Stay Where Your Feet Are

6:10 am:  A sudden power outage inside and out ~ from one end of the street to the other ~ not even a street light!

Annoyance about inconvenience flickered,

interruption to my carefully set routine.

Red warning lights flash in my mind.

'Stop moving.'

'Breathe.'

'Stay where your feet are.'

My regular instruction to others.

Is it good enough for me?

When the lights go out,

and I mean all the lights went out

a bubble of panic burst inside - I moved the flash light yesterday - where is it?

An all too familiar feeling of powerlessness threatened to overwhelm.

Turn out anything electrical.

Check the fuses.

Think - being late for work not an option.

May 3rd,

Al-Anon ODAT

An old memory

What was I doing?

Getting my breakfast ready.

Cereal, milk, fruit - all on the counter.

Call BC Hydro first.

Routine restored, timing a bit off but,

washed, dressed, fed and organized ~

and after texting folks to be let in on the sudden darkness  ~

I and my flashlight (the big industrial kind) go out the door to work

trusting that all will be well when I get home (and it was).

".....My mother taught me, when I was a little girl, that when 
anything very dreadful happens, I must think of what I 
would be doing if it had not happened, and then do that.”

~ May 3, One Day at a Time in Al-Anon

Grief.....

...a vast ocean

under skies of sun and cloud.

A private place on the horizon

where deep love resides

Family ties together

mourn softly and sweetly

The universe made whole

with earthly loss.

“Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.”

~ Sophocles

Mood Swings

Ropes hang long from the sturdy tree branch 
shading a shiny, seat worn plank,
solid and secure beneath me.

Early morning wet with dew, 

 hot and shiny
  late afternoon noon grows heavy,

   glistening cold from a silver moon.

Chubby hands grasp thick cable roughness of rope 

still smelling of barnyard and old hay.

Skinny arms and legs stretched, 

bare toes tickled by the sandy scrub beneath,

twisting ropes barely give to my little girl weight.

I don’t want to hang still and quiet.

My power tingles and grows from my toes.

A sly grin on my face trickles down to my feet as I push off

Gently at first, feeling a wind on my back.

Coming forward the wind in my face, my grin widens.

I am powerful to change even the air around me,

Seagulls ride high in the sky

I try to reach them with each push of the swing.

Riding higher and higher, I want to leap from the seat,

and join them in the sky

but my body, like my mood, 

would fall like a stone.

Where are my wings?

I let the swing begin to slow; 
  swoosh-swooshing of hot air 

forth and back, 
   to and fro, 
I bring my excitement and longing down.

Gravity dictates how far and fast I can go.

Once in a safe zone, I leap off of the swing, running across the yard. 

I feel light and powerful in my mind and heart

I just can’t fly like the birds ~ 
    my flying must be grounded.

"The trick is to be grateful when your 
mood is high and graceful when it is low."

~ Richard Carlson

Shelter

On a misty autumn afternoon,
by a slow moving brook,
two blue umbrellas touched,
young love’s embrace ‘neath azure shelter, 
surrounded by damp rustle of
autumn leaves.

“Autumn’s the mellow time.”

     ~ William Allingham

Abundantly Pleasing - Part Two

Rainy day walk in Beacon Hill Park

Gathered from my refrigerator, conglomeration of ingredients at hand, a bit of direction was next. 

Hmm...cookbooks or internet. 

Hamburger Patty Casserole materialized on the monitor from cooks.com.

  Four hamburger patties -(Only three patties!)

  One cup of rice - 

(had rice in the cupboard)

  One can of mushroom soup - (oops...no mushroom soup)

  Salt and pepper to taste. (not a problem!)

Substitutions to the rescue!

1. Make four patties out of three.

2. A 'sort of' mushroom soup from:

           2/3 cup of chicken broth

           1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt

           1/4 cup of milk (soy milk used)

            Sliced ~ mushrooms, celery, asparagus rounds

            Onion salt

Preparation according to my rules!

Sautee vegetables in butter

Brown patties on both sides.

Mix yogurt, milk and chicken broth

Add ‘soup’ and rice to vegetables.

Grease casserole dish lightly

Place patties on the bottom. (recipe: patties on top!)

Cover with rice, ‘soup’, and veggie mixture.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

After an hour - (here's another addition to the 'recipe')

sprinkle shredded cheese on top

keep under the broiler just till the cheese bubbles.

Servings : For just me - five small meals (three in the freezer!)

Cost: Not a cent from today’s money.

Calories: oh gosh darn - I forgot to count them

Enjoy!

****

Is any of this new for me or for anyone else?

Very likely not.

However some may not pay attention to

abundance 

creative abilities

problem solving skills and

opportunities.

Necessity has long been touted as the mother of invention but, 

when there is no necessity do we stop inventing or creating?

“I had these recipes that say do this, do that. Who MAKES these rules?”

~ Emeril Lagasse

Abundantly Pleasing

What do I write about tonight?

Hurricane Sandi in the east? 

Western earthquake threats?

Or about the tiny little niggling guilt that I felt when I decided to make my meal from several plain choices and a few spices in my kitchen, just because  I didn’t want to dip into available funds.

After all the grocery store is only 

a quick drive away and well stocked, 

the car is gassed up, and weather's ok.

I’ve never really bought into the parental guilt trip:

‘What about the hungry kids?’ for cleaning up my plate.

Could that be a reason - clean out your fridge first?

That guilt trip really has never been a problem ~ that I remember anyway.

However the reality is that many individuals have more of everything than ‘the hungry kids’ and their entire families.

Another more important reason ~

The challenge of creating something tasty out of disparate sorts of things, without resorting to the fall back of the grocery store!

Why did I feel this strange poke of guilt?

It felt as though I were making a ‘poor man’s meal’

when, in a few minutes, I could have 

something more

something different

to suit my wavering desire.

“Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”

~ Epicurus

Fault Lines

Earthquakes!

Tornadoes!

Forest Fires!

Disasters all!

Homes and hearts torn asunder leaving precious things lost and scattered.

I’ve seen them all from a distance, and fortunately have never met one face to face.

And I’ve been afraid, or sometimes just concerned ~ 

aware of the destruction wrought on so many.

For a pleasant half hour, I gazed through 

pictures on my computer

dear faces of so many family and friends ~

weddings and parties

just pictures

newborns and farewells

growing children (some not so child-like anymore)

Daring to go into my photograph albums and

the great box of pictures full of such rich family history

would involve much more than a half an hour.

Individual paths may take us far from each other ~ geographically,

yet there is always a path that 

leads family and friends to find each other once more.

What do I fear most from any disaster?

It is only that I will never ~ with family or friend

hold a familiar hand

wrap hugs together in joy or sorrow

kiss a tear away

share a smile, a laugh,

brush a wisp of hair from a brow.

Have there been disasters of the heart that

race and tear through my own

families and the families of my friends?

Of course there have.

Monstrous disasters run along generational fault lines.

Smaller dissatisfactions chip away at the same 

fault lines that burrow through our foundations.

But the family roots, and the roots of friendships grow deep

with love and support keeping us all 

whole and connected to each other ~

even if from a distance.

“Invisible threads are the strongest ties.”

~ Friedrich Nietzsche