More than 'Thank You'

So many things 

 to be grateful for in this life. 

the list is long, 

  longer than this page, 

    longer than any book

with each passing year, 

  each day is more precious. 

no need to wait til Thanksgiving Day 

  to feel them, 

    to voice them 

to be kind to that youngster 

 who didn’t know that gratitude 

   was anything more than saying 

            ‘thank you’.

“What if, today, we were grateful for everything?”

~ Charlie Brown

The Biggest of Lies

When you know 

that the sun will always shine, 

the wind will always blow 

whether your life 

spins out of control or 

is as placid as a lake on a summer’s day, 

you will also know that your heart 

will let your spirit and soul soar 

despite the naysayer’s surrounding you. 

And when one of those naysayers is

your own voice

telling you all that you can’t do 

let your spirit and your soul 

guide the way past that biggest of lies 

to the facts that are true.

“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes 

to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him.”

~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, novelist

(1821 ~ 1881)

In Your Bones

Acceptance is believing truth 

not the truth of someone else 

but the truth that 

lives in your bones 

that tells you 

what you don’t want 

    to believe 

that your life is of 

    your own making 

the little life that came with you 

but without instructions. 

Instructions whispered, spoken or yelled 

through each day of your life 

until all of them make sense 

but shaped with your own wisdom 

because you know the truth 

that lives in your bones.

“Knowing others is intelligence. 

Knowing yourself is true wisdom.”

~ Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

From the Inside

 

A narrowed life from the outside 

~ from the inside a broad expanse

 

of story and imagination; 

 of chatter and discussion, 

  of viewing the world as it is 

~ always a new direction 

for mind and feet to travel.

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, 

pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, 

philosopher, poet and essayist

(1803 ~ 1882)

In This Moment

Today I noticed 

blood pulsing  

from my heart to my toes, 

feeding my lungs, 

all the organs of my body, 

my brain and through all 

my muscles small and large. 

A reminder, 

sitting still or walking

sleep or awake that 

in this moment, 

this life is good.

“You notice. And noticing, you live.”

~ John Graves, writer

(1920 ~ 2013)

Silent Wings

Four geese flew low 

preparing for the long flight south 

it is always comforting to hear 

that soft ruffle of their wings 

then I know that a part of nature 

is blood and bone as are we ~ 

traversing life on the silent wings of 

ancestors, family and friends.

“You are born to fly, and in dreams you remember the soul has wings.”

~ Robert Moss, Australian historian

Back Alley Wandering

The big dream is to ride 

a wide open highway to success 

yet from my perspective of years 

those big dream highways are 

random connectors to daily life. 

The day to day living of each life. 

Sleep and eat, 

keep body and soul together, 

pay the bills and 

stroll on a Sunday afternoon. 

Back alleys are notoriously filled 

with our detritus for the garbage men 

with their big, grumbling trucks;

the nomads of the streets with 

shopping carts and plastic bags. 

And yet back alleys are filled 

with quiet, sad history of 

old refrigerators and furniture; 

the colourful art work of graffiti artists. 

Paved or packed dirt with grass 

trying to survive 

they draw a line between 

vegetable and flower gardens 

and messy yards for

plastic swimming pools and tree houses. 

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; 

it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”

~ Colin Powell

The Flow of Time

There is time ~

there is always time 

   a glide 

so soft and quick 

not slow 

  nor fast 

    nor even steady, 

life exists in the moments 

that surround us. 

How did you feel 

  the flow of time yesterday?

“I blinked my eyes 

and in an instant, 

decades had passed.”

~ John Mark Green, 

Last the Wild Wonder: Poems

How High

Ambition to live the life 

we were given 

put on the wayside 

when confronted with style, 

images and must do’s. 

If we do not measure up 

then we chance to

forget our own courage 

and desire for independence. 

Independence of thought, 

 of action 

    of belief 

in life as we see it.

And so we climb 

into that suit of armour 

that fits us best and 

take the direction of our choice 

despite pitfalls that may be in our path. 

“We never know how high we are 

Till we are called rise; 

And then, if we are true to plan,

 Our statures touch the skies.”

~ Emily Dickinson, Aspiration