible triggers or things happening in my life that could be affecting me and, of course, asking God to speak His truth and life and counsel into my spirit. You get the picture, basically I am performing (that thing where they hook a car up to a computer to check where the problem is….mom brain searching for the word…) diagnostics. I perform diagnostics then make a plan.

This all led me to adding a cool new tool to the ‘maintaining presence and gratitude’ toolkit.

Postcards.

The swiss post has this awesome app where you can send a free postcard anywhere in Switzerland every 24 hours. The quality is not perfect but its free and reliable.

Part 1 of Postcard Poetry
Notice

I am mostly a stay-at-home mom, so I spend a lot of time with my son. Going to playgrounds, doing the shopping, cooking, cleaning the house, going for walks… you get the picture. Ordinary stuff. Sometimes this gets to a person. I started taking my camera with me in my handbag when we took a stroll with the pram to the shops and taking pictures of the Autumn light on the orange leaves or whipping it out at home to take a picture of the tower we just built from wooden blocks. I do it with a camera because, for me and my journey, a phone often reduces presence. A camera can go straight back in the bag without the temptation to check whatsapp etc.

It made me look for the beautiful moments in the scenery, in our activities and interactions, in the fun we had or things we made or memories we gathered. It was a way of noticing.

Part 2 of Postcard Poetry
Process

I try end my day the same every day. Wind-down routine. Take my tea to my desk, read my bible, process the day, pray, journal. Put my cup in the dishwasher, brush teeth and head for bed. In the part of processing the day I added creating a postcard. I have a savvy little lightning SD adapter so I can transfer the photos from my camera to my phone in a few seconds. I look at them and connect to the feelings of the day. I choose one, sometimes because it made me joyful or sometimes because it challenged me or made me think or possibly if it was one that someone took of me because I might have to write a pregnancy self-love reminder poem about my body (this might have happened once). Add the text (which I do in poetry format) expressing gratitude or a thought or something I want to say to myself or that I want myself to remember. Then I send it to myself. This process helps me to once again break through the disconnect to my emotions or my experience of the day. To process, to be here in my life. To practice gratitude.

Part 3 of Postcard Poetry
Reflect

I get a postcard a few days later. It makes me smile or think or simply just engage with my life. I put it in my journal that night with washy tape along one side. I am sure I will enjoy looking through them at some stage in the future.

I don´t do this every day, but often enough that it has become a regular part of my life. A way of engaging.

What could your version of postcard poetry be? I would love to know!