At Sunset ~ 2

 

At sunset

the ocean calms

as world turns

“Sunsets are loved because they vanish.”

~ Ray Bradbury

Oceans of Time

Currents curl and roil as

waves roll into shore

frothed with memories ~

one and two and three

lifetimes ago

 Babies born and grown

   Babies born and grown

     Babies born, grow to live

to create their own frothing memories filling oceans of time with turmoil, joys and calm.

“Sometimes we exist long enough to lead the next generation, 

other times, to plant a seed and let its resonations 

of our time here on Earth ripple into new waves.”

~ A.J.Darkholme, Rise of the Morningstar

From a Distance

Reckless and thoughtless!

No care taken, at all,

with others lives!

From a distance

across the ocean

anger froths impotently

In the comfort of homes

supplied with food and water

we are warm and horrified.

“Creators of history always play with our impotence and our ignorance.”

~ Dejan Stojanovic, The Sun Watches the Sun

 

Road Blocks and Scraps

Estimating time and distance over land, sea or in the sky

is relatively easy.

Estimating time and distance from head to heart oft encounters deep pot holes, sharp rocks, giant boulders, fierce fences, stormy weather and ...........

Estimating time and distance to meet these annoying or frightening challenges

involves digging deep for 

even the smallest scrap of courage.

“The head learns new things, but the heart forever practices old experiences.”

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Tidal Pools

Laughter echoed softly in the windowed verandah of Oak Bay Beach Hotel, rising with the tide of photos and videos to splash us all with the loving chatter of stories and tales of far away grandchildren ~ 

  newborns and toddlers,     youngsters and teens.

Already in from our walk, 

we knew that outside in the sunshine, joggers, cyclists and dog walkers energized sun-heated streets and sidewalks. They would pass an immaculate golf course, spread with grace and elegance above the ocean, where only a gentle doe and her spotted fawn grazed, safe and quiet before golfers flocked in.

A light breeze from the glittering ocean and

dappled sunlight through old elms and oaks

cooled the late morning air 

on this very fine Monday morning.

“You don’t need to be the tide to rise and fall, 

you don’t have to be a wave to touch the shore; 

just be a little sand-grain and feel them all.”

~ Munia Khan, poet

Really?!

I had no idea how many 

plastic bags and plastic debris

go into my garbage daily ~

into my plastic garbage bag.

There are many global issues

that make me angry. 

None have touched me 

right in my kitchen! like this has.

Seeing pictures of oceans with

plastic bags and plastic debris floating 

like forests of kelp waving in the current

angers me. Garbage tossed away mindlessly.

Any gratitude towards convenience has also been tossed away.

I can’t divine which, if any, of my plastic

ends up strangling a turtle or

sickening to death a whale

but I can change my attitude 

about what’s really disposable.

“How is the ocean not enraged, swelling - 

How is it not furious with grief: 

we have drowned it in plastic, 

it’s waves are no longer it’s own.”

~ Ashley Asti,  The Moon and Her Sisters

An Ocean View

Driving to lunch this afternoon with friends, we took the scenic route along Dallas Road and Beach Road. The wind had cleared heavy clouds that rained all night. The ocean rolled and frothed showing the power of that immense body of water. Waves lashed the shore around Clover Point and the cliffs around Dallas Road. It was a demonstration of great power and beauty. Also showing the potential for devastation.

This morning I listened to yesterday’s episode on CBC's The Sunday Edition about the dehumanizing effect of the phrase ‘grey tsunami’ on old people. The interview was with Andrea Charise, a professor at the University of Toronto who teaches a class called “Aging and the Arts”. Andrea Charise has a PhD in English literature and has worked as a medical researcher in the fields of geriatrics and clinical epidemiology. The phrase shouts ‘Be afraid’. Society will be drowned with the great burden that is coming whether we want it or not. This phrase ‘grey tsunami’ was not intended to have this effect but to just say that huge numbers of elderly will require care. But the effect on an individual level is to enhance the age old worry of being a burden on ones family, on the community and the health care system. This phrase fails to address the beauty and wisdom of this great body of humanity. Not all of us become wise with our years and our beauty often is only in the eye of the beholder. 

So, when we are preparing for a massive potential disaster, we must also focus on ourselves and the individuals around us for strengths, wisdom and yes, need. After all, many of us are still working within the foundations of our society to support ourselves and our families. Many of us are still using the lessons of our years to create vast pools of calm and laughter. I don’t know about the rest of us, but I will challenge this dehumanization. 

“Where there is not community, trust, respect, ethical behaviour 

are difficult for the young to learn and for the old to maintain.”

~ Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant As Leader

Monochrome Feelings ~ A Story

The colour of sea and sky are a picture in monochrome. Only the billowing softness of the clouds differ from harsh, choppy waves. All is greyness and heavy damp. Ship’s flag hangs limply. Wilted against the flag pole, too sodden to flap in the brisk wind, it’s colors wrapped around the pole trying uselessly to avoid the rain. Morning had come too early and in the dark wet there had been little light until now. Stewards with steaming coffee stayed just inside doling out satin dark warmth. I’ve stepped outside not caring about the weather. Standing alone on the prow of the ship, I am separate from late breakfast chatter and clatter. There is a space ~ a void ~ in my heart as grey, troubled and dark as this day. I know I can step into the warmth and camaraderie of fellow travellers but cling to my loneliness as to a life raft. I do not want to hear all of their ideas and plans. The rain will soon end the captain reports. But will my tears. I have left a life behind with no return until this pain is eased in my heart. The pain will never truly be gone but will no longer flood my soul as the heavy rain and vast ocean flood around me. There is a loneliness that heals.

“Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time 

you most need to be by yourself. Life’s cruelest irony.”

~ Douglas Coupland, Shampoo Planet

Timely Curiosity

Victoria is a very beautiful city. I do miss the amazing beauty of the prairies. 

Whether on the Island with all it’s abundant greenery, 
the prairie with it’s wide, blue skies and vast horizons, 
the glittering water of the ocean or mountains carved out of time, outlined in snow ~
      
there is always some flash of beauty that draws my attention
Makes me curious and yet
I hesitate because of it’s seeming insignificance 
in the grand scheme of the natural world
in the fullness of time, my moment is just as insignificant.

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose 

that makes your rose so important.”

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

World Ocean Day Appreciation

Today, June 08: 

    World Oceans Day.
Even though I live just blocks from the Pacific Ocean, I am far removed from the life below the surface of the water.

Water:
- blue, sparkling on a sunny day
- greygreen, frothing on a wild and windy day

A peaceful or challenging surface for
- man and bird
- ships and sails

Are we aware of the abundance in the deep where
- life teems and grows
- fishes, mammals and plants swim and drift?

Our oceans deserve our respect, our care and our gratitude

        - for the gifts of entertainment, travel and sustenance

                  - for being another dimension of our world.

".....the ocean is alive, and needs to tell us something important......."

~ Jeffrey McDaniel

Crossing an Ocean

Flowing rapidly over pebbles and rocks ~ tepid water reached over ankle and shin

Reality varied with each task on the desk ~ each client awaiting their care.

Wading steadily til an end was in sight ~ colleagues offered to help all the way

At day’s end, an ocean had been crossed.

         “Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free.

Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”

~ Zhuangzi

Under the Surface

I have, once more, dipped my toe into the vast and uncharted pool of published online research articles about epilepsy, this time with a more focussed eye. I thought, perhaps naively, that this would provide me with a simple answer to the question:  Is epilepsy inherited or familial?

The answer to that question itself seems to be, well, questionable or maybe just difficult to wrap my head around. As to the genetics of epilepsy, the numbers and types of genes involved seem innumerable. Under the surface, there are incredible discussions about pathophysiology, ion channels, and words too long for me to remember and spell in the short time I have to write this.

So often I have heard that there is ‘not enough’ research for some particular question that someone would like answered, or maybe just explored. However, what is being researched is a disease as old as humankind, in an organ that cannot be seen except with technology or after death, and in the neurons and synapses of that organ spread like a webbing far more vast and in depth than the world wide web.

It leads me back to where my feet are, sitting here tapping on my keyboard. I do not  need to know how epilepsy works or why epilepsy is part of my brain. What any person living with epilepsy, including family and community, needs to know is how to live with the form of epilepsy that is present. To be able to practice healthy living, there is need for humility, kindness, respect and fair dose of courage. When those things are not there, then learning to let go of those that cannot offer any support is paramount to developing a healthy pathway in life.

“God grant me the serenity 

to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can, 

and the wisdom to know the difference.”

~ Reinhold Niebuhr

Author's note:  Edited July 25, 2024; updated August 19, 2024

Seeing Things.....

           Seeing Things.....

So-o-o hungry when I got up but just too tired to make my usual great breakfast of bacon and eggs, I had energy enough to get out my blender and ingredients for a smoothie. Carrot or strawberry smoothie? I decided to make both, which turned out to be more work than if I’d made my regular breakfast.  

Standing at my kitchen counter, I stared blankly out my window overlooking the ocean front. Squinting suddenly, I rubbed my eyes. I checked my glasses to see that they were clean. For once they were spotless. Stopping long enough to pour myself a smoothie, I took a big drink and looked again out the curving bay window that I loved so much. It really was - a man? – or else I’d been reading too many Harlequin Romances. A very handsome buccaneer, his shirt open to the waist revealing his bronzed gleaming chest, leaned on my windowsill grinning at me. Blonde curls spilled over his brow, long tresses graced his wide shoulders. I closed my eyes tightly, took ten deep breaths and thought of doing laundry. When I opened my eyes the buccaneer had vanished, and I was left with an empty blender.

 “In the world of words, the imagination is one of the forces of nature.”

~ Wallace Stevens

A Writers Group exercise to write a story from 'seeing things..'

Rocks in a Western Sea

Great rocks buried beneath the waves,

their rising humps seem awfully brave.

Each day met with sun or cloud, and trod upon by a noisy crowd 
of seagulls, crows, dogs and me when we walk by this western sea.

The ocean covers more or less 

when tides roll in upon the mess 

of sea life clinging to the rocks;

icy water gives them shock, 
and quiet tides a bit of rest,

shallow water being best.

Looking down through water clear,

I see the folds of rock that steer

deep waters in from west or east

around this silent, solid beast.

The giant rocks as God created,

all to the Universe are mated. 

Pebbles small, boulders large, 

gigantic mountains all submerge,

to live outside man’s laws and creeds,

and lying still they do no deeds.

Caring not for good or bad,

they have not feelings, gay or sad.

A rumpled foundation for wayward feet,

the earth argues not, each time we meet.

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson