[Our] ‘yes’ to life may initially be a passive ‘yes’, born of lassitude and of regrets, but it can eventually become a ‘yes’ of openness, of acceptance, a ‘yes’ of joy. This ‘yes’ to life, which springs from the deepest part of us, is not a naïve or idealistic ‘yes’’; it is not saying yes to a dream or illusion. It is a ‘yes’ to our deepest self, a ‘yes’ to our past, to our body, to our family, a ‘yes’ to our inner storms, our winters, our pain; a ‘yes’ also to the beauty of life, to sunshine, to fresh air, to running water, to children’s faces, to the song of birds. It is the ‘yes’, to our destiny and our growth. It is the ‘yes’ to our own true beauty, even if, at certain times, we cannot see it.
~ from the beautiful spirit of Jean Vanier
Matilda Magtree 
Thank you for this. It puts me in mind of a poem by the Canadian poet Marg Yeo that has had a huge influence in my life.
to say yes
Marg Yeo 1979
to say
yes
the explosion of
leaf into
light
some
things grow
over the edges of
explanation
and there is no
reading between
lines because there are no
longer any lines
and no more need for
reading
to find this so
sudden in each other
is to find ourselves with a
shock and instantaneous
sunk in an ocean bigger
than our puddle
bound comprehension can take
in or swept up
into an air with no
horizons
there are no
coasts or foothills
here nothing to
cling to or
hide behind
unless we choose
to be invisible not to be
known
so much
easier to stay
strangers with
everything to say and
nothing to learn
than to say
yes
than to say
we have been
waiting all our lives
for this un
winding of rooftop and
rafter of the tough
fabric and fabrication
we put on
out of the womb
but we can
not be satisfied with
less
not satisfied
with a cold and singular
hole in the dumb
earth for
each of us
when we might un
tomb each
other with
a word
bear
down give
birth to a common
language
say
yes
Marg Yeo
It’s funny how when one opens one’s heart and shares what’s real it attracts only what’s real. I think we’re back in the land of yeast. And I thank you so much for this…
What a beautiful image and message today. Jane Eccles
Hello, you! Lovely to ‘see’ you…
Carin, thanks for this– it was good for me to read it today. And thanks to Jane E. for the poem.
I’m so pleased to know it struck a note, Maureen. I’m pinning both to my bulletin board. (:
(Sent not by the wonderful Jane E., but by the wonderful ‘Commatologist’.)
I agree 100%, except that I’m getting ghostly vibes from some years back when a man used words very much like these to try to convince me I should join him in bed. I’m talking quite some years ago to when there was a rock band called Yes and they had life-affirming quotes on their LPs. He played the music, read out the quotes (because if it’s in print, it’s true, right?), ad-libbed a few of his own. Alas, I declined. Something to do with the manic gleam of his teeth.
Oh, Alice. What an awful memory. Thank goodness for his teeth. (:
What’s so interesting is how everything can be taken two ways. I read this and had no triggers so assumed only the yin. But you remind us there’s always a yang. I love the way you tell a story…
No worries, Carin. Not an awful memory. More like a life-lesson experience. I haven’t thought of it since forever.
And though it’s true he sneered when I declined the life-affirming pleasure of intimacy with him, he didn’t try to stop me walking out the door.