June 2021

I have shared the above photograph in the past of the lilacs 

but this is June and if only...we could hold this will to open.

Again, from Mary Oliver, "Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable."

June brings us long days, sultry evenings, blasts of thunder, and wild lightning. 

Fireflies and mosquitoes. Brilliant and pesky. The both/and of our precious lives.

What will be left behind? Not the lost hat, the missing keys. 

But what will our loved ones carry when we are gone?

xo

 

 

MAY 2021

 

MAY 2021

And so flowers arrive; some pushing through wet earth

others driven in a car handed off in a hefty glass vase

gifts of what's to come

I remind myself to look closely 

to learn what they are made of

I was reminded a few days ago 

that we do not live in our bodies

our bodies live within us

this took me to my knees

I planted peas and spinach 

the same day

the same bent knees

Reminded: It's the same HOLY.

xo

 

April 2021

Creek, it is a creek?

stream, brook, runlet 

more than a trickle 

sounds of spring 

under dead leaves: a push

rindle, runnel, rill, rivulet

an awakening

tributary

time

xo

 

& then the sun 

going sideways & inside me

stopping me: calling me witness

naming me present 

though this gift a thing 

seen many times before

each one new: promised 

almost but not to be taken 

as always or forever

&

when I am gone, the sun 

will carry on

others will slow: name it beauty

wonder who was first 

who will be the last

xo

 

CENTERING

Centering is what I am aspiring and inspiring towards.

My dad died last month. 

It's hard to think, say, write, feel these words.

This morning I woke crying. 

How is this possible I ask?

 But no one hears me. 

Larry, asleep beside me & Charlie B, good dog, snoozes at our feet.

I'm painting mandalas on rocks found at the beach, 

other rocks I throw in the water just to see what happens.

I've taken my first pottery class. 

I walk in circles.

I am untethered, and though there would be a time this would be divine,

it isn't right now. I'm floating, but not on my back, not like he taught me.

xo

 NEW YEAR 2021

And so the new year begins
and though we've each held 

tight to much angst in 2020 

let's embrace the kind ways

we are touched & cared for 

the feelings of great sorrow

but so too the JOY moving

& touching us each deeply

 

the trees teach us how to be

trusting each storm will keep

 us deeply rooted and upright

reaching towards a heaven we know little of  

the moon, sun, and stars: dreams of peace

xo

December 2020

 

and who are we to be so blessed to have pie

to have clothing in a closet, shoes under the bed

a bed with flannel sheets : heat and hot water at the ready

who are we not to know how blessed we are 

to remember how it is we came in 

wrapped and delivered

wanted

xo