Small Steps and Choices

Entertaining choices:  

not all that entertaining 

when seen as drudgery or 

maybe challenging to the soul. 

Both involve a deep breath but 

that’s where the similarity ends. 

Housework chores are visible 

~ have a beginning and an end. 

Fears, nervousness, anxieties 

creep in slowly, silently 

Colouring today, tomorrow and 

yesterday in shades of darkness 

that can’t be washed away until 

tiny fragments of courage and hope

allow small steps and choices 

to blossom and brighten each moment.

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”

~ Nelson Mandela

(1918 ~ 2013)

To Rest and Breathe

 

Teeny tiny steps,

when exhaustion flags the day

gets a few jobs done, 

but first to rest and breathe.

“When in doubt just take the next small step.”

~ Paul Coelho, lyricist

Baby Steps

Continuation of a walk 

through life seems obvious. 

After all each child is 

born to do just that. 

How we teach our children 

to walk is important. 

And when we have grown 

past our adolescent years and try 

to balance our tentative adult steps, 

we will want to fly like the geese in the fall, 

or race like a thoroughbred to ‘get there’ 

with spirits indestructible and brave.

And so we are and can continue to be throughout 

our lives no matter the heaving and buckling of the road

as long as we remember the baby steps of our youth.

“Perhaps it was not a destination I sought but merely a continuation.”

~ Ocean Vuong,  On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Out of the Chaos ~ SIMPLICITY ~ Theme for August 2025

 

Saucy, measured steps…..

Initials carved…….

Margins of ……..

Playing in the……

Lingering on the……

Illumination of….

Curves wrap…..

Illustrations and…..

Tastes of……..

Yesterdays fill……

“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”

~ Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Blindfolded

Taking steps

blindfolded 

to a dark horizon 

cautious 

each word counted 

in blocks and minutes

lifting the blindfold only 

to read the next sentence 

shape it with meaning

knowing each step taken 

gets through to the end.

“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard 

and you put one word after another until its done. 

It’s that easy, and that hard.

~ Neil Gaiman, author 

Underneath

Underneath it all, 

those roads we’ve traveled, 

are imprints. 

Hollowed echoes 

of each footstep 

leaving memories of 

our journey through life.

“Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints!”

~ Chief Seattle

Welcome Relief

This is the best kind of relief. 

To breath deeply of cool, fresh air. 

To walk slowly on forgotten summer 

sidewalks laminated with snow, 

savouring each step. Pausing to raise 

my eyes to see through arching 

barren branches to the crystal blue sky. 

This is the best kind of relief.

“This is the best kind of love, I thought,

without recompense, without gifts, 

or unkind words, without suspicion,

or silence on the telephone.”

~  Billy Collins, Aimless Love

Author’s note: today’s poetry inspired by Aimless Love by Billy Collins

Mayonnaise Decisions

Steps to any particular goal 

are often hidden unless 

there is some form of 

manual that is numbered, 

bulleted and with an index. 

There may even be chapter headings 

outlining all the steps you need to 

complete your task. But if you look 

in a library or book store, or one 

of those little sidewalk lending 

libraries you may find many 

how-to books about your topic, 

each one a different author and a 

different set of steps. So there’s 

the conundrum. Now what to do. 

Pick and choose who is right? 

Throw them all out and run away 

in frustration? Or just get started 

and pick and choose what fits

for you? Decisions can be such 

a headache sometimes. So it may 

be best just to take a nap or eat 

your lunch. As you’re dreaming or 

chewing your tomato sandwich, the 

answer will arrive with the mayonnaise 

letting you get on with your journey.

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many Voices of Me

Hear their voices 

echoing from 

many ages ~

listen to them 

for their wisdom, 

their many moods, 

their downfalls, 

their achievements, 

remember each step 

along the way 

steps rushed or slow, 

faltering or striding forth. 

Hear their voices merge 

into the one voice that 

lives in today. Honour them 

all, be kind to them all 

for they are who you 

embody today.

“I’m safe inside this container called me.”

~ Haruki Murakami

Inspired by a poem I read online, but am unable to find again to credit the author with helping me to write my post tonight.

Step Away from the Ledge

Out on a ledge that was not really a ledge but an immense chunk of terracotta coloured granite in a National Park in Colorado, I merely wanted to look over the ledge of rock to see how far down I could see. But, in a bit of mischief, I think I also 

wanted to worry my aunt who practically pulled me away from a danger I did not believe was there. I succeeded in worrying my aunt, but never did get to see how far down I could see. I did see 

the vast country of mountains that ranged 

all around us, domed by the stunning sky.

Fortunately ~ well sometimes ~ the memory 

remains, while the photos are lost in many 

bouts of relocation. Memory is like that ~ 

a ledge that we all stand on to peer into our past, 

remembering times of vast beauty, times of 

mischief, or times when that ledge leans into 

the dark. We pull ourselves back from the 

pooling depths, or maybe a worried aunt does, 

so we can look to the beauteous world once more.

“Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending 

beneath her, still she sings away all the same, know she has wings.”

~ Victor Hugo