A poem Shirley sent me in Oct

Wild Geese

You do not need to be good.

You do not need to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

--Mary Oliver

Travel bug

At first I am reluctant

To engage

To align myself

With the weary travelers

To shuffle along

It isn't until the air had thinned

And the grit of exhaustion stings my eyes

That the space between us constricts

And I feel that little ember of joy smolder

We are not so different, you and I 

My fellow passenger of life

And the world becomes smaller 

As we embark on a new adventure in synchronicity 

My journal

This paper

This pulp of promise 

This texture of opportunity

Carved out on this rectangular space.

The clean, clear, open forum for reflection

Is before me.

Untouched, untarnished

Unspoken

By tongue or stylus or wisp of imagination?

Until you walk by me. And I see you.

~ June 7, 2014

Gratitude

Day #1 of vacation-- grateful for the sleep in, the easiness of the morning, the sunshine that streams through the curtains, the peace, the feeling that I don't have to respond to email, the sense of freedoms, the video games and glass of red wine in the afternoon, the sassiness of a friend, and the total sense of letting go. Even if it's just for one day.

Life

Life, comes in tears and cries and groans

Life, comes in moments of beauty and love

Life, comes in aches and growing pains and raspy inhales of jagged breath

Life, comes in moments of stillness

Life, comes in moments of ecstasy

Life, is where I find you naked in my bed

Life, is where I find you on a mountain

Life, is in my touch, my smile and my hug. 

Life, is in my gratitude, for you.

~ April 27, 2014

The pull and the want....

Have you ever wondered where you'd be; who you'd be; at this age?

Did you imagine your life would be like this? This easy? This hard?

That your favorite place is a chair and good book? And that you yearn for so much more?

You have lived so many different lives....and you have many more to live. What will those look like?