A Simple Screwdriver

I like fixing things. 

Not toasters or 

anything electrical 

but getting out a screwdriver 

or wrench excites me! 

Always a good solid feeling 

when my independent streak 

has been nurtured by 

a simple screwdriver. 

There’s cleaning to be done 

if work is to be effective for 

more than a couple of hours. 

Like my vacuum cleaner ~

If layered dust is not cleaned away, 

it just will not work good enough. 

So with my simple screwdriver,

old rags and q-tips - the job gets done.

“I like fixing things.”

~ Richard E. Grant, actor

Without Definition

Trust is without definition. 

It is the colour of water 

   in its vastness, 

iron grey ~

  troubled by rain clouds or 

clear blue ~ reflecting 

   sun and moving cloud, 

shades of green ~

   at the shoreline where trees 

  bend to caress the water,

~ or capped by lacy froth 

       on a windy day.

Our only definition grows 

  from the details of our lives

lessons from those we grew up with until 

  our own definition blossoms 

a definition that is confident and sure.

But trust remains without definition and 

  yet with a form we feel in our gut.

“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. 

When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, 

because if you do you will sink and drown. 

Instead you relax, and float.”

~ Alan Wilson Watts, British philosopher

(1915 - 1973)

Into View

Suspending time, 

memories slid into view, 

softened treasures cherished, 

blackened edges honoured

 ~ yesterday’s blossoms of

learning, knowing and feeling.

Suspending time, 

memories slid into view….

“As long as there are memories, yesterday remains.”

~ Billy Joel, pianist

Not Always Dramatic

Eyes wide open to each day 

a strange second chance 

to do what? 

Do all the same routine things 

as the day before. 

Or is the second chance 

a gift to see beauty, 

  to hear life’s rhythms, 

to feel from the tips of toes 

to the top of the head, 

  to be aware once again 

that this day is ours to shape. 

“We’re given second chances every day of our life. 

We don’t usually take them but they’re there for the taking.”

~ Andrew M. Greeley

(1928 ~ 2013)

A Spring Day Feeling

April 26, 2024

The sun shone;

ice and snow melted; 

the spring day feeling 

of opening up, 

tidying up and 

welcoming little spaces 

closed up by clutter and 

a long week of a foggy head. 

Housework has never called to me, 

but the bits and pieces of disorder 

nudge my soul and, 

Spit Spot (a Mary Poppins reference)

the laundry washes, dries, folds

is spirited away to drawers and cupboards 

garbage out to the bin in the alley 

as I chat with my neighbour

paper jam in the printer is studied and unjammed

The sun shone and the wind became just a breeze.

“Spring is magic ~ sweet to the senses & easy to celebrate.”

~ Susan Branch, Vineyard Seasons: More from the Heart of the Home

A Feeling

Time to stop, time to go

Time to sleep, time to rise

Time to love, 

Time to be yourself

choose the time that fits 

a schedule 

the calendar or

our hearts, 

merely a knowing, 

intuition with no colour, 

no little bell that rings, 

no pop up flag, 

merely a feeling

too easy to dismiss…

“I believe in intuitions and inspirations…

I sometimes FEEL that I am right. 

I do not KNOW that I am.

~ Albert Einstein

Released

Unlocking a lock

sealed by necessity or 

the conventions of time 

is difficult. 

Some would say ‘impossible! 

so why bother’. 

Others would say 

‘it will just happen; 

give it time’. 

Well what is ‘it’? 

Not sure there is a label. 

A feeling not entered in

a list of emotions.

The Feeling?

An open window

A light breeze

A lightness inside

 

The lock was

imagined ~

but real until

breath was more important.

“Sometimes,” the Wise Man observed, “to need is…..to let go.”

~ A.C.H. Smith, Labyrinth:

A Novel Based on the Jim Henson Film

Without a Stethoscope

Listen to your heart 

to follow a path that 

no one else can see or hear. 

That tiny thumping voice 

says more than the most 

exquisite poem. The 

trip-hammering of excitement. The slow plodding of a day’s 

exhaustion. The ragged race of grief. The steady thrum that paces 

out each step along a path. 

Listen to your feeling heart 

that speaks in a language 

without sound.

“Language is the blood of the soul into which 

thoughts run, and out of which they grow.”

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

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.