Miracle / Not a Miracle

Einstein - I covet his hair! - Wikipedia image

There are two ways to live: you can live 
as if nothing is a miracle; 
you can live as if everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein


Rain sluices down the windows, day after day.
Inside, she looks out at the dismal grayness
and tears roll down her cheeks.
There will never be sunshine.

Trees gratefully lift their branches in relief
as the autumn rains sluice down.
This is their first real drink since spring.
How miraculous is nature's design.

Wolves can be seen at the edge of the meadow.
Quick! grab the gun! Fire shots into the air!
See if you can scare them off!

Wolves can be seen at the edge of the meadow.
Quick! Grab the camera!
See if you can capture a beautiful memory.

The apples are falling all over the grass,
rotting and making a horrible mess.
What a drag, to have to pick them up every fall.
We should cut this tree down.

Apples are falling all over the grass.
Let's leave them, so the deer and bear
will find snacks waiting for them
when they pass by.

She is having a baby and she's just seventeen,
a baby having a baby. What a disaster it will be.

She is having a baby. Though she's just seventeen,
still, a baby is a miracle and, somehow,
they will find a way.

It is just an ordinary day.
Nothing is happening.
The hours tick by uneventfully.

It is just an ordinary day.
Nothing is happening.
The hours tick by uneventfully.


Ella set us quotes from Albert Einstein as a prompt at Wonder? Wednesday, over at Poets United. The quote I used is one of my favorite quotations. 

Dream

news photo from google

Dream, all you crones

and creaky-jointed crooners.

Where's the kind of hope

we had when we

were young?

Lay your tired head

upon your pillow

for we have to finish

what we have

begun.

Dust off those castles in the air

we once envisaged.

Polish your granny glasses,

lace up your high-top boots.

To the eastern sea

let's take our pails and shovels. 

To the polls

let's take our trust

and faith and roots.

When it is the hardest 

to have hope,

we still

must have it,

though it's difficult

with so much 

we could grieve.

Dream me a dream

and waltz me round

the kitchen.

Tell me we'll be okay

and I'll believe.

Well, kids, believe it or not, my shiny optimism has taken a big hit, with the devastation of the eastern seaboard. When I watched An Inconvenient Truth years ago, and saw the shores of New York underwater, it was terrifying. It was even more terrifying when it was not a projection but a reality, on my tv screen.

There is so much to be done and the System, in the stranglehold of the multinationals, just cant move fast enough to effect significant change. Especially in a country with two nearly equal political parties. We could teeter totter back and forth every four years, one party making some progress, then the other party tossing that out and starting over.

It takes a lot to discourage me but tonight I am discouraged.

Tomorrow will dawn regardless. Good luck to us all, on Planet Earth.

BLOGBLAST FOR PEACE, 2012

Today, November 4, is the annual Blogblast for Peace, begun in 2006  by Mimi Lenox at  Mimi Writes . This year  152 countries (so far) are  taking part. This peace movement has grown exponentially, from year to year, demonstrating that people all over the world are united in longing for peace. May it come in our lifetime, so our children and grandchildren can live their lives in a more peaceful world. 

Please visit Blogblast for Peace, (we're on Facebook, too), to see all of the beautiful peace globes from around the world, with their wishes for peace on this turbulent planet. Join us!! We need your voice!

Prayer for Morning (Mourning?)

What Our Hearts Want:

for the global consciousness

to rise across the face

of this beautiful and

perilous planet.

Everyone: Rise Up

and say

We want

the War Machine

to stop

and

the Peace Machine

to begin

Rise up, rise up

strong-hearted women

and gentle-hearted men

Replace the monetary

bottom line

with the sustainable-living

bottom line

Instead of billion dollar

killing machines

build billion-dollar

feeding machines

to feed instead of bomb

the world's poor

Given the status quo

it's tempting to think

it is impossible

but it is Possible

It only takes

a billion wills

to make it so

(And, obviously, global warming has to be addressed urgently - just think: switching to clean and "free" energy, aside from providing work for hundreds of thousands of people everywhere,  will also soothe and settle  Mother Nature's angst. Please let our leaders hear YOUR voice about these critically important issues.)

Namaste

Wild Woman Returns

I'm back ,kids, and it was wonderful! The fall colors are breathtaking right now, all the way through the mountains. I so wanted to show you the misty cloud-draped mountains, the rivers, waterfalls, lakes and rocky cliffs all the way there. It is such a beautiful trip! But we would have had to stop every fifty feet, so I contented myself with remembering, so I could tell you.

When we arrived and unpacked, we decided to walk out and find a nearby beach, as the weather was good, no rain. This was only a ten minute walk from where Chris is house-sitting.

It was so lovely and blue, as the day turned itself towards evening.

Sigh.

My friend, Christine Lowther, Poet Extraordinaire

So beautiful.

Chris's meals are so healthy, beautiful, colorful and delicious.

I came home with Ideas!

On Friday, it rained. A lot. We made the rounds of the village thrift shop, and a couple of galleries full of beautiful West Coast art. Glorious. And then we layered up in rain gear and headed determinedly to the beach. I told Chris she is the only person I know who would take me for a beach walk when there was a gale warning. But she reminded me she lives there and thinks nothing of the rain. And I remembered when I was a resident, and wouldnt even "bother" to don rain gear unless it was a full-sized gale. 

My beloved Wickaninnish

Apparently, when I have a fleecy, a thin jacket and  Halle Hansen rain gear on,

all at the same time, my arms stick out to the sides, like a toddler in a snowsuit. 

And you should have seen Wild Woman in the parking lot, trying to 

struggle into her rain pants - much cackling! But that is a highly contented person, 

in the photo, even if her jacket IS buttoned up wrong!

This morning, before the bus came to carry me away, 

we managed a quick nip 

to another small local beach.

I remember being at this beach when half a dozen eagles

were here, swooping down to eat a certain type of small fish

that was plentiful in the bay that week.No eagles today, though. 

Still-lifes everywhere.

Pup loved dragging kelp around when

he was a puppy.

Right after this shot, I put my camera in its case.

Just then a heron swooped RIGHT over our heads, while I

uttered cries of dismay and fumbled with

my camera case. Apparently, the sound effects

were amusing. I didnt get the shot.

So  off we went to wait for the bus......heart very full with all the loveliness I had seen. Chris observed that aging, at least for me, seems to be rather like an acid trip - I see things that arent there, or things that are  there look like something else entirely, and I walk through the world either bemused with wonder, or totally cracking up at having mistaken a rock for a raccoon. She's not so far off the mark.

It was a lovely time, kids. It will last me till January, when I get to go back - next time, to Tofino!

Thanks, Chris, for a wonderful visit.

And thank you, World, for being so beautiful.

Off to the Beach!

Kids, I have waited for so long for a trip to the beach! My friend Chris is picking me up today and taking me back with her to the coast. There will be beach walks! I am taking boots and rain gear, because I dont care what the weather is like, I will be walking my beloved beach as I did every day year-round when I lived there, in the land of my dreams.

I shall be back Saturday afternoon sometime, with photos of the wild, wonderful waves.

Morning Song

Beau

She walks on the wings
of daybreak,
cloak trailing.
Mist is rising over the meadow
and the trees are emerging
from their blanket of darkness.

Small early birds
are hopping and cheeping
at the feeder.
The old brown mare
whuffs a greeting
over the rail fence,
as the last star
of the morning
slowly disappears,
and the snippet of moon
silently tiptoes away.

Where will today's path lead her?
One by one,
the days are moving on,
heading into a future
which is hidden from view.

One long last look back,
before turning her face
to the morrow,
already on its way,
as this dear old earth
turns and turns,
and turns again.

Wicked

The wicked witch was abominable
at steering her broom.
She cackled wildly
as she swooped 
around the room.

I tried to interfere
by blocking where
she tried to steer,
swooping high and low,
and shrieking happily 
to and fro.

I went and sat upon my chair
and watched the show,
never knowing where she
next would try to  go.
She was fiendish, yes,
but also very cute,
in her floppy hat
and Black Little Number suit.

Her boots were lipstick red,
she had green hair
upon her head,
and she finally came
to land upon my bed.

What can I do for you,
I asked, precisely?
(You dont want to make her mad,
so ask her nicely.)

I want a story and some tea,
is what she said to me.
Make the tea sweet
and the story frightful.
So I did as I was told,
being not very bold,
In the end she was not wicked
but delightful.

Ella, at Poets United's Wonder Wednesday, asked for something Wicked.
A cute little witch popped into my poem and took it over.