Delicious Aromas

The granola toasted ~ filled 

with oats, nuts and seeds ~ 

resting on the counter 

giving up the oven to 

a loaf of oat whole wheat bread. 

The aromas of spices and bread giving home the scent of other homes. This greater and short lived joy pulls all my homes out of thin air with memories from 

farm to apartments to houses

throughout the decades. 

It always surprises me when 

I can truthfully measure 

my life in decades. 

Through travels,   

  education 

     careers,

    families and friends

but aromas are home life 

inside the memories. 

No granola in the past, 

but the spices are the same as 

   the cookies, 

     apple sauce, 

       apple and pumpkin pies

from decades past. 

“Nothing awakens reminiscence like an aroma”

~ Victor Hugo, poet

(1802 ~ 1885)

Shadow Song

I have carried regrets ~ 

the maybe’s and what if’s ~ 

carried them carefully tucked

in my pocket or back pack, 

sheltering them 

as though they were sugar - 

if they got wet they would 

melt and dissolve away ~ 

What if they did?

What would be missing? 

Merely a shadow ~

only the weight of the past.

What wisdom will it impart ~

that shadow of past lives that 

deserve compassion, 

compassion for who I was then, 

even if it was only 

yesterday or 40 years ago. 

So I take the lint from my pockets, 

the crumpled tissues from my back pack 

where old regrets reside.

Setting them out in the sun 

I watch them thaw, dissolve and evaporate 

into the nothingness that they always were.

If I’m not careful, I may just catch a tiny 

piece of regret and just before it vanishes; 

hide it in the folds of my life. 

Yet when sunlight leans over my shoulder,

the shadow pen writes with me 

in a new harmony of words. 

“The shadow escapes from the body like an animal we had been sheltering.”

~ Gilles Deleuze, Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation

On an Afternoon Walk ~ What Matters

I don’t remember flowers on that tree last spring 

but then I may not have walked that way 

when they were in bloom

or it could be one of those mind dwindles 

that lets me see things with new eyes

or I may not have been paying attention.

answering all those questions doesn’t matter 

when the sky is blue, the clouds are not threatening rain 

and the sun has warmed the air

what matters is that today my eye caught

the beautiful pink of a young tree in flower.

“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.”

~ Will Rogers

Where the Dandelions Grow

“Until we know where

the dandelions grow,

beautiful buttercup yellow

glowing under our chins,

making tea from roots

grown deep in the earth,

blowing gauzy parachutes

that float on the breeze,

in the past there was future

and the future will pass,

we just might forget 

how we arrived in today.

“If you find yourself worrying, go outside, 

take three breaths, address a tree and quietly say,

 ‘Thank you’. If you can’t find a tree, a dandelion will do….

Nature is magic.”

~ Robert Bateman

Denying a Lie

A threat loomed

without a cloud 

in the sky

the floor wavered

in the stillness 

of morning

old fears flooded my mind

while my kitty purred 

at my side

I wiggled my toes,

set my feet flat 

on the floor

deep breaths

restored 

my balance

focused once more 

on the page

I wrote: ‘Good Morning’

“Don’t allow your mind to tell your heart what to do. 

The mind gives up easily.”

~ Paul Coelho

From a Distance

From a distance of today 

I see my past, 

a long dark tunnel 

with twists and turns,

bright spots and dark corners. 

To drift along that corridor without holding today’s confidence can be dangerous, too easy to slip 

into dark corners that beckon. 

are the bright spots figments of my imagination? 

I remember that naive girl, 

who still lives inside me….. 

In the sunlight of today, I count my blessings, and am grateful.

“Maybe, I thought, it’s not distance 

that’s the problem, but how you handle it.”

~ Rachel Cohn, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares

Christmas Present

Ghosts of Christmas’ past 

vie for my attention like a child’s tug o’ war ~ 

soft glow and fond memories of family, food and fun, 

against gray grief 

    and angry angst that seem, 

each of their own accord, 

to want a solid win. 

To date, no concrete decision!

honour bound, each finally bows to the other’s need

the struggle, the tug o’ war, is a draw: 

one cannot survive without the other

The Winner:  Christmas Present

“Christmas gives us the opportunity to pause 

and reflect on the important things around us.”

~ David Cameron

More Child's Play!

Here’s another blast from the past, a watercolour from about 2006. I think I named him Herman or Howard or some H name. Propped on my desk,  I see him every day. He’s a nice guy and makes me smile!

“For a moment at least, be a smile on someone else’s face.”

~ Dejan Stojanovic, The Sun Watches the Sun

On an Afternoon Walk - Square One

Musing under the springtime sky

Perfect symmetry ~

four sides with a

numbered space

like one section of

a hopscotch game

chalked on cement

the place to return to

when the game turns

on one end to the other

Perfect symmetry ~

four sides with space 

filled with a past design.

“Yea, I shall return with the tide.”

~ Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

From the Centre

From the centre of our being

ideas sprout and grow

pointing us toward the sun.

From the world around us

ideas shine with reality

asking to be something more.

From times past and present

ideas grow into our futures

riding in our dreams.

“Ideas define us, our past, our present, and most importantly, our future.”

~ P.W.Cross, The Idea Miners: The Lost Lake Dig

Christmas Past

Christmas past has become 

Christmas today ~

whimsical, glowing

packaged in brown paper 

tied with red ribbons while

Father Christmas ~

a gentle spirit brings

joy and kindness to all.

“When we recall Christmas past we usually find that the simplest things 

~ not the great occasions ~ give off the greatest glow of happiness.”

~ Bob Hope

As We Walk

Evolution, like bureaucracy, moves slowly…

unseen and unfelt until archaeologists discover 

where we have been ~ certain of the existence of the past; 

gently brushing away sand and pebbles 

to witness the shards and remnants 

of once vibrant living cultures

protected by Mother Earth ’til

revealing them to us as we walk.

“Are we being good ancestors?”

 ~ Jonas Salk