Dynamics Return

When active addiction snakes into a family
striking a divisive

return to family centre for

love, respect, togetherness ~

a challenge exists for the desire 

to belong
 to be heard   

  to be accepted   

   to be loved.

“In life, we all have a cross to bear and a unique story to tell. 

We just hope that someone will take the time to listen.”

~ Greg McVicker, Through the Eyes of a Belfast Child ~

Life. Personal Reflections. Poems.

Author's note: Edited January 19, 2024

In the Darkness of a Crescent Moon

We are but stardust
No purpose but to shine

Constructs of mankind
Create much purpose from our stardust

Lines drawn by atoms 
Coloured bright by hearts and souls

When the colours grow dark
There is but a turning of the universe

In the darkness of a crescent moon, standing still slowly,
Falling into the turn gently the light shines again.

Challenging the constructs of mankind
to feel and to be our only purpose.

….”in an infinite universe, anything 
that could be imagined might somewhere exist.”

~ Dean Koontz, Dead and Alive

Successful Escape!

I gave it much thought
An afternoon stroll from tile floors and therapeutic interactions
Sunshine again today, flowers decorating bush and trees, 
Air cool and sky blue
What challenge have I faced today? Hmmmm.
A full parking lot,
Men and women in blue outside a cafe laughing and talking
My way seemed open and clear
No lineup?!
Pleasant surprise at three thirty on a school day.
And then I stepped to the back and was met
A wall of long legs, short skirts, bed heads and coolness
My half-caffe grande latte with decreased lactose milk set down
In the midst of frappucinos, iced waters, macchiato………….
My arm snaked in between leather and denim
Pulled my latte through the laughing adolescent cluster
I left quickly to the sun and cool air
My escape was successful….and the latte delicious.

“And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! 

Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!”

~ Dr. Seuss

Conditioned to Play

Watering Can playground - Beacon Hill Park

Sunshine on dust motes  
Colouring books and paper dolls
Magenta, mustard and azure blue
Cinnamon, lime green and fuchsia
Bare feet swinging, toes finding wooden rungs 
Paper dolls model latest designs
Scissors trim edges of new gowns
Meadowlarks harmonize with killdeers
Call to play outside breaks the spell
A challenge to colour or play in sunshine

“Home is where you were conditioned.”

~ Darnell Lamont Walker

Book Review - Lake of Two Mountains by Arleen Paré

A much smaller lake ~
Swan Lake in Victoria with just as many memories

I’ve done book reviews each month throughout each Book Club season for about two years now. This month's book has presented me with an extraordinary challenge. Lake of Two Mountains by Arleen Paré is a slim volume of poetry, has no story line, plot line and clearly identifiable characters are missing! And this evening, I am missing an image of the book because of my very unpoetic technical difficulties.

However, this book of poetry does have more than one theme. The history of Lake of Two Mountains, part of the river delta at the confluence of the Ottawa River in Quebec and the St. Lawrence River, has been painted with brush strokes of emotion and memory. Natural history portrayal of the Pleistocine era in Becoming Lake - ‘shove mountain tops   from below stony roots’  evokes the power of geographical changes. Personal presence walks through summer lanes while young sisters are ‘seeding the road’. Religious history of the Trappist monastery from the abundance of fields, barns, produce and kitchens to their exit many years later when ‘night galloped through cloisters, cracked stones from walls, trampled gardens of lavender and mint.'  Political history and our presence on this land in the painful time of the Oka Crisis brought us to the question of land ownership and who really are the visitors here:‘who owns the land, what was taken, which priests, who owns the trees. Nation to nation.’ These are mere samples from the fifty seven poems that Arleen Paré penned so beautifully.

Our discussion was fascinating accompanied by laughter and tears. Each of us read a poem, we then discussed it with widely ranging interpretations. What was common to us all was that many of the personal experiences at the Lake of Two Mountains in Ontario transferred in memory to the lakes experiences at any other lake across Canada, and probably elsewhere. Will there be another book of poetry for our next season? Consensus today supports a very positive response.

“He called the lake Shangri-La.”

~ Arleen Paré, Dad Before Lake

Title:  Lake of Two Mountains
Author:  Arleen Paré
Publisher: Brick Books
Publication Date: 2014
Format:  Soft Cover
ISBN: 0-525-94917 (hc.)
ISBN: 978-1-926829-87-6 (pbk.)
Type:  Poetry

Nurse’s Week 2016 May 06 - May 12

Now that Mother’s Day celebrations have quieted, I take a turn at celebrating all nurses out there ~ Have been out there, not just in hospitals, but in clinics, in schools, in the streets following directions of physicians in the same health care systems.

Just as importantly, in the world of  24/7 health care, nurses follow the directions and experience and support of instructors, mentors, relatives throughout generations ~ always caring for those that cannot care for themselves

Challenging
Disease    Debility    Brokenness    Trauma

Welcoming Newness
Infants    Babies     Children

         Honouring young and old
Passing from this life

Healing
Minds    Bodies     Spirits

“Our job as nurses is to cushion the sorrow and celebrate the job, 

everyday, while we are ‘just doing our jobs’.

~ Christine Belle

The Groups of Wonderfulness

Ma    Mom    Mother    Momma    Step-mom    Auntie

A string of words that call up the names from The Groups of Wonderfulness

I know…..some  may have seemed not so wonderful for their own reasons

none of those names to be written here

The Groups of Wonderfulness accepted the challenge 

The challenge of motherhood without 

a written text book   an instruction manual   a policy and procedure manual

Such manuals are only in oral history passed down from

Great-great grandmothers   Great grandmothers   Grandmothers 

And all the Aunties and Stepmothers down the ancestral years.

The one principle common to all Groups of Wonderfulness

Love and protect the children until……………..

“People are wonderful one at a time. Each one of them has an 

entire hologram of the universe somewhere within them.”

~ George Carlin, Last Words