LEFTOVERS

 

Here’s an often overlooked fact I’m sure many parents would concede:

The larger a family grows…and extends…the more Tupperware you need!

Yes, there’s an easy way to tell when your family dynamic is changing…

that has nothing to do with genes and chromosomes…

When your family comes to dinner…it’s the amount of leftovers they’re taking home.

When the children are young…any food left uneaten 

goes into the refrigerator I presume….

where it waits patiently (hopefully not too long) until it is consumed.

This system works flawlessly for a long time…that is until the day

the children grow up…and it is time for them to move away.

Here there is an unspoken rule…a tacit guideline all parents try hard to meet:

When our children and grandchildren visit…we offer them more food than they can eat.

Which means, when they all come to dinner…

once the evening’s over and they head out to their cars

the leftovers, neatly packaged, will go into their refrigerators…not ours.

At our latest family dinner…another grandchild let it be known…

he will be moving into an apartment…finally living on his own.

Which left Deborah and I smiling…once again aware…

that the next time we get together 

not only will we need to make more food…

we’ll need more Tupperware.

THE POWER OF FAMILY

 

May we be blessed to understand the nature…

the power of a family’s love…

how it surrounds us all the time and everywhere…

The kind of love that:

when we’re standing on the edge of joy

or on the edge of darkness…

we don’t even have to turn around…

to know they’re standing there.

FAMILY AND LOVE

When I think about the poems I’ve written…love and family are a recurring theme within.

Family is where we learn to love and where our dreams begin.

Our family’s love helps guide us to who we’re meant to be…

It’s where we learn the acceptance, forgiveness and compassion of love’s ubiquity.

Family is where we learn to share each other’s joy and laughter…

each other’s hopes and dreams and fears.

Family is there to hold us when all we have our tears.

Family is where we learn how quickly each moment slips into he past…

Family encourages us to slow down and make every moment last…

With love, I imagine, is how the family is designed…

Family and love are meant to exist together…

to be forever intertwined.

Created in a way that, if we’re lucky, we’re blessed to see…

whenever we’re surrounded by people who love us…we have a family.

Perhaps that’s why I write so many poems…and why they mean so much to me…

so many poems that blend together love and family.

Because when I start to write about love and family…

about a world filled with all my sisters and brothers….

I quickly come to realize you can’t have one…without the other.

One final reason you’ll keep reading poems with the theme of love and family throughout…is because I’ve been blessed within my life…

to have so much to write about. 

MEMORIAL DAY 2023

 

We all know the reason Memorial Day came to be…

to honor and to mourn those who died to keep our country free.

I imagine most people in the world love peace and hate war as much as me

I imagine when it comes to war and peace…most people accept the dichotomy.

How in our universal family…war and peace are antithetical brothers….

and how, sometimes in this world, you can’t have one without the other.

So we set aside a day to honor and to mourn those who died for us…

It matters not their religion, their color, their gender…if they were lesbian…our gay

in war they shared one label…soldier…and we honor them today.

It is a day we reserve once a year…when we put our disputes and differences aside.

When we come together as one nation to commemorate every soldier who has died.

I wonder if the best way to honor them…

these soldiers who blended on the battlefield…

who suffered the ultimate fate…

would be to live in the free country they died for…

free of discrimination, free of prejudice…free of hate.

For only in a country where everyone is free and equal…

where wars and hatred and prejudice cease….

can those soldiers who died fighting for our freedom in wars 

finally rest in peace.

WHO'S WRITING THE STORY

 

When it comes to creating they story of our life….

chronicling the adventures that have stretched out before us…

may we be blessed never to have allowed anyone…

to do the writing for us.

A TIME TOR REALIZE

We went to a friend’s retirement party…celebrating the end

of her long and storied teaching career…

It was a day of mixed emotions…joy and laughter…

a few tears.

Stepping into a retirement party is like stepping into a time machine…

surrounded by memories of not only her first and last year of teaching…

but of all those memories in between.

Former students all grown up now…parents…teachers…

her husband, children and grandchildren were there too…

celebrating her adventure in teaching…and bidding that adventure adieu.

When she was teaching every day I imagine…she didn’t think about this much…

but her retirement party was a time to realize all the people she has touched.

All the friends that she has made since the first day she was hired…

all the joy and knowledge she has given…all the people she inspired.

We left her surrounded by her family…on her face…her famous grin….

with one long adventure just completed…and another…ready to begin. 

PARENTING

 

My mom and dad had an effective parenting technique…

They were never too strict…unfair…or mean…

They were constantly reminding me how our family tree

is not deciduous…but an evergreen.

How each year our tree grows taller…

How I am but one branch upon that tree.

How all I have to do is look up…

so see my ancestors watching over me.

Yes, it’s been quite easy finding meaning and balance…

keeping my life in sync. 

because before I say or do anything 

I look up…then ask my self…what would my ancestors think?

 

I’ve had this wonderful feeling all my life…that I’ve never been alone.

It’s brought me peace and happiness…no matter how old I’ve grown

My ancestors have always been with me ever since I was a little boy

They’ve shared in all may sadness…they’ve participated in all my joy.

In everything I do I try to honor those who came before me…

It is my hope I’ve given my ancestors reasons to adore me….

And I like to think I’ll be ready…when it’s my turn…

when it comes time or me…

to join my ancestors as we watch over 

the newest branches growing on our family tree..

 

TINY FOOTPRINTS

It’s easiest to notice at the beach…

seeing in the sand…how all the footprints have unfurled…

how there is no foot so tiny 

that it doesn’t leave its imprint on the world

SHE HAD PREPARED THEM AFTER ALL

 

As the old sage lie before them…about to take her final breath..

a student whispered. “Oh, wise one why you have not taught us

how to prepare for death.”

Her students gathered 'round and waited…

for it was her way to think on questions for a while…..

When she was ready with her answer…

the old woman looked at them…and smiled.

“Have I not taught you about love?” she said.

“How to open up your hearts?”

“How to find beauty all around you…how friendship is an art.”

“Have I not taught you acceptance and compassion.” she continued.

“How to open up your minds?”

“Have I not taught you peace and happiness begin with being kind?”

“If you have lived these teachings,” she smiled, 

“then you need learn nothing more…for you will be prepared

when death comes knocking at your door.”

“If you’ve have lived your life with love as your guide…”

“If you’ve shown everyone you cared…”

“You might not be ready when death calls…but you will definitely be prepared.”

“If you are the kindest person you can be,” she said, 

“you are prepared for death.”

Then she smiled her last smile as she took her final breath.

They thought she hand’t prepared them for death…

hadn’t prepared them for their final climb….

until they realized in teaching them how to live

she was preparing them all this time.

A GRANDPARENT'S WISH

 We took three of our grandchildren to lunch yesterday…

and there was something we couldn’t ignore…

Yes they are still our grandchildren.. but they’re not children anymore.

It seems like only yesterday…we were enamored by their charms….

seems like only yesterday…we held them in our arms…

As we sat around the table talking, laughing…eating…drinking…

One…I couldn’t help but smile..and two…I remember thinking…

how, as new parents, we hoped…without making too much of a fuss

our children would be healthy, happy and have as good…or a better life than us.

And when they did…how we were overjoyed…we were proud and happy to see

our hopes had been fulfilled…this is the way it’s supposed to be.

We remember being there when each of our grandchild was born…

and, again, without making too much of a fuss

how we hoped they would be healthy, happy…

and have as good or a better life than us….

Observing them at lunch…something we didn’t expect…

which for them will surely be a plus

our grandchildren are taller, smarter, stronger and jus as pretty as us.

But again that’s how it should be…

and as grandparents we can’t wait to see….

as they make their way in life…

the kind of people they will be.