handwritten on July 8, 2020
Ironically in the midst of writing in a journal entitled "365 Miles of Clarity" Seeing 20/20 and also driving to get new "glasses," I passed by (as I was driving) this beautiful mural of what looked to be cotton candy trees. Essentially, trees of rainbow colors. I've been particularly drawn to murals (more than usual) as well as painting bottles and fences and literally anything I can get my hands on these days. To me-painting has become the ability to reassess the world and my role in it. How can I evaluate (again) and change myself and my actions to be better. To do better. To find myself on a continuum of improvement.
I've always loved painting but I'm drawn to colors more. Perhaps it's...
handwritten on July 6, 2020
I do hope that during this time of uncertainty and longing for people you remember the times you said the following:
Goodness..."I really need a break from work"
"I need a break from talking to that person"
"I just need a change from reality"
"I just wish I had a moment where time would stop"
"It would be nice to just change things up a bit"
I look back a little, and I do laugh at the phrases I've heard or said myself over the past few years. And now all of those phrases I have heard repeated time and time again bring with it such a different meaning.
"I wish I could go back to my REAL job"
"I would really love to see that person"
"I do wish reality would simply just revert to the way it...
handwritten on June 30, 2020
I've been shielded from the worries of cancer in a way.
My mom in my opinion has done most of the work. And my dad.
Always attending the chemo sessions, gritting teeth while in the waiting room.
Watching the drawn faces of people passing by receiving goods news or not so good news.
I can't quite imagine how many sleepless nights my dad has had leading up to the appointments.
It's like equating every journey to the hospital as a new feather. You grow your wings in the process of going through it. And then when it is all said and done, and you are blessed enough to be deemed free of the old feathers, you start growing new ones.
People assume that those feathers leave and they don't. The...
handwritten on June 29, 2020
In preparing for a series of upcoming lessons, I came across this beautiful poem. I have simply fallen in love, and I do hope you can see why.
Pigeon and sparrow,
Perched together
On that
Telephone line,
Do you ever
Talk to
Each other,
I wonder?
Or are you
Just strangers,
Like two people
Sitting
On a bus?
- Yoshiko Uchida
There were two weddings this past weekend, and I found myself referencing this poem watching the love unfold in both cases. Older love, younger love, long relationships, shorter relationships. Regardless, all points of love start with a meeting. And that meeting is caused sometimes by a bit of whimsy but also wonder. For if you don't wonder, can...
handwritten on June 25, 2020
It's always so interesting how we think to ourselves often or perhaps look outside at the grass that has just been washed by the rain and we say over and over again, "I just don't know about.."
I just don't know about this rain or
I just don't know about this weather
I just don't know about the clouds in the sky or that
little chocolate chip we stepped on as we traveled across the floor
or that half finished book or that
meeting we had earlier in the day or
the decision we made to try that new thing
I just don't know. We do though. I think we do know
perhaps that phrase is just yet another way for us to be unsure without being too sure
A little safety net that slips beneath our feet like...
