Sometimes

 

Sometimes,
when people are fractious,

and disgruntled, but thinking I am the problem,

I like to remember the small blessings:

a cup of tea in the morning
in my favourite Dog Lover mug;

the fact that, if I give it time,
my head will eventually recover

from the trauma of awakening, and will
adjust to being upright;

that, after a shower, (a shower! such a blessing,
when so many have no water at all),
there is an hour-long window

when I can either go out
or get something done
before I have to lie down.

These small blessings make
the big blessing possible:

that I am still here, in my sweet cozy rooms,

still alive, in this place that is
so beautiful to me,  so necessary to my soul;
that however slowed down

I am, and silent, and disheartened
with  how the world  is conducting itself,
I am still alive to witness blue skies,

that sky I have loved all my life,
and those endless, eternal waves,
rolling in and out. That, no matter 

how difficult people are being
all over the planet,

in response to the trauma of our times,
there is still goodness, everywhere,
beauty, everywhere.

That there is still a planet we can save,

if we all wake up together and hear

what Mother Earth is telling us

in all her many voices.

Sigh. Sometimes I get disheartened. But I remember that Mother Earth, while desperately distressed, is still trying so hard to live and she needs our help.

Wildfires are burning in Canada. One community of 5000 has been evacuated. It is only May. I don't hear the government talking about lowering emissions, which should be the first priority. The news is distracted by someone south of the border who is totally unfit for office, yet is taking up all the air waves. When will we emerge from this coma and move into doing the work that so urgently needs to be done?

Nature's Child

 

I walk through the doorway of the morning:

grey sky, a cool breeze, a new day

beginning.

I am remembering how hot summer was

when I was young, how, when I hiked in the hills,

the ground was soft with fallen pine needles,

springy under my feet.

The trees smelt almost burnt in the heat.

The scent of sage and ponderosa pine

- the smell of home - was all around,

and I would drink from the long wooden trestles

that carried water downhill to the vineyards below.

I never encountered a rattlesnake,
but a herd of grazing cows 
once followed me, as I walked downhill,
singing.

I was always nature's child.

Imagine

 

He was heading home,
was just outside his door.
"How're you doing, man?"
he asked the person
he thought was a fan.

A shot rang out and
the Ambassador of Peace
was gone.

Crowds gathered in Central Park.
Holding candles, weeping,
they sang Imagine.
Does he walk forever, now,
in strawberry fields?

Imagine if the world
had heard and lived his message:
(War is over if you want it)
found the peace we all desire
and don't know how to have.

Imagine if,
when someone asks
about historical moments,
something besides assassinations,
terror attacks
and wars
would come to mind.

Sigh. Pondering the prompt, half a dozen assassinations - of all my heroes - came to mind, plus 9/11, plus so many many wars. 

for Susan at What's Going On: Historical Moments.

Paul's Bear

 

Bear at Stamp Falls.
I used to walk Pup and Jasmine here.

I could write an entire ode
to a bear's furry ears -
so cute, like the black and white teddy
I had as a child.

My friend hiked mountain trails.
I asked him: have you ever encountered
a bear on your hikes?

He had. Around a corner,
he and Mr. Bear came face to face.
"Oo!" they both said,
staring at each other.

"What did you do?" I asked, enthralled,
(for meeting a bear is not the least scary to me,
compared to humans, because bears
have evolved.)

He looked a little embarrassed,
but I was delighted (and just a little starry-eyed)
 when he replied:
"I sang to the bear! I sang a little,
the bear moved sideways a little,
I went forward a little, I sang some more,
and bit by bit we moved past each other."

I only wish I had thought
to ask him
what song it was that he sang.

for Shay's Word List. Once I saw a bear rock a compact car back and forth until its window popped out, and the bear climbed in. The owner, inside the nearby restaurant fine dining, enjoying the waves rolling in, must have left food in the car. I can only imagine when he came back out. How ever to explain to the car insurance company? And how to extricate the bear?

Mandarin Moon

 

I awake in the deep dark

of the night to see

a huge round full-faced moon

staring in at me,

as if it had zoomed close

with my eyes closed,

I catching it unawares

before it rose.

There she sat,

perched in the bowl

of my old tree,

like an over-sized Christmas ornament

thus adorning just for me

the starkly bare

and brittle branches and, much more,

allowing me to see its beauty

closer

than I ever have

before.

I stare back:

eternal purveyor

of myth and mystery,

as if it holds the secret

of whatever is to be

and has ventured thus

to urge me forth

from out my purple bed,

to find a path

where all my dreams

can be

much better fed.

This radiant so-close moon

and I agree:

surrender to no man,

and yet in giving

I'm most free.

This silvery ambassador

is urging me to find a way

to give all that I can -

Mandarin Midnight Moon

that sailed here

last night

from Japan.

for Sumana's prompt at What's Going On: The Night Sky

How To Be a Good Creature

 

youtube image

The question remains the same:
how to be a good creature
in this topsy-turvy, downsliding world?

"Be peaceful," say the doves,
preening, combing their wings
with smug, pursed beaks.

"Be wily," say the foxes,
leaping into the air, then pouncing
straight down,
after scurrying below-ground mice.

"Make sure of your food-source,"
cluck the inhabitants of the henhouse,
who never have to worry
about morning grain,
unless the old woman falls into a fit
and expires on her doorstep.

"It is a makeshift existence,"
intones the wise owl,
whose home in the bowl of a tree
disappeared in a clearcut.

Life after life passes by, age after age,
yet we do not evolve.
With two polar opposite viewpoints,
nobody wins.
The path to peace is too narrow
for outsized egos.
When will we learn there is no Other,
only Us, and that
we're all in this together?

Yet the animals help each other.
A grey whale, giving birth,
with sharks circling, was suddenly
surrounded by hundreds of dolphins,
who circled around her, stirring up the waters,
until she and her calf were safe.

Dolphins could teach humans a lot
about how to be a good creature.

for Shay's Word List. The video footage of the dolphins protecting the whale is: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhmTRz-B9k

Wait till it is a minute in to see the dolphins begin to circle......it is amazing. Happened off the coast of South Africa some months ago.

When the World is Too Much

Wickaninnish in Blue

When the world is too much, I go to the sea,

watch those eternal waves rolling in and out.

I walk a forest trail, old growth trees

with their mossy trunks breathing peace at me,

making the bad news fade away.

How to not give up, when humans are bombing

other humans; when the climate crisis, ignored,

is flooding and burning the planet; when both

human and beyond-human beings are struggling 

so hard to survive?

Spring blossoms aren't enough to soothe me

any more. But baby animals give me hope.

Life lives itself forward, as it is meant to do.
Mother Earth never gives up,
so how can I?

The world is in terrible distress, and yet
a small orphaned orca swam free last week
in search of her pod and, hopefully, will survive.

And I heard that a grey whale, giving birth,
as sharks began to circle, was surrounded by
hundreds of dolphins, who stirred up the waters,
encirling her with their protection
until mother and calf were safe.
There is a larger landscape
than the one we see.*

There is so much that is mystical, beautiful,
life-affirming, and inspiring in this world,
a bigger picture than we can comprehend.
We are more connected than we know.

We don't know where we're going, yet our feet

obediently follow each other along, as if

programmed. What lies ahead?

When the world is too much, I go to the sea,

watch those eternal waves rolling in and out.
I think about the whales, their fate as tenuous as ours,
dependent on humankind's
engagement and cooperation
with the natural world.

I think about how life never gives up,
how everything in this world
just wants to live.

* I no longer remember the source of this quote, but it is one of my favourites.