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Posts Tagged ‘gratitude’

Color Embraced

Posted in inspiration, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 11, 2023| Leave a Comment » 

If you're to choose to paint your life today...What will it be? Remember, you're the artist, not the canvas. (Val Uchendu)

Color. A celebration because I see.
Can I discover what is inside each tree
flower, blade of grass, bird on a branch?
Darkness and light, or a lack of privilege?
I close my eyes and picture the scene 
outside my window, every leaf, every bend
in the branches, dark and light greens
depending upon the favor of the sun.
Color, simple yet complex.
Complex, yet asking no more
than to exist.

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One More Time from the Top

Posted in inspiration, tagged , , , , , , , on May 27, 2023| 1 Comment »

One more time. I will try one more time. Copy and paste no longer works. Highlighted text no longer becomes bold. No, I do not plan to turn my computer into electrical compost. I may need to change web servers after all these years of sharing. Sure, I will accept help. However, please remember that my age is the ancient symbol for the eternal, or completion, the number 7, listed twice.

I celebrate this moment and pray that the goblin inside the webpage can be removed without ceremony. I don’t want to frighten the neighbors. In the meantime, I am adding my quote for the day at the end. And hope this isn’t a final moment, at least in this forum.

Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterward. Oscar Wilde.

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You, Me, and Our Other Neighbors

Posted in inspiration, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 19, 2023| 1 Comment »

MORE THAN DIVERSITY

We become not a melting pot but a mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.

Jimmy Carter

           

I joke with a gentleman in the deli area of the grocery as I wait for my turn. Hurry and I have been unhealthy comrades lately. Being in the moment is my current goal. The man has a dark green melon in his cart that could feed a family of 16. We talk about the beauty of watermelon. Of water. He says that the human body contains a large proportion of H2O. We celebrate its importance and laugh about how years ago no one would have bought bottled water. We wish one another a blessed day as he continues to the next aisle.

I am grateful to greet others and speak simple messages of recognition. I nod to a store employee and a mother with a baby. The light brown employee and olive-skinned mama wish me well.

A woman with hair as red as mine faces me as we approach from opposite directions. I smile. She speaks about the high cost of groceries and its difficulties for many families. I think we understand one another until she says she supports Governor DeSantis. “We have enough diversity,” she adds.

I say that I disagree but don’t pursue an issue that doesn’t belong in the political realm because the government can’t decide who is human and who is not.

Instead, I recall the previous day. I was in a hospital setting and heard a little girl say to her mother as they entered the registration area, “I will be the doctor.” If only her innocence could leak into the world. And the beauty of her color could be appreciated. The other individuals I spoke to in the store today also wore different shades of color, from peach to umber.

Diversity. Forget limiting it with definitions. Reach for an understanding of the larger world.

 

 

 

 

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So What Is Age?

Posted in inspiration, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »

“The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles!” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Capturing the whole of life continues to evade me. I have been 70 for more than a few years. Yet, learning doesn’t stop. Life has too many complex parts.

When I stood waist-high to grownups, I thought gray hair and wrinkles belonged to creatures of a separate species. Children in the late 1940s and early 1950s lived in another realm. 

We learned rules after we broke them. For example, building a campfire in the basement is not advisable. Even if the responsible individual planned to put it out after the Native American ceremony. I was probably about five at the time. And yes, I was the child who found fire in a box by the hot water heater.

Children sat separately from their elders during family events. We didn’t listen to any adult discussions. Some of our questions received a laugh and others found censure.  

Why isn’t Grandma bald like Grandpa? The observation was innocent enough that a quick guffaw was the only answer. Asking why Mommy and Grandma were so fat was another matter.

Distance. A distinct memory of my early life. The higher and the lower class. Where they were to meet was vague.

Transitions take tangled curves. I wonder if an easy path would have left space to experiment and fail before succeeding.

Now, I speak to my grandchildren at eye level. We play. My three-year-old granddaughter has no understanding that my husband is my son’s daddy. There is no need to explain yet. Wisdom doesn’t come with a set of rules. It’s organic.

I earned the lines in my skin. I treasure a few more as long as each road offers new passageways.

 

 The above painting is part of something new I am discovering.

 

 

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The Seed, a Short Story

Posted in inspiration, tagged , , , , , , , on April 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »

apples in an apple

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.  (Henry David Thoreau)

The Seed

The seed lay snug within her apple. Wind, rain, and sun brushed the surface of her fruit. Inside, protected, the seed grew dark and smooth. The tree told its growing parts that spring blossoms lived on the tree’s branches before they were formed. However, the seed did not want to hear about anything that happened a long time ago. She preferred to rest in a comfortable, firm sweetness that grew as summer brought warmth and long daylight stretches.

The seed expected endless safety. However, one afternoon in late summer, she felt a sharp jolt as her round, red home was snapped from its branch. Other apples left their places, too. They traveled miles from their birthplace.

The seed felt its fleshy home split with a sharp object. She was scooped out with the other seeds who lived with her. They were tossed aside.

“What is happening to me?” she called.

“Or us?” the other seeds replied.

But the seed didn’t hear. She was already taken away.

A dark time passed as the seed lay surrounded by moist soil in a small container for what seemed to be a century. Then something happened. She felt a violent tug in her center. She knew she was changing.

A creature, a lot like the one who pulled her from her home, grabbed her from the smaller container and placed her inside the ground. In time, she realized she looked much different. She was frightened.

“What is happening to me?”

A tall tree towered above her. She did not yet realize that she was also a tree, not until the days warmed and white blossoms appeared on her branches. They became fruit when the heat continued.

“Why did I worry so much. Everything I have experienced is natural. I must warn the other seeds. Somehow. They must not suffer like I did.”

She spoke to her own seeds. They didn’t listen. No matter how loud she yelled.

“Hush,” the wind told her. “You can’t find instant wisdom, especially if you haven’t discovered it for yourself.”

As the season passed, another creature appeared and stole one apple, and then another.

The seed, now a tree herself, watched.

“Wind,” she called. “Have I found wisdom yet?”

The wind did not answer. Nevertheless, the new apple tree waited even as winter came and robbed her of her gifts.

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Good Morning and An Unexpected Gift

Posted in inspiration, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 30, 2023| Leave a Comment »

oranges

A warm smile is the universal language of kindness. William Arthur Ward

 Kind words. Sometimes they fall into holes in the road and get lost in chunks of debris. Other times they fill the broken spaces and find the exact contour of the cracks. The words can be random. No more than greetings followed by ordinary blessings. Or friendships that begin with unexpected common interests.

I took of picture of four oranges a neighbor gave me this morning. A gift of some extra Vitamin C for nothing more than a smile and friendly conversation.

Peace. Upon all.

If only it were always that simple.   

 

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New Tree Buds

Posted in inspiration, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 15, 2023| 3 Comments »

buds

buds

“And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.” Meister Eckhart

  New Tree Buds

The first tree buds I notice this year seem fuzzy, like fine chihuahua fur or moss. The leaf-to-be will give more clues about itself as Spring arrives, even if the observer knows nothing about the botanical world. However, my purpose is metaphorical. Living beings change.

I ask the inner me to be an encouraging atmosphere for any living presence I touch. Peace.

the photo was taken at Mt. Airy Park in Cincinnati, Ohio

 

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Sunbeam Power

Posted in inspiration, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2023| 1 Comment »

“A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.”

― St. Francis of Assisi

I am alone in the room. I smile. A large window opens a view of my neighborhood on a 50-degree January day. Choose peace, I tell myself while the news repeats horrors in a universally expected monotone.

A sunbeam appears. Winter-bare trees stretch rich, dark branches against stark cobalt blue. The light reaches into our ordinary living space. The sun’s intensity splashes inside.

Breathe me in, sunbeam seems to say. I won’t stay long. The briefness of my appearance does not negate my presence. Even as the darkness appears, remember my brilliance lives within you, too.

illustration made from public domain drawing

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Dear Dr. Martin Luther King,

Posted in inspiration, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 16, 2023| 2 Comments »

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

 

Dear Dr. Martin Luther King,

May I speak to the Martin you were when your grandmother died?

Thanks.

I’m asking because I’m a grandmother now. My grandchildren look to me to discover who they are. They learn from the attention I give to them. By my presence. Death took your grandmother and hope left you.

You regained more than hope. You let an entire group of people know who they are.

 It’s a privilege to be a grandparent. And yet the child inside me pretends to be gone. I developed into a loving, accomplished woman who helped pay a stranger’s bill in a grocery store. Yet, I struggle sometimes to feel important enough to get past moments when I was a lost child too. The sun is not gone. The world celebrates today because you planted love, Dr. King. I can’t deny recurrent feelings but can allow them to pass and recognize the whole.

Love, may we learn to allow it to spread inside and outside of our families and neighborhoods.

 

The illustration is taken from a public domain drawing. There are many, just as Dr. King’s gifts are many.

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Revisited: I, a Poem

Posted in inspiration, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 20, 2022| 4 Comments »

“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
― Mother Teresa

The holidays magnify expectations. Suddenly, I think I need to fall into perfect alignment with the world. A perfect world. However, perfection doesn’t exist anywhere except in the dictionary. Pause. Breathe. Ask for help. Or give it. Christmas tree lights are artificial. Human light isn’t.

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