The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

THE SOFTNESS OF HEALING FINGERTIPS

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The World is a Ouija Board
searching for the soft touches of 
healing finger tips
that search out personifications of
PEACE
HEALTH
WELL-BEING
SAFTEY
HOPE
LOVE
COMPASSION
KINDNESS
Bringing what’s so not ever There
to so what’s forever now to be Here

The Tear drop Planchette 
scrapes away all that’s hurtful
as it wipes away the bitter salty tear
and replaces it with a Smile
every face shares
because the pain of one is
no longer the ache of all
Banished forever
World Peace can’t be legislated
but a continuous deep unfiltered love
won’t be denied

Oh how I yearn for the feel
of those soft touches of healing fingertips 
Even now as my fists ease
and my hand opens to reach
for another unfolded hand
to form a prayer not be prayed
but shared and lived
in a game 
that can’t be boxed up
when it’s over

OR
SEE.     .     .
even now we get to choose an
ending
(SO WHY NOT MAKE IT AN ENDLESS BEGINNING?)

THE OPPOSITE GAME

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THERE ARE NO WORDS.                  .                       .
we say
and then.       .      .
All we do is use
w       O           r        D              s
to say
THERE ARE NO WORDS.            .            .
We’re walking
talking
DICTIONARIES
not so much looking for definitions
as for real, living
M e A n I n G s
and dare we try
GIVING THEM

Wait.            .            What.            .             .                 ?
Did we just play
THE OPPOSITE GAME
(or have we never stopped)

WOULD YOU RATHER ?

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We all believe that we are the

C        R        E        A        T        O        R        S

of our own W o r l d s.               .                 .

UNTIL     WE        ARE         NOT.          .          .

It was one of my favorite games

usually played in the back seat of our family car

on long or even not so long

T R I P S.          .          .

For the lack of a better name

we just called it

W    O    U    L    D          Y    O    U          R    A    T    H    E    R

and  it  went  like  this:

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BE  AN  ELEPHANT  OR  A  MOUSE ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BE  A  MOTHER  OR  A  FATHER ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BE  A  RAINDROP  OR  A  SNOWFLAKE?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BE  A  LITTLE  RED  RIDING HOOD  OR  A  GOLDILOCKS ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BE  A  FARM ANIMAL  OR  A  FISH ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BE  A  HOT  OR  COLD ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  WORK  OR  PLAY ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  EAT  SPINACH  OR  LIVER ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  SING  OR  DANCE ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  RIDE  ON  A  TRAIN  OR  A  PLANE ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  WATCH  A  MOVIE  OR  A  PLAY ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  EAT  ICE  CREAM  OR  CAKE ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  IT  WAS  CHRISTMAS  OR  HANUKKAH  OR  YOUR  BIRTHDAY ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  LIVE  IN  AN  IGLOO  OR  A  TEPEE ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BE BITTEN  BY  AN  ALLIGATOR  OR  A  SHARK ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  HAVE  GUM  ON  YOUR  SHOES  OR  DOG  POO ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  GET  ELECTROCUTED  OR  SHOT ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BURN  TO  DEATH  OR  DROWN ?

.          .          .the  WOULD  YOU  RATHERS

are endless and you might have come up with a few yourselves
(PLEASE  SHARE_______________________________________________)

AND   THEN   THERE’S    ALWAYS:

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  LOVE  FIERCELY  OR  BE  LOVED  FIERCELY ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  GET OR GIVE ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER MAKE A DIFFERENCE OR BE MADE A DIFFERENCE ?

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BE KIND OR BE KIND’ED

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BE  COMPASSIONATE  OR  COMPASSION’ED

WOULD YOU RATHER THE WORLD BE COVID OR HATE FREE

WOULD  YOU  RATHER  BE.           .             .

j u s t     b e 

well
then
v e r b
   i  t
  u   p.       .       .

R  A  T  H  E  R

B     E
THE  REALEST OF THE REALEST
YOU
THE WORLD MOST DEFINITELY
NEEDS YOU TO BE
b e c a u s e
Sometimes we don’t actually know
what we can
D O
until we
D    O
what we didn’t know
we could.   .   .
or would you rather.          .          .          ?

All-ie, All-ie, In Free

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images-3

It was a big inside and outside game we all played when we got together.     .     .

in fact, it always seemed like Easter

was that Official call to bring FAMILY

together and start the

Spring-quickly-into-Summer activities.

I was G O O D. . .

REAL GOOD. . .

So Good that the Game would sometime END without me.

Hide and Seek

I had a real classic hiding place–

(Psssst: Don’t tell anyone)

It was underneath my grandparents front porch–

their old coal cellar.

I think it was so good,

because even if someone opened up the door,

it was too dark to venture down there.      .     .

Real dirty like too,

with Spiders and centipedes and other things

I never learned the names.

There was a real part of me that hoped I’d NEVER get found

and a part of me that
was really hurt when

I      D I D N ‘ T      G E T      Found.

Mr. Borchert, lived across the street and he always sat on his front porch,

listening to Pittsburgh Pirate ball games on his transistor radio.

He never gave me up or paid me much mind.

L i t e r a l l y,

when the kids would move on to the next street to play

Kick-the-Can or

Red-Light, Green-Light

and leave me without so much of an

A  L  L – I  E ,       A  L  L -I  E ,       I  N       F  R  E  E ,

he’d spy me coming out,

dirty and hurt from underneath the Front porch and yell over,

“They didn’t find you again,”

as an offered up badge of honor,

but it never stuck much.

I  WAS  MAD.       .       .

H U R T

We all kind of want to get

F     O     U     N     D

don’t we?

NO.        .        .

Not FOUND OUT.         .         .

just   F    O   U   N   D

Not many ever really continue the Search.          .          .

in spite of some really great Hiding Places,

We often give up the Search much too early.

Maybe we get bored easily.     .     .
Maybe we get redirected.     .     .
Maybe we get misdirected .      .     .
Maybe we get sophisticated.     .     .     .

But.       .       .

but we all yearn for the call of

A   L   L – I   E ,        A  L  L – I  E        I  N        F  R  E  E ,

don’t we?

To be Counted
To be IN
To be Included
To be Important
To be Recognized
To be Found

TO BE.          .          .          .

What’s your Game?

Are you winning?

Have you lost?

Have you given up   P L A Y I N G   long ago?

Have you been  FOUND

(o u t) ?

S h h h h h h h h.      .      .      .

Listen.     .     .

It may be far off, but still just barely audible

.     .     .heard above the

T    H    U    M    P    I    N   G

of your heart in your ears that’s caused by getting

F      O      U      N      D.       .       .

or just not hiding as well as you thought!

No matter.          .          .

The Game’s over and you’re

H O M E.     .     .  

F  R  E  E!

Seriously,

there’s   no   better   feeling   is   there?

THEN,
NOW,
Maybe FOREVER:

There was a real part of me that hoped

I’d NEVER

get found

and a part of me that’s
really hurt when I DIDN’T. . . .

Apples,
Peaches,
Pumpkin Pie,
Who’s NOT READY
Holler,

” I “

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man