Sunday, April 30, 2023

Promise, unfolding


As we watch the flowers of spring unfold, 
We feel an echo of that unfolding in our hearts; 
A breath that comes more easily,
 A barrier that falls away, 
Allowing some to promise to bloom within.

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Open to the light


Like the tiny flowers 
That flourish in the grass 
Until the mower comes, 
We open our hearts to the light 
And rejoice.

Friday, April 28, 2023

Fog’s illusions


Fog has a way of adding mystery 
 To other people’s lives: 
The structures around them begin to seem 
More sinister, 
 And when we struggle to understand 
It’s easy to mistrust and assume the worst; 
To see reaching out as grasping; 
To see a natural reticence as devious, 
And to misread well-intentioned words 
As insults and assume the worst… 
A search — and wait — for clarity 
 Can help alleviate many misunderstandings.

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Illumination


Illumination — when it comes — is often subtle; 
Easily missed: a patch of light, 
Encountered as we round a corner, 
A gentle stirring in the blood 
When we address a situation—
 Quiet cues that we might miss, 
Had we not been paying attention; 
Had we not worked to overcome the temptation 
 To get lost in our thoughts, 
Or to assume that everything 
We need to feel or know 
Can be touched, or heard, or seen 
Through our five senses…

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Finding our way to tranquility


In times of change and transition, 
This is the kind of clarity we hunger for: 
The promise of smooth sailing, 
With a minimum of easily surmountable obstacles. 
But finding our way to that simplicity and ease 
May often necessitate a harrowing trek 
Through storms of difficulty and disapproval 
 Or hacking our way through a jungle 
Of outdated rules and regulations. 
May the memory of past ease 
Give us the courage to trust in and work toward 
An equally tranquil and productive future.

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Ships passing


We use that phrase — Ships passing in the night — 
To describe those occasional connections — 
Sometimes deeply felt, but always brief — 
That have much more potential to impact us, 
If only the currents of life were not so strong 
And pulling us in opposite directions. 
And later, looking back we wonder: what if? 
What if I had resisted that pull to keep on going? 
What if I’d made the time to stop, or turn; 
What if I’d paid attention 
 To the call of that moment; of that person; 
Of that life?

Monday, April 24, 2023

Gratitude in Spring


There’s so much grace in bending 
With age, and the weight of our blooming. 
There’s such delight in the spikiness;
 The sprouting of new beginnings. 
There’s so much promise in the lifting 
Of our faces to the sun; 
In the paths we’ve not yet traveled, 
And the blue of the sky after rain. 
So much to be thankful for 
When Spring finally returns — not least, 
The surviving of yet another winter!

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Sunday flowers


It’s Sunday, 
 And the flowers know 
Their time is all too brief, and so 
They lift their petals to the light, 
Drink in the rain, and celebrate 
 By bringing joy into the lives 
 Of those who dare to love despite our differences.

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Beyond the boundaries


To see beyond the boundaries that divide us 
To the wholeness that lies beyond 
 And all around us:
 That is the greatest challenge, and it calls us 
Every day to new, magnificent, horizons.

Friday, April 21, 2023

Seeking Coexistence



I’ve been painting for ten years now, 
And I’m beginning to realize 
That the best of my work is about coexistence:
 Dark with light, warm with cool;
 Structured and linear with flowing and organic. 
It is, at heart, an alchemical search: 
Seeking ways to combine fire and earth 
That neither extinguish the passion 
Nor result in scorched earth, 
But instead coalesce: a creative magma,
 Forming new islands of hope as it flows. 
And though nothing ever quite fully succeeds, 
The search for that balance is what fuels my art 
(And might also explain 
 Why each piece is so different!)

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Entangled


We all, I suspect, 
 Have these secret, tangled places in our hearts; 
The doors we don’t want to open, 
But choose instead to hide behind 
A thicket of distractions and obfuscations 
Until we can no longer recall what lies beneath. 
Of course we could hire someone 
To help us tear away the clutter 
And reveal what’s hidden there, 
But we could also leave it be, 
And let the mystery serve as invitation to explore 
While reminding us our motivations 
 May be deeper and more complex than we know.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

When artists collaborate


The sunset paints the sky each night 
In cooperation with the clouds, 
Which provide an ever-changing composition 
 While she layers in the colors — 
One night pink, another gold; 
One night subtle, another bold; 
Some nights lavender, others blue, 
But each delicious and all unique.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Response time


The way this bell once called volunteers 
To help put out a local fire, 
The telltale ding of a new text message 
Puts us on alert, though what news it brings 
May vary widely, depending on the source. 
I can’t help but wonder 
 How our brains are evolving 
 To cope with these more frequent interruptions…

Monday, April 17, 2023

Morning prayers


When morning gilds the skies 
We offer up our prayers of gratitude 
 For yet another day, another Spring, 
Another year in which we have the opportunity
 To share and learn and grow,
Uncovering new blessings as we go.

Sunday, April 16, 2023

A fistful of stars


What hand is this,
 That turns a tired weed into 
A fistful of stars?
 There is. such beauty everywhere,
 If only we open our eyes.

Saturday, April 15, 2023

The courage to bloom


Transitions can be challenging: we know this — 
Even the ones we go through over and over again. 
As a child, starting school in the fall, 
We ache to leave the summer behind 
And worry what the new school year will bring. 
As adults, each move, each new job, 
Each relationship that ends or begins 
Awakens those same questions.
 I draw courage from the perennials, 
The rhodies and the daffodils 
Who burst from the earth and buds each spring 
To give us a taste of the beauty that’s to come 
When we leave the constraints of the past 
And flower into the light.

Friday, April 14, 2023

Appreciate the ephemeral


In the delicate tracery of clouds above the sun 
We see the hand of a master artist: 
Like the lacemakers of Burano, 
Weaving her magic spells into the sky —
 An invitation to appreciate the ephemeral.

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Thriving within constraints


Each photograph’s a metaphor for something: 
It becomes my job to ascertain 
What lesson might be learned 
From what I’m seeing.
 This one reminds me of something I heard 
From a therapist long ago: 
That we find the greatest freedom 
Within boundaries — or, in this case, constraints.
 This man can fly because his body is contained 
 In an elaborate system of harnesses. 
A relationship flourishes 
Within agreed-upon limitations; 
A society thrives when bounded by laws; 
Even my paintings seem to improve 
When I limit my choices of colors and tools…

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Open to possibility


After many days of clouds and rain,
 I was delighted to see this morning’s sun. 
To the east, the sky was cloudless,
 But in the west — normally the province 
 Of sunsets, not sunrises — 
The colors of reflected light were spectacular:
 So surprising! Yet another gentle reminder 
 To be open to possibility; 
 That glorious things may appear 
When and where we least expect them.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Lift thine eyes


Sometimes, when we’re down in the weeds, 
It’s difficult to look past our current challenges; 
To see beyond the heartache 
To the hope that lies ahead.
 Lift your eyes — if only for moment — 
And be reminded of what it is
You’re working toward.

Monday, April 10, 2023

A blossoming too brief


Deluged by spring rains and wind, 
The newly blossomed cherry trees 
Are already painting the sidewalks 
 With the petals being stripped from their branches:
 A blossoming too brief; too quickly gone.

Sunday, April 9, 2023

Happy Easter!


Lift petals and rejoice: 
All earth is new again!!!

Saturday, April 8, 2023

The green song of spring


And now they begin to appear at last: 
Those bright yellow greens, 
Dancing before the wind 
And singing their heraldic song of spring.

Friday, April 7, 2023

A firmer foundation


Sometimes, in order to make things right, 
You have to reveal what’s wrong 
And be willing to fix it — whatever it takes. 
No one said it would be easy, 
But if longevity matters, 
You just need to bite the bullet 
And take whatever steps are necessary 
To ensure a firm foundation for the future.

Thursday, April 6, 2023

The promise of sunlight


This time of year, 
When the skunk cabbage clusters 
There by the side of the road,
 Lifting their heads in prayer,
 I pull over and stop as the traffic flies by, 
Lured by their delicate shape 
And their golden promise of sunlight to come…

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

When life gives you lemons


What happens when you don’t get 
What you thought you had earned or deserved? 
What’s your response? 
Do you whine a bit to your friends, 
Feel sad or discouraged; 
Lose a little momentum? 
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, 
And start all over again, believing 
 When one door slams, 
Another will surely open? 
Or do you launch a new campaign 
To overturn the results, discredit the judge, 
Or fantasize or enact a fitting revenge? 
Disappointment comes to us all: 
It’s the choices that follow 
 That make all the difference 
In how our lives play out…

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Perception


The human eye, like the human heart, 
Will notice details more mechanical assessments 
 Fail to capture — 
Which explains why I drove round the block 
After passing these madronas, 
So that I might photograph 
 The wetness of their skins — 
 A feature that only registers here 
If the viewer zooms closer in — 
Just as intuition, when explained, 
Somehow loses its conviction —
 Which doesn’t necessarily mean 
What we noticed wasn’t real…

Monday, April 3, 2023

Dealing with the quirks


Some pictures tell a story 
We don’t really want to hear: 
Like this one, taken just this morning, 
Of my husband’s desk 
Beneath our brand new roof… 
(And yes, of COURSE there were 
 Papers that got wet!) 
At times like this I’m grateful 
Our response is never anger, 
Just a question: what do we need to do 
To solve this problem? 
Luckily, in a small town, 
 The roofers are your friends, 
And we all understand: 
 Old houses have their quirks!

Sunday, April 2, 2023

Everything changes

First this: 

 And then, not five minutes later, this: 


 We go along, serene, secure, 
Rejoicing in the rightness of things, 
Appreciating the efforts of those around us 
And the beauty of life, 
And then the storms come, 
And suddenly we’re reminded: 
Everything changes. Nothing stays the same, 
No matter how much we might wish it could…

Saturday, April 1, 2023

Still hanging around


There’s something endearing 
About those traits 
 That stood us so well in the past; 
It makes it hard to let them go, 
And so they linger, cluttering up our psyches 
For all to see, though they have long since lost 
Their usefulness, if not their charm…