Stream of consciousness (10)

Blog99:

10:08 … Day goes slow and fast at the same time.  That stubborn schedule I must pass on just finds it difficult to manage between barrages of questions, chats, and whirling thoughts I want to remember before I leave the building today.  Let’s see: meet with Lily, Sandy, and Glenda.  There are two more shelves to clear, files to clean out, notes to write.

11:12 … Sandy just poked her head in.  “We’re still going out to eat, eh?” she asked.  I replied, “Of course!”  … Between that time and now, what could I accomplish?  Ah – that database update!  Let that be completed now.  Inventory … may be that could be completed for me by someone else.  Recommendations for testing accommodations … that too!  Well-wishers along the hallway … more goodbyes … Just let me get out of here!  Lunch break … Let’s go, everyone.

1:13 … “Why do you have to go?” asked one.  I retorted, “I didn’t have to yet, but I really wanted change!”  Change … that seems to be the only constant in life we can bank on.  It’s difficult.  It’s necessary.  It confronts us to face new challenges.  It keeps us current.  It invigorates us.  It makes us reflect.  Nothing could move forward without committing to change.  Change refreshes us!

5:32 … “How does it feel to be free from IT all?”  Mick asks when I walk through the door.  “It’s horribly wonderful!” I say.  I have so looked forward to this day I can thank my Lord for carrying me through 37 great chapter years of a challenging, a most rewarding career in the whole wide world.   I am taking a little break, then “re-tiring” … changing gears … to new worlds and adventures of more learning, teaching and sharing my found and collected wisdom!

Each one, teach one … anything constructive, and something that could be built upon!

Stream of consciousness (9)

Blog98:

5:14 … It is miserable outdoors!  Winds at 75mph could chill to the bones.  Cinn and Dink, mostly Cinn- the instigator’, are already at their morning raucous.  With Mick away, I have duty to feed them, play with them, walk them outside … the part I know I will not enjoy!  Then it’s morning routine – shower, dress and go!  Breakfast can wait ‘til 10AM if I get lucky …

10:50 … “Breathe, my lungs!” … It’s uptight all around today;  many drop-ins and well-wishers.  Breaking in and updating new personnel who’ll carry on the torch: data files to share, transitioning suggestions, getting around the building, getting to know Staff … ramblings here and there; I guess it’s just part of the deal.  “Did you get that?  What other questions should I clarify/answer for you?”

1:02 … I didn’t remember to take pictures of some students served in my program.  That’s sad.  Anyway, they’re so very young, and I perhaps did not yet make memorable impressions on them.  That’s easier to deal with.  Remember … no attachments!  It’s easier to go away when attachments are not strong! 

     …Thinking through now – whom shall I miss?  Hmnnn … no one!  Except for fond memories of camaraderie maybe, there’s not much to miss. There’s little time for any personnel in a big organization to bond with or little groups to get together.  I’ll perhaps miss the wonderful kids that lighted up my life every so often, but soon, their faces will be a blur, and that’s just as well.  There’ll be plenty of time to make new acquaintances.

3:10 … Duties … responsibilities … structured routines …deadlines … schedules… all are pressures that come with civil service.  Which do I really detest?  Structured routines!  They’re a force to be reckoned with.  You can’t live nonchalantly with them.  

6:18 … Off to a dinner date I go, but not after a home visit to a single family head and her six children.  A knock at the door … greetings, and I witness abject poverty all around the apartment.  How can that apartment cost $500.00 rent?  It was pitiful!  Anyway, Mick and I, along with St John’s UMC should be happy to know that the work we are doing showers tremendous gifts and blessings.  Soon, the 6 children and Mom will have beds on which to sleep soundly and safely!

8:16 … Feeling nauseated and dizzy a bit.  I don’t like this feeling.  I don’t especially like the fact that this cold bug had lingered the last two weeks in my body and this rough cough still keeps on irritating me!

Lose anything lately?

Blog97:

When you lose something …
You cannot find it
You’re almost sure that you won’t retrieve it
If you have resources to seek and search for it, you possibly could,
But not so easily, anyway …

What do you do when you lose your belief in someone?
You could ignore that someone and lose interest in him
You can lose him … even forget him
You could lose heart …
You could get disappointed and become unhappy

You could lose the quality of your life.
You could lose memory
You could lose your voice
You could lose control of a body part
You could lose balance
You could lose someone, even lose your life!

You could lose a job
You could lose touch
You could stop having the ability to do a skill
You could lose time while grieving over it
You could lose interest on anything ... everything...
You could lose sight of something important
Worst case scenario, you could even lose your mind!

When you stop believing in yourself, you lose confidence
When you do not get hungry due to illness, you lose appetite
When you can’t remember things well, you have memory loss
When you bleed a lot, you have blood loss
When you can’t hear as good as before, you have hearing loss.

What do you have to gain when you lose something?
You could have new perspectives
You could get healthier
When you get weight loss, you could look better  … gain energy!

What do you gain when you lose your temper?
You could get irate, and lose your cool.
What if you lose sight of something?
It could get awry, collapse, go over the cliff!

When you attempt a challenge, what have you to lose?
If you give your very best to anything you do …
When you simply take a risk … a gamble ...
You could fall flat on your face, but you could always get up
You have nothing to lose, but a foolish pride!

Life breathes!

Blog96:

Shhhhhhh …
Listen to the faint pitter patter of the rain
Get close to the tiny sounds of splashing water
Life is there!

Hush …   
Hear the tick-tock of the clock
Note the active air slide through the vent
Life is there!

Silence …
Pin your ears back to the wall and …
Snoop on the voices murmuring in the next room
Life is there!

Quiet …
Heed the hooting of the owl
Pick up the calling, tweeting birds
Life is there!

Shhhhhh …
Catch the beating of your heart
Quiet the bubbling energy within
Pay attention to your breathing out and in
Receive the blessings of life!

Hush …

Falling Leaves

Blog95:

Leaves …

Yellow, red, purple leaves
Leaves in flight
Leaves on the ground
Leaves yet clinging to the branches

Leaves …

Watch leaves gather under trees
Follow those fallen in the river
And observe the speed-run they make
Until frogs find and float on them

Leaves …

Gather leaves in a pile
Sit and jump on them for fun
Crinkle leaves and make noises
Toss them in the air, and catch them if you can

Leaves …

Green, brown, orange leaves
Sway to the left or to the right
Catch a wind’s wave if you can
Play, and then roll down from a mound

Leaves …

Get settled in the ground
Bathe in the rain
Mix with the dirt
Feed the earth

Leaves …

Embrace nature
Sleep tight
Dream dreams of adventures yet to come
Till new little trees and fresh leaves sprout

Space ... what is it to you?

Blog94:

     What is a cultural mindset that you protect? 

     In my growing up years in the Philippines I could not remember what I might have protected, but having spent half of my older growing years in the Carolinas, I have become aware that space … personal space, that is, is what I dearly guard.   I cringe when someone imposes her or his presence within two feet next or close to me.  My mind panics especially, when a stranger or a familiar person, whose presence I can’t tolerate, intrudes my space bubble. 

     What makes a person behave this way?

     I don’t know exactly, but in my experiences, two life incidents and a theory come to mind. One or all three might have brought such reaction. 

     I remember being vividly hugged by new relatives, then total strangers to me, when I arrived in the USA via the Roanoke Regional Airport in 1982.  I was met by hugs … very tight ones, by people whom I yet did not know.  My mind and body shrieked, “Who are you, and what are you folks doing to me?  Let me breathe,” I uttered bitterly in silence.  I recall the feeling of being suffocated even though I observed that this “hugging customary practice” is nothing more than an endearment.  The repulsion I felt might have been the result also of not having that experience in my youth.  Filipinos greeted with smiles of excitement, followed by a hand reach brought to another person’s forehead when meeting an adult, and a simple universal handshake or a head nod when greeting peers. Bringing bodies close to one another so that smells get mixed up in the emotions of the moment was not popularly entered upon in Filipino culture unless people were intimately close.  The body hug was totally foreign an experience.  It was my first ‘cultural shock’ of sort!

     Violating personal space, getting so very close to someone’s face, seems to me to be an insolent, offensive, and discourteous approach.  It is a threatening demeanor.  It is antagonistic and terrorizing.  A girl in my third grade class of the past came surging one afternoon at the playground.  She called me unkind names and began criticizing my hair and my dress.  I could see her menacing face, and hear her very unkind words until now.  I remember feeling so very hurt and self-conscious for quite a time after that.  What I regret about it was not having stood up to her.  I was sure then, as I am now, that she thought she had the upper hand, some kind of clout, being the daughter of one of the teachers at the school we attended.  Perhaps, that incident impacted keenly my young impressionable mind.  It made me become aware for the first time that there are, in our personal and wider worlds, people young and old, who find bullying gratifying.  Since then, I never ever gave anyone permission to get close to my personal space unless I was sure I will not get hurt.

     To many North Americans, personal space is holy.  S/He is usually discomforted, angered and made to feel anxious when it is penetrated.  Wikipedia references personal space as somebody's realm which is psychologically his or hers.  It is thus, private.  Permission to enter it by virtue of familiarity and intimacy could only be given.  Wikipedia informs further, “The notion of personal space was introduced by Edward T. Hall, who created the concept of proxemics.  In his book, The Hidden Dimension (1966), he describes the subjective dimensions that surround each person and the physical distances they try to keep from other people, according to subtle cultural rules.”

      For all it is worth our while to think through the concept of space, it is a reminder that our personal and universal connections with one another warrants respect.  Impinging on another’s sensibilities is just downright unforgiveable.  Regard for the privacy of our thought and our physicality is an inescapable ideal we should all value.  

Kindness ... Unkindness ...

Blog93:

Kindness, what is it for you?
What is it in an ideal world?

It is what the smile on our faces reflect!
It is what soothing, honest words we use!
It is what our commendable actions demonstrate!
It is the beautiful feeling we have for one another!

It is easy to be kind …

When we’re helpful
When we’re friendly toward a stranger in our midst
When we’re caring toward others
When we’re willing to help someone in distress
When we’re considerate of other’s feelings
When we’re thoughtful
When we find an opportunity to make one feel better

Unkindness, what is it for you?
What is it in the real world?

When we do injustice to someone, we’re unkind
When we are unforgiving of others’ trespasses, we’re unkind
When we hurt others with our words, we’re unkind
When think poorly of someone, we’re unkind
When we build hate, and keep it festering inside us, we’re unkind
When we lord our power toward others, we’re unkind
When we assume we’re superior to the person beside us, we’re unkind

Kindness … what is it to me? 
Unkindness ….What is it to you?

We choose or not choose to do unto others what we want for ourselves!
We don’t love or love the neighbors we have!
We are, or we’re not keepers of our sisters and brothers!
We are unkind.
We are kind.

We become the kind or unkind creature we want.

Let Go!

Blog92:

Let go!
Let someone else make breakthroughs.
Let him map out new roadways to grasping, manipulating tasks.
Let that individual face the challenges of exciting minds!
 
Take time to smooth the way.
First, show him the routes and loops.
Guide him next to resources … both material and human.
After that, share as many grand and modest expectations.

Challenge.
Organize tasks for him to problem-solve.
Engage him in critical conversations.
Ask, “What makes sense?  What doesn’t?”

Empower!
Invite him to reflect.
Critique with a heart.
Offer suggestions to arrive at better results.

Let go!
Let someone else make breakthroughs.
Let him map out new roadways to grasping, manipulating tasks.
Let that individual face the challenges of exciting minds

Let go!

Click ... Push ... ZILT!

Blog91:

Internet down!  Telephones, down! Television off!  Email access? Blog?  Facebook? Search engines? NOTHING! ZILT! NADA! ZIP!

The last two days were my pits of frustration!  Remember that statement about Murphy’s Law?  It says, “If something could go wrong, given time and circumstance, it would.    All that I call essentials went flat wrong: computer, television, internet provider!  They all went down at the same time and I allowed ‘me’ to be sucked in … rubbed by them the wrong, and self-disappointing ways. 
 
Here’s how it unfolded: all four computers in the house got the bug, like I caught on the same weekend a ‘flu bug.”  When something fails, all others connected to it snow-balled and rolled with it. Ugggh!

What does one do without connections to the outside world?
First, I screamed.  Next, I complained silently, then loudly.  After that I calmed down and told myself, “Do something!”  So … I did.  I unplugged and re-plugged everything to check for possible loose connections and to correct them.  Once I had done the ultimate, I put everything back.  I made a wish for functionality of the pieces of equipment.  I hit one button to test.  Nothing came up.  I hollered more and verbalized that frustration. 

I blurted, “Come on!” as if it would really hear me if I yelled much louder than before.  Breathless and exasperated, I further asked, “What’s the matter here?”

There was absolutely no response from cords or outlets as much toggling, pulling and pushing of plugs that I did.  Communication lines were just non-existent. 

I went outside and took three de-stressing breaths.  I took a walk around the block when did not do any good.  I walked away from the porch where I stood for a minute or so.  Without a clear direction, I walked towards the road and took more steps leading to a neighborhood close by. As I walked, I fanned out my frustration by noting the changing colors of the leaves.  Many leaves have begun falling as a wind whisked itself up and away.  With the sweeping wind, I let go of my yucky feeling and let it take flight a-float falling, dancing leaves.  I found that moment soothing to my nerves.  I took another mile-long walk in the next block. 

I must have walked close to an hour.  I back-tracked my steps when I felt a bit tired and returned home refreshed.  I asked myself, “What did I do when there was no television, radio or computer running all day on a Saturday or a Sunday?”

Books in a basket, and the weekend newspaper waiting to be taken out of its plastic protective bag caught my attention. 

“Let’s try those,” I invited “me, myself and I”. 

I turned a page of the newspaper.  I turned another page and the next after that.  I found myself lost; NO, I found myself immersed in many other worlds beyond the clicks and pushes of buttons!

Blunders

Blog90:

Blunders …
Flounder on thoughts about something
Slip-up on statistics
Make a big error on estimation
Misstep a process
Get information mixed-up
What does one have?
A series of blunders!
Enormous mistakes!

 

Ask a belly-bloated woman, “When are you due?”
She yells back, “I’m not pregnant!”
You’d like to disappear from that woman’s sight …
But how do you retort?
You don’t.
Quickly apologize.
Make your exit!

 

“How old is your Grandma?” you ask.
“Grandma? Do you mean my Mom?”
You blew that attempt to strike a conversation.
How do you clear out the air?
You don’t.
Quickly apologize.
Change the subject!

Make an unsolicited suggestion.
The other person looks you up and down
He blurts out, “I didn’t ask for your opinion!”
What do you do?  What do you say?
Say nothing more.  Do nothing else.
Quickly apologize.
Leave that scene!

Goofs …
Stumble on inappropriate words at an inappropriate time
Stagger between unknown situations
Bungle on a defense you really couldn’t support
Foul up on describing someone’s viewpoint
Careen on a decision involving life-death protocol
What does one enter into?
Big-time faux pas!
Error of a life time!

Keep your eyes focused.
Listen intently.
Say nothing, unless your viewpoint is demanded.
Mind what you must say.
Feel and weigh unfamiliar circumstances.
Stay out of tight situations!
More than anything else, MIND your business!

Aches and Pains

Blog89:

I woke up sensing, and feeling pains in my thumb and lower back. They are magnified by a sore in the lower lip and a sore down the throat.  The nagging pains somehow reminded me about turning a year older yesterday.  I wondered whether or not the pains were in any way associated with the felt pains this morning. Are they, or are they not?

What causes our bodies to physically ache, and what do we do when they hurt? 

Our bodies mature and age.  Along the way, maturation and aging get us tired and worn.  Our constant movements from here to there exhaust our bones and muscles’ pliability. Likewise, underneath, our internal organs respond to their automatic development through nourishment. Choices we make on what goes in them decide rightful use or devastating harm.  It is not hard to figure that what we take in affect our bones, muscles and organs’ functions.  On the outside, our skin’s exposure to sun or wind put a toll also on its health and looks.  Foreign agents, with which we co-exist, attack our skin inconspicuously.  Sometimes they catch us when we’re vulnerable and fragile, thus we get ill.  The wonderful thing about our body is that it has built-in defenders which decide what could or couldn’t stand an attack!  The undeniable fact is our bodies cry out in pain because they simply hurt!

When our body hurts, we could listen to its pains and do something to rest it or we could ignore all hurts suffered and push it to work more. I could think of a car tire turning over and over all seasons. Imagine that!  Imagine how it hits and bumps with all sorts of rough dirt roads, pavements, and though not very often, potholes - all kinds - big and small.  If our body suffers the same beating and treatment as a tire, no wonder it gets worn out!  It screams, “Stop!” … Rest me!”  It needs pause from the daily grind.  Ignoring tell-tale signs of un-wellness could bring harm not only to our physical wellness, but also to our overall emotional well-being.

My body, my miraculous machine, begins its work day in and out.  It moves and bends left and right, backward and forward a good 10-14 hours a day.  From within, it works 24/7 non-stop.  It’s amazing how it is able to sustain used up energy and functions.  With regard to my lip and throat soreness, I am persuaded that I must have caught viruses from wherever, in my comings and goings, to cause germs’ to build up.  What’s true is I can’t ignore the discomfort it gives my entire being.   I give it attention by regimentally gargling lukewarm saltwater.  Lip and throat, I believe, got their needed relief.  The raspy sound it makes and the coughing it shoots out of my mouth from way down my chest is eased.  Rubbing ointments and continuous liquid intake had done wonders for them.  My nagging thumb ache and lower back get relief from the tender massaging I had given it twice a day.  And instead of spending more time on mental work in front of my computing device, I make an effort to lie on the couch.  It is remarkable that after just few hours of resting and listening to the clamors of my back bones and muscles, I feel renewed.  I further convince myself that what work output I don’t get to finish today, could easily be done tomorrow.  A pause in this juncture is not a luxury.  My body must recover from continuous activities. 

Pain and aches could not be ignored for long.  When we choose them to linger, they get us down in the worst possible ways.  Well-being comes first before anything else.  And with proper care, exercise and nutrition, we can maintain the state of our physical well-being.  Rest adds the needed push to keep it smoothly working!

Sing that Great Love

Blog88:

When struck with blows she couldn’t bear
She wallows in her burdens.
She turns reclusive.
All troubles she casts on the world
And heavens she rebukes!
Her pain, she implodes
Until it buries and shuts her out.
“Why couldn’t I be nobler?” she wails.  
“Why couldn’t I have someone’s well-being?” she screams.
Then … in her yearning over that creature’s triumphs,
And this mortal’s successes
She turns inwardly to her heart’s voices.
She recounts the delights of her life.
Just when she thought she was sinking into the abyss,
She hears a familiar voice, “You’re mine.  I love you dearly!”
She listens to the voice more intently than the first time.
She brings to mind over and over the reverberating words.
She springs and straightens her body!
She raises up her head; her face shines!
She claims those words of reassurance
And like a bird, her heart soars in joyful flight
With great exuberance, she exclaims …
“I will sing the mercies of your great love, Holy one!”
She declares, “I will keep your love all the days of my life,
And I will want no more than that!”

Decide

Blog87:

Stop dilly-dallying!
Make a choice!
Bring a judgment!
Make up your mind!
Decide!
 
Give an answer to that impending question.
Think through with vigor and certitude.
Elect one thing from the many possibilities in front of you.
Stop the delay.

Resolve the issue right here, right now!
Let your NO, mean NO!
Let your YES, mean YES!
Deliberate!
Make a pronouncement!
Choose this minute!

Decide on a best fit procedure this moment.
Consider the complications.
Reflect on strongest of reasons for that and this step.
Look closely at the possible consequences of indecision.
Make a firm act this instant.
Something of great importance hinges on your conclusion!

Be certain and swift with that decree.
Someone’s life depends on it!

Attend now to that resolution.
Its particular result affects millions!

Take a stand!
Just choose!
Vote!

Order ... Chaos, or Both?

Blog86:

When juxtaposed, could chaos and order happen at the same time? Don’t respond just yet.  Instead, take a mind-trip with me.

Look around. Listen, and then wonder at events taking place in different settings, but occurring in the same hour of the day.  Enter now.  Bounce your senses of hearing and sight from one room to the other.

Find disarray in a spot, a desk, a counter, a room.  Watch spontaneous confusion of children grabbing items from other children.  Spy for the direction from which a child screams at his peers and surges toward one to engage in a conflict.  Something is about to happen.  Sense the turmoil of other children in the room tolerating a shrieking voice.  Catch a sight of oblivious children in a corner immersed in their task at a corner.  As you enter the first room, note the table in the far right.   Children have strewn art work, and put task papers every which way.  Take one quick look!  Take one deep, breath!  What’s happening in this place?

Purposely back track your steps now.  Freeze the scene you just witnessed.  Go in to the next room and watch unfolding events hand in hand.

Go in unnoticed.  Tiptoe to a table where four children are deeply engrossed in their writing and drawing.  Scan the room some more.  Now spot five children down the carpet who are solving number problems, and are consulting one another on results of their mind-struggle.  Their body language and faces say a lot.  At a listening corner, view the four other children equipped with their headphones.  Do you see them each holding on closely to a book, pausing and flipping the pages of their book right on bell tone cue?  Move your eyes next to the opposite corner.  Take a glimpse of the three other children matching letter symbols and pictures. From time to time, one pulls a piece from someone’s pile to solve her very own puzzle.  Suspend the thoughts on what you just saw, and this time … do listen.  Do you hear that faint music playing in the background?  Are the consulting whispers from other parts of the room audible to you?  Note the busy hands, and the moving about eyes at work.  Wonder at questions those young minds are asking.  Think about the quiet exchanges that might possibly be shaping.  What are you thinking at this point?

I am asking myself, “Could chaos and order simultaneously take place in parallel time?”

        More than ever, I’ve come to really believe that chaos and order indeed coincidentally happen in our world.   Those two rooms I asked you to imprint in your minds’ views are vicarious shots of events that took place side by side.  They motivated me to weigh in on the events.  I had lately begun minding chaos and order deeply in the recesses of my overactive mind.  I catch them in obscure places I happen to be.  I catch them in my littlest space, and in the narrowest nook where I have settled in this big and wide world.  I have come to realize that I am a dot in the sea of many thousands of dots singing, breathing, living, bouncing from place to place.  At times, the dots do settle.  In other moments, they clash.  It’s much like blaringly shouting and living contentedly in the narrowest of gaps at the same time.  My peaceful moments easily turn or get forced into combative split seconds.  Turbulence and harmony intertwine from time to time.  It is a fact that I do get lost in the most open, widest circumstances.

It’s a complex world we live in.  Natural or man-made disasters and conflicts take over our lives or throw us off- balanced.  In the wink of an eye, houses could get demolished due to an active storm or fire, floods could quickly gobble up lands, and structures could fall apart.  People’s grounded lives and situations fumble in rocky paths and get muddled, just like that.  Peaceful feelings collapse.  Chaos explodes!  On the other hand, our worlds and lives take on composed scenes, soothing rhythms, serene streams of action one after another.  We sleep soundly in quiet places.  We work and take leisure moments side by side.  We visit with family or friends and enjoy pleasant atmospheres of fellowship and camaraderie.  We maintain the status quo, stick to what we know, go along with the flow of tides, and abide by strictest rules we set for ourselves or those imposed by our cultural and social circles.  We hope and also guard that we do not ruffle anyone’s feathers.  We do anything in our power so that nothing disrupts life patterns and pulses.   We ensure that Order sleeps soundly. 

Chaos and order seem to get the best and worst of us.  To you, which of the two realities robustly tests courage, patience or intellect? 

Dig deeply.  Seek further, and find!

Usher Relief!

Blog85:

Get relief!

Get that happy feeling after grieving
Feel better, calmer after something frightening disappears
Stop worrying over something that has not yet happened

Let go of throbbing pain!

Seek relief!

Relieve worries of mind and heart

Reduce … diminish stress

Decrease one’s economic burden

Lessen the work load by hiring another worker

Alleviate discomforts of ‘defeat’!

Find relief!

What a relief to finally land safely a smoking airbus!

Breathe a sigh of relief after that ordeal surpassed!

 

Relieve the boredom from a meaningless gathering!

Be relieved that the long, chaotic process is now clear!

Dismiss pain brought by harsh words!

Remove tensions between warring wits!

Assist with relief operations in disaster-stricken site!

Relieve somebody from working all night!

Discharge a horrible fright from your mind!

 

Extend relief!

Relief is a great blessing born out of compassion 
Relieving brings about easy feelings

What a relief to be out of sticky, yucky circumstance!

Patience

Blog84:

Patience …

I covet you!

When an issue of pertinence calls for action
I can’t wait long
I can’t be calm

When dealing with situational challenges
I get uneasy
I get anxious 

Patience …

I covet you!

When a task must be done,
I am eager to get work began
I yearn for its quick completion

When there’s little time to get a response
I am restless
I am fretful
I get apprehensive
I get very concerned

Patience …

I covet you!

Teach me to pause a while
Teach me to put up with delay
Teach me to understand gaps and intervals

Let me put off vexations
Let me hang on to stillness
Let me hold on to serenity

Patience …

Let me plant you in my soul!

Build Builders

Blog83:

Imagine and then plant a plan 
Gather constructors to assemble pieces
First lay a sturdy foundation
Next enclose it with walls

Bid an architect to choose a type of rooftop after that

Behold ... a building … a structure appears! 

A constructed building isn’t yet a noteworthy edifice
It just stands incognito there or someplace else
To stand out, it must establish its purpose
What more might we make out of it?
What could a building ... a structure serve?

In it develop a point-of-view
Inside it, make an evocative thing out of ‘throw-aways’
Indoors, bring ideas and crystalize them
Allow a design to shape
Arrange a meeting between opposing groups!

Open the doors to a social service perhaps
Or let mind-building happen in it
Invite creative hands and brains to get engaged
Gather people around and let them mingle
Or let praise and worship calm souls within it!

 

Let artists mold, shape, and animate anything lifeless
Grant creators to produce something magnificent out of small things
Summon people to resolve differences inside
Call within entrepreneurs who’d invigorate enterprises
Elevate buildings to heights they could reach

And remember …
Remember builders throughout our worlds
Remember the fruits of all their handiwork! 

Mortality

Blog82:

A stranger asked me, “How much land do you need?”

I replied, “Not much.  Maybe, six feet long by 2 feet wide-
Enough to get me back down the ground!
One Great Book says, ‘from dust I came; to dust I will return’

“Do you believe it?” he inquired further.

There’s no reason why I shouldn’t or couldn’t.
I’ve seen mortality wrongly snatched, true!
I’ve seen bodies give up and fall.
So … when mine is done with its purpose and work
I am fine to lie down with princesses and paupers alike
Or I could quietly wander in other creative ways,”
I disclosed.
 
I give mortality its due thought.
It’s not with what I’d like to be concerned-
Nonetheless, I pause and ponder.
I don’t really have to think of it.
I ‘go with its flow’ so to say, and see it take its course.

I’d rather be surprised at how it moves me.
I’d rather be challenged at how it works with brain and heart.
I’d rather marvel at how it makes way for thoughts within to run.
I’d rather let it move and dance with all that constitutes my being.

Why think of the end while the blood streams gush?
Why think of the end while the heart pumps its vivacious life?

Have you heard?
Have you heard that ‘everything will be alright in the end’?
If the course of our mortality took a bump … a hitch … a snag
If the present were not ‘all right’
Then we could conclude, it is not yet the end of life.

I’ll sing, breathe, and live life for as long as I have its gifts!