Those tired old thoughts and actions

won’t take me where I want to go, so

I take one new step that’s so small

I can’t help but do it

and then I keep on doing it

and, in time, I know

I’ll arrive where I really want to go.

                                                                                                             JDG

( A path I learned from Stephen Guise and his book Mini Habits )

I walk past buttercups

and the small white blooms

of wild strawberries on my way

to the once majestic juniper

that now stands almost bare

with ghostly branches

reaching toward the sky.

I come to make amends.

Last fall I stripped away

the honeysuckle that had twined

its way into the juniper’s heart

and now that juniper stands, a gray reminder

of the harm meddling can do.

                                                                                                    JDG

Even though we have

the hammer of justice,

the bell of freedom,

and the song about love,

many of us

who marched in the Sixties

still wonder

where all the flowers have gone,

still claim

this land was made for you and me,

 still believe

we shall overcome some day…

it’s just taking longer

than we expected.

                                                                      JDG

My shy granddaughter

has always been

a push-over,

but not anymore.

Seems like every time

I present a request

or state a point-of-view,

she pushes back.

When I brought this 

to her attention,

she grinned and said,

“I’m practicing on you.”

                                                             JDG

When I read what I had written to my non-binary granddaughter, they pushed back, saying I had forgotten for the umpteenth time to use “they” instead of “she” or to use our agreed upon humorous phrase, “the entity”. What follows is this 76 year old, former English teacher’s revision.

My once shy granddaughter

used to be

a push-over,

but not anymore.

Seems like every time

I present a request

or state a point-of-view,

the entity pushes back.

When I brought this

to the entity’s attention,

the entity grinned and said,

“I’m practicing on you.”

JDG

That red-capped woodpecker hammered home

each

and

every

point.

He made lots of noise,

but failed to open

a single heart.

                                                                           JDG

When I finally dock my boat,

I hope I can say,

“It’s been good –

even when I lost my bearings –

even when I was rowing against the tide –

even when other boaters thought I was crackers.

When I finally dock my boat,

I hope I can say,

“It’s been good.”

                                                                                                         JDG

When asked to comment

on the hateful words

of another, he simply paused,

reflected a moment, and said,

“I’m not a master fisherman,

but I know bait when I see it,

and I’m not gonna take it,” 

showing us all a way to respond

with integrity and grace.

                                                                                  JDG