A Meeting of Minds ~ 3

They were having a serious discussion. Two young men coming home from school stopped because of Tommy “It’s a duck. Now let’s go.” Slinging his backpack over his shoulder, he started to walk away. 

“That’s dumb. It’s just a cloud.” Jimmy didn’t believe all that stuff about clouds. His mom was always seeing bunny rabbits or elephants. He couldn’t tell her she was being dumb unless he wanted to get in trouble.

Neither of them wanted any trouble. Tommy always went to his friend’s house after school. His parents didn’t get home from work until supper. His big sister had basketball practice or was just hanging out with her friends. “Mom’s baking day today. Hope you’re hungry.” 

“Sure am. Last one to your house is a rotten egg!!”

“Everything you can imagine is real.”

~ Pablo Picasso

The Quiet of Home

Sitting in the quiet of home

mind stilled 

the need for busy

vanished

restlessness subsided

like an afternoon breeze

no urge to fill the void

just sitting comfortably

in the quiet of home.

“Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content;

The quiet mind is richer than a crown;…”

~ Original text Robert Greene, 

Greenes Farewell to Folly

(W.White, 1617)

Refreshed

Integrity will tell us

when to take a gentle day,

to refresh mind and spirit

after the joy and fullness of family.

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

Tomorrow’s Post

When today has been full,

and my cup has overflowed,

my pen is still, I rest my mind

~ tomorrow's the stage for story.

“The principle of art is to pause, not bypass.”

 ~ Jerzy Kosinski

 

**Author’s note: Wednesdays are for the next episode of Situationally Theirs with Dez Eliot and Emelina Beaufort-Crawford.  I’ve had wonderful family time this week so have decided to write Chapter Two, Episode 146 tomorrow (July 27, 2023) ~ Good night!

A Beautiful Centre

Settling into home, 

I am aware of space ~ 

storage space, finding space,

space saving, creating space, 

colouring inside the lines of home, 

not filling space just to fill space, providing elbow room 

to work, to write, to live, 

to breathe, to walk, 

and keep beauty all around. 

 

In our homes, we fill our lives with convenience and necessity.

games to play, screens to watch, gadgets to cook with…..

until our cluttered space becomes who we seem to be.

We are body and soul, heart and mind  ~

the beautiful centre of all that is in our space.

“What we all dread most is a maze with no centre.”

~ G.K.Chesterton, A Father Brown Mystery: The Head of Caesar

Fixed!

What have I learned? 

allow myself to listen 

to my busy tangled thoughts

but too much information!!

I’m two generations too late 

to deal with it all.

frustration and fear steps in - 

scammers are out to disrupt my life.

my mind an out of control 

squirrel cage when I’m at home

Searching in vain for solutions: 

I should be able to do this myself!

Each possible solution tossed aside:

I need to talk to a human being

I need to know that human being 

I need to trust that human being

Who do I talk to, know and trust.

Oh! My grandson!

And he’s the right generation!

No scammers

Merely suggestions of a scam afoot.

Fixed ~ I can breathe…….

“Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. 

If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”

~ Arthur Somer Roche

Open Hearted

September, 2020 - Wascana Park

Assessing what direction to take ~ so linear, sorted on spread sheets with data to back up decisions,

when I watch my hand holding a knife, chopping vegetables for supper, easily swinging them into the pot,

there has been no obvious assessing, no measuring grids and lines, merely wanting the taste of good food. 

Assessing what direction to take 

~ needs the pull of heartstrings

with intuition to back up decisions.

“The head is powerful, but it can only get us 

what we really want if we open our heart first.”

~ James Doty, Into the Magic: 

A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the 

Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart

Listen

Words drop into my heart 

like a warm spring rain, 

moist and nourishing ~

to give voice to my soul

listening to my heart’s longings

my mind thrills to the oneness

words drop into my heart 

like a warm spring rain. 

“There is a voice that doesn’t use word. Listen.”

~ Rumi

Phase-ology 102

I wrote and posted Phase-ology 101 in November of 2014. I am now in the next phase of a long term writing project. When I wrote the second line ‘not too long…but just long enough’ I had no idea it would almost be 10 years for this next phase. There have been many writing phases since 2014 all with the help of everyone who has read my stories, essays, poems over the years.  Finally arriving at Phase-ology 102, I still have lots of work to do.

Phase-ology 101 

New phases, like the phases of the moon, need breathing space

Not too long….but just long enough

Centering, regrouping but more importantly

….remembering.

Remembering each difficult, or not so difficult, task was accomplished with all the same skills

learned over a life that keeps rolling along,

shifting with changing spaces of time and talent,

carrying the vitality of belief and experience into each new phase.

With belief and creativity in mind and heart ~ 

Deep breath, 

Spread out,

Pull back in

And lean into the work once more.

“There’ll come a writing phase where you have to defend the time,

unplug the phone and put in the hours to get it done.”

~ James Taylor

Phase-ology 102 

New phases, like the phases of the moon, need breathing space

not too long….but just long enough and much longer than imagined

fears, insecurities, self-doubt hovering just out of reach ~

centering, regrouping and more importantly

….remembering.

remembering difficult, or not so difficult, 

tasks were accomplished with skills

learned over a life that keeps rolling along,

shifting with changing spaces of time and talent,

carrying the vitality of belief and experience into each new phase.

always with the support and encouragement

       from everyone, anywhere, 

reaching out when my heart is too full,

my mind feels too empty, or my soul too dry

With belief and creativity in mind, heart and soul ~ 

Deep breath, 

Spread out,

Pull back in

And lean into the work once more.

“There’ll come a writing phase where you have to defend the time,

unplug the phone and put in the hours to get it done.”

~ James Taylor

Health Caring

Life really is simple ~

yet so complex!

body, mind, heart and soul

mechanics: muscle and bone

mechanic and ephemera: heart and mind

energy and blood flowing freely

Soul ~ mysterious beyond belief

Life is simply complex.

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

~ Dr. Seuss

 

At One with the Sky

Ohmmmm

Breathe deeply

into the core of your being 

Clear your mind ~

let all thoughts drift away

And they have ~

Drifted away

Far, far away………

“The clouds don’t overthink; they just drift.”

~ Avijeet Das, poet and writer from India

(goodreads.com)

impotence

The sodden feeling

Twisted and turned 

In my gut

Waiting ~

For the Big Terror

Running amok in my mind

Shrieking that crumbling was my fate.

Nothing.

Only calm.

No monsters in corners ~

only the left over froth

of impotent worries.

“What can you do when everyone around you is strong and clever?”

~ Tarjei Vesaas, The Birds

Immortal Dust

Ordinary dust

Gathered on furniture, ledges, in carpets, a child’s name written on an end table.

Layered dust of

a day, a few years, generations

sprinkled with dreams, laughter and tears

Fragments of dusty memories

settle within heart, soul and mind

revived by a flower, an aroma or a brilliant sky.

Ghostly dust of generations ~

invisible layers from families passing through time

traced by fading foot prints and frayed lessons

Star Dust ~

when it is our turn, we each join the dust of ages

sprinkled with dreams, laughter and tears.

“We’re all immortal, as long as our stories are told.”

~ Elizabeth Hunter, The Scribe