Lives of Others

An orphan she has 

Few stories to tell, few attachments

How could she show passion,

Or care for someone

But she knows where ripe plums are, 

Which mushrooms are edible

Where to find spring water, safe and crystal clear

How to be resourceful

Habit and prudence and street smart

She starts learning the constellations,

Learns how to be afraid and be calm

She looks at the flowering vines,

Sleeps like an owl and wakes up 

To her full height, realizes

Distances between trees, between her

And trees, her and others

She is a distance of her own.

Things she cherishes, go away

Teaches her gratitude.

Her beautiful eyes say, thank you.

note: The book I’m reading: Ten keys to Reality by Frank Wilczek.

I will have surgery on my right ear next week. The discomfort is tolerable at the present time.

Sometimes I have to take some analgesics.

LIFE TRAVELS

Traveling for so many days

435 bridges and 234 tunnels

Losing landmarks and diverting to side excursions

A lavish description of arriving somewhere

After getting lost

Like newlyweds entering their first house

Whatever the sizable differences are 

They can be traced to algorithms

Like sentences they have to learn because they are new

After awhile they can talk and understand

The end is an accomplishment

Carried by patience and time.

They are foreign to each other

Like a blinding snowstorm before beginning of summer

Afterwards seasons go uninterrupted, seem seamless

Though there are days of grief

Some days of longing, others of mirth

Ambiguity eases into familiar themes

They arrive to a place they understand

Life changes gradually into bliss

Remembering words of Aristotle

We yearn to reach the good at the end.

Moments

Moments move our emotions, our life

How can I move like time

I am a humble hummingbird

Hovering over flowers until I am out breath

There is wisdom in the stones I will not know

Or a camaraderie with bees I will not experience

Where can I go my friend to touch the warmth of time

Perhaps I can find a child who will want a lullaby

My wings can sing her a song.

ANYWAY

taken from Diary of a Word Nerd:https://www.juliatomiak.com

Reflection

Invent reality?

Is there a minimum of thought

One has to do everyday?

 

She is playing a guitar

and humming then singing

about ideas and consequences

then stops and starts writing furiously

“Examine your own courage

if you can get up every morning

with a better will than the day before?”

A cat comes, nozzles in her arms

She touches her with equal affection

then she looks at me and exclaims:

“Is it sad or meaningful or ostentatious to say—

I hiked Switzerland the whole summer?

Or I hug cows to relieve my stress?”

The cat jumps, goes to the window, sits purring.

 

Time folds, distorts harmony of living

Why bemoans the loss during the pandemic

Thousands are dying, millions lost their jobs,

thousands are lining up for food.

 

Time has changed unlike any other time:

A call for one another to stay together.

Blindness Not Just The Eyes

 

Blindness Not Just The Eyes

I stand laughing and looking

You at the buoyant side of being funny

Your words trickle on the safe distance between us

The trick is to make it lasts longer

Longer than the recitation of arithmetic of pandemic

When to open doors, breath the fresh air

Without widening the hospital doors

More cases will enter, more deaths

We cry, pray without even hope of holding hands

There is already so much written about haste and finance

Lacking tests and more tests

They have deaf ears

Counting other types of numbers

Want the numbers bold and arrogant

Going deeper, poorer, much poorer in spirit.

Promise

“I don’t need a light

to think of you.”

true and curious apprehension

a letter

The Place

The Place

The surprise of hearing my own voice

like seeing slivers of light filtered between the trees

The words are whispered which I could have missed

Words of encouragement, a push

My eyes are closed, my attention sharpened

I am resting a bit after walking long

My breathing is trying to catch up with my steps

In trying to reach my goal I struggle

There are benches, handrails, sources of spring water

I am vulnerable but not feeble.

I am not alone, or helpless

Though night is approaching I am not lost.

Is it the wind or spirit descends from above the trees

A voice telling me a place in eternity

The place where I am going.

 

Today like yesterday

 

It rained yesterday.

Rained again today.

We are only 54 percent in rainfall for the year.

I walked to the river on most days.

Today I did not.

Calamities make days unreal.

In our isolation let’s expand our relationship

You are not alone

We are in this together

We cry together. We pray together

Let’s join our shoulders together

Love will prevail.

Struggle

A glass of wine and rain on a March afternoon

She says she just visited Morocco

Ate a lot of foods served in tagines.

 

I struggle to know

The imperfections of a place

To find a solution, an honest quest

Some look familiar, others look relevant

A little twist, a little nudge can move small stones

Inspiring but not enough to tackle boulders

Unheroic simplicity to a balanced life.

Even busy exhausting life

Can point to God

With his never absent mercy and love.

To seek God is not for a day or a month

It’s not a pilgrimage

It’s a lifelong task, I will find in him

“The ultimate reasons for things.”

Sometimes we feel dead in our faith

Sometimes we feel invigorated like spring

The desert of lent is not devoid of life

“Rise, do not be afraid.”