Mighty is the Prayer

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Linking with The Sunday Muse for Muse # 29


Prayer is glue for broken souls. ~Terri Guillemets

The most powerful

 weight lifting we will ever do,

 is reach toward heaven

 with our troubles in hand

 and give them to God

Amen.

For All the Trees I Never Planted,

"Faith of a Dreamer" by ChieuMua  click here for source 

Linking with The Sunday Muse for Muse # 28

and Imaginary Gardens for The Tuesday Platform

brought to us by the lovely Sanaa 

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The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. ~Nelson Henderson

We should not burn a bridge that we never even crossed

Nor should we build something bigger when something better will be lost

But really it is about the act of doing you see life is a leap of faith

We have to sweat a little if we want to make something great

We must get our hands dirty and plant a garden or a tree

Get off that comfortable sofa and truly live what we believe

Making a difference is not just for the other guy

It is a mission that is yours and it is a mission that is mine

For in the name of progress it seems so much has been lost

And we should not build something bigger when something better will be lost.

This is dedicated to all the trees that have been cut down in the name of progress.  What a sad story it truly is.   I have always loved trees and felt they have a magnificent presence all around us.  In fact, the first poem I ever wrote was about a tree when I was 11 years old.  Yes, trees are dear to me, and since we recently celebrated arbor day, it felt fitting to write this.  The sad thing is I have never actually planted a tree with my own bare hands.  I work right inside a botanic garden center.  They gave out little trees for arbor day, and I have one now.  So guess what?  I am going to plant a tree.  Little steps they say.  I am going to get my hands dirty and make beautiful shade for my great great grandchildren.

True Real Estate

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"My friends are my estate."  Emily Dickinson

One stormy night I sat on the cement floor of a shelter
wearing the only clothes I had with me
not sure what I would go back home to
whether anything would be salvageable
or if I would have a home
a place
 with all my stuff
it seems
I spent years collecting things
lots of things
stuffed in boxes
hung in closets
stored in bags
piled on piles
because
I had
no equity
or investment
in property
no land
to call my own
but I had things
everything you
could think of
I had it.......
.......but it took losing it
to remind me that
my true friends and family
are the things in my life
that matter most.



I do know this much is true.....losing everything you own never compares to losing those we love.  For no matter how bad of a day those days in a shelter would have been, they could never be as bad as days I had known losing those I love in this world.


I dedicate this piece to those who have true real estate in heaven and in our hearts:

Lauren NicoleThackeray
Seth Michael Stewart
Terry Tod Thackeray
Carol Thackeray
William Clyde Odeneal
Hazel Covington Odeneal
Vaude Van Horn
Virginia Katherine Van Horn
Parkes Van Horn
Dorothy Van Horn
Bill Odeneal Sr.
Carrie Lee Meredith
Harry Van Horn
Lou Odeneal
Leah Odeneal
Margaret Boatman
Barbara Van Horn
Katherine Odeneal Marco
James Marco Jr.
Benji Baldridge
Tony Thackeray I
Heather Thackeray
George Thackeray I
Edith Thackeray
George Thackeray II
George Thackeray III
Teddy Thackeray
Tom Thackeray
Little Tom Thackeray
Gail Thackeray
Parks Wayne Van Horn
Lisa Grace Van Horn

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What Is Not In Our Hands

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Linking with Imaginary Gardens for The Tuesday Platform

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Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left. ~Hubert Humphrey

I have held many things in this life.  Some worthy of keeping some worthy of letting go.  The trouble is, I have not always recognized the choice and its importance in the midst of holding on.  

There is a memory I still hold of a fallen baby sparrow that fell out of its nest.  I was merely 6 years old and was fascinated by this frail feathered creature.  I wanted to take care of it and keep it for my own, but like so many lessons I would learn in my life, it was just not mine to keep.

That particular day, we were planning an outing to the Zoo.  Outings were a rare occurrence at our household growing up.  I am not sure if it was just because my mother did not have a driver's license or was slightly agoraphobic like our grandmother, but none the less we stayed home most of the time.

I do not recall every detail, but I remember finding the little bird on the ground and having a special cardboard box to place him in.  When the time came for my father to take me and my brother to the Zoo, I was given a choice.  Did I want to go to the Zoo or did I want to stay home with my mom and the precious little birdie?  Maybe most children would have chosen the Zoo, but not me, I wanted to take care of this wonderful little bird.

Unfortunately, after my father left for the Zoo, I found that staying with the bird was not all I thought it would be.  Sure that the bird would give me some strange disease, my mother made the decision that I could no longer touch it.  So the thrill of staying home with it soon lost its luster.

Looking back on the memory I realize that it probably was not a wise idea for my parents to give me such a choice to begin with.  The bird would have been there when I got back home, and that was the only time I can recall that my father ever took us to the zoo.

Some choices are tricky.  We think we have control over the situation or the outcome, but sometimes simply making the choice at all turns out to be a lesson in just how much we do not have control over the outcome.  Life is full of uncertainty; surprises at every turn. We do not have the luxury of knowing what may surprise us around the next curve, but we do have the freedom and opportunity to learn from the choices we have made in the past. To gain peace over what we can control and what we cannot.  What I have learned is this: we cannot control all that comes our way, like a bird falling from its nest, but we can control how we deal with the outcome, or accept what God truly has placed within our hands.

The Haunting of Her Lips

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Linking with The Sunday Muse for the muse # 27

Love, thieves, and fear, make ghosts. ~German Proverb

You are a haunted house my love and I am the ghost that walks your halls 

I have every room memorized but you do not remember me at all

I kissed you once and I kissed you twice more

but before the next you were long gone out the door

you see time stops for only a few things in this world

childbirth/seeing a ghost/ and kissing a girl

I held you close in your red sequin gown

and paraded you on my arm all over town

but what made me fall was that first kiss

and now I am a ghost that you do not know exists.

The Magnificent Magician

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The Sunday Muse for muse # 26 and with Imaginary Gardens for The Tuesday Platform brought to us by Sanaa
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We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable. ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn

It is a show I have performed on a big bright stage

 but it has never been magnificent, it has only been a comedy of pain

 Here comes the lady that performs magic tricks

  She makes things appear different with the click of a stick

 No rabbits come out of her big black hat

Only denial and excuses with a big black cat

If you do not look close you will never see

The trouble disappearing act from scene to scene

What once looked bad is now all covered up

With magic gloves under a magic rug

Turns out it only makes for a bigger mess

After the show is over and the rug gets wet

And every performance turns out the same

Turns something medium into a bigger pain

I know cause I did the show many many times

And it always ended the same come rain or shine

My problems magically grew larger right on the stage

And every show I still do that trick just the same

I finally had to take off my magic hat and lay down my stick

For only God can perform a true magnificent magic trick.

Classic enablers can be like a crazed magician or a frenzied maid, trying to fix the world around them and make the problems of those they love disappear.  It is a job that can make for a weary heart and was never what we were meant to do.  I know this because I am one, and I spent many years trying to smooth the rough waters of alcoholism and addiction right at my own front door.  One thing I have learned in the process is this:  the force of dysfunction of a classic enabler can be just as horrific of an addiction as drugs or alcohol abuse can be.  No wisdom of others on the outside looking in could stop me.  It is a struggle that I still wrestle with, but I have learned to see it for what it is, and not let denial cover my eyes with a blind fold like a magician’s ruse.

Drink Up

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Linking with Poets United for Poetry Pantry # 425


The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss.

~Thomas Carlyle

We define ourselves
 not by the struggles that we have in life
 but rather by the way we face them
 and handle their affect day by day
 that decides what we become.
  Life and the battles we face are not a respecter of persons
  They do not withhold the blessings nor the strife.
  They come together with the air that feeds our lungs
 like a cup and saucer for us to drink up.
  Some of us sip it cautiously
 and others swallow it wholeheartedly
 and enjoy every drop.
 Drink up my friend!  
Drink up!