Dressed for Spring

Bright green gauze,

a soft veil on dark branches

awaiting their leafy fullness.

“Art is the flower…Life the green leaf.”

~ Charles Rennie MacKintosh, 

Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist

(1868 - 1928)

A Short Couple of Hours

Stein from 1978 Class Reunion

Coming to rest at days end,

I recall the bustle and chatter 

of the restaurant with six classmates of 1968. 

Many more came together, young and enthusiastic, 

then diverged into the stream of families, careers, friends 

until we six met again with 

hair greying, pace slowed 

but still our laughter and chatter 

as bright and full of life as bygone times.

Changed in quality only by 

rolling life experiences, 

yet we become, 

for a short couple of hours, 

girls again and I am glad.

“Time moves slowly but passes quickly.”

~ Alice Walker

On an Afternoon Walk ~ Alive in the Park

What a treat! Three fuzzy yellow goslings struggled out of the water followed closely by mom and dad. A mischievous wind ruffled the lake, while the radiant sun from the clear blue sky threw diamonds on the water. The trees and bushes tipped in green buds, some on them leafed out in tiny new leaves. The rain of the past few days has made all things come alive in the park and beyond.

“Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! 

I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.”

~ Gustav Mahler

Gift of Life

Today the sun shone and my mood lifted, the air freed the tension of steady rain. My gratitude to nature for the rain is always dampened by the heaviness I feel on such days. Dampened but not drowned, because for our world of food, trees, grass, flowers and marshlands, rain is a gift. Beautiful moisture encircling the world that has come to this corner of the planet. As grand as the sky is, as beautiful the white drifts of cloud are, I am grateful for the moisture from those heavy gray clouds.

“Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.”

~ Rumi

On an Afternoon Walk ~ Wind, Rain and a Yellow Umbrella

The fractious wind was neither to my back, to my side or forcing me backward. It threatened to tear my yellow umbrella from me and turn it inside out making it useless on this ill timed walk

Reaching my destination, I was greeted by this stolid green orb being polished the rain. It seemed to smile at my dampened spirits. I smiled back and went in out of the wet wildness.

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

~ C. G. Jung

To Be Alive

Entertaining something like

 an idea

  a belief

   a dream

consumes each moment so

 plans float and spin

  designs shift like sand

   timelines begin to form

as we play the music of life

 two-stepping task to task

  loving family and friends

   being present in the life we’ve been given.

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in - - what more could he ask? 

A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars” 

~ Victor Hugo,  Les Miserables

Aura

Vastly bigger than life is the energy from a person’s soul ~ an aura only felt as 

 

 the brightness of the sun

   a tightly closed door

      

    a request for distance

     a feeling of calm

       a swirling chaos of fears or worries

                    presence

     

sensations to challenge description

“The quality of our presence is the most positive element 

that we can contribute to the world.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Sit

**Author's note: Today is one year to the day when the COVID 19 pandemic was declared no longer a global threat by the World Health Organization.