THE THRILL OF COMING HOME

 

No matter how old we grow…

no matter our fortune or fame

may the thrill we get when we return home

always remain the same.

OUR OLD HOUSE

 

After returning from our summer road trip…we both smiled when we saw our home

and the reasons for our smiles have found their way into this poem.

This house is where we combined our two families together…

and, once all the combining was done,

It was in this house where our two families blended into one.

We’ve been making memories in this house now…I’d say for quite a while.

Is it any wonder every time we see her…we cannot help but smile!

If there ever comes a day we have to leave her… 

I’ll try not to make too much of a fuss…

knowing it’s the house we’ll leave behind…

but the memories of our home will come with us.

If that day ever arrives and we have to leave this house behind…

I think I’ll leave a note…for the new homeowners to find:

This house has blessed our family for many years…

Her walls absorbed our joy…our laughter and our tears…

And now that you have chosen in our old house to dwell…

in the coming years we hope…she blesses you as well.

We hope here walls throughout the coming years

will absorb your family’s joy…all their laughter…all their tears

So those time you are away from her…

wherever you may roam….

you’ll smile just as we did

every time you come back home.

HOW MUCH OUR EYES CAN SAY

 

It’s amazing when you think about it..

as we travel thought each day

even though they do not speak in words

how much our eyes can say.

IF MY EYES KNEW THEN

 

When I was young I thought I was cursed

I wondered why my creator was angry with me…

I thought that I was flawed because I needed glasses just to see.

I hated wearing glasses…feeling like I was always in disguise.

At the end of my nightly prayers I’d always add…Please God, fix my eyes.

It’s amazing isn't it how much we grow as our life rearranges?

How, not only does our body…but our whole perspective changes.

Because as I grew up…much to my surprise

I began to see the world through my ever-changing eyes.

It was as if I learned a lesson my eyes always wanted me to see…

How I was actually blessed…and there are those less fortunate than me.

My eyesight changed when I became a teacher…

about my faulty eyes…I no longer cared

when I found myself teaching a student confined to a wheel chair.

And those glasses I once hated…all of a sudden…I didn’t mind

because they helped me show the world to a student who was blind.

I taught children who couldn’t walk, who couldn’t see…who could not vocalize…

I imagine they would have all been happy with my set of faulty eyes.

Today in quiet moments…to that young boy my attention drifts…

and I wish I could go back and convince him…he was born with other gifts! 

Perhaps I wold have been a little less self-conscious, less anxious…less high strung

If the lessons my eyes taught me when I was older…I had learned when I was young.

Now when I say my nightly prayers…I suppose it comes as no surprise…

at the end I always add, Thank you God…for blessing me with these eyes.

GROW OLD IN LOVE

 

May we all be blessed to grow old in love…

doing so can certain fears assuage….

Although Age does not protect us from love

As Anais Nin says:

Love, to some extent, protects us from age.

PARENTAL WISDOM CHANGES

 

Growing up this is something from his parents he was often told:

If you’re lucky, and this is what you want, you will find a partner

with whom you will grow old.

And if you’re blessed the love and joy and happiness you share will never end

and that same joy and love and happiness will spread out 

onto your family and friends.

Today he knows he has been lucky with his partner

with his family…with his friends…

but the wisdom of his parents he loves now to amend…

As he remembers back to when he was a boy

and what, by his parents, he was told…

He knows his luck was finding a partner to grow younger with

as the two of them grow old.

INSTRUMENTS OF PEACE

Every day…may acceptance and compassion in each of us increase…

and may we continue to comfort one another

and be instruments of peace

 

RACCOON

 

I was walking the other morning as I do most every day

when up ahead I saw a car stop in the middle of the street…then quickly drive away.

I didn’t think much about this as I was enjoying the stars, the planets and the moon

until I realized that car…had run over a raccoon.

I thought it was just a cat sleeping in the road…

(on my morning walk this is something I often see)

until she raised her head as I walked by and that raccoon looked up at me. 

Never approach a wild animal is a rule to which I steadfastly adhere

but something in her eyes told me there was nothing for me to fear.

I knelt down in the street next her…told her I’d sit with her a while

and as she laid her head back on the street…I think I saw her smile.

Within minutes she closed her eyes, stopped breathing

and that morning just before the dawn

as tears fell from my eyes I knew that she was gone.

I couldn’t do anything to save her when I found her lying out there on her own

but I was glad I came along and she did not die alone.

Once again nature gives us a lesson she’s hoping we all will heed

how sometimes in life and death…a little comfort is all we ever need.

OUR HOME

 

I believe the indigenous first people were correct in their thinking

as across this land they roamed:

How nature is not a place for us to visit

It is a place we should call home.

LANGUAGE OF THE TREES

 

For years on my morning walks I tried unsuccessfully to have a conversation with the trees.

Wondering all these years why they would not talk with me.

I asked them simple questions like:

Are you ever jealous of the butterflies or the bees?

Have you ever felt superior and looked down on the weaker, smaller trees?

I asked them as they stood in the same place every day:

Do you ever want to move around…to sing or dance or play?

I asked them this question…which I now know the trees thought quite odd:

Do all the different trees pray to different Gods?

Have you ever been at war with one another”

Are there any trees you fear?

Through the years all my questions have fallen on deaf ears.

Until the other morning when my mind made this suggestion:

Perhaps the reason they never talk to me is…I’ve been asking the wrong questions!

Jealously, prejudiced, God, war, fear…

These are the words of which my questions all consist.

I was using words and concepts that in the language of the trees do not exist.

 

Now when I say good morning and give a hug to any tree

I find with this simple gesture they’re happy to talk to me.

We talk a lot about nature. I ask them about all the things they love,

I’m always interested in what it’s like to see the world from up above.

They’ve helped me identify the birds, the flowers the stars 

and all the different voices of nature that surround them.

And every tree is happy to introduce me to

all the different trees around them.

I’ve discovered trees are great conversationalists

as I stand amidst their friends and flowers….

and I’ve come to wish the words that do not exist in the language of the trees…

did not exist in ours.

STRONG AND WEAK

 

Today’s blessing is another reminder 

of a lesson we should have learned in school

How the strongest among us are gentle

while the weakest among us are cruel.

LIFE QUILT

 

Deborah is a quilter…she starts out with a plan…

finds her different colored fabric…then stitches them by hand.

I was admiring her handiwork the other day…when it occurred to me

How each life is like a quilt….

How every day we sew together pieces of the life that we have built.

How, even though we don’t physically use a needle and thread,

every day that we have grown…

into our patchwork quilt…a memory is sewn.

How every day our quilt grows larger and becomes more beautiful with each seam.

because sewn into the fabric we find our wishes, hopes and dreams.

As we touch each piece with our minds eye

we see our life as it’s unfolded through the years.

We see our family…we see our friends…

we see moments that brought us laughter…and moments that brought us to tears.

Unlike the quilts that Deborah creates…the ones she meticulously sews 

our life quilt has no ending as every day it grows

And though we may share fabric with other life quilts…

some may even share our name

our life quilt is unique as no two life quilts are the same.

Our quilt serves a dual purpose…Yes, it’s the quilt that keeps on giving…

every time we look at it…it’s a reminder of this beautiful life we’re living.

And when our life is over..our memory quilt we keep

because tucked under every quilt made while living…

is where the angels sleep.