Only now, at almost seventy-eight,
am I getting it. It’s not that I didn’t
have the information before.
I knew exercise and healthy eating
were good for you. Everyone knows that.
But now I’m bone tired.
Energy is what I need:
energy to do what I love,
energy to be there for the people I love,
energy to play and have fun.
Energy is what I don’t have.
Bingo! Lights flashing!
Energy comes from healthy eating.
Energy comes from exercise.
Connection made! And just in time!
JDG
I wish I had what that small tree has.
It pushed its way between the floor boards
of our porch and reached for the sun.
We admired its pluck, but after a while
we reluctantly chopped it down,
making it level with the porch floor.
This morning when I stepped outside
tiny sprigs of green were growing
from its leveled trunk. I don’t know when or if
we’ll have the resolve to crawl beneath the porch
and remove it, but for now it’s a living reminder
that with persistence you can break through
even a boarded ceiling.
JDG
Why not find one small
thing we can do each day to
make things better and do it?
JDG
Their message was not subtle;
the birds’ songs were loud and clear.
“The moon has set; the sun has risen
and our morning meal’s not here.”
JDG
July, why can’t you
pretend to be April like
February did?
JDG
If we were to ask
and they were to answer,
what would the creatures who live among us
have to say about what they need?
What if they’ve been telling us all along,
but we have lacked the will to hear?
JDG
Across the divides
of gender, race, religion,
nationality, and politics we
could build bridges constructed,
bit by bit, of small acts
of respect and kindness –
bridges strong enough
to hold the weight of
our heavily burdened pasts.
JDG
Sometimes an inner boulder
gets in our way.
Yelling does no good, but if
we could sit with it long enough
we might see it for what it is
and what it could become –
a sign,
a sculpture,
a building block,
or all three.
JDG
What monuments have
you created in your life
that need to come tumbling down?
JDG
A tiny deer lies dead among bright
bachelor buttons –
a bleak sign of our hurried times.
JDG
