Full Circle

Sweet new child

Nestled in a mothers arms

What gifts do you bring?

Darling, growing child

Learning to walk in this world

What gifts have you given?

Challenge ‘almost grown’ eight year old. Asserts their rights, asks tons of questions. Who do you want to be when you grow up?

Ever more challenging adolescent.

Knowing all there is to know and still curious.

Do you have a plan after high school?

Confident, fun loving and maturing young adult.

Confronting the world of adulthood with kindness or rebellion.

What is your goal in this busy work world?

Smart, confident and resilient older adult.

Still shaping goals, planning plans, families raised and away.

What are your plans for retirement?

What?! Retirement?! 

Plan to discover those thousand other things that await.

What gifts do you bring to this world?

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. 

Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

~ Jalaluddin Rumi, 13th Century Persian poet

Author's note: Edited March 28, 2024

Moments to Remember

Teachable moments arrive

unexpectedly 

when questions hover in the air.

Conversations open doors

softly

to the resilience of knowledge.

“When you get, give. When you learn, teach.”

~ Dr. Maya Angelou

Shadowed Senses

Blackened branches

lean against hard grey concrete

wavering in cold winter winds

Resilient shadows in streetlights glare.

“There is a strong shadow where there is much light.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Götz von Berlichingen

Author's note: Edited March28, 2024

Liquid Cold Resilience

Water softens the earth.

Creates ever widening 

muddy cold pools.

Washes streets and sidewalks

on a cold cycle.

Cleans gutters 

with cold running water.

Cold drops 

from trees and eaves.

Slanting, cold rain pushed ruthlessly by icy winds

reshapes, washes and nurtures the world.

Green brilliance enhanced by bone cold rain.

“Water. Like a blanket. Dark. Intoxicating. Cold.”

~ Shannon Celebi, Diving Off Bridges

*with apologies to those living with freezing temperatures and snow dumps

Author's note: Edited March 28, 2024

Pillow Fluff

My soft clenched fists pummel matted, squashed pillows not from anger but punching up rest from my restless head after a night of tossing and turning to find a calm, restful sleep.

Preparing these stoic pillows

for falling asleep so my head senses the softness of morning with a night full of dreams in the dark.

Our pillows hold our dreams ~

keep them safe until

new dreams wave and drift into

pillowed resilience while

soaking up bizarre dreams and restless nightmares

or like a potter’s wheel

molds a kaleidoscope of good dreams.

“There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. 

We wake from one dream into another dream.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In-Between

The strange push pull of

letting go and moving into the new

when both are necessary….desired…

standing….rocking… in between

looking for 

   a place of resilience

    a place of comfort

finding peace and joy in these moments

of letting go into a new beginning.

“There is something special about the beauty in the unclear, 

the ambiguity, the in-between that you can’t totally recognize.”

~ Alessandro Michele

The Music of Star Wars at Victoria Symphony

“Rest, laughter and music 

return resiliency to my soul

stirring words of creative intent once more.”~ These words ending my post last evening encompassed how The Music of Star Wars affected my heart and soul. With friends, yesterday afternoon, I shared in the performance of this grand music by the Victoria Symphony. Playing to a full house the Victoria Symphony, with the Vox Humana Chamber Choir, entertained us with selections from the soaring music of the Star Wars movies, Star Trek, Battlestar Gallactica, Avatar and The Last Starfighter. The Victoria Symphony led by Conductor Sean O’Loughlin opened with the 20th Century Fanfare. A most appropriate way to introduce this glorious movie music. Vox Humana Chamber Choir, in select compostions, added another excellent layer to the music. It was so wonderful to listen to these marvellous scores with out the distraction of pictures and drama. Today I watched a part of one of the Star Wars movies and could not discern, as I did yesterday, the depth and breadth of this impressive music.

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, 

flight to the imagination and life to everything.”

~ Plato