Angels & Demons

Looking for blue to peek through the hazy skies lately. Along my way I've been thinking about the Ukrainian girl who traveled to America for safety and ended up dead due to a stranger's violent psychotic act. Angels sent her from her homeland believing in safer outcomes but something demonic found her regardless. And tragically no angels helped the mother calling/pleading for help for her mentally ill son before he became a killer. I have no explanation why bad things happen to innocent people, just a poem that ponders the coexistence of good and evil, each causing random ripple effects from which we cannot detach.

   

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HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

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Madly Divine

New Year's Day was divine. A remarkable light crept across the mountaintops and I could almost dissolve into the gray mist as I walked along the Crescent Beach shore. It was a good start for me but not for some others. Japan had an earthquake. How cruel that rescuers were killed but also fortunate that people in the plane that struck them were mostly unscathed. Wars dragged on and although a page-turn of a calendar doesn't change much, I'm usually surprised and briefly disappointed by that fact. Sometimes what seems like a beginning is simply a continuation.

Although I like to think that one day humankind will solve its problems wisely to the benefit of all, it might not be in my lifetime. The Poets and Storytellers United prompt "beginnings" fit the conflicting nature of my mood at the start of 2024. Amid worldly trauma, there is still much beauty and, if we're lucky, life to enjoy.

I took my cues from a photographer focusing on the magic of the moment and a swimmer braving the chilly waters. No, I didn't dive in but the butterfly tattoo on her arm brought to mind a refreshed appreciation for Carl Sagan's words: "We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever."

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BUTTERFLY BY JON BATISTE

Postscript Jan. 7th: I dedicate this post to 33-year-old poet, Maksym Kryvtsov, killed in action this New Year, a soldier defending Ukraine from Russia's invasion.

Time Affects All Things

What was my inner world before I had words? Did I intuit the portal from which I came or like most creatures was my immediate focus solely on hunger. Was I sensing the hot and cold of nearby movements, scanning close faces for kindness, indifference, cruelty ... all words I did not yet know but would come to feel. Was I waiting without knowing for friendly arms to pick me up and toss me into the air. Would I hear laughter at the sheer joy of my arrival, have innate faith in happiness, sense safety but not know much of anything really until, amid all the gifts, I was deprived of some small, then big, thing. That is when step-by-baby-steps life became real. I realized personal powers, saw crushing defeats and found time was not always kind. The Poets and Storytellers United prompt "time affects all things" has me reflecting that as years go by, time stamps its wounds on all life but it also revives. So even when I enter that last gate, I trust in the timeless wonder of a child to survive.

The top photo was the first ever taken of me. The others are recent shots at Crescent Beach in B.C. where one household in particular shows support for Ukraine. 

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Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

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HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

Love Letter To Wildflowers

Due to climate extremes, famine, wars, political upheaval and inept or brutal radical leaders, people from all walks of life seek better conditions. Like my parents long ago, they want a peaceful purposeful existence. I was born in Canada but my earlier roots originated elsewhere as is the case for much of humanity. The Poets and Storytellers prompt "love letters to wildflowers" made me think of the immigrants that throughout time were viewed more as weeds than adventurous flourishing flowers, often enduring hardships to arrive, then thrive, in new soil. Since spring is in the air, I also thought of the early bloomers in and around Crescent Beach, remembering to look skyward.

       

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United and SKYWATCH. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

In The Face Of Disaster

People and places evoke sweet, sometimes bittersweet recollections. The poem is to my Ukrainian Canadian mom who long ago passed away. Her memory was made more poignant recently by the disaster that struck her homeland. The Poets and Storytellers prompt "in the face of disaster" got me thinking that a key to winning a fight you know is right is the belief that justice overcomes. When the battle is darkest, support of all sorts are like "teddy bears" amid chaos. Alongside bullets and blankets, some send cash, if they've any to spare, or prayers through time and space and light candles. 

We are now into the second year of this current catastrophic struggle where many have died. However, the second candle, unrelated to Ukraine, is for a writer I just now discovered at dVerse Poets has passed away and whom I want to acknowledge. 

     

Meanwhile, in my world, Frosty seemed a bit weary of the on again off again snow.

Crescent Beach beckoned as I've not taken walks there for a while. I'm both excited and hesitant about returning to the place where I fell. Until I do, I have hundreds of old photos to look at. Here's one at high tide taken I think near this time of year.

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Shadow Shot Sunday. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

Poetic Injustice & Scary Seasons

"Evil doesn't sleep, it waits. And in the moment of our complacency, it blinds us." Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Do you ever get as angry as the character above looks when thinking of gobal affairs? In keeping with the Halloween season and Storytellers' prompt "scary quotes", I recalled a line from "The Rings of Power" and how it resonates regarding Putin playing his neighbors for decades forming dependencies, showing his "friendlier" side, while all the while intending to invade Ukraine which must fight-on bravely for its independence.

There's also the climate crisis and a lack of rain we've been experiencing in my area. People have enjoyed the sun but vegetation needs the drops that started to fall just this morning. The heron sculptures were free of concern, even about potential rust. 

The ducks floated calmly in circles on the ocean.

A log rested on the shore like an abandoned whale's tail.

Seahorses swayed ever-so-slightly in the mild breeze, leftovers from a great vacation.

It's been a while since my husband and I sought to pretend being scary in our truly beautiful but dangerous world. Check out some spooky Halloween costumes HERE.

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United and Saturday's Critters. Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

From Sea To Shining Sea

Canada covers a vast territory from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. Some take time to explore the entire breadth of the country to fully experience the diverse landscapes. Others take quick flights over what is the second largest country on the planet. Russia has the world's largest land mass but wants more. Almost twice the size of Canada, Russia's brutal regime nonetheless covets Ukraine, homeland of my parents.

People come from all parts of the globe to Canada in search of a peaceful existence.

Whether settling by the sea, alongside mountains or in the prairies ...

they arrive with hope in their hearts and a sense of adventure mixed with trepidation.

   

Despite the challenges and room for improvements, I am thankful to have been born in Canada, a land that enjoys freedoms and rights not afforded to all citizens of the world.

As I celebrate my luck on Canada Day, a few simple words reminded me that fortunes are not set in stone and can change, in unforeseen ways, conceivably for the better.

Hope flickers brightest in the darker hours, despite existential threats to world peace.

Explore more at SKYWATCH and check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT