When

When anger is a blanket
Heavy and warm

When fear is a studded jacket
Protective and dangerous

When hope is a thin film
Keeping the soul cautiously open

When love is a rocky shore
Laid before an open ocean

When they are all bundled together
The long climb to recovery is the beginning…….

“When reality hurts, make sure to soar above the dream stained sky.!”

~ Maria Khan

Life Management

5:44 A.M.!
What happened to my alarm!

Cramming morning home time into the small space between shock and leaving for work at 6:35 a.m.

A challenge
And then!

Coffee not ready!
Automatic setting failed to automate.

But…..breathe
Heat up green tea
Sit
Read

Morning is my beginning time
Whether a nursing day or a home writing day

Cherished and protected
Maintenance of seizure free status my reward.

Epilepsy doesn’t manage my life
I manage my life around epilepsy
(p.s. 16 years seizure free on February 16!)

“Do the best you can, and don’t take life too serious.”

~  Will Rogers

No Right or Wrong

No guilt feelings are felt with

joy at the beginning of life

When the belly swells

When the first cry of a child says hello

But at the end of a life

The grief and sadness that is felt

Can feel selfish and wrong

When a cherished soul passes and the body stills.

Feelings have no beginning, no end

But flow through hills, valleys and across plateaus

No right or wrong merely

Our humanity saying hello and good bye.

“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. 

Conscious breathing is my anchor.”

~ Thich Nhát Hanh, Stepping into Freedom: Rules of Monastic Practice

Describing Today

Beginning:
creatively full morning
Writing
Cooking

Middle:
A productive afternoon and evening
Organizing
Nursing care

Ending:
Home to a clean house
Good night.

“The beginning is always today.”

~ Mary Shelley

Missing A Lesson

Beginning in life, I missed a lesson about staying dry:

Shaking & flinging water from 
dogs that have coated me with 
Sea water
Lake water
Bath water

And yet I didn’t learn!

How was I to know I’d get to the pool today without a towel!!
An entire hour at a watery Aquafit class!!
Visions of using all the paper towels in the change room!
Fortunately a good friend was braver than I and
Asked the staff for a loaned towel.
Dry and grateful, I carried on with my afternoon.

“That’s the thing about lessons, you always learn them 

when you don’t expect them or want them.”

~ Cecelia Ahern, If You Could See Me Now

Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day
A day for young love
Relationships beginning 
Budding and flowering

Valentine’s Day
A day for any love
Young or old, distant or near
Full flowered and solid

Valentine’s Day
A day for loving each other
Honouring each other with
Respect and kindness

“This fire that we call Loving is too strong for human minds. 

But just right for human souls.”

~ Aberjhani, Elemental: The Power of Illuminated Love

Enduring Friendships

Friends ~
gathered from here and there beginning with nervous politeness through experience and challenge

~ laughter a key ingredient
for enduring friendships

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.”

~ William Shakespeare,  The Merchant of Venice