A Bigger Plan

Magpie #85

All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. ~Havelock Ellis

I always had a big plan

 to prove to the world

and maybe a little to myself

that I could get somewhere in this life...

fry something better than balogna sandwich

go to college and earn a degree

something more valid than the school of hard knocks

move forward with dignity

not spinning my wheels

stirring up dust a mile wide

blocking my vision

of the light at the end of the tunnel

holding myself captive

to the place where I stood

in a desert of regrets

thats where they grow best

where we feel there is no way out

but sometimes that is the place of the spectacular

where elephants grow wings and eyes open wide

looking for something greater than ourselves

to get us through

we find there is a bigger plan

than the one we held so tightly

a beautiful freedom of letting go

of our weary might

and letting God

be God.

Light's Journey

Andrew Wyeth, The Revenant, 1949

Magpie #82

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.
~Leonard Cohen

Light's journey like hope radiates outward

penetrating all openings

every splintered gap

each and every crack

broken boards

and broken hearts

reaching all points of breach

until the farthest place is attained

then like karma on the passage back

it's illumination reflects like glass

a brilliant glimpse of hope.



The Beauty In Wreckage

Magpie Tales #81

"There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”

~Albert Einstein

We may see rubble, and the remnants of what was, but God can make miracles out of tragedy.
I am certain of this for I have seen it with my own eyes.
It is like a greener pasture after a wild fire,
or the hightened senses of the blind.
It is the true brilliance of a savant,
or how calamity brings together nighbors to restore and build again.
It is an unexpected child that teaches us what love is
You can call it what you want, or see it how you choose,
but some of the most inspiring people I have ever known
had a past, or sorrow that was a true suffering to maneuver through.
But they did it
and that gives me hope...
yes, there is beauty in wreckage
for that is what miracles are made of.



The Smile of God

Poets United Think Tank #64 Sunflowers

When I look at the stars

 I see the twinkle in God's eyes

 peering up at the mountains

I see His great might

looking into the forest

I see his outstretched hands

admiring the ocean before me

I feel His hope where I stand

observing all creation

I see God's confirmation of life

for when I view one sunflower

I capture a glimpse of His smile.

Earth laughs in flowers.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson,

Percolator

No coffee can be good in the mouth that does not first send a sweet offering of odor to the nostrils.  ~Henry Ward Beecher

The dictinary describes the term percolate as the process to cause a liquid to pass through a porous body; filter, to permeate and brew.  Frankly, I do not care what the correct terms are, I am just thrilled each day to have a cup of it in my hands, and the aroma tantalizing my nostrils.  It really is one of the best parts of waking up.

Poets United Think Tank #63 Something Stinks

One Crazy Ride

Magpie #79

Life is one big crazy ride....
 ...sometimes its fast and wild
and others it is a Sunday drive...
...but whatever rolls into your life
just don't let those moments pass you by.

One Big Prayer,This Windmill,and A Dog Named Slick

Magpie #76

The mills of the gods grind slowly, a wise greek once said, but God can turn things around quickly when a miracle is required.  Sometimes God's timing in our lives can seem like a slow moving train holding up traffic. It is never going to make a way for us to get through, but it does ,eventually, if we wait patiently.  Then ,there are those other times, when things happen fast, your heart skips a beat, and God moves quick as wind to make a way. This story is one of those kind of times.

I was about 11 years old with scragly hair and awkward limbs running around outside at my babysitter's house.  She was the wife of a true blue farmer.  They had everything a farm would be expected to have right down to the cow's milk, and overalls.  They were an older couple.  His name was Albert, and he spoke like no one I had ever known before.  Sometimes it was hard to understand him, but you always knew when he came in the door, cause he smelled just like cow manure.  For some reason I do not understand I called his wife Mrs. Schertz.  Her name was Odessa, but I never used it.  I just kept it formal, and that was what we were all used to.  They had never had any kids of their own, and keeping me had been a blessing for them as well as for me. You see my mom had passed away 2 years before, and Dad was having a hard time figuring out what to do with me when he was at work.  I guess I was an eccentric child right down to my polyester pants that rode at least 3 inches too high.  Kids would say I was ready for a flood, and I guess mentally in ways I was.  On this particular day,there was nothing that stood out, except maybe that it was exceptionally windy, and hot.  It was like sticking your head into a cake baking oven to see if its cooked.  It took your breath away at times.  Mrs. Schertz had a dog named slick that was kept on a chain and leash at the corner of the back yard.  He was an inexpensive, and effective alarm system they used to protect the house and property from strangers. He was a vicious thing, that barked and growled whenever he saw anyone including me.  I had never been closer to him than about 10 feet.  His chained leash kept him from me, and my strong fear kept me from him.  I had passed through the gate at the back of the yard to go to the farm area to bug the roosters, and just run around and find something to do.  I had frolicked about halfway to the barn when I heard a clang, and turned around to see ol'e slick stand at the open gate.  For a moment I was immobile, not so much frozen with fear, but in awe that he got loose.  The chain was still connected to him, but the chain had come loose from its connection at the fence.  Once I had processed in my mind what I had actually seen, my body decided to follow quickly behind.  I immediately ran to the barn, and closed all the openings. I yelled for Mrs. Schertz to find me, but she was in the house cleaning up the kitchen from lunch.  The longer I waited, the more frantic I felt, and soon I began to pray like I had never prayed before.  I asked God to save me from danger, and please open up Mrs. Schertz's ears so she would hear my cry in the barn. I prayed the biggest prayer I had ever uttered from my chapped lips. I prayed,and prayed, and prayed. When she finally called to me from outside the barn, it seemed as if it had been waiting for hours, but in reality, it had only been about half an hour.  "Girl what are ya doing locked up in hear?" she said, wiping her apron with the dirt and hay from her hands opening up the barn.  "Did you see slick? It was him, he got loose!" I said with fear chained to my throat. She looked at me with a grin that almost said more than her words, as she pointed in the dirrection of the windmill.  "Girl he might a gotten loose over yonder, but he sure ain't loose over there at that windmill!" I couldn't believe my eyes, as I rubbed them trying to dry up the tears.  There he sure was, right there trapped at the windmill.  His chain had gotten caught up at the pipes at the bottom.  At that very moment, in the midst of my own sigh of relief and hysteria, I knew I had seen it for sure.  Not slick all caught up in his own chain at the mill, but God.  I had seen what God can do. I had witnessed a miracle right there at the windmill, and ol'e slick's chain.

Also linking with Imperfect Prose with lovely Emily.

Hanging In There

I had a lover's quarrel with the world.  ~Robert Frost, The Lesson for Today, 1942

I just wanted to take the time to let you know that I am still alive and kicking.  The last couple of years have been stressful ones for me.  Some of you know my troubles but many do not, and I apolagize for not explaining any further at this time.  I just have been hanging in there the best I can.  On top of everything else I recently changed job locations as well.  I work at a different library now, and I no longer have time to spend blogging and reading blogs the way I used to.  That is why I have not participated in Magpie Tales, One Shot,or Thing Tank, latley.  I did not want to post a poem and not be able to read the other poems that were linked to those sites.  I am working on getting internet at home, and then that will give me an opportunity to read and blog the way I would like.  Thank you for all for taking the time to read my blog and becoming a dear friend and encourager.  I may not be blogging, but my heart is still in it, and all the wonderful friends that I have met along the way are still in my thoughts and prayers. I promise I will be back....for now, I am just

hanging in there.

Monumental Choices

Magpie #65


God never makes bloodless stoics; He makes no passionless saints.
~Oswald Chambers Cabbage



We build our own history like a monument for all to see
each decision and every action
a portion of clay and mortar
spreads and forms
whether it
becomes
a wall
a bridge
or beautiful monument
depends on us.

Somewhere In Your Life

"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on." ~Havelock Ellis

Hi my name is loneliness I am somewhere in your life but if you dry your tears and simply look above

you will see that in your life there is love.

Hi my name is fear I am somewhere in your life but if you uncover your eyes and walk out into light's beam

you will see that in your life there can be peace.

Hi my name is discouragment I am somewhere in your life but if you pick yourself up and open the closed door

you will see that in your life there is hope.

Hi my name is doubt I am somewhere in your life but if you walk out on a limb all the way

you will see that in your life there is faith.

Hi my name is bitterness I am somewher in your life but if you open up your heart and let go of the pain

you will see that in your life there is forgiveness to take it's place.

Linking with One Shot Wednesday

Also Sharing with lovely Emily at Imperfect Prose

All God's Children

Smoldering Fires,Clarence Holdbrook Carter, 1904-2000

Columbus Museum of Art

Magpie #64

My mother is a poem
I'll never be able to write,
though everything I write
is a poem to my mother.
~Sharon Doubiago

Like a mother God holds us in His arms both protecting and preparing us for the fires of life we may face

yet like a small child we wander off too impatient to listen and wait

like an old man experience reaches out with the wealth of ware and wisdom within it's hands

yet like a capricious scarf in the wind we either take hold or drift off unaware of the lesson we had.

~I have always believed that you can take two different people, and give them the same experience,same mother, same sphere of influence, and same adversity, and one will choose to go with the flow and strive through the situation, and the other will kick scream and fight there way through causing themselves and those around them nothing but strife. ~

Somehow in my prompt I strayed away from the mother theme a bit, and went more with life, and choices, but I do want to take the time to observe  Mother's Day for all women, not just those that have given birth.  Having lost my mother at a young age, I can testify to the fact that most women have such a nurturing spirit regardless if they bear children or not.  Throughout the years I have had so many women I have known become a mother figure, and give support and guidance when it was needed in my life.  They have been a blessing and a force of hope in the empty places of my past.  So to them I say thank you, and to all women everywhere I want to say

Happy Mother's Day!