Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Feeling Like A Leaf


November 25.2020 

It's the day before Thanksgiving. I haven't been here in a hundred years. So much has happened to our country in the past few months (longer, four years, four hundred years!) - between the overwhelming noise and my own quietness, I've been at my smooth black desk teaching my college students online, with a clutter of pens and notepads, Frida Kahlo with her unwavering stare, the view out my window to the small, lovely front porch. I see red chairs and plants and always fat squirrels tearing at my Tibetan prayer flags. They succeeded in getting a long stretch of flags off the tacks and pulled them, like a kite tail, up a nearby pine tree.





Different cloth masks hang along with car keys on the hooks by the front door. A photo of my mother in her pink coat, standing in front of pink azaleas, taped to the window frame. The wooden star that reads, Simplify. 

The index card with: Trust yourself. Then you will know how to live. - Goethe. 

In my absence, Blogger has made changes which is part of why I've been absent. I'm rattled by technology and updates. It's not what I've known and I don't know how to navigate it as easily. I've been thinking about changing this whole thing, doing something different, after so many years of Scratching on Paper, formally, This Being Alive. 

I do know that I will continue to write, speak, connect. 

These last few lines from Naomi Shihab Nye's gorgeous poem have become a mantra:

 Walk around feeling like a leaf. 
 Know you could tumble at any second. 
 Then decide what to do with your time. 

 -Naomi Shihab Nye (from The Art of Disappearing)






And this poem by Jared, a seven year old I wrote with years ago.

I am a leaf and I see a big sun.
I see a leaf next to a small cat.
I love the sky.
I love the blue water.
When someone picks me up,
I grow somewhere else.
          - Jared


I am back, and sending you much peace and love. I've missed YOU. 

May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be peaceful.
May you live with ease.
Peace and blessings to you and your family, 
and this sweet beautiful old world.

always.

xo b