Flying High ~ 2

High in the air
Thousands of miles above terra firma where I trust my feet to know place, pace and timing

Strapped into a narrow seat
beside a tiny window
only the clouds below but above rippling changing land
escaping my vision through wisps of grey-white.

Flight attendants and pilots
walk and talk us through steps for safety and calm
cheerfully bringing beverage and snacks
ensuring that we have a pleasant flight.

In the back of my mind a voice whispers
Is the gas tank full?
Are all the bolts tightened properly?
Has the engine had a maintenance recently?

The whispers deflected in the pages of good books
losing any worries in the story ~ or a nap…….
I’ve flown many times to many ~ well a few ~ places.
All have been pleasant flights.

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry aout what may never happen.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

Judgement

"Trust your judgement" ~ in word, intention and deed

"Do not judge others" ~ whether ‘tis their word, intention or deed

Double messages that whirl like dry leaves spinning in the street pushed along by the nearest passing breeze.

Judgement without compassion, without understanding blows as cold as a winter wind spinning dry, dusty snow.

Any life is as mysterious as the trajectory of stars and planets in the sky. Each life is subject only to universal forces we cannot see or understand.

“We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; 

but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.”

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Envisioning Trust

A slight glimmering through 
the dust and grime of the streets
the denaturing nature of alcohol
the heaps of baggage of past lives

Very dimly shining with
a gentle, guiding arm for a gentle hand at the elbow
words of respect and caring
steps measured and equally paced

An unpolished glow that
decries stigma and marginalization
defines community in any society.
Is an Aura for safety in relationship?

trust is an invisible
warmth from the soul
has no shape or size
can be measured and shared.

“Don’t let your inability to see get in the way of your vision.”

~ Jarod Kintz, 99 Cents For Some Nonsense

Pronouncements vs Reality

Things I’ve heard in nursing:

She’ll die before she’s 30.
He’ll never walk again.
She’ll never go to school as she had planned.
He’ll develop dementia and be stuck in a nursing home.
She’ll have to be bedridden most of her life.
He’ll lose his family, all his friends and be unemployed.

Pronouncements made based on 
What has gone before
What is in the text books
Expectations that nothing can be done

Pronouncements that indicate
Finite outcomes with no hope of improvement
A boxed in life with beige walls of granite
A life that has had cement poured over any further activity

Pronouncements that forget about
Individual will to live, to walk and to belong
Trust in one’s own abilities and strengths
Faith in family, friends and community

Things I’ve heard in nursing:

She is 90 years old now after a long and happy life.
He walks with a limp, but he walks proudly.
She graduated with a Phd in her chosen field.
Dementia did arrive, with family and caregivers present to honour his life.
She arose from her bed, slowly and with care, for there were books to read, movies to see and discussions to have.
He did burn most bridges, but rebuilt them with time, trust and will to give back what he had been given.

“If you plan to build walls around me, know this - I will walk through them.”

~ Richelle E. Goodrich, 

Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & 

a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year.

What's in a Name? ~ 2

What's in a Name?

‘Trust.’ Now why would any parent call a child ‘Trust’. Naming him a quality and not just a name. Something ordinary like Richard or Elliot. Something more distinguished. As a kid, Trust had been given all sorts of nicknames - Trusty Rusty, Truss, Russ, Trusteroony……..  Children, especially twelve year old boys, were not the nicest, but Trust’s posse was always posturing and joking with one another. One day, Trust looked up his name on the internet. He learned that trust means 'belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone’. As he was scrolling around he also checked out baby names to see if any of them meant Trust. It took a long time, but he really was curious. Rai, a Japanese boy's name, meant trust and it did sound almost ordinary.

From that moment, he called himself Raymond. He announced the change to his family and friends and when anyone called him Trust or any of the other nicknames, he corrected them. As he grew older, he met new people that did not know him by any other name. Now Trust/Raymond was eighty-five and reviewing his life.  A whole lot of living had carried him through the years. He finally felt quite grateful for being named Trust. As a young man, he had wrestled with his name as he did when trying to get a too tight jacket off his growing shoulders. When he took the new name, he felt like he had thrown that old jacket away and into the dustbin. But he hadn’t. In reality, he had folded that name up carefully, placing it in his front pocket. Unknown to him, it became a light for him. A light that glowed dimly but always shone through his eyes. The trust that he learned how to use was always wrapped in kindness. 

Later, Raymond had been doing some genealogy research online and in suitcases stored in the attic. He had come across old letters between his mother and her sister, his aunt that told the story of his parent's life before he was even a thought. His mother and father had tried to have children, had lived in an inhospitable land and had no reason to believe that either situation would change. No children had been conceived despite a ten year marriage and the land they lived in had grown completely and dangerously unsettled. His mother and father, now in their thirty’s put their trust in a move far away from their homeland. Some of the people they had to work with were completely untrustworthy, but there were more who could be counted on to honour their promises, large or small.

Once his parents were settled in their new home, far from the culture and beliefs they were raised with, his mother came to his father with the joyful news that she was pregnant. Once more they had to trust others. Trust in a new medical system, a doctor whose accent was foreign to them and new neighbours for advice about raising children in the midst of this great change.

The pregnancy, though not without it’s difficulties, was fairly uneventfall.  Emotional ups and downs rocked his mother’s carefully organized life. When he was born, a squalling, red-faced and energetic baby, Trust was the only name they felt they could give him. Trust they had placed in others, the God they had grown up with and in each other had steadied their lives. Now this child was born that would trust them without question to love and shelter him. They chose to honour that Trust.

And so, at eighty five, Raymond, who had been named Trust, began to tell this story. The story that his parents had kept hidden as part of a past they had left behind. There were those who listened with interest and there were who just thought it was the ravings of an old man. After all, who would ever name a child ‘Trust’?

“There are few things more powerful than a name. 

A single phrase that somehow becomes a symbol for an entire existence.”

~ Lance Conrad, The Prince of Creation

Trust the Night

Trust the night to wash away your tears ~
As the sun sets and the moon rises
the heaviness of the day is put to rest.

Trust the night to add starlight to your smiles ~
As blue sky fades into inky blackness
the excitement of the day glimmers and shines.

Trust the night to welcome the moon in all it’s phases ~
Riding horizon to horizon in silver gloss for
sleepy dreams to ride rhythm to moon glow.

Trust the night to darken and hide clouds ~
Wisps of slate and gray cloak moon and stars while
rain falls onto the sleeping landscape.

Trust the night to carry the song of the night birds ~
Clear notes of melancholic beauty
settling on the earth like the fall of starlight.

Trust the night to fade away as morning brightens ~
Ribbons of pink and rose and peach 
waken the dawn to a day of new opportunity.

“The silence of the night awakens my soul.”

~ Dorinda Duclos

Trust Yourself

Trust yourself ~
To know that feelings are fluid as the ebb and flow of the tides; that emotions are bursting, jagged or steady lights dimmed or brightened by experience and events.

Trust yourself ~
To know that each day will bring challenges that you will colour and shape with your creativity and resourcefulness.

Trust youself ~
To know that you are always good enough, right enough and fast enough for the life you live each day.

Trust yourself ~ 
To know that you are never, and never have been, alone in this life; always in relationship with family and friends, fluid as the feelings and emotions attached and entangled with them.

Trust yourself ~
To know that in all of life’s challenges, you always have choices; choices to dig in and fight, to let go of the fight and the choice to step forward into life as it is and will be.

“We have all a better guide in ourselves, 

if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”

~ Jane Austen, Mansfield Park