I give thanks for arriving
Safely in a new dawn,
For the gift of eyes
To see the world,
The gift of mind
To feel at home
In my life,
The waves of possibility
Breaking on the shore of dawn,
The harvest of the past
That awaits my hunger,
And all the furtherings
This new day will bring.
-John O’Donohue
◊
I am thankful for today…for today is a new day.
Wishing you a blessed one.
💙
“If you start living for the smallest reasons,
that’s when you know you’re really living.
The smell of rain after a thunderstorm,
the shades of pavements when it’s autumn,
the mediocre midnights and the color of the sunsets,
the warmth of oven when baking Christmas cookies,
the thickness of paper when flipping through magazine pages,
the smell of new books and new clothes and new things.
When you start looking at things,
really really looking,
you’ll start living.
Because then you’ll understand how it is to really be a human…
in this world full of people.”
◊
May we recognize the treasure within the little things.
Wishing you a beautiful day.
💙
A pearl is a beautiful thing
that is produced by an injured life.
It is the tear that results
from the injury of the oyster.
The treasure of our being in this world
is also produced by an injured life.
If we had not been wounded,
if we had not been injured,
…then we will not produce the pearl.
-Stephan Hoeller
◊
May this echo within our being through the uncertain days.
Wishing everyone a safe and tranquil week.
By Barbara Leonhard, Featured Contributor
[Part 2 – Alzheimer’s: Grieving the Loss of My Mother]
I processed grief over Mom’s struggle with Alzheimer’s through poetry writing. The fact that caregivers—such as myself and many other poets—can relieve grief through poetry supports my belief that poetry is both the memoir of and the medicine for the soul. Poetry is a means to storytelling, witnessing the human condition in a personal way. What am I thinking, praying, hoping for? How am I hurting? What has happened to me? How can I understand it? How can I share it? Who will witness my pain?
Poetry provides a creative outlet for the release of pain, for healing. It explores the soul. Reading the poems of others who have gone through similar experiences as mine is reassuring because I realize that I am not alone. I could also share my experiences of loss and grief.
Tendered is this touch that
saves and soothes, comforts and mends–
strength sustained by the pulse of
a heart constrained by its own calling,
the candle within softened by flame,
its waxen tributary a remembrance to
the joys and sorrows, gains and losses
…moments treasured in the care for mankind.
◊
A few lines from Healer…in recognition of the efforts of all the nurses, techs, and everyday caregivers out there.
Thank you for being you.
💙
I shall pass through this world but once.
Any good therefore that I can do or
any kindness that I can show
to any human being,
let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it,
for I shall not pass this way again.
-Étienne de Grellet
◊
May we be a candle in the night…
especially through the dimmer days.
💙
“At such moments I don’t think about all the misery,
but about the beauty that still remains.”
-Anne Frank
◊
Wishing you all a beautiful weekend. 💙
![I'll Be Okay [a poem]](https://i0.wp.com/phoebemd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/pexels-roman-odintsov-4552990.jpg?fit=1200%2C788&ssl=1&resize=40%2C40){kind=small}
