Month: September 2025

Don’t Laugh

Ask me my greatest dream.
I will tell you, world peace.

No, I don’t suppose there has
ever been a time when 
love and justice fully ruled;  
just pockets of places,
people gathered together 
to make goodness happen.

Peace, peace isn’t scattered,
it must be sown, tilled into
the very ground of our being.
So much work to be done.
Sounds scriptural, doesn’t it;
We must be the seeds and  
sowers, reaping the fruit 
of our labors together.

Peace-making requires wisdom,
collaboration, empowerment, 
kindness, compassion;
just forces of change

We need one another.

Line in the Sand

Birthed in the waters of the Atlantic,
like my mother and grandmother
before me; a girl child, wet braids,
skirted bathing suit,
ankle deep in foaming surf,
discovering the pull
of the undertow before
taking that first dive.
Where did you discover freedom?

Observe me glide deeper
into the ocean,
treading waters,
waiting for the crest
of a perfect wave,
the rush to rise up,
plunge deep, ride to shore,
arms outstretched,
self emerging triumphant,
baptized again with the spirit of joy.
Where did you learn to read
the waves that wash over your life?

Now imagine teen youth,
stepping from familiar tidal
waters, a cooling breeze
brushing my body.
I chill when I recall
machines shoveling landmass
into an end-of-beach channel,
plans to connect two islands.
Dunes and sea oats vanished,
no more games of hide and seek,
no sea creatures playing
around my feet at low tide;
parcels of my paradise
marked “no trespassing”.
Where did you first discover
a line drawn in the sand?


Journal Inspirations

W. Szymborska  
“I prefer 
…oaks along the river
…Dickens to Dostoyevsky
…exceptions
…the color green
…I prefer to leave early
…desk drawers
…to knock on wood.”

***

I prefer  kindness 
to brutal honesty,
banjo to mandolin, 
casual living, 
harmony to discord,
a landscape that transforms
each season into its 
own  realm of glory; 
purple ink, simplicity, 
the written word

Rick Hanson writes that
having faith, a visceral
conviction,  means
not having to figure
things out from 
scratch every time.
”Have faith in the best
parts of yourself.”

I believe in finding 
goodness in chaos,
that love is empowering,
truth really is the way, 
it only takes one light…
laughter is life-giving
and writing is essential
to my good health.