International Women's Day ~ 2025

Yearning for a time that I was never in: 

Oh, to be a fly on the walls of 

my grandmothers homes, 

my mothers homes and 

all women of other lands and climes. 

To watch them walking and working, 

with bowed heads or heads held high 

no matter the work demanded of them 

catches my breath and 

I am grateful ~ 

grateful for the freedoms of today 

because their impassioned work 

slipped the knots to free us ~  

passing new found strength to 

our granddaughters homes

and great granddaughters homes.

“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear 

to be frightened at the will of others. My courage 

always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”

~ Jane Austen

Just a Little Sprucing Up

Naivety misses the mark ~ 

perhaps..... 

Belief in humanity's good heart, 

before nodding hello 

to the wide world, 

leads us down a garden path that

‘just needs a little sprucing up’

Yet belief remains even after 

cruel blood shed and 

hate filled lies abound.

Goodness is in the souls 

of one person at a time. 

Hands reach out as a candle's flame, 

warming this darkened world.

“The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.”

~ Mary Shelly

'Down South'

Original beliefs of my family 

down south, and my years 

working down south have 

almost been tarnished with 

the raucous goings on between 

here and there ~ such a quaint 

couple of words to define that 

big noisy country ‘down south’; 

‘across the line’ another quaint phrase defined that invisible border we crossed when going to see Grandmother and Granddad.

And across my living room 

I see the first piece of furniture 

I bought when I moved there in 1988. It’s a comfortable reminder of 

those years and a place where I seek 

its comfort to rock me into solace. 

I have believed in the goodness of these 

families and neighbours; 

even though the spelling 

of a few words that drop the ‘u’ 

jostles my spelling sensibilities. 

One brother lives and works ‘down south’;

uncles who fought in WW2, and 

cousins, aunts and uncles; colleagues and friends 

make up those original beliefs and memories ~ 

tarnished by today's uproar but only for a moment.

“Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs 

as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.”

~ Eleanor Roosevelt