Each Tomorrow

The little plant grew without my interference. Started out as one of three sprouts from a sweet potato that I hadn’t gotten around to eat. With a good chunk of sweet potato, I planted the sprouts. After several months, they sat in the soil looking sad. Two of the sprouts had dried up. I was going to throw it out but hesitated and set it outside. I had amended the soil with used coffee grounds and watered it now and then. I ignored it for the most part until one day I saw the tiniest little growth, and then a leaf. With the heat, it has become a lovely little plant that gives me one more leaf every couple of days. The beautiful little leaves make me happy!

Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better.”

~ Charles Dickens

Patience and a Drink of Water

Two Leaves

A sweet potato - or was it a yam sat on my kitchen counter patiently waiting it’s turn for…..it sprouted. Three long sprouts standing at attention and, I’m sure, staring at me. I finally cut out the potato, planted it in a pot, in soil….some time in April. I was ready to throw it out but each day decided to give it one more day. Two weeks ago I saw a tiny green shoot that opened into a real leaf. I set the pot outside to get the sun and the shade and some good rain water. In the last two days, in two very hot days, two more leaves have sprouted. The new little one is so tiny it is easy to miss, but by tomorrow I expect to see another full leaf. Sweet potato plants are really quite lovely.

Three Leaves: look closely!

“Why is patience so important?”

“Because it makes us pay attention.”

~ Paul Coelho, author

Things I Did Understand

Things I did understand ~

questions unanswered 

asking why of no use because 

the answer was ‘because’ 

But when those ideas floated away 

I understood crayons, 

cartoon shapes to colour, 

dresses to cut out with the little tabs

Then I could

design ball gowns

for paper dolls

colour inside the lines

just right for this little girl 

bright crayons within my reach

What I understood was that 

I didn’t need to know any more 

than what the next picture needed, 

which doll I should cut out.

But I filled expectations, 

like setting the table for a meal, 

practicing piano or 

getting cleaned up for church, 

going to school. 

I did understand that I was ‘growing up’ 

but didn’t know that meant 

more than how tall I was.

Today in retirement I am still ‘growing up.’

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”

~ Tom Stoppard

(English dramatist)

A Tiny Life

Each tiny life 

Clings

Grows

Unfurls

Becomes one

Of the many 

In the beginning 

Delicate and precious

“Life is a series of tiny miracles.”

~ Mike Greenberg, radio host

(From A-Z Quotes)

Tested

August, 2018

Sprouts

from seeds

filled with life

grow as we grow 

in sun or storm 

on prairie 

or mountain side 

our strength tested 

found wanting 

or willing to grow

“…surrender to your experience and 

the softness that keeps you strong.”

~ Jadine Lydia, The Thing about Resilience

@jadinelydia - original poem

To Be Whole

I learned 

my wholeness from my feet. 

Planted firmly 

on the cool grass of spring, 

my bare feet sent me a message. 

“I am your balance, 

    your place on this earth.” 

Is this a February wish

for green lawns and dandelions? 

No matter. 

I have longed for true balance 

found only when 

I nestle my toes into warm sand 

~ there I go again with 

     that wishful thinking ~ 

or (sigh) in winter, 

    flat on cold laminate. 

Wherever my feet are placed, 

my wholeness rises up from that place

as a vine of roses climbs a trellis to the sun

When that filling up flows through me, 

my being is healed in the moment, 

my cricket-y knee may be a little slow 

to catch up with the wholeness of my being 

but gentles with the wholeness of the earth.

“Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means 

embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.”

~ Parker J. Palmer, author

To Grow and Learn

Birthday parties are fun

But birthdays are special

‘How old are you?”

A frivolous question 

when a family celebrates the 

presence of a precious child 

in their parenting world.

Glossy, colourful bags full of 

toys and clothes, games and puzzles 

set the stage for creative play, learning and growth.

“There is still no cure for the common birthday.”

~ John Glenn, astronaut, author

(1921 - 2016)

"Just Because"

Why is it that 

I look around me as I walk? 

Do I like the colours 

or shapes that I see? 

Do I see a white rabbit or 

a dragon in the clouds?

Why do I see the poetry 

of life all around me?

My mother would say: 

“Just because” as if 

that would satisfy my 

questionings. I still ask as 

many questions, maybe more, 

than when I was learning 

my world. Almost eight decades 

have passed with all the learning of 

other things. Now I answer 

my own questions: “Just because.”

“Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why."
~ Kurt Vonnegut 

Who Among Us

Who among us have not felt 

the whoosh of time when 

an almost forgotten joy

or an old fear has been borne

~ not in detail ~ 

but in the bursting of heart or 

the shrinking away from hope.

It is then that we know that 

the growth of years has 

surpassed our child self.

Who among us have not known 

the brilliance of the moment when 

we welcome the forever flower of joy 

and a steady glow of hope to banish fear.

“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”

~ Sigmund Freud