Yesterday, I commented we were beginning to bring good-byes forward. There are students leaving and beginning a new part of their journey. Tears were beginning to show up as these young adults have built such healthy and positive relationships with each other. It is easier and more cleansing to let the tears flow than to be angry.
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It’s better …
clouds are free
The other day compassion was free. Today, we have free clouds. Do I ever stop and wonder what is free in my life that I take for granted?
and there are days after days when
this gritty world holds so liitle appeal
…to be anyplace, but where i stand
in submerged pain when this history
so swift a snare, in its bear claw trap
jailed in recall…in tragic rerun memory
i tire of these arms, these familiar legs
so weary of this face i already know
and a name, i never asked to own
where do i find this release
where is that, wipe my slate clean
and this shapeless anonymity i need?
it’s weightless that i want to be
to catch a current…to float without fear
follow any breeze because clouds are free
…these clouds i crave
……to be in them
……….to be through them
……………to be of them
to be recognized one minute
and so simply gone the next,
with neither pain nor regret
because it’s weightless, that i want to be
to…
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Petals
This is a soft, quiet poem to begin the day. The poet, Ronnie, has not been very active. This was one of the first blogs that followed mine and I followed this one. I always look forward to the poems.
Compassion Costs Nothing
Here is a wonderful message to begin the day.

Compassion is free. To have empathy, sympathy or understanding for someone else’s plight costs you nothing but it may be invaluable to them. We all need a helping hand, kind word or helpful advice from time to time. Doesn’t it mean the world to you when someone spreads a little cheer during those times when you feel down and out? Be freely compassionate to someone whenever given the opportunity because, you never know when your own time of sorrow will come.
At the touch of love
This is a wonderful image and quote from Plato. We each become a poet when we touch the world with love.
The Hokey Pokey Shakespearean Style
This is a humouous way to begin the week. Who would have thought that William Shakespeare had a wicked sense of humour?
Absorbed
The poem and picture make me just want to sit still for a few minutes longer. Have a great Saturday.
Handle a book as a bee does a flower
Reading and writing still hold special places in my heart. I enjoy reading poetry, writing it, and finding time to just be with a book immersed in the wonder of interpreting meaning, drawing the sweetness from it.
Hug
What a wonderful thought to begin the day and it soars in this tanka. When we have a child’s mind or, as Shunyu Suzuki suggested, the beginner’s mind we see the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Hug the innocence
let your soul soar like a child’s
and be open to
astounding revelations
of unconditional love.
Long Live the Weeds
Theodore Roethke wrote this poem that echoes the writing of Shunryu Suzuki, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Thomas Merton. Frequently, I forget the need for weeds. They add to the richness of the garden I call my life. Roethke said it so eloquently: “These shape the creature that is I”. The good and the not-so-good of life help shape me.
Today, I talked with students about a need for resiliency, so when we run into those bumps along the road of life or find weeds in life’s garden, we realize they are there to make us a fuller and richer person. Often, when I look back, I see the beauty of something that I felt was harmful when it happened. Perhaps, I was just not ready for what I thought I wanted, needed to be patient, and wait my turn. Or I was not ready to fully understand what needed to learn and needed to mature.
Long live the weeds that overwhelm
My narrow vegetable realm!–
The bitter rock, the barren soil
That force the son of man to toil;
All things unholy, marked by curse,
The ugly of the universe.
The rough, the wicked, the wild
That keep the spirit undefiled.
With these I match my wit
And earn the right to stand or sit,
Hope, look, create, or drink and die:
These shape the creature that is I.






