Entertaining belief, I never know how to set the table.
Do I use china, crystal
and fine linen napkins, or
paper plates, plastic glasses
and wooden cutlery?
Should there be roses
from the garden
or silk flowers
from a dollar store?
Should the conversation be
light and fun or serious and profound?
I just get so nervous
entertaining belief!
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way,
the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Life long values
from our ancestors
settle into our bones
foundations of clay
to be shaped or discarded
built upon or ignored
unchanged or altered
to become our ancestral legacy.
“The choices we make about the lives we live determine
the kinds of legacies we leave.”
~ Tavis Smiley, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
Boldly standing one’s ground
has never been a strength
of mine. Maybe when I was much, much younger and
didn’t know any better, but that was soon weeded out of
me. I’m not much for fighting back, but just want to have
fun. So when anyone fought me ~ I let them win.
Until, one day when I was frightened
with no place to turn, no one to have my back.
Standing up for myself was fraught
with trembling knees and a pounding heart.
My only other choice was
to crumble and fall away from the fight.
I’m still not one to boldly stand my ground
but my knees no longer tremble and my heart remains calm.
“Dare to become the trailblazer of your own life”
~ Cindy Trimm, author
Commanding Your Morning
Ideals dashed against the invisible walls of social
media vanish into a maelstrom of voice and opinion.
They should never be dashed anywhere, but allowed
to live quietly inside the human heart waiting
to be showered with slow growing belief that
strengthens the human heart with kindness.
"The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real.
It is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we love.”
~ Victor Hugo
 |
| Eva and Percy at Thetis Lake, B.C. May 2016 |
Situations of many sorts arrive
every day whether asked for or not.
There could be a plan for doing
exciting things like washing the floor
or putting away everything from
the party the evening before.
But then a kitten, or maybe a puppy,
does some cuteness to distract your
attention from anything other than play. Chasing the laser beam that
never gets caught, or bringing the leash to you from where it hangs at the door.
‘Let’s go for a walk!!’ So which would be
more fun? Washing the floor or playing
with the kitten ~ or maybe it’s a puppy.
At night, the floor is still waiting for your
attention. Deflated balloons and cake crumbs
are just as patient ~ they have nowhere to go
But you’re wearing a smile when you say hello to your pillow.
“Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”
~ Michael Jordan
Never knowing what words
will pour or dribble from
my pen each morning. I’ve always
wondered how they get so many
words into the barrel of a pen
but I suppose that is not for me
to know. I only have to take my
pen from the darkness of my
desk drawer, position it over a page
~ any page ~ and words slide onto
the pale beige surface. Sometimes so
quickly the words look like wiggly
worms that mean nothing; other times
letters are shaped so beautifully
they look like little balloons and
handsome walking sticks.
“Creativity exists in the present moment. You can’t find it anywhere else.”
~ Natalie Goldberg
Inspired by the poem Budapest by Billy Collins
Owing good fortune not a dollar nor a penny
but only my thanks for the life I have to live.
Good fortune does not come with perfection,
but with sudden twists and long held misfortunes.
Those last come with lessons ~ not of paper and pen ~
but a strength of soul that
truly makes them good.
Good fortune’s lessons
can be a bigger challenge,
mere whispers that beg
the listener to attend and be grateful.
“It takes more strength of character
to withstand good fortune than bad,”
~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld, author
(1613 - 1680)
