Who Cares - What Matters
T H I S :
Extend your hand of
Liberty and Justice
for All
so that we can get back to being
U S
instead of finding ways to divide
U S
. . .it’s more than
JUST PAYING ATTENTION,
Class
it’s
PAYING RESPECT
and sincerely saying:
“THANK YOU”
Let us in our own ways
be grateful for those
who served and have served
that we may too be of
s e r v i c e
HOW ARE YOU DOING. . .
I know a lot of you have been asking what I think or more pertinently
direction on what to do, I mean s p e c i f i c a l l y
WHAT TO DO
coming from a scary, dark place of fear
And as much as I wish I could you the
A
B
C
steps for you to do NEXT
I am instead offering up a host of not so pretty or in orderly fashioned
UP-CHUCKING’S
(literally)
If there was ever a picture that kind of sums up what your head and gut feels like these past couple of days, maybe it’s a Snow Globe that’s literally been upended. . .
So many people have reached out through texts, phone calls, pop in visits not knowing what to think or do and NO. . . I don’t have, nor am I offering up any magical, abracadabra special
thoughts or answers, but like a lot of you some very honest,
“I DON’T KNOW’S. . .
A N D
some of these random flavored Life Savers
A N D
A N D
A N D
A N D
A N D
When I was going through a drive through Starbucks on
Wednesday morning there was a car in front of me
who paid for my cup of much needed Grande Blonde Roast Coffee
ACCIDENT
COINCIDENT
DIVINE INTERVENTION
One of the darkest places in our house
(my basement bathroom, and yes, I have bookshelves in there)
reminds me
(if I notice)
THE DARKEST PLACES
HOLD THE MOST GLORIOUS LIGHTS
Carve out a space
where YOUR LIGHT
can be lit
where YOUR LIGHT
can flicker away Darknesses
where YOUR LIGHT
can glow and enlighten
where YOUR LIGHT
can be seen and shared
because YOUR LIGHT
creates an Enlightenment
Anytime
Anywhere
I want to be
An Extended Hand
A hearing Ear
A Reasoning Refuge
Who Cares
instead of complaining
always looking for an easier way
to shrug my shoulders
frown my brow
grump apathetically,
“Who Cares?”
I choose to be better
and I invite you to help me
because that’s what gives me
H O P E
a hope I just don’t want to have
but can’t help but to share
DEAR HEARTS
This is what we get to choose
A casting of a vote for
H O P E
A vote for Peace
A vote for Love and Loving
as we are reminded of the powerful words of the poet Dinos Christianopoulus:
“THEY TRIED TO BURY US. THEY DIDN’T KNOW WE WERE SEEDS”
Please, even as you forgive these hodge podge of
UP-CHUCKINGS
. . .come Grow with me
I looked really hard, but I couldn’t find that little sideways oval space to blacken in a vote for
LOVE
or
KINDNESS
~~things that’ll never be, cannot ever be legislated;
but neither can my sincere honor to offer them. . .
BE THE LOVE YOU WISH TO RECEIVE
(is the only box you’ll ever need to darken)
The whole world is seeking it, aren’t they: PERSPECTIVE
When you are feeling BIG and need to feel a little smaller
When you are feeling SMALL and need to feel bigger. . .
Oh, the gift of perspective!
“Cosmic Eye” seamlessly zooms through all recognized scales of the universe, from minuscule elementary particles out to the infinite cosmic web. It uses actual photographs obtained with modern detectors, telescopes, and microscopes, plus renderings of modern computer models.
Pssssssssssssst: THIS IS A WEEK we all could use some PERSPECTIVE
BE OPEN
BE SENSITIVE
to the Smallnesses in the Bignesses in each of us. . . .
(My thanks to astrophysicist Danail Obreschkow and pianist Aakash Gandhi, via Scientificus.
Maybe Halloween…or HALLOW’S EVE isn’t quite over yet. . .
but no matter what the day or the day after is all about:
(Christian origins and historic customs. Halloween is thought to have influences from Christian beliefs and practices. The English word ‘Halloween’ comes from “All Hallows’ Eve”, being the evening before the Christian holy days of All Hallows’ Day (All Saints’ Day) on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November)
ARE YOU A WITCH
The kids were confused and told the teacher he’d messed up the game.
“Did I? Was anyone in Salem an actual witch? Or did everyone just believe what they’d been told?”
Maybe the greatest MASKIt’s an annual BILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS that casts a large shadow on a lot of pocketbooks and wallets and there’s no hint of it ever stopping on this
HALLOWEEN EVE
where things go bump in the night
and crash, boom, bam during the day
and the quickly falling shadows. . .
It’s amazing how we stand in our own shadow
and wonder loudly why it is so dark . . . .
THE SHADOW
I feared the most was
the one that could
hurt me the least
which made me fear it
all the more
The sound
The smell
The feel of skin crawling
hair raising on the back of my neck
itchingly
All SCREAMING
All YELLING
ABORT
BEWARE
R U N
All
just a shadow
caused something a Light
created but never clarified
An Illusion
of what could harm me
but never will
N O W
that’s a Treat any Tricky Shadow can appreciate. . .
AMAZING THINGS HAPPEN
WHEN YOU TALK
AND
L I S T E N
especially when you ask
curiously
and
listen hard. . .
WE
L E A R N. . .
(A LOT)
(My thanks to Naomi Shihab Nye, via Poetry Foundation.)
U NIVERSEIt might as well be uselessI meanWhat exactly is aNIVERSENary another nothing until aUIs brought not just to itbut for ITWho would think(Not Many)That it takes a Uyour simply perfectly imperfectYou-est UTo not just completeincludeBut actually createThe Universewith the best part beingthat it is evermore beingCreated/Recreated because ofOh the holiest of holiesU
The notes of our lives are not played by ourselves. . .
. . .when we pause
to hear those notes
it’s just not some scale that we maybe used to know
it truly is a joy to the world
that we can’t hear at any other time. . .
Now the real question is not just will you hear that song you play. . .
Will you share that song?
In Just a moment we can all know
BAD DAY by Daniel Potter came out well over 14 years ago and we haven’t heard much from him since but he left us with a question: WHAT QUALIFIES AS A BAD DAY? And maybe even more: WHAT DO YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Ok. You had a bad day. Seriously, not to minimize, that but exactly what does the Bad Day look like for you? No matter what your definition is, we can bet that it’s varied between each of us and all of us a bad day arrange from a wrong cup of coffee in the morning to a fender bender to the loss of a pet to the loss of a loved one to a bad bad result from a test, to any one who has had to suffer and now endure the effects of recent hurricanes and flooding or living in the Middle East.
Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Pexels.com
Whatever a bad day is, can we safely assume that somebody that doesn’t look like they’re having a bad day, just may be having one and that maybe just maybe, we can make it less bad, not better, just less bad?
Now guaranteed. . .If you do that and you consistently do that. . . bad day’s may not completely go away, but they do fade and lose some of their sting. . .
IN THE MEANTIME:
Please, try hard not to make your bad day a bad day for Another
