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.

BEAUTY

 

I know we like to think our ourselves as the most advances species

but looking at some of the things we say and do…

sometimes I wonder if we’re as intelligent as we think…

sometimes I wonder…don’t you?

Look at beauty for instance; in a world overflowing with beauty 

don’t you find it a little bizarre

that we humans are the only life form that needs to be told how beautiful we are.

The cardinal who comes to our feeder, or the blue bird or yellow gold finch

never imagine as they get a little older their face needs a lift or a pinch.

The trees that majestically stand up to the weather with no shelter day out and day in

never worry about losing their leaves in the fall or about the wrinkles that form on their skin.

The animals that swim in the ocean never dream of Botox injections

They don’t worry what the sun and salt water are doing to their soft and silky complexions.

The flowers that color the landscape don’t care if their sepals are tilting

They aren’t looking for some flower surgeon to keep their petals from wilting.

No, nature isn’t worried about bags under her eyes, or tummy tucks or frizz

because nature doesn’t need a mirror to know how beautiful she is. 

If we start viewing everyone as we view nature 

then beauty becomes a little more concrete

and before we know it we’re able to find beauty in everyone we meet. 

We’ll find our natural beauty, we’ll find our distinctive appeal

when we realize beauty comes not form what we look like

but more from the way that we feel.

We’ll look past those little imperfections, those wrinkles, 

those little bags and scars

and we’ll know we don’t need a mirror or TV 

to tell us how beautiful we are.

Yes, sometimes I wonder if we’re the most advanced species…

then again when I give it some thought

I don’t need to wonder if we’re as intelligent as we think…

Because the beauty of it is..we are not.

GENTLE LOVE

 

 When it suddenly appeared yesterday ( I didn’t hear or see it form )

I had a chance to experience the quiet of a storm.

I was enjoying a beautiful afternoon…surveying our domain

when in the midst of all the sunshine…it began to rain.

No thunder…no lightning…which, at first, made it hard to tell

until I saw raindrops glistening in the sun as to the ground they fell.

Some raindrops landed on the leaves of many an outstretched tree

and when I stuck my hand out…some found their way to me.

Standing there and watching…not only was I thoroughly entertained

but I found myself mesmerized by the gentleness of the rain.

And I thought how the message we are sending on the wind these days

is so completely wrong….

How it’s not the loud, the brash, the cruel and abusive…

but the gentle who are strong.

Just as there is no soil rough enough that a gentle rain can’t smooth…

there is no heartache deep enough that a gentle touch can’t soothe.

Many a soul has been softened by the gentleness of a rhyme

and even the strongest hate can be mellowed by a gentle love through time.

I have seen the full and heavy branches gently bow

so people can pick apples from their trees…..

and who out there has not been cooled by a gentle summer breeze.

Yes, gentleness is all around us…if we stop to look a while

A gentle walk, a gentle word, a gentle squeeze…a gentle smile.

Perhaps the value of a life is in the way we allow our gentleness to flow…

perhaps we’re meant to live a gentle life…filled with gentle love…

and in the end…just like a summer rain…

Move on gently when it’s time to go.