THE LIFE WE ONCE KNEW

While in Las Vegas for Bryan’s 40th…as part of his birthday design 

We took a family picture…in front of the Welcome To Las Vegas sign.

As we stood for our portrait…it was a bright, beautiful, cool and sunny day

and behind us standing Vegas strong…was a cross…and the Mandalay Bay.

Our reverie paused a moment…for in that moment we all felt numb…

The cross and the hotel stand as chilling reminders of how unsafe our world has become…

When I was young the world seemed safe…oh there were dangers I have no doubt

but my parents didn’t seem to worry if through the neighborhood I traveled about…

My parents told me to be home for supper…to wear a jacket or I might freeze…

and when I got home they’d ask if I had fun…what I did…and how did I skin both my knees?

They didn’t worry about kidnappings, child sex trafficking, terrorism, mass murders or guns…

They worried that we had enough to eat, that we were dressed well and that we had fun.

When our children were young the world still seemed safe…oh there were dangers I have no doubt…

But we didn’t worry as our kids headed off in the neighborhood…to play and traveled about.

We didn’t worry about them getting shot at a concert or mowed dow by a car in the street

Their world…our world…seemed much safer…

free from harm…

protected and sweet.

When we finished taking our family picture I noticed Ali face timing her children back home

and I thought how unsafe the world has become…in whatever neighborhood they roam.

I brought my harmonica to Vegas to play Happy Birthday to Bryan…

I wanted to see a birthday smile light up his face…

But there by the cross memorializing the victims…

I took it out and played Amazing Grace.

I played that song for all the victims who lost their lives or were injured

and for all of their families too…

And remembering back to when we were young…

I played Amazing Grace for the life we once knew.

MAGIC

Bryan gave Teller a tour of the Biltmore when Penn and Teller were performing in NC

and Teller was astonished and elated…

So when our family went to Las Vegas this week…Penn and Teller reciprocated.

We got to meet and greet the two stars…take a few pictures and as for their show…

we got in for free….

and if that wasn’t enough to make our night grand…they sat us in the section marked VIP.

As our family watched the show on stage…as Penn and Teller put their magic through its paces…

I’d pause a moment every now and then to watch the magic on our family’s faces.

And I thought how love is also magical…

you have to watch closely because you can’t always be sure where it starts….

And you stare in a kind of cheerful wonderment 

as it plays tricks with your mind and your heart…

Love like magic has a certain progression…an evolution that makes both work so well

both have a way of mesmerizing…both put us under a spell.

Both are filled with wonder…both follow their own unpredictable routine

Both have us believing in something we can feel but something that can never be seen.

Like magic you don’t know where love comes from….

and you surely don’t know where it will go…

And like magic you don’ t need all the answers…

in fact, often, you don’t want to know.

As I watched our family watching the show…

as I saw amazement spill into their eyes

I thought how the magic of love…like magic…

is hidden in the unexpected…is found in the surprise.

While watching the magic of Penn and Teller with my family…

I suddenly became aware….

how much magic there is in love …

for when we have love…there is magic everywhere.

A magic that takes center stage…

and, like our seats that night, comes to us free…

Yes, love is what make our life feel magical…

for in love we are all VIP’s.

WALKING

Waking involves simple physics…It doesn’t take long to learn to walk on our own…

But I don’t believe those two legs we’ve been given…were meant for walking alone.

Studies have shown walking is a wonderful exercise…even when walking alone…

It’s good for our heart and our blood pressure…it strengthens our muscles and bones….

But when we walk with people we love…physicality is not always our goal…

because there are benefits that can’t be measured…in our hearts, in our mind …in our souls.

To illustrate this point about love and walking here’s a host of ideas I’ve been thinking of….

Is it any wonder the first steps we ever take…are into the arms of someone we love!

We might have learned to walk on our own…as a toddling little girl or boy…

But would we have had such a sense of accomplishment?

Would we have had such a feeling of joy?

Walking alone in the morning…I feel great watching the sun arrive…

But walking in the morning…sharing that sunrise…I not only feel more healthy…

I feel so totally alive.

Walking alone in the twilight is wonderful…but sharing the stars the planets…the moon

makes my heart feel so wonderfully safe and secure…sometimes I feel I’m going to swoon.

Walking alone I can enjoy the wind and the trees, I can wonder to myself about the flowers the buds are concealing…

But sharing these with someone I love…seems to double the pleasure I’m feeling.

When I walk with people I love…I look over and suddenly I’m enthralled…

Knowing someone is walking beside me…those times I stumble…or flounder…or fall.

And when I can walk no longer on my own…for whatever reason…at the end of the day…

How wonderful to know someone I love is walking next to me…

Who’ll help carry me the rest of the way.

We can walk alone in joy or sorrow…on sidewalks, on streets on the sand….

But it’s only when we walk together….that we’re close…

close enough to walk hand in hand.

Perhaps it boils down to simple physics…

those two legs we were born with…

those two legs that helped us first get up off the floor…

those two legs that are strong enough to get us around on our own…

are twice as strong when we’ve added two more.

FREEBIES LIST

If you ever watched Friends I’m sure you’ve heard of an arrangement couples make

that involves a list of celebrities of which the other may partake…

If the opportunity arises…if one day you find yourself meeting….

you’re allowed to sleep with said celebrity…and it’s not considered cheating.

Since that episode of Friends aired, it’s been know as the ‘Freebies List’

Well Deborah and I have a similar arrangement…with an unconventional twist.

Let us take a minute here…I see you’re all a-shutter

And give you all the opportunity…to take you’re minds out of the gutter.

We have been vegetarians for many years…and seldom do we cheat…

even though our Freebies list consists of…certain meats we’d like to eat.

If the opportunity arises…if one day we find ourselves meeting

we can devour an item from our list…and it’s not considered cheating.

My list is rather simple…my meaty desires are but few

It doesn’t involve a T-bone steak…or a down home barbecue…

It contains a crispy piece of bacon…I love how the aroma fills the air

and is there any better taste sensation that a corn dog at the fair…

And long before I was a vegetarian…while out west, my mouth was kissed

by a juicy In and Out Burger…the meat that tops my list.

We landed in Las Vegas and I was pleasantly surprised to see

a sign for not one In and Out Burger…not two…no…there are three!

Does a better city than Las Vegas in this country even exist?

To have three restaurants with my favorite burger that sits atop my freebies list.

We’re staying in Vegas for three days…and on my freebies list I hate to infringe…

but three days with three In and Out Burgers…I think I’m going to binge…

And vegetarians out there before you think I’m going to Hell…

I won’t be alone because In and Out Burger is on Deborah’s Freebies list as well.

We’ve decided when we get back home…this meat eating will definitely stop…

In the meantime we were wondering…that next In and Out burger we order…

can it come with bacon on top.?

EVERYTHING LOOKS BETTER WHEN IT RHYMES

When I was young nothing soothed me more as into bed I climbed

Than stories and tales of adventure…especially when they rhymed.

Mother Goose, Grimm’s Fairy tales…when they rhymed it seemed like they were sung…

I loved hearing them fade away as I drifted off to sleep…back when I was young.

I wonder if that’s why I’ve been lucky in life to wear a smile most of the time…

because as I walk around my world each day…I see everything in rhymes…

The wind outside that’s blowing…or a gentle summer breeze

looks better when I see them dancing with the flowers and the trees.

The ocean is an expanse of water…only water…nothing more

until the waves begin to sparkle as they roll upon the shore.

The sun is large and round and hot…just a circle in the sky

until you see it playing hide and seek with the clouds as they float by…

until you see that same sun cause young lovers holding hands to swoon

as she kindles all the stars in heaven and illuminates the moon.

Joy, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, dismay…surprise…

all are enhanced, improved or soothed when from them rhymes arise.

A feeling blossoms inside the heart…an emotion begins to roll…

it waltzes through the body and dances in the soul…

from the soul it journeys to the brain and soon…a thought…then a rhyme is born…

to express how joyful we are feeling…to express…how much we mourn.

I harken back to those nursery rhymes…to a time when I was young…

every time I walk outside where natures rhymes are sung…

It is a simple yet wonderful feeling…how my world seems so sublime…

for no matter what my day is like…everything looks better when it rhymes.

ANOTHER DAY...AOTHER SHOOTING

Another mass shooting this one in California…and another day goes by…

289 people are shot in America each day…87 of them die…

I’m not sure which is sadder that each day 289 shootings are taking place

or that the number no longer bothers us …that shootings are commonplace.

It doesn’t seem to matter if the murders are splashed across the evening news,

it doesn’t make a difference, it doesn’t change our views.

Oh, we’re angry for a moment…and for a moment it gives us pause…

but it doesn’t stop the killing…it doesn’t change the laws.

Would it be different if we knew that every 17 minutes in the rise and setting of our sun

someone in America is killed at the hands of someone with a gun?

When we look at the sheer numbers how can we not weep or shriek…

when we do the math and calculate we lose 600 people every week?

It is sad to think more people are gone who were here the day before

and even sadder to think we can multiply their family’s grief by over 600 more.

There is a problem in our society, the numbers do not lie.

It leaves many of us frustrated as each day more people die.

Until something is done to curb this violence that everyone deplores

I’m afraid today, like yesterday, will be a little sadder than it was the day before.

If you don’t believe we’ve become accustomed to this violence…

Here is what I mean….

This poem you’re reading right now…today…

I first wrote in January…

January…2016!

TWINS

I was born and raised in Twinsburg, Ohio…the city known for twins…

So whenever I hear a story about them…I have to listen in…

Two four year old girls from Miami…as different as night and day

hail from two unconnected families…but say they’re twins in every way.

They’ve been friends since they were two years old…true their birthdays are two days apart…

but they believe they are each other’s twin…in their souls and in their hearts.

Here’s a little cautionary note…if you don’t want to ‘take one on the chin’

Don’t tell these girls, who aren’t even sisters, there’s no way they can be twins.

“Oh, yes we are!” They smile…and simultaneously respond….

And who are we to assume we understand…their special kind of bond.

If we were to prove to these two girls they’ve not been twin sisters all along…

although we might be scientifically correct…I believe in principle…we’d be wrong.

Given the similar way we humans are born…the way we’re all created…

Is it that hard to believe, as these two girls have shown, that we are all related?

We don’t need actual genetic proof that you’re my sister…you’re my brother

every human on this planet is related to each other.

We could learn a lesson from these two four year olds …

Their innocent wisdom we should extol…

They’ve ignored their differences in appearance…

and found a connection in their souls.

Wouldn’t the world be a wonderful place to live…Imagine the love that would arise

If we all possessed the capability…of seeing the world through these little girls eyes?

Hate might finally be defeated…love would win…and win…and win

If everywhere we looked in life…we found another twin …

It’s true what they say about children…of this there is no doubt…

When we try to teach them all about life…

they teach us…what life is all about!