“If you find yourself

dozing off as you practice

meditation, try

meditating with your eyes

open,” they said. I

did. I stayed awake and saw

everything with new

eyes. As I felt my tightened

shoulders ease, I saw,

in my awakened state, both

a strength and fragility.

                                                            JDG

The slightest stirring

of a breeze barely ruffles

the quiet early

morning air, my thoughts the only

noise. Even the crows

keep their cawing to themselves.

Through the silent sky

a single disc of light shines,

signaling the start of day.

                                                                       JDG

I sit and watch as

rain gently falls on slowly

greening hills, greeting

forsythia and Bradford

Pear, coaxing them to

 fuller bloom. Though I long to

feel the warmth of sun,

I bask in silence on this

sunless Sunday afternoon.

                                                                                         JDG

An afternoon sky,

 monochromatic, subdued,

the palest of grey,

invites me to move beyond

preference, calls me

to push past prejudice, to

come to that place

where I can allow myself

to relax and simply see.

                                                                         JDG

“That’s my daddy’s star,”

she said and even though dawn

had come, it was still

there. “I have one too. We claimed

them when he was still

here, and even though he’s gone,

and sometimes I can’t

see our stars, I know they’re there

and both of us are in the sky.”

                                                                                         JDG

With snow just a few

days gone, the sun hurriedly

snuck Spring in, hoping

snow would stay away. Rumor

has it snow’s coming

back soon and will turn a cold

shoulder to invading Spring.

                                                                                          JDG

We humans like to

select a few bones from our

bare experience

and create a skeleton

of story. Once fleshed

out, that story walks away

from us on legs all its own.

                                                                          JDG

When I woke up, they

were there, lined up and waiting,

those wise visitors

from the sky. They remembered

where to come when their

world grew white. I only gave

them seed. And they? They gave joy.

                                                                                    JDG

They say by Monday

we’ll have snow again and I

hush my mouth before

those words my mama told me

not to say escape.

Instead, I breathe and try to

be present to what

is – which is Friday, blue skies,

sun, and a nip in the air.

                                                                              JDG

On a day when I

didn’t give a hoot, having

been rendered hootless

by encounters with those who

gave giving a hoot

a bad name (honestly, how

quickly do you have

to move when the light turns green?),

I arrived home to

be greeted by, you guessed it,

an owl who rehooted me.

                                                                                                 JDG