Every Step a Miracle

June 27, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

Angel of Death. The name had started to stick. As a volunteer, working with the dying, my job was to help patients relax, ease some of their stress. “She needs you more than me,” on old Irish doctor said as we both arrived at a patient’s home simultaneously. “I can give her medication for the […]

Fences In Black & White (with poem)

March 16, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Look at us building fencespretending we have differences do we not hunger the samehunt in the same places do we not strive with equal intentbuild our nests with the same ferocity forgo passion to survive?Let us stop pretending let down these walladmit to our vulnerabilities align our purposesfight a more fearsome foe. (Cee’s black and […]

A Fresh Approach

February 23, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

It started with a tree. Something about the texture of the bark appealed to me, so I took a picture. Then I examined the image on my computer, and pondered what the image was saying to me. Did it need altering? Was it worth keeping? Every time I looked at it, I was drawn to […]

Shake Ups

January 5, 2019.Reading time 4 minutes.

The new year grabbed me in a choke hold and hog-tied me before I had a chance to even think about what it might bring. It started with a text that my mother was in hospital, followed by a harried searching of flights and anxious speculating about how I’ll get home. Me, who hasn’t ventured […]

Remembrance

November 8, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

My granddaughter paints a row of red flowers with crosses in between. “Flanders Field” she tells me. She’s six. “Your great-great grandfather, my grandfather, was shot in Flanders Field.” She raises her eyes to meet mine. “Did he die?” “No, but he was injured.” He was crawling across the field when the bullet entered and […]

Art Inspires Hope

November 6, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

There is a painter inside of me busting to get out. She talks to me, while I am working – makes suggestions, helps me pick the right brush, encourages different strokes. I like it when she is present. Listening to her is an act of letting go. It is a form of trusting. A growing […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #22: Sacrifice

November 5, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

“What do you pray for?” “Inner peace.” “And what are you willing to sacrifice in order to achieve this desire?” The question startles me. “What do you mean?” “To achieve the sacred, you must be emptied of that which obstructs its passage. What stands in the way of receiving your highest good?” I have to […]

Visitation

October 31, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

It snowed early that year, and those who gathered at the church hall were dressed to keep out the cold, mumbling about the weather, and helping themselves to warm beverages. Seems deaths come in threes, and this was the third of our family members we’d buried in as many months. “Where’s Uncle Charles?” I asked […]

The Tattooist Of Auschwitz: Review

October 25, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

The atrocities of Auschwitz are no secret, and yet, every surviving story reveals another angle, not only of suffering and inhumanity, but also of the incredible endurance of the human spirit and kindness in the darkest of moments. The Tattooist of Auschwitz is about a young man, Jewish, who volunteers for work duty and finds […]

Birthing The Soul

October 18, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

I stuff down the cookies as if the faster I eat the more I can distance myself from the misery that has bubbled to the surface. “Write about it,” my psychologist suggests as she ushers me out of the door, our session having run past the allotted time. I told her about the weekend I […]

Imagine

If we could lift understandingto indigenous teachingsexpand our loveto earth, sky, and seaMake personal gain tabooand Ancients a weigh point If we could witness the mountainsslow floating across the skyand touch the dolphin’s soulanxiously swimmingwhere tuna are netted Would we cower at our insignificanceor move forward, learning to acceptthat all of life is deeply woveninto […]

Dear Child

I know a little girl,whose hair in ringletsfalls, unkempt from lackof brushing; who standswhen she should be sitting;who laughs with defiance whenchallenged, her dark eyes gleamingwith mischief; who holds her chin uphigh and stamps her feet, arms foldedin protest when she does not get her way. I see that little girl,have watched her play,with a […]

Re-de-fine-d

Ask me how I’m doingand I’ll say “fine”, notbecause I’m actually fine,but because “fine” is the onlysocially acceptable response. If I said that I have been lyinghere, for three hours now,willing my body to move,that would elicit unsolicitedadvice and tarnish my “fine”. I’d berate myself for breakingmy promise not to moan,knowing that complainingprovokes a compulsive […]