SLOW DANCE

This poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a New York Hospital.

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever watched kids,

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain,

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.


Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won't last.

Do you run through each day,

On the fly?

When you ask "How are you?"

Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done,

Do you lie in your bed,

With the next hundred chores,

Running through your head?

You'd better slow down.

Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won't last.

Ever told your child,

We'll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste,

Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,

Let a good friendship die,

Cause you never had time,

To call and say,'Hi'?

You'd better slow down.

Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere,

You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,

It is like an unopened gift....

All thrown away.

Life is not a race.

Do take it slower.

Hear the music.

Before the song is over.

Life Coaches - GIve me a break!

I think I will scream if yet one more intelligent person I know tells me they have hired a life coach. Give me a break!

Who in their right, intelligent mind, hires someone from the internet who proclaims to be a life coach?

I have known at least 10 people who market themselves as life coaches - most are either very under-employed or unemployed, but feel they can direst someone else to success and some have "taken an online class" to give themselves credibility.

Not one of them has a life I'd like to emulate. The people hiring life coaches believe what they read on the internet. I urge them to find someone in their life or community who they respect and go talk to them, read books, network with those who have the skill sets they desire. Journal. Anything but turn their life over to an online "life coach" with an inflated ego who has no measurable success and all we really know about them is what they wrote about themselves. Give me names of real people they helped, with their before and after bios, their email and phone numbers. Give me names and numbers of people who know them well and those who only know of them. Show me their employment history, marital history, etc. It makes no sense to me that anyone would let a total stranger ONLINE be a life coach. I'd rather they buy a lottery ticket.

Twitter and the internet is filled with such people.

The subject of life coaches came up in a woman's discussion group last night... and most agreed with me - those who led full-rich lives mentor by example and spend time with people they know - they don't hang out on the internet waiting for some poor soul with bad body language, cash and low self-esteem.

Yes, I'd much rather they buy a lottery ticket - perhaps they'd win enough to hire a real profession, with a qualified degree and measurable success. Or, I'd like to have swamp land to sell them, at least they'd have a deed for their money.

Perhaps it's the weather

I am once again restless.
Often I find myself
staring out the window,
fixed on the hosta breaking through damp earth.
I welcome them like long lost friends.
How long has it been since I last looked at you?
Touched you?
Realized your beauty and strength?
You tolerate winter much better
than I do these days
and wait patiently until
it is your season

I push the envelope
realize with each passing year
that time is running short
regret the years I wasted
and the days that passed
without me noticing
even the slightest beauty
or grace.
I watch the robins
frantically gathering
twigs, straw, old string
already planning
to mate and go forward
I snip bits of colored yarn
and place it in my suet feeder
for them to gather
my contribution to spring
and new life
new love

Over a cup of coffee
a friend asks
"How many more springs
do you suppose we have?"
Sigh.
Like Emily Dickinson
I dwell in the possibilities
of what each arriving spring
may bring into my life
and what I leave behind
I refuse to focus on the end
before I have exhausted today.

Early Morning Walk

This morning I went for an early morning walk,

The air cool with thick misty fog

As dawn broke I desperately searched

For early signs of spring

To signal the end of winter

The air smelled of damp earth

But what I really craved

Was even the faintest scent

Of you

Lasting Relationships

“Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they're trying to find someone who's going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take.” -Anthony Robbins

Reflection

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected
in one dewdrop on the grass. ~ Dogen

The Winner Is

I've learned that when you have an argument with your spouse, the first one who says, 'I'm sorry I hurt your feelings; please forgive me,' is the winner. ~unknown

Caution

Caution

Even now
having recently removed
the last long thorn from my flesh
the wound has scabbed over
but not healed
perhaps it never will
or maybe it is waiting...
patiently
like a spy in dark shadows
for me to acknowledge
it may have all been an illusion
disguised by candlelight
infused with wine
and twisted emotions

I catch my reflection
in the window
an older woman
stares back at me
where did the years go?
my youth passed all too soon
On the horizon
I see I see him staring back at me
standing in a now barren field
miles away, as always
out of reach
on the other side of the wall
that is his comfort zone


Experiences of the heart
transform or consume us
in unpredictable ways
I remember the fire
the intensity, the vivid colors
I also remember
crawling out of the ashes
after the flames died down
after the last ember
stopped smoldering

I see myself
as if viewing a stranger
half-frozen
speechless
unable to warn her
to stop
STOP
move away from the flame
or risk being consumed
once again

Butterflies

Just like the butterfly, I too will awaken in my own time. ~Deborah Chaskin

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. ~Richard Bach

The butterfly’s attractiveness derives not only from colors and symmetry: deeper motives contribute to it. We would not think them so beautiful if they did not fly, or if they flew straight and briskly like bees, or if they stung, or above all if they did not enact the perturbing mystery of metamorphosis: the latter assumes in our eyes the value of a badly decoded message, a symbol, a sign. ~ Primo Levi

"How does one become a butterfly?" she asked pensively. "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar." ~Trina Paulus

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." ~Maya Angelou

I Want To Die Living

Just like Leo.

"When asked what he wanted to be remembered for when his life was over Leo Buscaglia. replied: "I want to be remembered as somebody who lived life fully and with passion. I’ve been asked to write my epitaph and I have always thought that the perfect one for my tombstone would be, ‘Here lies Leo who died living.’"

I want to die living. And I want to be remembered as one who lived with purpose, joy and verve. I want to spend my time learning what goes into a whole and happy life, then building that life the best I can.

Sociologist Tony Campolo told about a study in which fifty people over the age of ninety were asked to reflect upon their lives. "If you had it to do over again," they were asked, "what would you do differently?" There was a multiplicity of answers, but three responses dominated. Here they are.

1. I would reflect more. Do you ever feel that too much time is spent in "doing," and not enough spent thinking about what you are doing and why you are doing it?
2. I would risk more. Do you think that important opportunities either have been or might be forfeited because of your fear to take a necessary risk?
3. I would do more things that would live on after I died. Do you feel that you are immersed in something bigger and more enduring than your own existence?

Reflect more * Risk more * Leave a legacy.

These are what our elders say they would do differently the second time around.
But why wait for a second time around? Every new day is a second chance!

Reflect more today—
it will reveal to you what is truly important.

Risk more today—
take a chance on making that dream come alive.

Get involved with something that makes a difference in this world—
and a beautiful legacy is what you will leave behind."

"My God" by M.K. Gandhi

It matters not what we call our heavenly Father, what matters is that we find our path to Him. Sadly, more have been killed in the name of organized religion than anything else.

I love this quote.....

From: “My God” by M.K. Gandhi

Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads, so long as we reach the same goal? In reality, there are as many religions as there are individuals.

All faiths are a gift of God, but partake of human imperfection as they pass through the medium of humanity. God-given religion is beyond all speech. Imperfect men put it into such language as they can command, and their words are interpreted by other men equally imperfect.

Whose interpretation must be held to be the right one? Every one is right from his own standpoint, but it is not impossible that every one is wrong. Hence the necessity for tolerance, which does not mean indifference towards one’s own faith, but a more intelligent and purer love for it.

Tolerance gives us spiritual insight, which is as far from fanaticism as the north pole is from the south. True knowledge of religion breaks down the barriers between faith and faith and gives rise to tolerance. Cultivation of tolerance for other faiths will impart to us a truer understanding of our own.

I have said I do not disbelieve in idol-worship. An idol does not excite any feeling of veneration in me. But I think that idol-worship is part of human nature. We hanker after symbolism.

I am both an idolater and an iconoclast in what I conceive to be the true senses of the terms. I value the spirit behind idol worship. It plays a most important part in the uplift of the human race. And I would like to possess the ability to defend with my life the thousands of holy temples which sanctify this land of ours.

I am an iconoclast in the sense that I break down the subtle form of idolatry in the shape of fanaticism that refuses to see any virtue in any other form of worshipping the Deity save one’s own. This form of idolatry is more deadly for being more fine and evasive than the tangible and gross form of worship that identifies the Deity with a little bit of a stone or a golden image.

Bitter experience has taught me that all temples are not houses of God. They can be habitations of the devil. These places of worship have no value unless the keeper is a good man of God. Temples,mosques, churches are what man makes them to be.

Touching Fire

Perhaps, in the autumn of my life
I will sit near a window
in the late afternoon sun
drinking tea from fine china
or cheap red wine
depending on my mood
and the weather
Perhaps I will sit
wrapped in an old blanket
watching trees
release their leaves
one by one
much like one deals with loss
in small increments
to soften the blow
Yes, perhaps then I will
reflect on him
tincture of time is a wonderful healer
so they tell me
only time will tell
perhaps then
emotions will not run high
I will no longer stop in my tracks
at odd hours with thoughts of him..
those eyes looking back at me
as only a lover can
Perhaps red wine will dull that ache
Perhaps I will no longer miss noisy sex
and will be able to eat raspberries
without the first thought of him
Perhaps on that autumn afternoon
after my third glass of wine
I will forget that I once
touched fire
felt the warmth and the burn
love changes everything
if you let it