Field Notes for Staying on Earth

Inspired this morning by James McCrea’s poem “instructions before visiting earth” ..
I have a little bit of a different view. Thought I’d write a poem as if we didn’t get those instructions before visiting Earth and what you might want to do if you’re just figuring that out now:

Field Notes for Staying on Earth

If you arrive and feel disoriented,
that’s not a malfunction.
Orientation was never the point.

You are not here to observe the planet
like a museum exhibit,
but to touch it, shape it,
and be shaped in return.

You will be given a body
that learns by friction.
It will bruise, ache, hunger, age.

This is not a punishment.
It is a language.

You will be handed stories
before you know how to read them.
Some will fit like borrowed coats,
others like cages.

You are allowed to outgrow
every one of them.

This place runs on unfinished systems.
Love arrives without instructions.
Power shows up disguised as certainty.
Fear often calls itself protection.
None of this is personal,
but all of it is yours to respond to.

You will be tempted to wait
for clarity before moving.

Do not.

Clarity is generated through motion,
not prior to it.

Pay attention to what you practice.
Attention is the real currency here.
What you rehearse becomes familiar,
what becomes familiar feels true,
and what feels true quietly runs your life.

When you hurt others, notice how.
When you hurt yourself, be curious why.
Repair is not about erasing impact,
but staying present long enough
to learn from it.

You are not required to save the world.
But you are responsible
for the part of it you touch.

Stay long enough to belong.
Stay awake enough to choose.
Leave things more connected
than you found them.

And when you eventually forget
why you came,
let that forgetting teach you
what remembering is for.

And if you’d like to check out the song for Field Notes on my YouTube channel @kellypenrod2574

or Click this link for the Song .. Field Notes