Like a willow, I will bend
But I will not break
I will bend with the winds
And the challenges that arise
Traverse the waves that crash
Defy attempts to classify
Stave off regret, discontentment
Battle anger, sadness, heartbreak
Reach for the next sunrise
And look forward to what
Lies around the next bend
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Random inspiration IV
Ok, maybe not so inspiring tonight. Guess I'm feeling a little melancholy, so tonight's quotes may be a bit more serious.
Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom our grief is greater than our regret. - Francois de la Rochefoucauld
If we deny love that is given to us, if we refuse to give love because we fear pain or loss, then our lives will be empty, our greater loss.
Real loss only occurs when you lose something that you love more than yourself.
Time by minutes slips away, first the hour, then the day, small the daily loss appears, yet is soon amounts to year. - Ronald Tierney
Sadness is but a wall between two gardens. - Kahlil Gibran
Living the truth in your heart without compromise brings kindness into the world. Attempts at kindness that compromise your heart cause only sadness.
Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom our grief is greater than our regret. - Francois de la Rochefoucauld
If we deny love that is given to us, if we refuse to give love because we fear pain or loss, then our lives will be empty, our greater loss.
Real loss only occurs when you lose something that you love more than yourself.
Time by minutes slips away, first the hour, then the day, small the daily loss appears, yet is soon amounts to year. - Ronald Tierney
Sadness is but a wall between two gardens. - Kahlil Gibran
Living the truth in your heart without compromise brings kindness into the world. Attempts at kindness that compromise your heart cause only sadness.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The demise of absolutes
Life is full of yes-or-no answers and decisions. Yes, I'd like extra cheese on my pizza. No, I'm not available until 3. Yes, I'll join you for drinks. No, I've got plenty of my time in my schedule for that project (can you hear the dripping sarcasm?). Things tend to default to the lowest common denominator, black and white. Yes, I'll take vanilla, please. And things tend to be phrased in absolutes. Yes, you can do that. No, I changed my mind, you can't.
But that's not where life is lived. Life is lived in the gray areas, between the black and the white, between the yes and the no. In the middle - out on the edge - where colors burst off the page, where passion is a regular part of your daily routine.
When you feel like you're buried under thousands of pounds of rubble that translate into demands on your time, deadlines, clients, projects...all clamoring for what they claim is just a "minute" of your time, it's hard to remember to draw outside the lines, to hang on to the enjoyment, to remember the reason you do it in the first place. So for just today, when things feel more than a little out of control, when it feels that I won't get past this moment, that joy is just beyong my reach, I try to remember that life is fluid. It's not meant to be just yes or no. It's meant to be the sometimes, the maybes, the let's do it now, the let's try something new. It never hurts to try life from from a different angle. You might be pleasantly surprised with your discoveries.
But that's not where life is lived. Life is lived in the gray areas, between the black and the white, between the yes and the no. In the middle - out on the edge - where colors burst off the page, where passion is a regular part of your daily routine.
When you feel like you're buried under thousands of pounds of rubble that translate into demands on your time, deadlines, clients, projects...all clamoring for what they claim is just a "minute" of your time, it's hard to remember to draw outside the lines, to hang on to the enjoyment, to remember the reason you do it in the first place. So for just today, when things feel more than a little out of control, when it feels that I won't get past this moment, that joy is just beyong my reach, I try to remember that life is fluid. It's not meant to be just yes or no. It's meant to be the sometimes, the maybes, the let's do it now, the let's try something new. It never hurts to try life from from a different angle. You might be pleasantly surprised with your discoveries.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The faces of love
The right love, unlimited dimensions
Obvious as the rays that dance on the floor,
Easily visible in a shared look, moment --
Tucked away in whispers and shadows
Candlelight reflected in the quiet evening
Passion in the gentle moments spent
Wrapped around, inside one another --
Insistence, baited breath, waiting
For the next brush of fingertips
Tenderness in the soft touch of
Hands intertwined on a long drive --
Head lying on another’s shoulder
Seeking the comfort that results
Pure delight when the other enters
The room, a swell of immense joy --
The compass lies still, confident
It’s found its home, its harbor
Concern for an equal, but greater than
Anticipated, unexpected apprehension --
For the happiness, security, comfort
Of the mirror to one’s soul
Appreciation, admiration of differences
Belonging to each another, compassion --
Providing both the strength to support,
The needed soft place to fall
More than just desire, adoration,
Veneration, deep, ardent affection --
Reciprocated in unforeseen moments
One heart responding to another
The right love, unlimited dimensions
Obvious as the rays that dance on the floor,
Easily visible in a shared look, moment --
Tucked away in whispers and shadows
Candlelight reflected in the quiet evening
Obvious as the rays that dance on the floor,
Easily visible in a shared look, moment --
Tucked away in whispers and shadows
Candlelight reflected in the quiet evening
Passion in the gentle moments spent
Wrapped around, inside one another --
Insistence, baited breath, waiting
For the next brush of fingertips
Tenderness in the soft touch of
Hands intertwined on a long drive --
Head lying on another’s shoulder
Seeking the comfort that results
Pure delight when the other enters
The room, a swell of immense joy --
The compass lies still, confident
It’s found its home, its harbor
Concern for an equal, but greater than
Anticipated, unexpected apprehension --
For the happiness, security, comfort
Of the mirror to one’s soul
Appreciation, admiration of differences
Belonging to each another, compassion --
Providing both the strength to support,
The needed soft place to fall
More than just desire, adoration,
Veneration, deep, ardent affection --
Reciprocated in unforeseen moments
One heart responding to another
The right love, unlimited dimensions
Obvious as the rays that dance on the floor,
Easily visible in a shared look, moment --
Tucked away in whispers and shadows
Candlelight reflected in the quiet evening
Monday, May 12, 2008
The shadows of this life
This evening I came across this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine." I can clearly identify times in the last couple of years where there were shadows in my life. Some were caused by events outside of my control, but many were the creation of my reactions to those events. I was unable to clear the dark clouds from the sky and see the sun shining on the other side.
All I can be today is thankful for the sun that shines now on my face and the infrequency of shadows from my days.
All I can be today is thankful for the sun that shines now on my face and the infrequency of shadows from my days.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
The long way home
It's on days like this that I'm reminded why being outside, really outside - away from houses and traffic, sirens and trains, the hustle and bustle of the city - is good for my soul. I took the long way home tonight. While long drives often help me clear my head, tonight's drive happened on winding roads, down through the valley, through the national park, with dusk approaching, past a couple of deer forging for dinner, windows down, sunroof open, music on, fresh spring air moving over my face.
While I grew up in open space, I'm now more of a city dweller. I work in downtown Cleveland and live not even six miles from the office. I'm spoiled by the convenience of being able to get up, shower, get ready and be at my desk in 60 minutes. But between home and work, I rarely seem to get "out." While I appreciate living on a pretty quiet street, the breezes off the lake and the trees that populate my neighborhood, at night the stars are shut out by street lights. I can hear the train running by on the tracks that are in walking distance from my house and planes on their way to land at Cleveland-Hopkins.
So when city living gets to me, I'm fortunate that I can escape to my parents' home. They live on a Boy Scout camp in Lisbon, Ohio. At their house, you can lie in bed at night and hear the bullfrogs and crickets competing in the darkness. There are no barriers - not even one city light - between me sitting on swing in the backyard and the stars in the sky.
I often get caught up in my job and my daily life and the stress that seems to often infuse it. I forget that when things feel out of control and unmanageable, just some time walking in the woods with the path in front of me lit by nothing by moonlight, sitting on the dock listening to the gentle waves hit the edge of the lake, makes me feel better, relaxed, more centered.
With this in mind, I looked up one of the poems that I've always loved...
The road less taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
While I grew up in open space, I'm now more of a city dweller. I work in downtown Cleveland and live not even six miles from the office. I'm spoiled by the convenience of being able to get up, shower, get ready and be at my desk in 60 minutes. But between home and work, I rarely seem to get "out." While I appreciate living on a pretty quiet street, the breezes off the lake and the trees that populate my neighborhood, at night the stars are shut out by street lights. I can hear the train running by on the tracks that are in walking distance from my house and planes on their way to land at Cleveland-Hopkins.
So when city living gets to me, I'm fortunate that I can escape to my parents' home. They live on a Boy Scout camp in Lisbon, Ohio. At their house, you can lie in bed at night and hear the bullfrogs and crickets competing in the darkness. There are no barriers - not even one city light - between me sitting on swing in the backyard and the stars in the sky.
I often get caught up in my job and my daily life and the stress that seems to often infuse it. I forget that when things feel out of control and unmanageable, just some time walking in the woods with the path in front of me lit by nothing by moonlight, sitting on the dock listening to the gentle waves hit the edge of the lake, makes me feel better, relaxed, more centered.
With this in mind, I looked up one of the poems that I've always loved...
The road less taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost
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