The memory of my father is wrapped up in
white paper, like sandwiches taken for a day at work.
Just as a magician takes towers and rabbits
out of his hat, he drew love from his small body,
and the rivers of his hands
overflowed with good deeds.
A boat, beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July —
Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear
Pleased a simple tale to hear —
Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.
Still she haunts me, phantomwise
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.
Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream —
Lingering in the golden gleam —
Life what is it but a dream?
Kindness glides about my house.
Dame Kindness, she is so nice!
The blue and red jewels of her rings smoke
In the windows, the mirrors
Are filling with smiles.
What is so real as the cry of a child?
A rabbit’s cry may be wilder
But it has no soul.
Sugar can cure everything, so Kindness says.
Sugar is a necessary fluid,
Its crystals a little poultice.
O kindness, kindness
Sweetly picking up pieces!
My Japanese silks, desperate butterflies,
May be pinned any minute, anesthetized.
And here you come, with a cup of tea
Wreathed in steam.
The blood jet is poetry,
There is no stopping it.
You hand me two children, two roses.
A precious gift we can give to another is our time, our undivided attention within that time space. When we do, we communicate a message that says, “At this moment you are the most important person in my life.” Imagine how relationships might change if we gave our partner undivided attention. Imagine how our relationships with our children would change if we gave them our undivided attention. We give our undivided attention to what is important to us. To whom or what are you giving your undivided attention? Is it time to reprioritize who or what gets your undivided attention?
See how the bee-people swarm together –
what perfect oneness they display!
They build and serve and work as one.
With “mine” and “thine” they do away.
When they return to nurse their young,
then, too, they are completely one.
They share the harvest of each blossom,
and none lives for himself alone.
Bees know the impulse of true oneness –
a wondrous sign of community.
A people of love, they toil as one,
and none is left out of their unity.
What we say pales in comparison to what we do. Children learn about love by watching their mother and father. If their mother and father are loving, kind and respectful to each other their children will learn lessons no book can teach them.
Shel Silverstein
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
and before the street begins,
and there the grass grows soft and white,
and there the sun burns crimson bright,
and there the moon-bird rests from his flight
to cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
and the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow
and watch where the chalk-white arrows go
to the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
and we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
for the children, they mark, and the children, they know,
the place where the sidewalk ends.
A friend sent me a short video of a mother Robin feeding her babies. It won’t be long and the baby robins will be taking their first solo flight. They’ll get a bit more training on hunting for insects and worms then they’re on their own. There always comes a time pf letting go in life. As much as we want to hold on to people or things there comes a time to let go. When our children grow and leave home we won’t stop caring for them and being parents, but they’re on their own. They’ll be knocked down and have to find the courage to rise and go on. As long as they know they have someone who loves them, they’ll get up, shake it off and get going again.
“Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
“I cannot go to school today,”
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
“I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I’m going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I’ve counted sixteen chicken pox
And there’s one more—that’s seventeen,
And don’t you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut—my eyes are blue—
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I’m sure that my left leg is broke—
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button’s caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle’s sprained,
My ‘pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow’s bent, my spine ain’t straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is—what?
What’s that? What’s that you say?
You say today is. . .Saturday?
G’bye, I’m going out to play!”
