Integrity

Resilience calls on 

integrity, self control 

and strength

when in the face of 

a cold, blustery wind.

“You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.”

~ Bob Marley

Spring Tease

Sidewalks dry 

down to the cement; 

until they are mushy 

or under water. 

Streets clear and open; 

except for muddy lakes at 

street corners or 

sidewalk to sidewalk. 

The sun was warm, 

the wind - well it was windy
but not full of icy fingers. 

But the sunshine on a bus
full of serious passengers, 

played peek a boo with me 

while her grandparents watched and smiled. 

Probably a year old, 

all dressed in pink, 

she saw me smiling at her.

Her brown eyes twinkled, 

she covered her pudgy face with little fat fingers,  

splayed them into the air and 

we played across the aisle 

while the mud splattered bus rumbled on.

“Although the world is full of suffering,

 it is also full of the overcoming of it.”

~ Helen Keller

Heart Felt

How resilient can we be 

when we hold hope 

tightly in our fists. 

Hope, that seems 

a bright balloon, 

that could easily float away 

if we don’t hold tightly to the 

thin tether from our hearts. 

Maybe, if we tie the tether 

firmly to our wrist, ankle or 

waist, we can move freely so 

we can do the next right thing.

“Maybe everyone can live beyond what they’re capable of .”

~ Markus Zusak,  I Am the Messenger

Setting a Stage

Letting words drift 

through my mind to have 

their own melody is pleasant. 

The lyrics are choppy and don’t make much sense;

a salad of the events of the day. 

Writing, reviewing, editing; 

making granola after supper; 

reading The Promise of Canada, 

out in the sun to push winter melt towards the drain, a bit of laundry ~ all mundane, necessary things to keep body and soul healthy and happy.

With each minute and hour that passes, 

global events and the characters in that play 

bully their way in and 

threaten a discordant melody.

And they may have their way, but not this day.

Today is for home ~ 

the strength for all the ‘morrows to come.

“In love of home, the love of country has its rise.”

~ Charles Dickens

Never Too Late

It’s late 

but never too late 

to do the only thing 

that comes 

at this hour of the night. 

It could be getting 

into warm flannel pyjamas 

or it could be 

writing an open letter 

to the world to settle 

into a peaceable night.

“Courage, my friends; ’tis not too late to build a better world.”

~ Tommy Douglas

Winter Slow

In the morning 

I could ask myself 

how I want to feel 

but there is no ‘want to’ yet. 

That will come 

as surely as light filters 

through the blinds. 

Softly, winter slow and 

as quiet as my cat 

padding across my bed. 

“You can only come to the morning through the shadows.”

~ J.R.R.Tolkien

Why Not

Kindness shows up 

in the strangest places. 

The first was while 

I took out the trash. 

The second came while 

I took a seat on the bus. 

What could be more strange? 

Two days in a row! 

In these unsettled days of 

cultural upheaval and 

mudslinging, it was a

very welcome warmth. 

I wonder. Could random acts of kindness 

and the soul softening they bring 

waft upwards through the layers 

of harsh political jousting?

“If the flap of a butterfly’s wings can be instrumental in generating a tornado, 

it can equally well be instrumental in preventing a tornado”

~ Edward Lorenz, mathematician and meteorologist

Uncertain Belief

When I was a part of 

the vast army of nurses, 

an employee, 

practicing my craft, 

I had a certain belief. 

A belief in, 

not only nursing and nurses, 

but the frailties of the human body. The ways of walking, talking, coping with the pain and strife of whatever condition was within them. 

Now, as a woman alone, 

my belief was confused 

and many days still is. 

Confused about my place in all this emptiness; 

where do I step; 

am I enough; 

are there rules I should follow. 

Until, step by step, I learned 

to adapt lessons from the past, 

to find the steps, 

the guideposts, 

the anchors for this retired life

and to believe in myself.

“Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Almost

Despite temperatures being well below freezing ~ far enough that the actual number is irrelevant ~ it’s just 

freezing. That hasn’t stopped the shoppers, the children going home from school, and those of us just blocks from 

our destination. The topic of weather ~ too cold or too hot ~ can get monotonous and quite frankly boring. Almost 

like politics: predictable, can be frightening, 

and at the same time changeable just when 

everything seems settled and comfortable. 

Despite all the discussion today, the worry 

is that in a couple of days, banks of snow 

will possibly be melting, flooding the streets 

with winter muck. Kind of like politics.

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Dormant

A four foot snow bank!

Slippery, shiny words packed around our neglected voices,

have forgotten that spring 

arrives. What may look 

dead and dull, hides 

life and growth flowing from 

roots deep in the soil of home.

“Our power is in our homeplace, in our roots..”

~ Sylvia Linsteadt, The Wild Folk Rising

Sleepy

The evening grows late. 

Great yawns remind me 

that my body clock works. 

Time ticks inexorably onward 

as evening grows later still.

“A well -spent day brings happy sleep.”

~ Leonardo da Vinci

From the Car Window

Silent hills, blanketed in snow that drifted across the lake, through barren bush, 

found the eye of my camera 

to be frozen in time.

“Photography takes an instant out of time, 

altering life by holding it still.”

~ Dorothea Lange, documentary photographer

Winter White and Sky Blue

Winter white and sky blue, 

pencil gray trees and fences 

complete a scene that grow 

into grass and leafy trees; 

fields of grain crisp into 

autumn gold and bales of hay. 

There is no greater resilience, 

unless it is the way mankind 

grows and learns in waves

from the passing of centuries.

“Life is a series of waves to be embraced and overcome.”

~ Danny Mayer, businessman

New Life

Hot air breathes new life 

into a bland lump of 

sourdough, aroma defining 

the spirit of bread.

“The most satisfying product of culture is bread.”

~ Thomas A. Clark, Reliquiae #2

 

On the Rise

 

Stretch and fold

  as in yoga &

a sourdough rise.

“There is not a thing that is more positive than bread.”

~ Fyodor Dostoevsky