Life – Page 5 – A Thread You Follow

Everything Is on the Hook

I like how my daily poems begin fresh with nothing
and how the land cannot heal unless the king heals himself
and how people go through their day crying, Fiddle dee dee.

There are plants living here below holding clues for eternity
while shipwrecks from long ago continue to carry treasure
and all the colors of the sky at sunset bounce off the clouds.

What we seek remains hidden inside houses of our own making
where our feet endlessly climb the stairs of our childhood
searching for answers to questions not yet asked of the air.

Patience is not a virtue when the damn breaks above our lives
and the horrors begin to spill out down upon our heads
washing us clean of everything we have held close and dear.

To live with those unasked questions in the midst of seconds
ticking into nowhere and somewhere challenges those
who live as if, right now, everything is on the hook.

Lifting Boulders

One of my mentors in life said, 
"If God asks you to lift a stone
and you lift a boulder instead,
don't complain that God
has overburdened you!"

I bent down to pick up a pebble
to add to the collection of pebbles
already in my pocket.  How many
pebbles must I carry before
I begin carrying a boulder?

Advice

Pay attention.
Gamble that life will continue.
Multiple overwhelmings may happen.
Cope gently with each as they come.
Focus on staying filled.
Complete one agenda item at a time.
Think engage.
Accept any opening.
Be with the Is.
Let control go.
And believe in possibility.

Following

There 
is a rolling hill 
I have never seen before. 

The mist retreats 
upwards 
as the day continues to begin. 

No doubt there is something, 
a house, 
hidden behind the hill, 

With someone standing on the front porch 
waiting for someone else 
who is perhaps following me.

“You will continue to take chances and be glad you did.” – Fortune Cookie

And so I will continue to buy my lottery ticket
to the good life every time I fill up for gas.
Not in the hope of striking it rich someday 
but more in the knowledge that, with
the opportunity to remove the thinking cap
I wear on a daily basis, I will better
be able to see my next dance steps with life.

“…and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” – Isaiah 11:1

Holy tree in the forest,
whose roots descend into the ground 
further than the reach of the nimblest of fingers,
in these beginning moments of winter
when the first feel of the chill wind numbs
and surprises us into awareness,
turn our being still into preparation,
not only for the long season ahead,
but also for the seasons yet to come
where fruit follows flower following bud.
Amen.

Ruination

Your world ending
does not have to ruin
my Thursday.

End of the Rainbow

Hopeful fortunes
beckon
from the future
where all
treasure hunts
find the end
of the rainbow.

Insights

Revelations for the ages
can be found at the bottom
of garbage cans.

Beware of writing which reads,
"There is no love in this book."

Decisions between relationship 
and judgement should never wait.

Perhaps we are put on this earth
to help one another live with the 
questions.

One can never live with integrity
and, at the same time, let God
off the hook.

To Uncover

Front porch sitting is the best kind of sitting
for discerning the simple from the complex.

Diamonds live along the roadways of the journey.
Moses took years before deciding on his path.

Let the little ones crawl on their way to finding
what interests them most in the moment.

Not all clues need to be discovered.  Some
are best left for the children to uncover.

Cherish the friend who knows the difference
between sharing and listening with the heart.

Then, and not only then, will you find support
for each other on the long walk towards home.