Patchwork Prose and Verse
Today I’m thankful for the simplicity of enjoying nature, breathing fresh air, and living a relaxed weekend pace before Monday arrives again for its weekly stay with all its luggage. Here is a nonet- a nine line poem of descending syllables.
Simple Life
A majestic mountain view of leaves
red, green, brown, orange, and yellow
camping at Vogel State Park
just you and me – and time
time to breathe fresh air
time to cherish
what we choose:
simple
life
Nothingness
all sorts
of vise grips
tightening freedom
hindering lingering
clamping rest
choking life
keep me on the move
doing something else
to check another box:
done!
I want some
nothingness
and with it
I’ll take
a cup of hot tea
a book
a journal
a pen
a comfy chair
and two wet noses
by a blazing fireplace
savoring each moment
cherishing the warmth
of the deep
peace
Today I’m thankful for my boys – Boo Radley and Fitz, a Schnauzer and Schnoodle whose neurotic tendencies are ever present.
Fix-it-Up and Busybody
they’re
how they are
because of
how they’ve been
abandoned
neglected
abused
rejected
rough starts
left scars
broken leg
broken hearts
they’re
how they are
because of
how they’ve been
one lingering thing
is that they check
their people out
humans: such wrecks!
if one of us
seems sad or hurt
or loud or mad
they’re on alert!
they’re
how they are
because of
how they’ve been
but love heals
and hugs assure
playful nuzzles
gentle muzzles
waggy tails
perky ears
no more jail
no more tears
they’re
how they are
because of
how they’ve been
fix-it-up Fitz
and busybody Boo
swept up from the pits
into arms anew
they’re family now
on this funny farm
where no one tries
to bring them harm
they’re
how they are
because of
how they’ve been
A sensory blessing poem using a line from Mary Oliver’s “It Was Early” as a last line.
Blessed
I can see it:
the one who said, “No more inside dogs!” with your lap full of Fitz and Boo Radley, sharing snacks and watching NCIS like weekend bachelors
I can taste it:
the perfect morning coffee you brew and bring me every day, fixed just the way I like it
I can hear it:
you – watching every YouTube video you can find about new camper set up and then summarizing them for me so we get things right
I can smell it:
the campfire smoke – built especially for me because you know I love sitting out by an open fire wrapped in a blanket looking at the stars with you
I can feel it:
the way your hand always finds mine, intermingling our fingers as you stride up beside me and whisper, “Quick! Act like you like me!” and look around suspiciously whenever we’re walking through any parking lot
Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed!
Moodling
blessed with the gift of moodling
letting my mind wander
losing all track of time
aimlessly puttering and dawdling
letting my mind wander
daydreaming off in another world
aimlessly puttering and dawdling
idling and frittering away the day
daydreaming off in another world
carelessly ambling, pondering things
idling and frittering the day away
drifting on thoughts wherever I may
carelessly ambling, pondering things
losing all track of time
drifting on thoughts wherever I may
blessed with the gift of moodling
Thankful, Grateful, Blessed by Nothing
Elaine St. James wrote a whole series of books on simplifying life – getting to a state of inner simplicity by reducing outer complexities that overwhelm us.
Albert Einstein said, “Out of clutter, find simplicity.”
Sarah Ban Breathnach simply says, “simplify, simplify simplify.”
Patrick McDonnell’s The Goft of Nothing may be in the top 10 best children’s books of all time – and holds valuable wisdom.
Henrietta Ripperger says, “If a home doesn’t make sense, nothing does.”
Before I moved from South Carolina to Georgia many years ago, I had a dear friend named Jeanne who inspired me to adopt her four word mantra: get rid of it!
Every time I went to her house, I found space to savor moments – the coffee was more aromatic, the conversation was more stimulating, the laughter was more intense, the time spent was far more enjoyable.
Jeanne’s home wasn’t just organized. It was something better. It was sparsely furnished and uncluttered. Her closets held shockingly few clothes, but her wardrobe coordinated endlessly. Her kitchen held few dishes and utensils, but they all served a frequent purpose. With fewer things and less ownership, she was freer than most to sit back and enjoy life while her friends and neighbors washed boats and cars and cleaned large homes and were managed by the anchors of demand they’d accumulated.
I’m thankful today for the many things I don’t own – things that don’t tie me down and interfere with living life. I am thankful for a friend who inspired me to see an empty space as room to breathe and not as a place to fill.
I’m grateful that I adopted an intentionality of “thing” management twenty years ago – it was an investment that has paid off in even bigger ways over time. My children will thank me later.
I’m blessed by the nothingness I enjoy: the beauty of wood floors that can be seen without rugs and wall-to-wall furniture, walls free of everything but a coat of paint, kitchen counters that shine in the absence of small appliances, and a refrigerator unbound by magnetized souvenirs from every place I’ve ever visited, like some visual scrapbook that displays a play-by-play museum of my life’s memories.
Today, I am blessed by the everything in nothing.
Thankful, Grateful, Blessed….and Fully Present
since August 2020
when my friend
Kristi
a diagnostician
predicted I was a
Type One
I’ve been perplexed
about the results
of my
Enneagram
most people
are confident numbers
one through nine
not me
I have a severe
questionable gap
on my spectrum
I’m either
a one
or a five
none of this
winging to the
number next door
my daily
EnneaThoughts
are usually
scattered
and random
leaving me
to try
to average
myself out
to a three
or
a seven and a half
to be someone I’m not
that’s why
I’m thankful
today that
either way-
one or five-
I can be who I really am
my EnneaThought
from the
Enneagram Institute
for November 10
if I am a Type One:
how can you
fully experience
your presence
here and now?
be “inside”
your experience
fully connected
with the sensations
of life
in your body
my EnneaThought
from the
Enneagram Institute
for November 10
if I’m a Type Five:
how can you fully experience
your presence
here and now?
connect
with the sensations
of life
in your body
from the top
of your head
to the bottom
of your feet
I’ve waited
so long
for a similar
EnneaThought
so I could
focus on one goal
none of this
split personality stuff
but longer still
for connected
to mean what
it used to mean
back in the day
Thankful, Grateful, Blessed – A Pantoum
A Pantoum is a repeating poem
of four original lines 1-4 that feature elaboration of thought in lines 5-8 and follows this stanza sequence: 1,2,3,4 and then 2,5,4,6, and then 5,7,6,8, and finally 7,3,8,1 so that the poem begins and ends in a circular fashion
be thankful
be grateful
be blessed
not only at Thanksgiving, but always
be grateful for life – for all it holds
for family, for friends, for dogs, for love
not only at Thanksgiving, but always
just imagine a life absent of love
love of family, friends, dogs
are cherished treasures – not collections of things that may all burn to ash
life without the blessings of love would be empty
time, moments, conversations, and experiences: gift-wrapped memories
real treasures aren’t measured in green value or worth
be blessed with presence- not presents
time, moments, conversations, and
experiences: priorities
be thankful
Grateful for new reading glasses! Just ordered them
Yesterday, online.
It’s a good thing.
I just wasted some valuable minutes trying to figure out why a new dieting app would feature a crab tracker.
Thankful, Grateful, Blessed
For “Rodeo #1” – for which I was completely unprepared – I received a number of cookbooks as bridal shower gifts. Among my favorites was Frederica Fare, from church friends Mike and Lee Malone. If you ever want to know where the best recipe in a used cookbook is, look for the most stained and food – splattered page. In this one, it is page 163,
on which my lifetime “standout” recipe appears, submitted by Sue Bachrodt and Paula Clark, complete with a heads-up that says, “Warning: people always want the recipe for this!”
Perhaps that’s why I made it the first time in the mid-1980s. Since then, no one in my family can begin the holiday season without pumpkin bread. They start asking for it in October whenever they see the first yellowish leaf flitting its way to the ground and the crisp air awakens their sluggish lungs from a warm, humid slumber. I’ve always known this recipe had a magical way of drawing my family together, but never more did I realize this until the moment I received an unexpected phone call from The Bethany House in Clarksville, Tennessee. My oldest child had entered a year-long Christian-based women’s recovery facility late one summer and was allowed no contact with anyone for many weeks. By fall, we were allowed to visit her on the first weekend of each month for a few hours and made those long drives to spend just a few hours at the family pancake breakfasts, reveling in God’s answer to prayer and the miracle of her progress in recovery.
I knew I had my baby girl back when she pleaded for special permission to call home that day before we left to visit her for the first time – she wanted to be sure I didn’t forget to bring the pumpkin bread – the bread of breakfasts with slathered whipped cream cheese and the bread of late-night games of Scrabble huddled around the kitchen table in pajamas, with strong coffee. This is the bread of togetherness of a family – and a testament that food plays a powerful role in the roots of home and belonging.
Pumpkin Bread
3 1/2 c. white flour
2 t. soda
1 1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. cloves
3 c. sugar
1 c. oil
4 eggs
2/3 c. water
2 c. mashed pumpkin (I use one small can)
Sift together dry ingredients. Make a well in center. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Divide into bread pans. Bake at 350° for one hour or until done.
Today, I am grateful for God’s answer to three years of fervent prayers in bringing Mallory back from the brink of death. We continue to celebrate her recovery in prayers of thanksgiving every day.
Common Threads 