Thursday, April 28, 2016

Open Wide

photo by Tom Chambers

Also linking with Poet's United and Midweek Motif ~ Open / Openess



The willingness to share does not make one charitable; it makes one free. ~Robert Brault




Open wide your heart like a door and welcome life in like a deer upon your fine dining table.
Open wide your hands like a moon flower and reach out toward the dark of night.
Open wide your mind like a window and venture out to see and feel the gravel on the other side of the tracks.
Open wide your arms like an armoire and embrace all that life has given you to hold,
so that you may have the strength and grace to give some back to those who cross your path.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

The Truest Gifts

Google Images


 Linking with Poets United for Poetry Pantry 297 posted by Mary



Love cures people—both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.
 ~Karl Menninger




It is in the giving of true love and refuge 
that we receive it at its softest core.
It folds back like a large soft blanket
and warms the original giver once more.
You cannot truly give it and not in turn
truly reap it's truest gift
for giving and receiving in some ways
are strongly connected at the hip.


Giving is receiving and receiving is giving....that is how it seems it can be sometimes to me.  When we learn to give graciously and we learn to receive graciously; we learn something about true gifts and giving back and how they are in so many ways connected.  If you know anyone that is deeply involved in the process of recovery of AA, CR, or NA, then you have seen someone that is in the process of consistently giving back to others.  The wonderful truth of it is this:  the act of giving of oneself is a very rewarding thing.  Having said that, I would like to share a story from when I was 11 years old:

My father had just married my new step mother, and we were driving home from a long day out.  It was dark and I was very tired dozing off in the car in between them in the front seat.  My step mother graciously laid my head upon her lap so that I could rest for the remainder of the trip.  I still member it like it was yesterday.  I held my head slightly hovered at her lap, and never truly let my head rest upon her legs.  Looking back, I am not sure why I could not relax and receive her gift of comfort.  It was a sweet gesture that no one else had ever offered before, and I guess I just did not know how to receive it completely.  I realize now, that it was a gracious gift that I missed out on affecting her as well as me, and it is a good example of how giving and receiving are truly connected at the hip.  

Sunday, April 3, 2016

No Net



Also linking with Poets United for Poetry Pantry #296


All of life is the exercise of risk. ~William Sloane Coffin


I have always longed to have the heart of a daredevil performer
 flying the trapeze and walking the high wire tightrope 
moving confidently forward with no net to play it safe
yet instead my heart has chosen to stay behind the scenes
content to be a quiet cook standing still in the kitchen of life
willing to serve love and soft devotion on a plate
just be ware my complacent lover....
there may be a wild hair in the
 middle of your mashed potatoes!