LANTERNS IN THE SKY

 

Some mornings I rise around 4:00 AM…still in the dead of night

and quickly check if the sky is clear…so I can see the mountain light.

The first thing I do after waking is step out on our porch and stop…

to see if the there is an aura …a luminescence…appearing across the mountain top.

There are no city lights around…no source of light from above or below…

but when the sky is clear from where I stand…the mountains seem to glow.

There is a Cherokee legend that explains the reason why……

the glow I see are the spirits of fallen warriors lighting up the sky.

Or it could be light from the lanterns of grieving Cherokee woman

whose partners…from wherever they did roam…

be it a battle or a hunt…have never made it home.

Of course there is a scientific explanation…regarding those glowing lights

creating mountain silhouettes on a clear and starless night.

But as I look out in the darkness…and this halo over the mountains I see…

I prefer the explanation…provided by the Cherokee… 

I like to think years ago…in the solitude of the early morn….

when the Cherokee saw this same light I am seeing…

these legends were first born.

I have always loved love fairy tales, fables and legends…

and I imagine that is why…

when I wake up at 4:00 AM…

and the night is clear

I search for lanterns in the sky.

THEY SHOULD BE TEACHING US

 

When I look around at the world we’ve created…

unfortunately I see…

hatred, cruelty, deception, greed and dishonesty

trying and succeeding in some cases

to supplant peace, acceptance, caring, love and generosity 

I also see a world filled with children…

who look to us wide-eyed and innocently…

To teach them everything we know

about peace, acceptance, caring, love and generosity.

If you’ve ever watched young children

you see they innately understand….

how we are all the same no matter what we look like

how they walk together hand in hand.

Watch children at play and you will quickly see…

They don’t let superficial things destroy their affection

their friendship, their love…their harmony.

I believe kind and gentle and good…accepting one another unconditionally

is the reason they were created…is who they were born to be.

If you look close… you will see peace and love and generosity in their eyes…

You will see they do not know of prejudice and hate…

unless we teach them otherwise.

Which makes me wonder if we want to change the world…

If we want more peace, acceptance, caring, love and generosity reaching us…

Perhaps instead of teaching our children…

they should be teaching us.

A LITTLE MORE LIKE DOLLY

 

Yesterday I wrote a poem in admiration of Mr. Rogers.

This is basically what I said:

in a world filled with hate, prejudice and animosity

we should all try to be a little more like Fred.

But after listening to ‘I Will Always Love’ you on SiriusXM this morning …

another thought occurred to me… 

It had to do with Dolly Parton’s kindness

her affirmations and her generosity.

I loved the way she lived her life…

loved her wit and her optimistic point of view

and I thought in a world with so much anger

we should try to be a little more like Dolly too.

I did not know Fred…or Dolly

but when each life came to an end…

like a lot of people across the globe

I felt I had just lost a good friend.

Two extremely decent people

who were caring, loving and kind…

Two people who will be remembered

for all the love they left behind.

I hope we never forget how they lived their lives

as models of peace, acceptance and harmony

Never forget what they meant to the world

their gifts…their legacies.

I wonder….if we all lived a little more like Dolly

what kind of world community would we be?

I imagine we would all be a little more caring and loving…

and I’m sure Mr. Rogers wold agree.

A LITTLE MORE LIKE FRED

 

When our children were children…

we’d sit together on the floor and watch Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood…

It was a wonderful way to be together

while learning how to be kind and decent…and good.

From our age to theirs in front of our TV it was easy connect 

with someone who exuded kindness and treated everyone with respect.

It was our hope that our children would pick up on this thread…

and when they went out into the world…

would be a little more like Fred.

That they would practice peace and empathy…

would live their life with honor and dignity…

that they’d try to resolve their differences through communication….

not with hostility.

That they would understand although there is evil in this world…

meant to demean, demolish and destroy…

they could fight this evil with love and hope…

and try to fill the world with joy.

Imagine what our world would look like…

if we accepted one another in spite of our differences…

If all the people of the world were acknowledged… 

welcomed… 

and well-fed….

Imagine the kind of world we could create…

If we were all… 

a little more like Fred.

26 LETTERS

 

When I see or hear words being used to demean or hurt another

used with malicious or hostile intent….

used by strangers on the street, our politicians and president…

 

It saddens me to think of the feelings these abusive words beget…

but it also saddens me for the 26 letters that make up our alphabet.

When you stop and think about it…our alphabet is a gift….

descended from Mesopotamian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs.

By simply combining the 26 letters our alphabet contains

we can create words of love and joy and happiness…

or words of hatefulness, sorrow and pain.

With these same 26 letters we can form…

words of anger…words of spite

words that can…a soul…destroy

OR

words of wonder…words of beauty

words that fill a heart…with joy.

Which means we who use these 26 letters to create our words….

words others will hear and see…

must realize with this gift…comes great responsibility…

I wish more people…from those strangers in the street to our politicians and president

would think before they write or speak about the feelings their words beget.

Would understand before we take these 26 letters and into words unite them…

we must think about their meaning…before we speak or write them…

We should choose words of kindness…words of love….

and never our words abuse them….

not only in our choice of words…

but in how we choose to use them.

MOUNTAIN TIME REVISITED

 

Forgive me if my poems are arriving a little late…

It’s not that i’m having trouble with the rhymes

It just since moving to North Carolina…we have switched to Mountain Time.

It’s not that people in the mountains are any less conscientious…

but when enjoying the mountains, the clouds, the animals…the trees

our pace slows down a little…we have different priorities.

The line at the grocery store moves slowly…and we wonder if the wait will ever end

because the cashier after checking her out…is having a conversation with her friend

Apparently her friend is a beekeeper…who happened to be elated

that this years batch of honey is the best batch her bees have yet created.

Next in line is an older man who from the parts of the conversation I could hear

his tomatoes, because of all they rain we’ve been having, are juicier this year.

As I listened to these conversations….

from the line…I heard no objections…no protests…no dissent.

It seems mountain people understand that stopping to talk to our neighbors…

is a great way for our time to be spent.

Yes, there’s something to be said for casually strolling through our day…

so much to be gained…by living life this way.

 

By taking the time to stop and chat with the different people we meet

It makes for happier dispositions…it leaves everyone feeling sweet.

It makes us ask ourselves the next time we’re in a hurry…

when time constraints make us fuss….

are we in control of our time…or is time controlling us?

Which means I might take a moment  to enjoy the rain…

listen to the birds…smell a flower in the middle of the day

or stop to talk with a friend or a stranger I meet along the way.

And because of this…I’m not sure what day or time…

I might be posting my next rhyme…

That’s just the way it is when living on Mountain Time. 

So again I apologize if this or any rhyme finds your eyes a little late…

but if you start to live in Mountain Time…you’ll find…it’s worth the wait.