Squirrel "Small Stone"...

This was the first “small stone” that I wrote for the practice of
writing “small stones” for the month of January.
So I thought it only appropriate that I end
the month and the practice
with this one.

The snow receding,
exposing a browning landscape.
A squirrel digging in the bare
spots of grass,
trying to find his buried treasures;
hopping over the frosted snow patches,
up the fence post
and down the fence line,
traveling on to other back yards
on his search -
in his daily play…

~

Have a squirrely day
and collect a pocket full
of “small stones.”! :)

"Simple Minded"

My mother is becoming more “simple minded” – meaning – she is showing clearer signs of dementia. She has been “showing signs” for several years, but it is more pronounced now. Within 5 mins she has forgotten what you have said, especially if it is detailed, has to be reminded over and over again, and is learning to write things down. The other day she said to me – after having to repeat myself several times – “I am beginning to forget things.” She has been “beginning” to forget for years now, but is only now just noticing the forgetting – or let’s say – is now accepting and admitting it. I think she’s known for a while, but could hide it. Well, she *thought* she could, but the rest of us knew. But she can’t hide it from herself anymore. And gets frustrated when we pick up on it, and doesn’t like being questioned in order to seek clarity.

In many ways her strong-willed, head strong personality has changed. That’s what personalities do, they change and in some cases dissolve… She seems more “simple” now – not asserting her power, her will, her motherly authority, her need to control; instead getting lost in herself, and lost in simple things, in simpleness. And I wonder if “she” is getting lost. I’m sure the fact that she can’t see well, or hear well has only added to her “simpleness.” And I wonder if this is such a bad thing – this simple mindedness that allows us to come out from hiding – and just be… But I also wonder to myself if one loses the awareness that we are more than our self, our personhood, (if one has ever realized that, if you know what I mean). And if we do lose that sense of inner Beingness - what then...

In some ways she is easier to be around because there are fewer “personality struggles”, as if this simple mindedness has allowed the veil of personality to drop somewhat – but not by volition. I see her vulnerability and fragility of mind and body – and I soften. I feel compassion for her, and yet frustration arises because her cognitive abilities and comprehension are slipping. She is less and less able to understand. She gets information wrong, and therefore passes on incorrect information, which tends to get everybody else’s wires crossed.

I feel compassion as well as anger and irritation when she can’t “get it”, or gets confused, or can’t get the words out. On the one hand I want to try to explain things to her so she can understand, and be understood, but realize it doesn’t do any good. She is incapable of understanding complexity, and her mind forgets. Her brain isn’t working like it used to. I understand that but it is hard to experience. Neither is mine for that matter. I am losing my words… I can describe what the word I’m groping for does, but sometimes just can’t come up with the word, which boggles my mind even more. How could I *remember* how to describe what a word does, but *forget* the word…. Strange brain… It is disconcerting to lose the ability to articulate… So we laugh about the fact that we are both losing our words, both forgetting. But the reality of it is, well, scary - this untimely “simple-mindedness” that creeps in over time as we age.

In Mom’s simple-mindedness I notice that she relies on things being as they always have been, how things used to be, on things being consistent, reliable, and gets confused when they are not. Don’t we all! And yet, she seems adaptable as well – able to move with life as it is, through her simpleness. Not a bad quality actually. Isn’t that what I’ve been trying to do all these years on a “spiritual path” – find the simpleness and simplicity of just living – just being. But I am *aware* that this is what I’ve been doing. And I know it’s not really the same. When the brain-mind starts to go it’s really a forced simpleness through a loss of connection somewhere in the brain, which means *her* reality of things doesn’t always coincide with actual reality. Well, neither does mine actually! :) And I don’t see that as “bad” either! :) It’s just what’s happening now…

My sister, you remember - the prickly personality, lives with her, and is having a hard time with Mom’s simple-mindedness. Her own brain being short-circuited through years of drug abuse and alcohol - is also forgetting; although insists her memory is accurate, which creates unnecessary conflict. She cannot adjust to my mother’s growing simpleness, and is short-fused. Mom is no longer able to be who she was, or the image of who we want her to be – the “mother.” That role is dropping as well. My mother was never really “mothering” in the sense of being the nurturer, the encourager, the emotional supporter. There really wasn’t much of a “heart connection.” The baggage and the woundings from all that are still there of course. But it’s really time to put that baggage down. In fact I think I already have, although I don’t remember when. It must have slipped out of my hands when I wasn’t looking. I realize there is no point in holding onto the baggage and trying to hold her accountable for old wounds that she can now neither understand nor do anything about. The time for discussion and trying to get her to understand, without creating more wounds, has passed. There is only what is…

I see that more and more. And I see that I am going to have to meet her in her simpleness - *her* reality – to accept her simple-mindedness – to allow her to simply be the way she is, without struggling against it, without closing my heart… I’m sure that will be a challenge for all of us - as we all slip down that rabbit hole of “simple-mindedness” together…

Heart Stones...

Some of you may remember that I am doing a month of
“small stones.”
It’s a practice in awareness, noticing life,
both inner and outer,
as it happens…
Click here to read more about it.

~~

The homey smell of
a cooked meal
that lingers
in the house,
smelled again
upon entering…

Memories of the smell of
my grandmother’s home…

The smell of love and warmth…

Warm fuzzies…

Snowing like soft white rain
melting as it hits the ground,
leaving shiny black pavement
and the swish sound of wetness
from the tires..

Lovely lyrical violin music
on the car radio

The Heart’s delights…

Loving the sounds of the house
the sounds of a day…

The washing machine
the dryer
the furnace
the creaking

A plane overhead
A dog barking

The sound of peace
The sound of silence
behind the noise

Contentment…

Experiencing the gap
of twilight

a transition…

an opening of the heart…

an awareness
of life
so complete
my heart quakes
like the leaves
with its sweetness…

"The Beloved's" Romance...

Absorbed in Nature,
the natural world,
we remember
that we are
embraced by
”The Beloved.”

Experiencing Nature
*is* experiencing “The Beloved”
experiencing ItSelf *as* Life.

Experiencing Nature
is experiencing the Formless
becoming form, taking shape,
*as* Formlessness;
the ineffable Nature of Being…

…the Beloved morphing Itself
into “mere” form…

Saying ~ here, look, see ~
*See* ME…

Offering the invitation to open to
the Nature of Being…

Offering the gift of
*seeing*
*hearing*
*awareing*
*experiencing*
~ Beingness ~
experiencing ItSelf
as an owl,
as a tree,
as the sunset,
as me,
as
‘B’

…all conduits of “The Beloved’s” Love
romancing life…

And who is “The Beloved”?

The Form and the Formless…
The Every-thing-ness of Existence,
calling to us to play in
”The Beloved’s”
Divine Play…

Calling to us to remember “The Beloved’s”
embrace
and be absorbed
by
”The Beloved’s”
Love…

Reminding us
through
Nature
everyday
that
we
*are*
”The Beloved’s”
Love…

The
True
Romance


And what is “The Beloved’s” Romance?
To be in love with Life
To feel ALIVE *to* Life
To play *with* Life
To Dance *with* Life
in the
Dance of Existence…


Look beyond the surface of “things”
as they seem;
this “mere” humanness,
this “mere” existence,
to the Essence
of
”The Beloved…”

Life in love with ItSelf…


*See* into the *Nature* of “things,”
and Romance with “The Beloved”
will blossom…




Mystic Meandering
copyright
January 24, 2012


“B” is my husband :)

"The Beloved" - as I use it here, is the luminous,
ever-present Presence that animates
all life;
that *is* Life,
not a separate entity of being...

Twilight Owls...

I wish I had a better picture for you, to show my two very enchanting experiences this week with two different owls in our neighborhood, but you’ll just have to trust me. All I have to show for it is this silhouetted picture of a small owl. That would be the little dark blob in the photo of the tree. :) The other one was a huge Great Horned Owl perched in our next door neighbor’s tree, very close to our house. There is such a sacred feeling to be able to view wildlife in a residential neighborhood like this (besides rabbits, squirrels and hawks). And if I hadn’t been out on my walk I would not have seen the smaller owl. In fact I nearly missed it…

As I walked down the sidewalk my husband approached from the opposite direction in the car, as he was coming back from errands. He stopped, we briefly spoke, and I continued on my walk. However, I realized I had the garage door opener, and turned around and headed back. I waved to him to show that I had it, and he started walking towards me. Suddenly he started running towards me, which I found strange. I thought maybe we were going to have one of those magical romantic moments in slow motion that you only see in the movies. And I waited – but no – my mistake…

As he reached me and I handed off the opener he said to me – “Have I got a surprise for you” – peaking my intrigue – a surprise?! And he couldn’t wait until I got home?! After all we had just talked. But he just had to run to tell me now?! With a look of innocent wonder on his face, he pointed up at a tree across the street and said - “There’s your owl” – as if presenting me with a gift. He was - the gift of awareness, the gift of seeing what I had previously missed, and the gift of childlike amazement seen in his eyes. Priceless. He meant it was the owl we thought we had been looking for since hearing it last Summer.

I am hard of hearing and hadn’t heard the soft, gentle hoo-ing when I passed by this owl just a moment before. We both stood in amazement, and of course I whipped out the camera, and managed to get a few shots before it spotted us and suddenly flew off – which I almost missed because I had the camera in front of my face! We stood together for a moment marveling. My husband turned and walked back to the house, and I turned and continued on my twilight walk – in joyful wonderment at such a “romantic” moment -with the owl that is. As I walked, I marveled at the Mystery of Life living ItSelf all around me, in sunsets, and moon risings, on the ground, in the trees, and the winged ones that perch in them…

After I got back from my twilight walk the next evening, where you can be sure I was searching the trees for another view, my husband heard an owl hoo-ing close by. So we went out to look for it and followed the sound. We knew it was very close. It was dusk, but light enough to see the image against the liminally-lit sky. And with binoculars I could tell it was a Great Horned Owl, with its characteristic ear tufts, and a white neck ruffle – like a wise old judge from the Forest. It hooed a few more times from his perch high up in a cottonwood, seemingly unaware of our presence, and then quietly flew off with its elegant and swooping wide wing span. I do believe it was the Great Horned Owl that we heard last Summer and Fall. And maybe the smaller owl we saw the other night was the female version, as this is the beginning of their mating season. Ah ha! Romance *is* in the air! I am falling in love with Nature!

I am strangely comforted knowing that this incredible world of nature is just outside my door, teeming with Life. I am enamored with the idea that I may be living in Winnie the Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood and haven’t even realized it – till now. So much goes on in nature all the time that we’re never really aware of, unless we put ourselves in a position and frame of mind to really *see* it… And to think that I don’t have to go off into the wilderness somewhere and wait for hours to spot it! I can’t imagine that I’ve missed all this beauty all these years by not paying attention and not being out at this time of day – the liminal time, where the subtleties of Life reveal themselves.

Last October we recorded and posted the mysterious sound of the owl that had been visiting so often at night. I thought I’d post it again here. Enjoy the lullaby :)

“small stone”

Small hoo-ing, coo-ing owl
sitting in gnarly branches
silhouetted in dusky light…

Swoops off to other perches,
other haunts,
leaving the echo of
her mysterious hooes
behind…

Awakens imagination…

A Gathering of "Small Stones"...

From what I can gather :) the practice of writing “Small Stones” is a way of being mindful, aware, noticing, seeing the world, our environment, both inner and outer, with new eyes. It is about noticing and writing down these little stones of awareness on a daily basis for the month of January. I was first introduced to “Small Stones” by Hilaire over at Storing Magic. To find out how it all began on the original site Click here. And here are a few “stones” I have gathered in my “noticing” this month with some photos that seemed to fit… Enjoy!

Sanctuary...

How quickly I turn away from
the sanctity of Silence,
the
Stillness
within…

allowing the mind to take me
to the next “thing”,
and the next “thing,
and the next “thing,”

distracting myself
from the awareness of

the
quiescence
of
an
internal
abiding
Sanctuary



How easy to follow the mind
to other places and other spaces:
an anxiety,
a worry,
a thought about some

*thing.*

How hard to stay with “just this,”
this moment,
this experience,
and not want to know where I’m going
and how I’m going to get there…

How hard it is to “just rest”
in the abode of
Silent Awareness…

Sanctuary

The soft embrace of
”The Beloved”
so intimate
I
realize,


“The Beloved” and “I” are One…


Sanctuary

“The Beloved”
intimately enfolding
and unfolding
everything
as ItSelf
in
compassionate
Knowing Awareness.


Sanctuary


“The Beloved” knowing ‘me’ as ItSelf;
‘me’ knowing ‘me’ as “The Beloved.”


Sanctuary


Silent
Knowing
Compassionate
Awareness;
our True Nature;
the internal abode
of
“The Beloved.”


Sanctuary


Empties
the
meandering
mind
momentarily
of
its
restless
distractions.





Mystic Meandering
copyright
December 24, 2011

Neither Snow, nor Sleet, nor...

We’ve been getting more snow this winter than we have in many years. Wednesday night we had another small snowfall – about 3 inches. That day it had been 70 degrees. So when it started to snow after midnight with a 50+ degree drop in temperature, it melted when it hit the pavement and froze.

I should have known better than to go for my usual twilight walk the next evening, when I stepped out the front door and saw the stairs and shoveled driveway covered in ice. I figured the snow covered sidewalk would be okay, if I could get to it. I was determined to make my twilight rounds. WHAT was I thinking!

I hadn’t gone far when my left foot slipped off the edge of the sidewalk, because I couldn’t really tell *where* the sidewalk was, and I fell onto my right knee – thunk. *&%$@. I felt the jolt go through my body. I felt like Pooh Bear who “stepped on a piece of the Forest which had been left out by mistake.” The sidewalk had just disappeared. I heard the neighbor lady out shoveling across the street gasp as I clunked to the ground, but she never said a word. Or maybe it was just the echo of my own grunt as I landed. :) I quickly popped up, brushed myself off, and continued on. Nothing hurt – surprisingly. But I didn’t go far – didn’t finish my self-appointed rounds. It was cold and my knee started to “bother.” I cut my “expotition” short, as Winnie the Pooh called them, and skipped a couple of twilight walks. My knee is fine. But I feel like a “bear of little brain”, and I’m not a spring chicken anymore, or Eskimo either for that matter. So I will have to employ a little common sense before going off on my twilight “expotitions” – if I still have any of that left - common sense that is...

Here are a few pictures from other twilight walks, in between snowfalls, that I didn’t want to have “slip” into the archives :)

~~

“The gift of Silence allows true listening to emerge.”


Joan Ruvinsky
Pathless Yoga

(see the little bird in the tree top!)



There is just being.
There is nothing else.
Being is totally whole just being.
It is the aliveness
that’s in the body;
pure beingness,
pure aliveness.

Tony Parsons
The Open Secret

Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive
and go do it.
Because what the world needs
is people who have come alive.

Howard Thurman

"Embrace the full measure of your life at any cost.
Bare your heart to the unknown
and never look back..."

“...awaken to yourself
as the radiant emptiness of spirit
...turn your attention inward
to the awake silence that you are.”


Adyashanti

Prickly Personalities...

My sister has a prickly personality. She tends to be brash, disagreeable, black and white, right or wrong, self-righteous, judgmental, very angry and critical of everyone and everything, creating a very toxic environment. We have had a lot of prickly people in our family tree. In fact the whole family dynamic is rather prickly. We all end up walking on eggshells – except the prickly people. :)

Anyway, she’s rather unpleasant to be around. I tend to unconsciously protect myself from her negative energy when I’m around her. I understand where she’s coming from because I too have had a “prickly personality.” I understand that her prickly personality means that she feels fearful, unloved, wounded, overwhelmed and victimized by life, not realizing that the world doesn’t revolve around her or for her, and that she keeps everyone at arms length with her constant need to be in control, using anger and criticism as a false sense of power. It has been humbling for me to see this reflection. Thankfully my “spiritual path” (and some good therapy :) has led me down a different road - a road of awareness; becoming more self-aware of my unconscious patterns, as well as more *Self* Aware. That is, more aware of my core Beingness – that still, silent place of Conscious Awareness within us all. But the tendencies are still there. I did not escape them, I only became aware of them, and over time I have softened and learned a different way of being in the world; which is not to say that I have perfected this “new” way of being. I can still get prickly at times.

I have been reading a very inspiring book by Oriah Mountain Dreamer called: The Call. While reading, the phrase: “Meet her in her wholeness” came to me. And with that, the sudden realization that I didn’t need to try to protect myself *from* my sister, but to meet her in her Beingness – that place of wholeness within her - from that same place within myself. Instead of shutting down and protecting myself against her negative energy I could consciously “sit back” into (internally become aware of) my own felt sense of Beingness/Wholeness and meet her, eye-to-eye, Being to Being.

I decided to experiment with this one day. As she railed on at what was wrong with the world, with that familiar blank look in her eyes, I just silently sat listening, while at the same time “connecting” with (becoming aware of) my own sense of silent Beigness within - looking right into her eyes. As I did, I noticed a slight softening in her eyes and demeanor, as if there was an inner recognition – Being to Being. It lasted for only a brief moment, and then that blank veil came back over her eyes, and she went on railing at the world. The difference was that I was aware that I could now meet her from a place of wholeness. By *remembering* my own Beingness, by consciously becoming aware of this space in me, I could meet her Wholeness, her Beingness behind the shield she constantly throws up to protect herself – and from behind my own unconscious shield.

This is not to sound magnanimous at all. This is not about ‘me’, but about awareness, and re-discovering a way of being and relating that I have forgotten in the chaos of family dynamics. Clearly I don’t always remember to meet my sister in this “new” way because her unconscious ways ruffle the feathers of my prickly personality. There is still a reactional instinct to push back, to get angry, and to respond in kind – to want to change her, fix her, make her behave. But I also see her suffering, and want to respond to that – if I can find a way in…

When I remember to remember the Wholeness of Being within myself and relate from there; trusting Beingness that *sees* through the prickly personality, something “magical” happens – sometimes; a recognition of Beingness in the "other." Isn’t that what we all want – a mirror of our Beingness; to be met in our Wholeness – Being to Being. I don’t think this is pie-in-the-sky idealism. Experiencing and living from our Essential Nature is not just a fantasy. It’s the Way of Being. Or is that a little too prickly... :)

~~


“Embracing your wholeness is the greatest gift you can give to others.”

Christine Wushke
Journey to Light

~~

“All things are made of the same sacred presence, stillness…”
”All things emanate from and return to and are never
separated from a vast and sacred wholeness.”

“This spaciousness that we are is not
indifferent to the suffering that we feel
when we have forgotten what we are.
It reaches out to us, calls to us.”

‘It is the Great Mystery.
It is what we are made of,
and what everything and everyone
is made of.
It is what we participate in
with every breath.”

“We will never be happy
or truly able to live and
love fully
until we find our way of living
from an awareness of the deep stillness
at the center of what we are
- our essential nature -
which is wakefulness, awareness,
love, peace, truth and beauty.”

“Look at your own life from within
that sense of quiet stillness
that you are.
You will see this inner essence,
this innocence, like a bright thread
woven throughout the center of your life.
Living it consciously is why you are here…”


Quotes from: The Call
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Snowy Evening Walk...

“At the edge of restful darkness…the sacred life force calls to us,
asking us to remember…

We feel the longing to go home to what we are…

It is the impulse of the life force within us…

Surrender…”


Oriah
Quotes from: The Call



“We are probably never more true to ourselves,
or more in tune with our fundamental nature,
and our inner light than when we are engaging
in the liminal…”

Cate Kerr
Beyond the Fields We Know

“Discover the light that is already within you.
It’s a discovery of Being,
revealed in your inner Reality.

We have always already been this light -
always been full of light.
Go within and see what’s there.
See the Truth of who you already are.

Just close your eyes and look in…”

Osho

"We try to grasp something strange and mysterious
because we believe that happiness lies elsewhere…

The Self is all pervading.
Our real nature is liberation,
but we imagine that we are bound,
and make strenuous efforts to become free,
although all the while we are free.

All that is required to realize the Self
is to be still.

Your true nature is that of infinite spirit."

Ramana Maharshi

The ineffable Mystery calls to us from within…
Come Home…

~


Photos - my twilight walk Saturday evening...

Twilight Walks - December

In December I started taking walks at twilight through the neighborhood. Something I haven’t done in the 15 years we have lived here; finally getting to know where I live… ‘Bout time, don’t you think :) Walking in this liminal light, life seems more alive to me. In this in-between space something awakens in me. The spirit of Life becomes more apparent as life goes through its daily transition from light to dark. I seem to become more *aware* of the Mystery behind it all, driving it all, compelling me to seek it out. Twilight becomes a threshold of heightened awareness of Life being lived: the sounds of birds bedding down in the pines and spruces; the sight of a flock of geese flying; the crunching of snow and ice beneath my feet; the smell of dinners being prepared; the sound of a man chipping ice from the gutter so the snow melt can flow; the sun splaying its light out in a final flare of color in the clouds just before the light disappears completely.

In all this noticing I become aware of the vast spaciousness of the sky. And in that noticing - the awareness that I am really *not* on solid ground – but suspended on a small spinning globe that looks like a marble *within* this vastness of space. It is not Earth *and* Sky – as if two separate entities meeting at the horizon - but Earth enveloped by Sky – enveloped by the vast eternal spaciousness of Being. Ironically, the twilight walks help me to *see*…

One evening in particular I felt a deep heart ache, a deep longing in my heart. Maybe you have felt it too sometimes - that deep longing or ache in your being for that felt sense of the Sacred, that sense of Presence; that felt “connection” with the Essence of all Life; for the Truth of Existence; a longing for a deeper intimacy with the Nature of Being. A *deep* unexplainable gratitude arose from this longing, for the experience of this vastness and intimacy with the Nature of all things, through nature. It was a gratitude that was beyond comprehension. This gratitude for Existence and the vastness of Being opened up a larger context of awareness that cannot be fully described, or grasped, allowing me to *see* the *beauty* and *aliveness* of the natural world, and our essential Nature - *as* all one Beingness, one Aliveness. Beingness ItSelf living ItSelf here, intimately alive – as this – as us… What a wonderful alive Mystery!

As I walked in the crispness of the winter air, feeling a deeper kinship with the Nature of all things, I began to feel as if I was really *meeting* Life for the first time. And I liked it. I liked this new exploration of my environment, the new felt connection to the natural world, and my new re-discovery of the vastness of Being - and what it stirred inside.

As the sun moved further down behind the mountains, house lights began to give off their warm glow. My focus went to wondering about the people who live in them. Neighbors, yet strangers – and all Beingness too. I noticed a cat viewing the sunset in one window, and a dog barking at me from another as I passed by. Beingness being too…

Enthralled by my inner discoveries and the dimming light of twilight, I startled when a neighbor greeted me from her driveway. We don’t know each other well, except the exchanged pleasantries of neighbor-strangers over the years. We had a brief encounter as she thanked me for the card I sent her over a year ago when she was first diagnosed with cancer, and tells me that her cancer has come back, even though treated for a year. She seems undisturbed by the news. I, on the other hand, in my vulnerable, open state, felt saddened by the awareness of another threshold occurring right across the street; another in-between space as life continues its natural cycles. None of us is immune. We’re always at a threshold of the unknown. And I’m beginning to allow myself to be there and deeply *feel* that in-between space; to be deeply touched by the unknown spaces of Life. I crossed the street, comforted by the sight of the familiar light of home at twilight – feeling a new openness to the vastness and essence of Life as I crossed the threshold…

Poet's Posts...

My husband brought me this pin from a womens business workshop that he video taped in November. I was surprised that he thought of me as a “Poet.” I had to let that sink in. It gave me the opportunity to accept this about myself. I grew up finding solace and expression in poetry. I have been writing poetry since age 11, but I never really thought of myself as “a poet.” (Not that I *need* that identity, but it was interesting to get a glimpse of how others might see me.) Writing in poetic form comes naturally to me – especially prose poems. I seem to have a poet’s view of life – seeing life poetically, lyrically – no matter what the mood. :)

I love the rhythmic fluidity, and the word-craft of poetry, especially taking my journal notes and turning them into prose poems – creating language in motion. I also like creating a pictorial rhythm with the words, almost like “poetry art” – forming fluidity on the page, which I’ve done with the most recent poems of the past year. And of course I love the ones where the words just spill out from that sacred space within during times of meditation and silence that need no word-crafting. My poems are of a “spiritual nature” as you may have guessed. I write about being in Silence and Stillness; about “The Beloved”; remembering the Heart of who we are – our True Nature; about Light; about the aliveness of Nature; about the Earth; about just Being; about the “Self”; about “Awakening”; about “The Flow.” Some might be considered more “cosmic” in nature – writing about the Universe, galaxies, stars and such. Most have been written while in meditation, or as a result of meditating.

It occurred to me that the poems that I have posted on this blog have gotten lost in the archives. And so I have created links to these past poems in the right side margin as an offering for those who like prose poetry and might find them inspiring – which of course I hope you do. :) Just scroll down to the photo of the “Poet” pin under the picture of the bridge. I realize that not everyone likes poetry, and what I write may not be everyone’s cup of tea, so-to-speak. But I invite you to take a gander. They are listed from the most current on the top to oldest on the bottom.

Mary Oliver has said this about poetry:

“Poetry is prayer, it is passion and story and music, it is beauty, comfort, it is agitation, declaration, it is thanksgiving… Often poetry is the gate to a new life. Poetry can quicken, enliven the interior world of the listener.” (And I would say that this is also true for the Poet as well. :) She says, “poetry is a life-cherishing force… For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold…”

So if you have an ear and heart for poetry, and some time on your hands, snuggle up to the fire, and be warmed as you read them…