Posted in poetry, tagged choice, depression, gratitude, inspiration, metaphor, one day at a time, poetry, positive attitudes, the emotional life on August 26, 2023| 1 Comment »
Life is too short to be wasted in finding answers. Enjoy the questions. Paulo Coelho One square block of sidewalk. Sometimes it appears sufficient, a part of a whole. On other days the pocked places rise. And the darker pebbles act as if they are meant to rule my spirit. As if the promise of lighter squares on the path ahead couldn’t exist. I’m stuck. One more step, then one more until the walk becomes a journey again.
Posted in inspiration, tagged apathy, choice, depression, determination, experience, Mahatma Gandhi quote, peace, peace and justice, perspective, war on October 9, 2022| 1 Comment »
An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind. ― Mahatma Gandhi Men willing to break their own arms rather than race into fire and death, war games played without winners. The news spreads in endless loops on screens with color but no dimension while some watchers gasp, yet others pass a bowl of snacks, grateful the pain strikes in another language, continent, time zone. Human beings willing to reach beyond a huff or pant. One country touching another. One person letting peace stretch beyond a closed room. We will not let war cage the world with hate. Or apathy. Or depression. It will take time, but, let us discover peace. Together.
Posted in inspiration, tagged appreciation, choice, depression, gratitude, inspiration, Oscar Wilde quote, oversleeping, perspective, positive attitudes on February 18, 2022| 1 Comment »
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist. That is all. (Oscar Wilde)
I’ll get up in a minute.
Or two, or three, or… A minute has been redefined. It has been carved from the clock and thrown into infinity. And no longer has meaning.
A line of pink appears on the horizon. Then two more. Parallel stripes. They don’t stay. Like the existence that passes before this old body faces the day.
I toss blankets aside. The weight of my past had been keeping me down, pressing into my dreams.
The pink in the sky has already faded. Its beauty passes. Nevertheless, another day begins. Another chance to grab the dark, the light, and the unexpected. Then create with each possibility.
Posted in positive thinking, tagged acceptance, Aisha Tyler quote, appreciation, choice, depression, encouragement, experience, gratitude, inspiration, patience, perspective, positive attitudes, wisdom in unexpected places on July 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »
I can’t control what’s fair and unfair. I can’t control the nature of the business or the nature of society or the nature of the world, but what I can control is how I choose to see the world and what I choose to put back into it (Aisha Tyler)
A squirrel destroyed our squirrel-proof birdfeeder and then escaped through the break he created. The chunky critter had eaten his fill and then emptied the rest of the seed onto the grass. Sure, I grumbled, but at least a few birds managed to find some of the loose food.
A few birds. Nowhere near enough to approach a notion of fairness for our smaller visitors. Fairness has little to do with reality. I’d like to say I accept whatever falls from malevolent skies with the tranquility of a Buddhist monk in perpetual meditation. However, I suspect that few individuals have slipped while striking a nail with a hammer, smashed a thumb, and responded with an innocent smile, “Oh shucks.”
I remember a time when I was in a distant, lost personal place. A well-meaning acquaintance said she couldn’t understand how sadness and depression could keep someone from seeing the grandeur of a dogwood tree in spring.
I didn’t have an answer then. I see differently now. This woman’s judgment cut me off and ignored the fuller picture. I didn’t know yet that I needed to understand beauty by experiencing bugs, storms, disaster, and disease as well as delicate blooms. The word perfect is an adjective that lives fully only inside its definition.
In real life, darkness contrasts light, and creates shade as well as variant grays.
Not every difficult place in a person’s life needs to be spread across an Internet page and sent into the world. I prefer to send a word, a gesture or two, an image. Then let it speak for itself. A book-sized explanation isn’t always necessary.
What could one smile or phone call do? It seems inadequate when approaching deep sorrow and pain. And yet, many years ago, a friend unexpectedly stopped by my house with a casserole. I recall its simple tomato-based contents now. Even more, I remember her timing, and the fact that she believed I was worth her effort.
May your lights and shadows create fascinating paths, rather than no-outlet mazes, or resentments built of broken birdfeeders and other stolen treasures. If not now, when the timing highlights the gems in each developing pattern.
light, shadows, and a goldfinch at one of our feeders
terrypetersen 