Ohhhhhhhh the LIE
of an empty space. . .
If we just had a little bit more time. . .
if we just had an extra day. . .
give me a minute. . .
wait a second. . .
We’ve all said these things before
and guess what
if we literally
magically
were given an extra day
and extra hour
and extra minute
a moment
we most likely wouldn’t do anything differently to make a difference~~
NOW THAT IS A TRAGIC WASTE OF SPACE. . .
(one you don’t have to waste at all with no extra time needed)
THE MEANING OF LIFE IN TWO MINUTES
S O
do you agree
disagree
or do you have a better
two minute spiel. . .
Maybe what the World has been trying to tell us
not just NOW, but especially NOW
is that I really don’t care what you think
or what words you use
or how you arrange them
so much as
HOW DO YOU LIVE
how have you Verb’d them up for
O T H E R S
or maybe
N O T
Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst
I don’t think you can tell the meaning of life in two minutes
IT JUST TAKES A SECOND
of your Caring Catalyst Self
to a Caring Catalyst Other. . .
MOMENTS
Mary always, gives me, like so many others, the most essential of Moments:
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
~ Mary Oliver ~
So here’s the thing about
Moments
We wait for just the right ones
so we’ll never miss them
And in the waiting
We miss them the most
So make sure you look both ways
And especially straight ahead
before stepping out
in the multi-lane traffic
of your life
or you’ll have a moment
that won’t miss you
When it comes to
M O M E N T S
. . .take one
GET ON BOARD
Even if it’s the greatest train the world has ever seen it means nothing if it’s not on the tracks and even less if it’s on the tracks but immobile. . .
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
GET ON BOARD. . .
No one’s asking you to start a song that’ll get everyone singing
but if a 4 minute
UNEXPECTED
concert can break out anywhere
and put a song in your heart
a bop of your head
and the tapping of your feet
I M A G I N E
what you could do with even less
. . .grab a hand and join in
CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
ALL
A
BOARD
JUST A BUS RIDE
W H E N
is a
BUS RIDE
much more than just a
B U S
R I D E. . .
Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
(not just when you make it one)
WHEN YOU REALIZE
K N O W
that it is. . .
Sometimes the greatest ride
is when you realize
you’re not alone
(and one you love makes it a beautiful journey)
HESITATION
DO YOU BELIEVE
that a
LIFE TIME
can be lived in a moment. . .
Maybe the saddest thing
about this one minute award winning film
is that it’s
J U S T
A ONE MINUTE AWARD WINNING FILM
(And not a an-everyday-reality)
Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst
Be
A Caring Catalyst
enough to
DISPROVE
IT
GETTING IN LINE
Every minute someone leaves this world behind.
We are all in “THE LINE” without knowing it.
We never can know how many people are before us.
We can not move to the back of the line.
We can not step out of the line.
We can not avoid the line.
So while we wait in the line–
Make moments count.
Make priorities.
Make the time.
Make your gifts known.
Make a nobody feel like a somebody.
Make your voice heard.
Make the small things big.
Make someone smile.
Make the change.
Make love.
Make up.
Make peace.
Make sure to tell your people they are loved.
Make sure to have no regrets.
Make sure you are ready.
It’s never so much about what you read
so much as when you read it. . .
I’ve read this before and I thought it was great
but when I read it
R E A L L Y
saw and read it
again yesterday
(though I see it nearly everyday)
It took on a different tone
a way different meaning
after finding out about the COVID death of a friend
and then in a
THUNDEROUS
snap-of-the-finger-quickness
it was
personal
profound
prominent
I’m a day away from my 26th anniversary this October 31 of doing hospice work
or more
Hospice work doing me
and out of all of the daily lessons and affirmations
one of the biggest take-aways:
GOOD, BAD, RICH, POOR, BLACK/WHITE, HETEROSEXUAL/LGBTQ, YOUNG/OLD, RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL/AGNOSTIC,ATHEISTS, REPUBLICAN/DEMOCRAT/INDEPENDENTS
and yes, even
HOSPICE Staff and their Families
are not exempt from–
are actually each born with a
terminal sexually transmitted disease
called
L I F E
It’s not a lie
but a truth
we’ve never been able to eliminate or soften it
no matter what the unanswerable’s
of the
why
what-for
how-come’s
of it all
. . .all made all the more horrible by
that gives
G R I E F
its ultimate power and authority
THE ANSWER
may not be so much the Buddhist
shrug-of-the-shoulder:
“BEFORE ENLIGHTENMENT, CHOP WOOD AND CARRY WATER
AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT, CHOP WOOD AND CARRY WATER”
So much as
The antidote and the Porcupine of Grief:
L O V E
If in the end
DEATH
is inevitable
make sure
L O V E
is inescapable
as we take our place
IN LINE
Psssssssssssssssssssssst of the DAY:
. . .SO LIVE
live on
The Present
T I C K T O C K, T I C K T O C K
We really don’t need a clock
to tell us that even now
WE ARE
a
W A S
Second by Second
It shouts out us. . .
M O C K S U S
and then Billy Collins,
Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001-2003
not-so-gently-reminds-us-of
T H E P R E S E N T
Much has been said about being in the present.
It’s the place to be, according to the gurus,
like the latest club on the downtown scene,
but no one, it seems, is able to give you directions.
It doesn’t seem desirable or even possible
to wake up every morning and begin
leaping from one second into the next
until you fall exhausted back into bed.
Plush, there’d be no past
with so many scenes to savor and regret,
and no future, the place you will die
but not before flying around with a jet-pack.
The trouble with the present is
that it’s always in a state of vanishing.
Take the second it takes to end
this sentence with a period–already gone.
What about the moment that exists
between banging your thumb
with a hammer and realizing
you are in a whole lot of pain?
What about the one that occurs
after you hear the punch line
but before you get the joke?
Is the where the wise men want us to live
in that intervening tick, the time slot
that occurs after you have spent hours
searching downtown for that new club
and just before you die up and head back home?
(THE RAIN IN PORTUGAL, Random House, 2016)
. . .but it’s true, isn’t it. . .
It’s hard
almost impossible to
BE PRESENT
the new buzz word:
M I N D F U L
to even define it
while you’re literally catching a cold from the flipping pages
of the fast moving calendar
. . .makes you wonder not only about
T I M E
but actually what time is it:
This
N E W
N O W
THE AGE OF COVID-19
THIS P R E S E N T
. . .maybe that it’s simply
present
time
to know:
I don’t have to love forever
I don’t have to be kind forever
I don’t have to be compassionate forever
I don’t have to be caring forever
I don’t have to be forgiving forever
I don’t have to be accepting forever. . .
J U S T
l o v i n g
k i n d
c o m p a s s i o n a t e
c a r i n g
f o r g i v i n g
a c c e p t i n g
N O W
or as Mr Poet Laureate, Billy might suggest:
P R E S E N T L Y
Is it enough. . .
for once not as a whole. . .
just grain by grain
which beats any
s e c o n d
on any clock or watch. . .
anyone can love for
THAT LONG
for just one good
p r e s e n t
M O M E N T
MOMENTS
I
T H I N K
Christmas is so much more than lights on a tree
or a date on a calendar in the month of December
or a Season
or a Day
. . .it’s a bunch of moments
in a not so perfectly wrapped package
that when opened
you just really don’t know what
you’ve got
but
you know it’s
s p e c i a l
And what get’s me all lit up
is that it doesn’t happen all at once
. . .it comes to us in a series of
m o m e n t s
A MOMENT:
I was gifted a free Starbucks
while in the drive thru
twice during the week of Christmas
A MOMENT:
I stopped back at one of hometown favorite hole in the wall dives
And I was literally shocked that after some 45 years that I’ve been gone the place actually never changed;
as I was eating my usual,
three dogs with everything
The waitress asked me how I liked everything
and when I told her
how much I liked it
and even more
how much I had missed this
after all of these years
she smiled and said,
“Good, because it’s on the House; a Secret Santa picked up your bill.”
A MOMENT:
I was asked to give a Blessing at a Youth Community Christmas Bash
for at need kids/parents
who came to have a meal
make crafts
dance
GET GIFTED
And as I was walking around
way overdressed in
my suit and tie
because of two earlier Memorial Services I conducted
several people came up to me
thinking I was a politician
a councilman
except one little guy
who asked me if I was
Santa Claus
I and I shot back at him,
“Do you think Santa would come dressed like this?”
and I love his
little-kid-speak-the-truth-because-you-don’t-know-how-to-lie-remark:
“Hey, I know Santa don’t always come looking like Santa but that don’t mean he ain’t Santa Claus!”
A MOMENT:
The lady in front of me
pumping gas at the pump
with a cool
License Plate:
When I said,
“Great Licencse Plate!”
she walked back to me and asked,
“Do you want to know what it means?”
And when I told her, “Absolutely”
she told me that it had nothing to do with her
running marathons or half marathons or
W H A T
she ASPIRES
to be
but
“I ASPIRE
to be all I’ve been created to be
no matter how many roadblocks
or short-cuts I need to take to get me
to the
FINISH LINE”
I
T H I N K
Lifetimes
can me lived in
m o m e n t s
and that when you have that
Special Season
they not only get accentuated
but magnified
and hopefully
r e a l i z e d
n o t i c e d
r e c o g n i z e d
K N O W N
I
T H I N K
that Special Season
is a never-ending
NOW
a moment
within
THE
M O M E N T
b u t
what do
Y O U
T H I N K
Christmas’ed
S T O P
Don’t do anything for at least the next three minutes
or however long it’ll take you to scroll through this post. . .
Q U E S T I O N :
When is I T ?
When did IT
WHEN WILL IT
first come to you this year?
When W I L L
I T L E A V E?
First present?
Last Present?
Somewhere in between parties or when you hit the pillow after some chaotic days?
Or has it already G O N E
before it has actually C O M E
I am a firm
K N O W ‘ E R
that Christmas,
or any other special holiday/event
doesn’t so much come on a day or for a Season,
b u t i n
M O M E N T S
Last year. . .
I’ve already had a varied assortment of
M O M E N T S
over these past few days and weeks. . .
I bet you have, too. . .
I was at Costco shortly after Labor Day
and way before Halloween
and there were already Christmas Trees and lawn decorations
adoring the place
accompanied with Christmas Carols. . .
T R U T H:
I think it starts with the
CHRISTMAS IN JULY
please-come-out-and-save-my-business-before-Christmas-gets-here-in-5-months-sales
We always have a way of celebrating many Christmases during the holidays. . .
and before and afterwards. . .
Any M O M E N T S, y e t ?
A Bell-Ringer outside of a grocery story proclaiming I must be a minister not because of my suit, tie, overcoat, but because I actually looked him in the eye and wished him a ‘Merry Christmas’ when I put a donation in his red kettle:
A M O M E N T
Standing in Starbucks on Cyber Monday and the guy in front of me, telling the Barista that he was going to buy our drinks for the morning:
A M O M E N T
Conducting the Memorial service of a man I’d never met and assuring the small gathering of people that, “You haven’t heard the last of Steve,” and before I finished saying his name a flower pot dropping loudly to the floor from the side of his casket:
A M O M E N T
Seeing an awesome performance of The Messiah and during the warm-up the magic of the music
began a wave that became a tsunami of emotion;
it was like I saved a year full of tears
and numerous times during the performance they had
no problem flowing:
A M O M E N T
Walking into the Atrium of an Inpatient Unit and having four people pointing at me; when I walked up to them they turned their cell phone around showing me a picture of myself after they had just googled me to find me for possibly conducting the memorial service of their actively dying mother:
A M O M E N T
Seeing my grandchildren from the littlest
(the two year olds)
to the oldest,
(our 16 year old)
continuing to grow right before our eyes
and yet remain very child-like at the same time:
A M O M E N T
Waking up in the middle of the night and noticing that your holding a hand that’s clutching yours:
A M O M E N T
A song that comes on from your Shuffled Playlist at the exact time you really need to hear it but didn’t know that you did:
A M O M E N T
A phone call. . .
a Text. . .
a letter. . .
a chance meeting. . .
A L L M O M E N T S. . .
It’s NOT if
M O M E N T S
ever occur
as really if they ever
C E A S E ?
Maybe the specialness of this Season
is just reserved to those who are actually
L O O K I N G for those M O M E N TS ?
When is it?
What MOMENT does IT first come or
has it ?
Is IT still there or does it lay discarded. . .
cast aside like some soon to be useless wrapping paper?
We know, long ago as it has been told us,
“MARY KEPT THESE THINGS IN HER HEART. . .”
In his Classic, THE OTHER WISE MAN, Henry van Dyke said,
“ARE YOU WILLING TO BELIEVE THAT LOVE IS THE STRONGEST THING IN THE WORLD–STRONGER THAN HATE, STRONGER THAN DEATH–AND THAT THE BLESSED LIFE WHICH BEGAN IN BETHLEHEM…(ALL THOSE) YEARS AGO IS THE IMAGE AND BRIGHTNESS OF ETERNAL LOVE?
THEN. . .THEN YOU CAN KEEP CHRISTMAS, AND IF YOU KEEP IT FOR A DAY, WHY. . .WHY NOT ALWAYS?”
It’s all about M O M E N T S. . .
a n d ,
and just when isn’t there ONE?
Maybe it’s not about MOMENTS at all. . .
Maybe it’s not about Noticing MOMENTS. . .
Maybe it’s about just
C R E A T I N G T H E M !
C H R I S T M A S ‘e d. . .
If you’re going to be TENSE—
why not BE the PRESENT ONE . . . ?
Here’s to your
M O M E N T
and the many more to follow. . .
M O M E N T S :
They’re to be Made. . .
They’re to be Shared. . .
They’re to be enjoyed. . .
They’re to be NOTICED!
THEY’RE TO BE LIVED AGAIN
AND AGAIN
AND AGAIN
A N D . . .
Had any
M O M E N T S
lately?
They are like puzzle pieces
spread across a table top
begging to be put together. . .
The problem?
We most likely miss many more
than we notice. . .
and those might just be the most special ones of all
because it’s not always what we notice
but what we don’t recognize
that matters most!
Hit the
PAUSE BUTTON
it’s not a matter of it all coming to you
as you just seeing
that it’s already been here
and never leaves. . .
even if you never arrive
even if you have long left
IT
. . .Get Christmas’ed
and give a little of it. . .
The MOMENTS
you give
just might be the most
important MOMENTS
of all
and then maybe the greatest
D I S C O V E R Y
of all will be
u n w r a p p e d
m a y b e
. . .m a y b e
it really is up to you
and that might be the best news of all. . .