PLAY

"There's enough fun in the world for everybody to have some."

~ The Saturday Evening Post ~

Allowing ourselves to play is important medicine

For optimal well being.

And that means sober play- getting drunk comes with it's own kind of stress.

Play for play's sake- being silly,

Or creative- building something with no reason other than because we want to-

Laughing with people,

Dancing lightly or pounding our feet like Flamenco.

And not having time is a poor excuse.

Be playful for a minute or less here and there as you travel through life,

Or suffer the consequences

Of taking yourself too darn seriously.

I allow myself to be child like.

GOODBYES

"Every shut-eye ain't sleep and every good-bye ain't gone."

~ African American Proverb ~

Goodbyes come in varying degrees.

Some are sudden and unexpected.

Some are lingering and sad.

Some are sharp,

Some easy,

Some necessary,

And some absolute. 

But the one thing all goodbyes have in common is the gateway feature,

That opens to whatever comes next.

I understand that goodbye here is hello there and that all of life is a continuum.

A QUIET PRESENCE

"I exist as I AM."

~ Walt Whitman ~

Perhaps God is at much there when we are desperate

As when we are filled with joy:

A quiet presence,

Serenely present.

How though, in all people at every moment?

Perhaps, the secret is too simple to grasp.

Could it be that God is on the inside,

And not up there in the sky at all?

Understanding who I really am feels juicy, and delicious. 

NICE VS SMART

"Says the rude child: 'No, I won't do it.' Says the courteous grown-up: 'Yes, I won't do it.'"

~ Mignon McLaughlin ~

In an effort to be "nice"

We sometimes undermine our power

And compromise beyond what's necessary

Or smart.

It's intelligent and sound to set boundaries.

OUT OF NOWHERE

"Life eludes logic, and everything that logic alone constructs remains artificial and forced."

~ Andre Gide ~

Imaginative thinking can be playful, and fun,
As long as we don't let it hook us
By becoming too heavily invested in any specific idea
About the way we want things to turn out.
What makes life enjoyable is the way unexpected delights come
Out of nowhere,
And they can't come
If we are holding the reins on our thoughts and our energy
Too tight.

I stop wanting anything too specific, and open to surprises instead. 

BE SURE

 "If it 'aint broke, don't fix it."

~ American Saying ~

When companies make changes to their packaging,

I'm sure the idea behind the change seems like just the thing

In the corporate meeting room,

But at the receiving end, it can be jarring and disruptive.

More often than not, when a brand I like makes such a change,

I change too,

And pick a different brand. 

In the arena of change, casualties occur. 

PARADOXICAL LOOPS

"Only when we are sick of our sickness shall we cease to be sick."

~ Tao Te Ching ~

Are we grounded by the earth?

By water?

By eating a meal with complex carbohydrates?

By talking to a friend, getting a hug, or having a good cry?

By all of the above, or something other than the above?

In the same way that grounding is not one thing only,

Life is vast,

And even nothing is something. 

What makes the most sense often doesn't make any sense at all. 

CALM ABIDING

"It is only the long and patient road that leads to anywhere."

~ Muriel Strode ~

Calm abiding is a satisfying strategy for living.

'Standing back within ourselves and watching,

And looking to see,

Rather than charging forth with our words

and ideas,

Makes for easy interactions,

And interior quiet,

and 

Space. 

I am curious about life these days, more than intentional.

THIS

"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."

~ RW Emerson ~

In a world with a tremendous variety of options,

It can be challenging to be decisive,

And seems much easier

Much of the time

To wish and wash and not take a stand for any one position.

We make allowances instead, and excuses.

We waffle this way and that...

We figure well... maybe... 

And wonder why we feel so ungrounded

And insecure.

Clear decision is freedom and relief.

Open the door to your cage

And decide.

I claim the power I have to say yes and no.

THE SONG THAT SINGS US

"Wake up, sleepyhead!"

~ Schooner Fare ~

Sometimes we are urged to "heal"

From the generic challenges of life

Which don't, in fact, harm us,

But actually grow us.

Instead.

Why all this stress on healing as if we are constantly breaking

And being damaged?

When, more often than not,

We are just being played 

Like a violin

By Life...

The changing notes of emotional experience make the music I dance to and share. 

ALL INCLUSIVE

"I am not the poet of goodness only."

~ Walt Whitman ~

The creative urge of life itself

Is as much a part of sadness

As of joy.

It has no limits.

No bounds.

It is all inclusive,

As much with the dying

As the being born,

And the sorrowful wail of grief

As the giggle.

All living experience is contained within the Creative Source.

LOVING LIFE

"Happiness followed me everywhere.. it was all within myself..."

~ Rousseau ~

I love to be inspired.

I love to see the underdog overcome hardship.

I love people being good to people.

I love divine artistic gifts.

And I love the endless wonders of Nature,

And compassion,

And movement in my muscles,

And a good night's sleep.

In spite of whatever the negative story in my head might be, life is good. 

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE

"Words are slippery and tricky creatures, whether they drop from the tip of the tongue or of the pen, and when used in important matters, cannot be too carefully watched or too strongly manacled."

~ Leila J. Robinson ~

The word "should" limits our lives.

It puts a collar around our throats,

And shuts down spontaneity and flow. 

In the past it's a waste.

In the future it's a ball and chain.

Why bother with it at all when there are so many 

Positive and life expanding 

Alternative possibilities?

I change the "shoulds" in my life to "coulds," and that changes everything. 

ATMOSPHERIC CHANGE

"Peace must be more than the absence of armed conflict. It must be just, creative, and cooperative."

~ Elizabeth Tipton Derieux ~

Making peace-

Coming to terms-

What do we mean by these?

That we stop fighting?

Or perhaps... that we start honoring what we have been opposed to,

And acknowledging it for the good,

For the growth,

For the lessons learned...

Peace is more than just not fighting,

It's a whole atmospheric change.

We become ok-

Truly OK,

With what we once couldn't tolerate,

Or accept,

Or trust.

I let go of opposition and fill with love. 

LIFE AT PLAY

"Not to spoil the ending, but it's going to be ok in the end."

~ Saying on a Mug ~

Sometimes we have a thought that occurs to us as a knowing

And it seems like our intuition.

We think, "Ah HA! I'm spot on!"

And it turns out that we're 

Not even close.

And sometimes our intuition does show up as a thought,

And we are meant to follow it,

Or to understand what it wants us to know.

How to tell the difference?

Life is playful. 

That's a knowing too.

Sometimes I know what I think I know, and sometimes I don't, and either way, it's ok.

SUBTLE ENERGIES

"You possess the ability to tap a bottomless well of physical and psychic energy..."

~ LV Carnie ~

Whether we honor and acknowledge them or not,

All kinds of subtle energies are at play in our lives...

They propel us,

They hold us back,

They bring confusion and clarity and hopelessness and great joy.

We are life itself

In the company of humanity

And God. 

I am a field of possibility.

CONONDRUM

"Let go, and let God."

~ Popular Saying ~

Truly trusting requires letting go of the reins,

No matter the situation.

And how many of us can do that?

Why is it so hard to let go?

Because we don't fundamentally trust.

And how do we learn to trust?

By letting go...

It's a conundrum like the chicken and the egg.

Which comes first?

I am WILLING to let go and trust.

THE BIG PICTURE

"If you do not raise your eyes you will think that you are the highest point."

~ Antonio Porchia ~

Sitting on the hillside and looking down at the gardens I created

Puts them in perspective.

They are tiny, de minimis... 

Nothing in the scope of the broader landscape.

And they have kept me awake at night worrying over them.

I am both more, and less, than is immediately apparent. 

SPRING

"The air is vivid with spring light."

~ Byron Caldwell ~

Spring is about renewal-

Things coming back...

But not the same as before:

NEW buds.

And there is friction in the arrival of this new growth-

A chick squeezing and stretching its little cramped body

To break open the shell and be born-

Bulbs pushing up through dirt,

And death comes too,

Beside the fresh life, and nourishes it-

Dead leaves,

Sprouts that cannot survive in the shadow of their 

Counterparts-

The END of frost and the cold.

As always, it's all mixed up,

And the cycle goes around.

The end is the beginning,

And the beginning is 

The end. 

I'm just here.