By Cliff Eshom | Featured Contributor
Can blessings of life truly be free?
Sunshine, flowers, the shade of a tree.
Finding true love, is one of the keys.
Listening to ads, they’re only a tease,
tempting your flesh falsely to please
a portrait of life, seek only of ease.
By Pavneet Kaur | Featured Contributor
Smiling is the best exercise
for your body and soul
Smile to add warmth to relations
Smile to build trust
Smile to motivate
Smile to gather strength
Smile in the hope of better times
I am flawed. Those who have read some of my earlier scribbles have seen the somewhat self-critical lens through which I view myself. Despite this, a new year is just upon us, which, like every new day, offers a chance for us to adjust whatever it is we feel we need to adjust…whether it is our daily habits or our perspective on life.
Therefore, Puppydoc would like to share with you a few things about herself by presenting her three big goals for the New Year:
♥ To LIVE more.
Prioritizing her professional and academic endeavors over the past decade has somewhat come at a price for Puppydoc, who feels that she has missed out on life in general as well as many of the people in it. Therefore, she would like to do things differently this year by more fully treasuring what she already has…her dear family and friends…and by putting them first.
♥ To LAUGH more.
Medicine, while it has given her many precious memories, has formed in her a sort of a somber outlook on life, where all she sees is suffering around her. Coupled with an impression that she is rather powerless to really make a difference, she ends up bearing a lingering guilt for not being able to do more for others. For this, Puppydoc will take a dose of what has traditionally been considered the best medicine–laughter–and just try to loosen up a bit.
♥ To LOVE more.
For most of her life, Puppydoc has guarded her heart closely, almost afraid to feel…experience…embrace that nebulous realm called love. Fearing vulnerability, she has attached herself to the position of caregiver in both her professional and personal life, always caring for others while within remained a daydreaming girl aching to be cared for. But now is the time for her to start taking down the walls surrounding her. And who knows what may happen…
•
Thank you, dear Liz, for prompting me to think about my goals and to write this post. You are an inspiration to all!
Wishing everyone a lovely week and a wonderful start to the New Year.
Love,
Puppydoc
Frosted stars
proclaimed by breeze,
a dance of farewell
before their queen.
Revealed by moon’s
glow in misted eyes
a wish reflected.
A longing…seeking
to be found.
Thread of secrets,
thrum of time,
silvered braids upon
wounded soul.
A queen
before her horizon
heeds the echoed promise
of a rising sun.
She smiles.
•
Fervid waters of a love unborn
stir shadows in a twilight dance.
Cheek flushed beneath a nectared kiss,
heart ravished with singular glance.
Repose her upon the horizon pure
over blooms of lavender sheen
to be searched beneath an open sky
as she descends into oblivion serene.
•
Within arid depths of a land below
abides the humble village of l’Ambaro.
A world where clothing is prized but threadbare;
a world where meals are luxuries proved rare.
A world where days with famine are fraught;
a world the remaining earth long forgot.
But this is a place where
pure are the hearts,
simple are the joys,
the love of each part.
Where drums hum daily
their languid song,
enchanting the children
all the day long.
Where families dance into
the hallowed night,
merriment echoing
under faint moonlight.
Where sand curls freely
about their feet,
naked, synchronized,
stomped to each beat.
Until finally twilight
snatches the hills,
descending upon them
a shuddering chill.
Then filled with cheer
they part by the number
into their huts to
unite in deep slumber.
This is the place the world left behind–
a place that will always be in the back of my mind.
• • •
My host village of Ambaro, Southern Madagascar
