When patience is
wearing thin
when one foot is
trapped in a splint,
when you feel like
it will never get better,
when you just need
some softness in your life
find a pile of pillows
and dig down for a nap.
“Healing takes courage, and we have courage,
even if we have to dig a little to find it.”
~ Tori Amos
In the black of night
the wind and rain
slashed my car,
I gripped the steering wheel
and drove on.
Not to escape the storm
that seemed unending
but to reach a city
I did not know.
Would the storm be there?
Would I find welcome and shelter there?
In the morning,
the great dome of the sky
was clear and blue,
the sun glistened the watered streets and buildings.
That 40 years ago terror is but a memory
Today ~ the storm is closer,
without wind, without rain
but with the creep of age
in these old bones
I grip the steering wheel of my soul ~
always a welcome shelter ~ and walk on.
“I can be changed by what happens to me.
But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
~ Maya Angelou
I missed it ~
the whispers in my ear
the tightness in my midsection
the frantic busy in my head
I looked around ~
Did I forget something?
Did I turn the stove off?
What have I missed?!
It did feel good ~
the whispers were kinder
I just felt ….. good!
And perhaps calm?
I got comfortable with it
This peace of mind.
This spacious feeling
This day full of me.
“Make the most of yourself….for that is all there is of you.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is good that the body knows
to go from room to room,
task to task,
whether that be
reading a book or
sweeping the floor
for sometimes,
just sometimes,
the mind is not on
the task of living.
Seldom any reason,
like a wayward child,
the mind seems to decide
it will remain quiet,
or worried and busy thinking
all manner of thoughts about
what ifs and should haves.
In the meantime the body goes about
making salad or doing the laundry or
going for a walk always checking
the calendar to make sure the mind
does not lead the body astray.
“The mind and body are not separate.
They are like two sides of the same coin.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
I slide into the flow
of a career long past,
picking up here,
moving things about,
tending to the bread dough
ready for the oven.
There is no rhyme nor reason
~ no great job to complete;
each focus driven and pointed.
Merely the reality of my mind's
image translated to
moving the coffee table,
the couch, the pile of papers,
towels and blankets on the floor
~ a new design.
“…It is when we act freely, for the sake of the action itself rather than
for ulterior motives, that we learn to become more than what we were.”
~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Yesterdays fill my mind
when I try to remember
names, dates or places
where yesterdays lived.
Memories, like birds
flit and fly around my mind.
If I set my mind's hand
outstretched, one may
land lightly to say hello.
We speak with each other
in heart tones that have no
other language and when
it’s time, I raise my hand
to the sky and let go of
that precious little bird.
“Yesterday is just a memory.”
~ Bob Dylan
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Tastes of a peach
warmed by Texas sun,
plucked from a low branch
a gift lingers in my memory
sweet, sticky juice
dripped from my chin,
dribbled down my hand,
my arm and elbow……
never another as delicious.
“We do not remember days, we remember moments.”
~ Cesare Pavese, Italian novelist and poet
(1908 - 1950)
