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