Questioning the Moon

Peeking through the cloud cover

Witnessing life on earth

Earth’s faithful companion

Orbiting through space

Were you there, Sister Moon

When life first formed?

Did you watch as the first creature

Crawled slowly from the sea?

In your ever-lasting cycle,

in your orbit around our world

Did you witness the dinosaurs

As they prowled the hills and plains?

Did your winking face gaze down upon

The planet and can you tell us why

All life on earth was wiped out

As cold air masses froze the land?

Oh, ancient wonder in the sky

What drama have you witnessed

What stories could you tell

Of all the changes

On this, our blue-green planet

That you follow faithfully

Sister Moon, do tell us

Advise us if you can

On how to save the planet

This jewel of blue and green

That humans have made obscene

Garbage in our oceans

Choking off all life

Pollution on all fronts:

Land and sea, and sky

Oh, beauty of the night

Tell us if you please

How can we save our planet?

Our home, our heart, our life force

For we need your wisdom

We are lost, we have forsaken

The knowledge of our forebears

Remind us now

How fragile

Life truly is

And let us find better ways

To live upon this miracle

The mosquito difference

Muddled thoughts and emotions; Stress and simplicity; Broken records; Up and down; Inside and outside. So, what is this all about? I am not sure yet, I am working my way through a maze that seems unsolvable. Do you ever have days like this? Where your thoughts don’t seem to have any clear path and are blown around like tumbleweed? Yeah. That’s me at the moment. Clarity is a wonderful thing, once you get it. But isn’t life just a fog of confusion at times? And that’s okay. We don’t have to have the answers. We are not responsible for every single thing in the universe. Like the plastic that is floating en masse in the oceans; like climate change, some things are just beyond our individual control.

Having said that I do believe that as individuals we can make a difference. And all those small changes in our individual lifestyles can and will change the world. A smile can make a difference. Taking a reusable bag to the grocery store can make a difference. Manners can make a difference. How we treat one another, our ways of being do make a difference. My thoughts are still somewhat muddled, but I do know this much: What we say and do matters – a lot! I hope today to make a positive difference in some small way – for each small positive difference has a ripple effect. May today bring a torrential downpour of small positive differences – a veritable tsunami of kindnesses to this world.

“Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room.” – Christine Todd Whitman

My mother’s wisdom: Walk a mile in their shoes

When I was a child whenever I would come home from school with stories about my fellow students that were judgmental or harsh my mother would remind me to “walk a mile in their shoes”. Good advice I still try to live by, but it is not easy sometimes. It takes a lot of imagination to put yourself in the shoes of another. And sometimes I just cannot seem to get there. Still, it’s good to try and if I cannot succeed entirely I can at least remove the judge’s robes I sometimes don. After all nobody likes being judged. I know I don’t. Yet we all do it. We can only view life through our own lens of perception – and at times our perception is way off base. It’s like the lens through which we are peering are faulty or completely scratched, cracked, or broken, making our viewpoint narrow, or, at worst, skewered completely. At times like these it’s good to ask the other person to help us understand.

I may not agree with a viewpoint that is the polar opposite of my own, but I hope I will be respectful enough to realize that I may be wrong. It is differences that make our world so varied and so interesting. And so I endeavor to celebrate all the differences, all the viewpoints, all the challenges that help me grow as a person.

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” – Audre Lorde

Pearls of Wisdom: the uselessness of worry

I have been blessed to know many different people in my life, and they each imparted a pearl of wisdom that has contributed to my health and happiness. One such pearl is the knowledge that worry and anxiety create stress, which releases toxins into the body. Over time these toxins can break down the immune system and cause serious illness. This is why it is so important to avoid worry. In today’s world much has been written about the importance of positive thinking and the interrelation between mind, body, and spirit. What affects one will affect them all. So guard your thoughts. Don’t let worry consume you. As the adage says: “Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere”.

A mantra that I particularly like is “this, too, shall pass”. And no matter what it is, nothing lasts forever, be it good times or bad times. I wish you well. I wish you many blessings and the ability to recognize them when they arrive.