Month: June 2022

I was going to come sit

here on the back porch swing –

this 41st birthday present from

my boyfriend-turned-husband,

15 years ago, so we could sit

after dinner and swing and

do a traffic count

when I lived on a real road –

I was going to come out here

at 3:41 a.m., but there’s a

hungry bobcat on the prowl

right about now

in my woods that somebody

posted on Facebook. They

caught it on their camera

three miles from here, eating

their chickens at 4 a.m..

Which is why our chickens

aren’t here anymore. Nothing

can live out here in the wild.

Which is why I wrote from bed

this morning at dark and waited

until daylight to come out

to write more.

So I sit and think of bobcats

and hawks and wild boars

and coyotes

which all have to

eat.

And wicked people

who don’t have to kill to survive.

1 Peter 5:8  

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

When smoking guns bring

out memory candles, we

weep. We mourn. We grieve.

When nineteen children 

and two teachers are murdered 

at school, we’re livid.

Nine/eleven brought

security to airports 

all across the world 

Yet school slaughterings

on our soil still drip bloodied

hands : inaction guilt 

Thoughts and prayers don’t get

us on airplanes. We banned all

tweezers from our skies. 

Whose rights matter most? 

We stand up for our own at

our children’s expense? 

We put up checkpoints ~

Uterus security 

at Planned Parenthood? 

But we’ll watch them starve.

And we’ll let them be murdered

as long as they’re born. 

Thoughts and prayers don’t feed.

Thoughts and prayers don’t stop bullets.

They’re pious copouts.

Enough is enough. 

Let’s bear what is in our arms. 

Whose rights matter most? 

*Changing Perspectives – this post was written in bed beginning at 3:41 a.m. I couldn’t sleep for thinking about all the logical fallacies in our world.

Matthew 18:10 

See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

I notice whenever I travel that my sense of awareness and my attentiveness to detail are heightened in ways that they never seem to be when I’m at home. I’m kind of a creature of habit, putting the RAV4 on autopilot and getting caught up in my prayer time without fully taking in all that I pass on the road. I don’t have to think about each turn or notice landmarks to find my way back on the familiar roads.

But it’s not like that at all when I travel. I notice in new places things I’d never think to notice in my own town – the way the sugar packets are arranged at the tables where I dine, the light fixtures outdoors at night, the signs (not just what they say, but whether they’re metal or painted wood, and the colors, and whether they match anything around them). I don’t know why my sensory dial gets turned up on full blast in other places, but it happens.

On the last three school break trips I’ve taken – to San Antonio, Texas; to Rockport, Massachussetts; and to Asheville, North Carolina – I was drawn to the window boxes and the outdoor seating arrangements that seemed so artistic and welcoming. I’m sharing some of these today. I’m wondering how many others find the same fascinations when traveling. What are the things that draw you in about other places that you don’t often notice at home?

Hebrews 13:2 – Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

we didn’t cook out

grilling chicken was our plan

he’d had an idea 

Let’s pack a picnic

for supper he’d suggested

spontaneously 

camper smorgasbord 

a hodgepodge of leftovers

along west shore shade

we picked the playlist 

packed the soft-sided cooler

paddled to sunset

Calypso, Shannon,

I Love the Way You Love Me,

Love Can Build a Bridge

no schnoodles this time –

just the two of us, plus food

sky blue Pelicans

We should do this more

often, he quipped, munching chips

I smiled….you’re right, dear

resting in the shade

kicked back, admiring nature,

we took it all in

*Written from the hull of the Gypsy Soul, my blue Pelican kayak, on Sunday, May 29, 2022

Psalm 65:8 

So that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.