by Hafiz

God
and I have become
Like two giant fat people
Living in a
Tiny boat.
We
Keep
Bumping into each other and
L
A
U
G
H
I
N
G

a mother's day tribute

The Lanyard - Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Included in the FORTHCOMING book (OCT 2005), The Trouble with Poetry. Purchase from Amazon (here).

hours of the day

For more description of these hours of the day, visit dawn, day, dusk & dark.

a therapist for the vicar?

Trough

There is a trough in waves,
A low spot
Where horizon disappears
And only sky
And water
Are our company.

And there we lose our way
Unless
We rest, knowing the wave will bring us
To its crest again.

There we may drown
If we let fear
Hold us within its grip and shake us
Side to side,
And leave us flailing, torn, disoriented.

But if we rest there
In the trough,
Are silent,
Being with
the low part of the wave,
Keeping
Our energy and
Noticing the shape of things,
The flow,
Then time alone
Will bring us to another
Place
Where we can see
Horizon, see the land again,
Regain our sense
Of where
We are,
And were we need to swim.

by Judy Brown

Water Reflections

The following quote comes from this delightful post. Read the quote and tell me if you don't think this is really very cool?!?!??!

“You exhale roughly a liter of water per day into the atmosphere, and most of this water rains or snows back down again within about a week’s time. The total global precipitation is about 1,000,000,000,000,000 (one quadrillion) times greater than the amount of water you exhale, so your impact on the weather is pretty minor.

But even if you contribute only one quadrillionth of the total water content in a snowflake, that is still about 1,000 molecules. It depends on how well things are mixed in the atmosphere, but there are probably, very roughly, about a thousand of your molecules in every snowflake.”

photo december, 2008... so i wonder how many of my molecules are in this shot taken in my own backyard???

presence knows presence

"Prayer is not primarily saying words or thinking thoughts. It is, rather, a stance, a way of being present.

It’s a way of living in the Presence, living in awareness of the Presence, and even of enjoying the Presence. Presence knows Presence.

The full contemplative is not just aware of the Presence,

but trusts,
allows,
and delights in it." -- Richard Rohr

january, 2010 morning ©lucy

Water Reflections

"When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze."

~Isaiah 43:2

photo ©h3images

Water Reflections

"When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy." -- Rumi

glendolough waterfall © lucy 2009

i want to know...

I want to know how the waves will hold me. What will be the rise of today; the fall of tonight?

I want to know where God is when my stomach drops as the bottom falls out of the roller coaster.

I want to know where the gentle hands of compassion are. I want to know why sometimes they feel like a vise around my neck.

I want to know how I got to this place and where I will go next.

I want to know if God really listens to prayer or are my words lost in the waves of desire, swirling until I can feel no more.

I want to know - do you (G0d) love me?

"I want to know" was created this week while facilitating others in a deepening spirituality exercise... hmmm. who's facilitating here?

The following haiku was the next step in the exercise.

what will hold me up
when the deep bottom falls out,
when God's hand fails me?

Disposable Child?

"Hey have you seen the disposable child With sunken cheeks and belly distended Hey have you seen the disposable child Exempted from grace and left undefended Born into a world that's so defiled Well now don't shed a tear he's just a disposable child.

Hey have you heard the disposable child One who's heart should be fillin' with wonder Hey have you heard the disposable child Who spent his youth dodging bullets and thunder Don't waste your time with this soul who's never smiled Now don't shed a tear he's just a disposable child

Hey do you know the disposable child Born into suffering, forced into hiding Hey do you know the disposable child It seems your agenda and his are colliding Asking only for love but feeling so reviled Now don't shed a tear, he's just a disposable child

To whom can you turn my disposable child When heaven and earth have left you forsaken To whom can you turn my disposable child When the winds of neglect leave you tattered and shaken Where the refuse of humanity is piled They don't shed a tear if you're just a disposable child"

--Peter Himmelman

Walkin' on Sunshine Wordle

I have done wordles before. They are fun and creative and take just a little bit of time to produce a tiny piece of art. This one is a result of my recent post "walkin' on sunshine".



Create your own wordle here.

Poetry Party

SHADOW
INKY FILIGREED
CONTRASTING HIGHLIGHTING GLORIFYING
LET US BE FRIENDS
TOGETHER

Join the Poetry Party at Abbey of the Arts!!!

See the related post at Diamonds!

mandala

i just love little bits of serendipitous synchronicity. after being gone for several days at the fabulous awakening the creative spirit program, i came home to peruse my favorite blog sites. i was not surprised at all to see that kel has asked us to create a mandala for her "art attack" and i happen to have one i was going to share from my week. fun, huh?

mandala's are powerful little pieces of healing if you allow yourself to intuitively create and then spend time discerning what might me learned from this bit of creativity. (this one was created in a time span of 45 minutes from selecting images to completed mandala. not too much time to overthink things!!)

please let me know if you decide to create your own!

right-click on the image to see it in larger version.

Calling Me

The stones cry out saying, “Come. Come.”

Clouds and mist meet earthen fields of green calling, “Come. Come.”

Water whispers, “I will wash you clean. Come. Please come.”

The fire in my belly stirs and answers, “Yes.”

Join the poetry party at Abbey of the Arts!!

resurrection

from lucy's phone 4.07.09

the world in your hands

Several weeks ago while creating this collage, I noticed some words on the scraps of paper from where I had cut my images. They were intriguing to me, so I tucked them away for a later time. While I was preparing to cut up more scraps and images in response to my meditation on a healthy body, I ran across the partial poem and decided it was time to find the rest. I offer it here. Enjoy!


Settle for nothing
less than the
object of your desire.

Desire. The weight of. The weight of our
desire. Then laugh, cry, but laugh
more than you cry, and when you hold
the world in your hands, love Her.

--Alma Luz Villanueva from "The Object"

collage by lucy 3.21.09

4 x 4 Fun

I've been tagged by Elizabeth over at Mindwhisperings. The rules, in her words:
1. Go to the 4th folder where you keep your pictures on your computer.
2. Post the 4th picture in the folder.
3. Explain the photo.
4. Tag 4 fellow bloggers to join in the fun!

This photo is one of those reminders to me that sometimes old friends are the very best thing in the whole world. This is a picture of my dear friend, Kim and her husband Gaylon. Kim and I met when we were 17 years old and were going through rush together at Oklahoma State University. She is from Chickasha, OK and is one of those delightful people who knows no such thing as a one-syllable word. One of my favorite sounds in the whole world is to hear her call me by my little used nickname of Kat which comes out something like this "Kaa-yaa-ttt."

We lost touch for nearly 30 years (how can that be?) and this picture was taken at the wedding of our other dear friend, Theresa. We were (and are) the three Virgos in the Zeta house with our birthday's all falling within a week of each other (same year). I have the distinct honor of being the oldest. When reunited for the wedding, it was like we were all 17 again and no time at all had passed. There is something incredibly wonderful about having friends who knew you when...

Thank you, Elizabeth for this little walk down memory lane. I think I'll go e-mail my amigos, Kim and Theresa!

So, for this one I tag my virtual buddies, Christine, Tess, Sunrise Sister & Rebecca. Anyone else who wants to play, please join in. It's great to see what pops up!

good morning, valentine

my journal

a couple of weeks ago, i went on a wonderful adventure in art making with my sister and two of her friends. we traveled to pendleton, oregon and spent one day with a master printmaker and another day learning to make hand-made books. this is the result of my first bookmaking efforts. i like it so much that i can't bring myself to write in it...sigh.