When things are too hard
to take, take to creation
within and without.
Tag Archives: courage
ART THERAPY& Haiku
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025
Worn and weary I
run away from words hidden
in the dark of night.
Pained and poured out I
slowly ascend the mountain
reaching toward the light.
Strained and so sore I
peruse the new horizon
coming into sight.
Battered but brave I
reach into my open heart.
Love overcomes fright.
CHRISTMAS LETTER
MERRY CHRISTMAS
The Christmas Letter 2024
This year I am compelled to ask a question similar to that asked by the youngest child at the Jewish Passover Seder: “Why is this Christmas (night) different from all other Christmases (nights)?” It feels different, more significant, more laden with meaning. It calls for more introspection and reflection. Too many mornings I awaken with dread as if there will never be another Christmas
defined by love for all, peace in understanding, and hope for a free and joyful future. The darkness seems overwhelming. I look for a star in the sky to guide my way. I understand the need to find a course I can follow which will lead me to a simple stable where a humble family seeks shelter. I long for those around me to awaken to the need to overcome the darkness descending on my country, on my world. Crass consumerism can only mask the need for a short time while we search for something bigger than ourselves, to build and belong to a community ruled by fairness which operates within the bounds of law, where each soul has equal value and worth.
Autocrats, fraudsters, and wealthy oligarchs are not new. Courts which give them immunity are new. It is as if I now live among the crowd who shouted, “Give us Barabbas! ” I see that young babe in a manger in a cave or stable and wonder at man’s inhumanity to man, his disdain for women and children, his abuse of the very earth itself. Making a “buck”, to retain power and control, create more darkness over the earth. WE are the Light. The Light dwells within us. This Christmas I celebrate a birth of a babe who taught me this. I celebrate by standing in the Light, against the darkness. I celebrate by spreading Light.
Filed under COMMENTARY
I AM CLEAR NOW
I no longer awaken thinking I had died during the night.
No more heavy weight in my chest dragging breath down.
No more lead-bottomed stomach trying to turn fear over.
No more panic tightening limbs positioned to run.
No more thinking thoughts unable to connect.
I am clear now.
Righteous anger replaces my new-found ability to hate.
Courage courses through veins relieved of pain.
Love for others suffering alongside me on common ground abounds.
A coalition of resistance finds strengthened legs and spine.
Brains calm and stay alert and plan how to go up and not down.
I am clear now.
I see the game to disarm and disarray all opposition.
I see the realization victory by evil forces always subsides.
I see the ability of good hearts to speed the failure along.
I see creativity lead ideas ahead, instead of repeating past retreats.
I am clear now.
Here.
Now.
Let me show you.
Together.
We can move mountains
of greed and fear and doubt.
I am clear now.
POST-ELECTION 2024
My sorrow does not come
from the loss of an election.
Sorrow bubbles up and pulls down
faith and hope and trust in
legal and constitutional protection
for the progressive direction
we moved, pushing hate aside,
within the blue bubble
where I reside,
within a gerrymandered state
full of Christo-fascist pride.
Court protection is now
too often set aside.
Criminal leaders with immunity
can now act with impunity
to destroy an entire nation,
indeed a free world.
Greed acts with such speed
to push grace and care aside.
And truth is destroyed
by incessantly repeated lies.
My sorrow does not come
from watching my nation die.
It comes from watching
fellow citizens kill my beloved nation
Right before my eyes.
And the worst part of it all is,
that it is not a surprise.
I have watched a predator party
stalk us creatures of democracy
my whole life.
The day I most feared
is no longer just a nightmare.
It is the reality of imminent strife.
I cannot simply smile and reach out,
asked to shake hands with voters
with blood on their hands,
when I want to shout “traitors!”
I think of all who died to protect
and defend my country, my best friend,
I cannot stand to watch cruelty up-end
a nation now at-sea, afloat on lies
that all is at is has always been
after an election.
The desperation of a nation
tears at the soul within.
The soul of each and every American,
until America is dead and buried,
so that rich oligarchs can feed
their need for power and control.
Citizens United has long been on a roll
to knock down all opposition,
and watch weak Americans fold
their cards and lose their last hand.
Such sorrow, I fully understand.
SWEET LITTLE OLD LADIES
This is the face of white supremacy,
the sweet little old lady
who lives down the street from me.
She praises the Walz-Harris and
Sherrod brown signs in my yard.
She gleefully says they make her happy.
I offer the extra signs I have to put in her yard.
She gracefully declines, “my family
would make it hard on me.
“So, your family bullies you,” I reply.
Taken aback I watch her smile fade.
“Yes,” she says,” I suppose that’s true.”
“It is just that Black people are so…”
her hands in the air waving away thought…
“They want to take over the country, but ought not.”
“Do you hear what some white people shout,
about taking over government to have their way?
Do you fear them taking over the country?” I say.
A look of confusion crosses her face.
I ask if she thinks every white or Black person
is the same, and if blanket descriptions are really O.K.
This sweet little face now looks away.
Then turns with a frown and admits it’s unfair.
I have family who are MAGA, too, I explain.
If they do not like my signs I simply reply
that they should put out their own signs
and take responsibility for their incivility.
She tells me she is really afraid,
for once glad to be old with death on its way.
I remind her of all dangers she has faced.
I smile and encourage her to take her place
among our past heroes who gave voice to renew
the promise of America for me and for you.
I promise her she is stronger than even she knows,
that together we are strong enough to fight any foe.
I remind her everyone fears what the future portends
She nods and she smiles but her eyes tell a different story
She yearns for the time when being white
meant she could claim control and full glory.
I am an old white lady, but have never been sweet.
Being real is neither pretty nor neat.
I handle truth in its complexity,
dirtying my hands and feet
placing signs in my yard,
refusing to give in to hate and racism.
Ugly truth-teller is my only “ism”.
Silence is complicity.
Fear and hate do not deserve pity.
Goodness and Mercy
Goodness and Mercy
follow me every day,.
Their footfalls softly fall
As I make my way.
As darkness drops ahead
they lift their torches
to light my way,
comforting through nights
that threaten
To never go away.
I hear their voices
in children at play.
I feel their touch in hugs
from friends keeping loneliness at bay.
I share their laughs and smiles
with strangers on my way.
I am carried in their arms
by those who lift my fears away.
I accrue my many debts
but it is they who pay.
They carry me toward my fate
when I would wearily delay.
And, when it seems useless,
they remind me to pray:
“Thank you, Goodness and Mercy
for following me all my days.“
Filed under POETRY
KEEP ON ROLLING
Life is a circle
which rolls back along itself
in never-ending movement,
its motion so slow
we cannot see where it goes.
But going forward it is.
It reaches goals a mile a minute,
gaining speed on downward slopes.
Only then do we notice
the movement at all.
We roll with the punches
over new terrain,
fearing any moment we may fall.
But the circle keeps on rolling,
circling from beginning to end
then back again, moving forward
all the while, where wheels
are allowed to move freely.
There are those whose lack
of courage and curiosity
try to put on the brakes
and stop life’s relentless spin
into the future we cannot see,
looking backward as the wheel
spins forward over and over again.
Their fear grows with each
forward motion
drowning in an ocean
of doubt and uncertainty.
They confuse beginnings with ends.
It is difficult to see
when so small we all be.
we look right and we look left;
too small to see
a wheel as large as infinity.
But never doubt, my friends.
We keep on rolling, rolling, rolling
moving forward over and over again.
Our progressive movement
is not a fall,
from grace;
we are always in
the best place;
This time is simply
a new start after all.
We shall come through
as we always do
to new places
with new faces
new beginnings
that never end
but circle on,
and on again.
HIDDEN TRUTHS
On the lintel stone
of my grade school
above the entrance
children passed through
every day,
after we left church
where we gathered to pray,
were the words to guide us through
childhood to adulthood as the
the good sisters would say:
“Ye shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free.”
Those words I reviewed
each night before I slept,
an examination of conscience
of my personal truth;
what I had done that day,
who I had shown myself to be,
to myself and others
I had met along the way.
Uneasy truths rose in my mind
of tasks left undone
so I could play;
unmet needs of others
who got in my way;
truths I wished would go away
so I could pretend to be
someone so much better
than you, and better than me.
It is not others we fear.
We only fear who we are,
deep inside
where our truth resides.
So, we hide away from ourselves
and fear discovery
that we are truly
not enough:
not good enough,
not strong enough,
not smart enough,
not wise enough,
not wealthy enough,
not educated enough,
not employed enough,
not courageous enough
to examine our conscience;
to own our thoughts and deeds,
to own our responsibility,
to own our need for love,
for passion,
for resilience,
for endurance,
for persistence.
Better to take time
to watch the game,
to drink at the bar,
to take the drug,
to avoid all blame
for what we refuse
to give away.
And the only way
this fraud can continue
is to become a con
like so many others.
Great con men become
our saving heroes
and allow us to blame
all The Others
in their name.
Filed under POETRY
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2024
Hope is the deep breath needed to sing Carols
heralding Jesus’ birth.
Hope is the breath first breathed into all living things.
Hope is the breath that softens
the hard contours of defended hearts.
Hope is the breath that soothes
the rough edges of fearful minds.
Hope is the breath that animates
the graceful move to gift our very selves.
Hope is the breath that lifts
the blindness of hateful eyes heavenward.
Hope is the breath that challenges
the world to dream of peaceful, new beginnings.
Hope is the breath that stores
the strength needed for moments when courage is needed.
Hope is the breath that brightens and enlightens
the darkness within each breathless soul.
Christmas is a time for deep breaths filled
with hope to face another moment, day, month, year.
Keep breathing is all that is required to fill
the world with Hope.
Each breath keeps Hope alive.
Merry Christmas with every breath taken
deeper in every way, every day
during the Jubilee Year of Hope.
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Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY
Tagged as breathe, christmas, courage, deep breathing, faith, good vs. evil, hope, Jubilee Year of Hope, opposition, poetry, Pope Francis, UNITY, war and peace