PLEASE...DO SOMETHING...ANYTHING!

Sometimes when it comes to how regularly we’re killing each other

it seems like we’re tumbling inside a flood…

being swept away by the raging waters of destruction…

or, for those left behind…stuck deep in the mud.

I wish our government was like the first governments ever formed

for their designers all agreed…

that the safety of their citizens…

was…their highest priority.

Mesopotamia…Rome…Greece…from the pyramids to the Casbah

the safety of their citizens…was the first and highest law.

But we’ve reached a point in America…(for some people it has proven to be too late)

where the safety of our citizens…is now something we debate.

It’s not guns that are the problem…it’s mental health…some say

It’s not mental health it’s the guns…

and so we dance this cruel and pestilent ballet.

And while we dance…people across our land are hurt…

and some of them are dying…

and all we offer are love and prayers…

while their loved ones stand by…crying

We are not safe in our churches…(follow this pattern-it repeats)

We are not safe in our schools…in our movie theaters, at our concerts…on our streets.

Our citizens are not safe…in this dangerous world we have created

Our citizens are not safe…while solutions are being debated.

The left…the right…the NRA…the president…the constitution…

all spend time in the debate without proffering solutions.

Difficult decisions are, by definition, difficult…but we have reached a climax when…

the safety of our citizens must be our highest priority…again!

We must follow our hearts…mistakes be damned!

We must do something before more of our citizens fall…

Because continuing to do nothing (as we’ve already seen) 

will be our greatest mistake of all!

Unless we come up with ways to decrease the killings 

we’ll continue to be tumbling inside this flood…

only it’s not water that we’ll be drowning in…

it’s our friends and family’s blood.

EXPECTATIONS

Yesterday I was taken aback by something a girl behind the check-out counter said…

It made me lose my perspective as my expectations ran away with my head.

It happens when I least expect it and immediately I get burned

which brings me back to reality…and allows my humbleness to return.

The girl behind the cash register…I swear she she was only 14

was busy pricing our items when she looked up from her machine.

She stared at me…I smiled…she said, “Excuse me but you look just like….

And here is where my expectations took over…as my curiosity was spiked…

Maybe she’s going to say Sean Connery…and how would I respond…

If she thinks I bear a resemblance to the best of all the Bonds.

She might say I look like George Clooney…maybe she thinks I am his brother…

That might be a possibility…if we looked anything like each other.

Perhaps she’ll say I look like Leonardo da Vinci…I’ve always been a fan.

Even though my beard’s a little shorter…I consider myself a Renaissance man.

I would accept Ed Sheeran…after all we have the same round head…

although he is a little younger and my hair is grey…not red.

The Dalai Lama, Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs…Einstein. 

my expectations were aflame…

My mind was streaming with possibilities of all the people she could name.

Back to the girl behind the counter…once my face she finished appraising…

“You look just like my Grandpa.” She said, “the resemblance is amazing.”

I smiled as I fell back to Earth…and thanked her humbly…

looking like her Grandpa…was good enough for me.

Because she made the remark so innocently…with such elegance and grace… 

and when she mentioned her Grandpa, she paused a moment, 

and a smile crossed her face.

You’d think I’d learn my lesson…not to let my expectations take me to the beyond…

But as we left the store I couldn’t help wondering…

if her Grandpa…

is ever mistaken for James Bond?

A GIFT

Yesterday we watched Ava’s first soccer game of the season

It was a beautiful Florida fall day

and I had a chance to reminisce as I stood and watched her play.

Wednesday we watched Aden’s final middle school volleyball match

“Where has the time gone?” we exclaimed

Because Ali now coaches on the same court where Aden played his last game.

Wasn’t Bryan playing soccer just yesterday?

it’s so easy to remember…

but memory has no sense of time…Bryan turns 40 in December.

How many games of soccer did we watch Ryan play?

How many runs and jumps and kicks…

It doesn’t seem that long ago…but Ryan’s now 36.

I remember picking Damien up with one hand…was he 2 or was he 3?

He was such a tiny person then…When did he get taller than me?

I remember Taylor staying overnight…I remember his birthday when he was 5

Now he drives himself to the University of Florida…When did he learn to drive?

I remember how young we all looked at our wedding…

I remember our parents shedding a few tears..

How could that have happened a moment ago…

when we’ve been married 30 years?

30 years where we’ve enjoyed every moment…before they’ve flowed into the past

30 years that, at times, seemed so slow…but, in retrospect, flew by so fast.

But we’ve been given a gift, Deborah and I…it’s something we both know.

A gift we never take for granted…watching our children and grandchildren grow…

We cannot know what the future holds…no doubt there will be happiness..and there will be tears

But we can’t wait to see where this gift will take us…as we anticipate the next 30 years.

When I stop to think about this gift we’ve been given…

it is ours but it’s not ours alone…

For I imagine every parent realizes this same gift…

at a soccer game of their own.

TREES

We have reached the season when, once again, trees enchant…amaze…and enthrall…

as they begin to change their colors…and usher in the fall.

If we wait a little longer…the Autumn winds will blow

cascading their colors to the ground…as they usher in the snow.

When the snow is melting off their branches and birds begin to sing

we notice buds beginning to form…as trees usher in the Spring,

And those buds transform to leaves…as birds fill their branches with song

and the trees provide us with their shade…that lasts the summer long.

Until we’ve come full circle to where trees, again, enchant…amaze…and enthrall

as they begin to change their colors…and usher in the fall.

  

As we watch them offer us shade and beauty…

perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned:

Could it be the secret to life is giving…

while asking nothing in return.

THE THINGS THEY LEFT BEHIND

Our parents passed away long ago yet we’ve never felt bereft

Because…when we look around our home…our life…

it’s like they never left.

The other day I glanced in the mirror and in there who did I see?

For a moment…just a moment…my dad looking out at me.

I stopped to take a closer look…and much to my surprise

In the mirror…staring back at me…were those my mother’s eyes?

Deborah has had similar experiences…I suppose she has no choice…

Sometimes when she’s speaking…she hears her mother’s voice.

I sometimes laugh just like my mom…Deborah, like her dad, is kind.

It seems our house…our lives…

are filled with many things our parents left behind.

A picture of Deborah’s parents looking happy…alive…serene

A pen and ink drawing my Dad completed when he was just a teen.

A hat worn by Deborah’s dad…my mom’s Hummels on a stand

Deborah has a cookbook…all the recipes written by her mom’s hand.

But not everything they left behind has the ability to enthrall….

Like my intolerance for lactose…and my high cholesterol.

And I imagine their genes had something to do with my vision…or lack thereof…

But in retrospect the most important thing our parents left us… 

was their legacy of love…

It can be felt in the walls, the floors, the ceilings…on the ground and in the air…

The love we felt when they were here…is floating everywhere…

So the next time we see or hear them…

It will remind us how we’re intertwined…

And we’ll take a moment to thank them…

for all the things they left behind.

REDEFINING HAPPINESS

I knew a man who searched for happiness…yet never did he find it.

It seems to me if that’s the case…then perhaps he misdefined it.

For I knew another man who never searched for happiness…yet it found him every day.

Happiness fell on him like raindrops…in a host of different ways.

It found him in a sunrise at the beginning of each day

It found him in the smile from strangers he met along the way.

In the birds he loved to watch soar across the sky…higher…ever higher

In the towel he used to dry himself…fresh out the dryer.

It found him in his favorite chair on a rainy day with a good book

Tossing stones across a lake or leaves in a babbling brook.

Some days happiness entered through his nose…a savory encounter

Roses in bloom, freshly cut grass…cookies cooling on the counter

An ice cream cone, baby animals…on a windy day flying a kite

A touch, a hug, a kiss goodbye…a warm fireplace on a wintry night. 

Blowing bubbles, sharing memories, the color blue…the color red

Catching snowflakes on his tongue…fresh sheets upon his bed.

It found him as he raised a donut…about to take a bite…

As the sun set at the end of the day and the stars peeked through the night.

Perhaps if the man who searches for happiness….truly wants to find it

He should change the way he approaches it…and simply redefine it.

Perhaps he doesn’t need to search so hard…doesn’t need a roadmap or a handbook.

Perhaps happiness is closer than he realizes…all he has to do...is look.

WATCHING OUR CHILDREN SLEEP

There is a wonderful sensation parents feel…it is quite beyond compare.

At first it may seem solitary…but…it’s shared by parents everywhere.

It matters not what nationality, what religion, what color…for this is a universal feeling…

One all parents find as captivating…enchanting and appealing.

Their children have all gone to bed…they’ve long since lost count of sheep

When parents are drawn inside their bedrooms…to stop and watch them sleep.

And in those quiet moments as light seeps in from the hall

All parents wonder how they can feel so much love…for someone who’s so small.

They smile at the stillness…it’s a time when all activity has ceased…

Their children are safe, secure and happy…their life is calm…their world at peace.

Through the window their cheeks are brushed by the light of stray moonbeams

And their parents smile contentedly as they watch their children dream.

For in that moment before they turn and bid a fond adieu

Parents realize how lucky they are…that their dreams are coming true.

They lovingly…quietly close the door…knowing this memory will keep

Until tomorrow night when they’ll return…to watch their children sleep.

I wonder would we still have wars….would hatred for one another run so deep

If instead of fighting we just compared notes on how our children sleep?