Now that I think about it,
I was in fifth
grade before I
realized studying
for a test could improve my grade.
So, why should I
be surprised when
my granddaughter
shows similar traits? Failure to
see the obvious
lies not in the
stars. It’s in our genes.
JDG
We took heart when we found a way
to move beyond
recrimination
and regret over
books and papers left at school.
Composing a
remembering
song, she honored
her need for creativity
and fun. We learned
to sweeten the
task with what she loves.
JDG
( With thanks to Erin Hawkins, LCSW, who had both of us list our values and design our solution from there. She explained that we are more apt to follow through and use a strategy that employs what we love. )
Three horses, tethered to a heavy
load, eyes weary
and downcast, plod
through washed out hills
of gray. Across their path a bronze
horse dashes – free.
No saddle. No
bridle. Tell me:
is there a way, as the poet says,
to move easy
in harness and
also be free?
JDG
When young, my son wrapped every nick
and scratch in ace
bandages. I
would dismiss his
woes, saying, “Back in pioneer
days they didn’t
run to the doc
every fifteen
minutes,” but one time when we did
go, we learned his
wrist was broken.
Gleefully, he
repeated what I often said,
to which the doc
replied, “True, but
back in those days,
folks had alot of gimpy wrists.”
Forty years pass
and I call my
son because I’m
stumbling and can’t keep my balance.
On the way back
from the doc and
lots of tests, my
son looks over at me, grins and
says, “I’m really
glad when you called
at five a.m
my higher self was the one who
answered.” “Why?” I
ask. “What would your
lower self say?”
“Back in pioneer days, they did
not run to the
doctor every
fifteen minutes.”
JDG
I’m up against that same old wall
again, but now
I know that wall’s
within. Formed for
protection when I was young, it
kept me safe and
gave me strength, but
now I see it
blocks my way, obscures my view. To
remove this wall
may be the hardest
thing I ever do.
JDG
After posing the question, “What
do you want me
to know about
happiness at
this time in my life?”, I began
looking through those
images torn
from magazines,
using an intuitive means
called soulcollage
to see what might
be there to find.
~
A strangely beautiful image –
a hand holding
an old, rusted
beer can along
with a bunch of wild flowers –
joined my pile as
did a pail full
of picked berries.
Soon a stack of small stones appeared
and a carved rock
figure holding
an offering.
~
From this unlikely grouping, my
answer did come.
“Happiness is
a balancing
act. It is there for the picking
but you have to
be willing to
accept beauty
and truth in whatever form it
comes and from that
you shape and share
small offerings.
JDG
(For more information about the process of SoulCollage, go to http://www.soulcollage.com)
Even with cloud shadows sliding
across the full
moon’s shining face,
the starless night
is warm, holding a beauty of
its own. Light and
shadow sometimes
work together
to weave a cloth of deep content
as life’s moments,
too, glow bright, then
fade and shift with
each passing breath.
JDG
Aflutter with robins, the red
berried tree, host
of so many
other birds, reached
out, and for a time, held this flock
too. The robins
must have gotten
word of the snow
and stopped by for rest and respite
before flying off
to wherever
robins go in snow.
JDG
“We the people,” the president
said, pointing us
back to where we
began. Each of
us, separate though we may appear,
has always been
part of something
more. Our struggle
and our strength lies here – in the we
that being here
requires. Not
one of us is
self-created.
JDG
What will this shortest day, longest
night of twenty
twelve bring? This date,
a real Mayan
Rorschach test, casts a wide net and
gathers many
projections. Will
it be the end
of our physical world? A shift
in consciousness?
or a day much
like any other?
JDG
aholdingplace 