“Pause and Repeat” posts signal a break in blogging for me. Each time, the break is of its own specifics but mostly, it is just a pause, a moment away. The repeat is always a favorite previous post, this time, a Mary Oliver moment. Roses Everyone now and again wonders about those questions that have... Continue Reading →
What Better Thing to Do
Yesterday, Mary Oliver posted a bit of her poem, ” Mockingbirds,” on Facebook. The Atlantic featured it on April 30 as the poem of the day but as Oliver pointed out, a poem can be the poem of the day on any day. Indeed. This morning two mockingbirds in the green field were spinning and tossing... Continue Reading →
When the Journey Seems a Jungle
On so many days, the journey daunts. It’s the obstacle. It’s the path. It’s both. You choose the order, if that's a must for you. Some days I stagger but I also admit to a bit of swagger. Those days cost me more, ultimately. This day, the journey is loud with "voices I leave behind." I... Continue Reading →
“Poem” Pause: Being By a Cat
Nothing grounds me like a poem. Nothing. It brings me to life right where I am. Crossing the gulf of today’s #DailyDose is not a task too tall. It is paw by paw focus. as the cat climbed over the top of the jamcloset first the right forefoot carefully then the hind stepped down into the... Continue Reading →
A Wendell Berry Kind of Day
It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and that when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey. Wendell Berry, Standing by Words When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at... Continue Reading →
The Essence of Mirage
If equanimity opens me to the colors of the day, mindfulness provides the canvas. These are my daily tools, and I keep them close. If I do not, ego will send me in search of something so promising that to escape the day seems my only choice. As well, I am provided 1001 reasons why... Continue Reading →
When There Is No Other Name
Sometimes, I leave too much unwritten but then, there are those times I “run aground” a metaphor. My writing lies somewhere between poetry and prose, falling short of either. Yet, it reflects the way I live now, a place in between. Yesterday’s post mentions an acceptance of nothingness, as if there were no fear attached. In... Continue Reading →
What to Think
Things to Think Think in ways you've never thought before. If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message Larger than anything you've ever heard, Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats. Think that someone may bring a bear to your door, Maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose Has risen... Continue Reading →
Once in A While a Protest Post
“Something there is that does not love a wall…” (Robert Frost). No, not the wall specifically but all walls--any walls--put up under the mistaken belief that in isolation, life thrives. How can it? It exhausts its limited resources. When we wall out what is on the other side, we lull ourselves into a false sense... Continue Reading →
Derek Walcott: Feast on Your Life
Love After Love The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to... Continue Reading →