Surprise Mendings

The Poets and Storytellers United prompt to think of "a time you surprised yourself" had me writing a poem (below) about unexpected resilience. We're tougher than we know and, even if broken, possibilities exist. I also thought of a woman I call Flower who two years ago passed away. I still walk by her front yard garden on my way to the local park and envision her bent over, weeding, watering and nurturing the foliage and flowers. She prettied the area with her steady hand and eye for beauty, bringing joy that outlasted her. Here are a few of her blooms and some from other gardens, as well as beach scenes, where we humans, the most multifaceted of beings, love to roam.

   

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH 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 and watch environmental activist, 90-year-old David Suzuki, in an interview.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

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Why Bother?

"There is only one meaning of life: the act of living itself." - Erich Fromm

   

"Why bother in a world that can feel meaningless" is the prompt from Poets and Storytellers United that, along with a brooding sky, inspired my poem. Though we need the gray to get the green and moods shift with the weather, it is better to nurture hope than live with feelings of futility that can sink a life into deep and pointless despair.

     

Cloaked under dark and light stitched together

As rain puddles retreat in this aimless weather

Do I hear laughter or quarrels at the far shore

Cackling gulls, and lost buoys on a beach floor

I look to the sky, brush despair off with prayer

Then toss hopes like confetti to soar in the air

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH 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 and watch environmental activist, 90-year-old David Suzuki, in an interview.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

The In-between Dream

Some dreams are so fantastical I wish I could stay sleeping longer while others scare me awake. Below I describe the latter, a dream I recently had, exactly as it unfolded.

Stressful dreams don't happen often. They can be like poems full of symbolism.

Thoughts ebb and flow like the tide, ponderings in the middle of our before and afters.

Life events linger to sometimes seek resolution during sleep.

My visit to Vancouver amid a heavy rainfall gave fresh perspective. A lovely chandelier sparkled cheerily in the foyer of a hotel.

Trees lining the streets were starting to change colour.

The city bustled. People were out and about unfazed by the rainfall.

Purple balls hung in the sky by the Art Gallery in Vancouver.

The art added colour to the gray day.

Strikers displayed their bright signage, too, in hopes of quick resolution. They are in a bit of a waking bad dream, stuck between wanting to work and wanting fairness.  

Crescent Beach back home was also starting to look like autumn.

I liked the cooler weather ...

and nature's decorations.

Tomatoes snuggled, touched by tiny droplets of occasional sunlight.

The usual suspects were out and about searching for food.

It looked like slim pickings.

Birds groomed before bedding. Perhaps they would have fantastical dreams of their own of catching fish or chasing eagles.

I, however, prefer dreams of flying carefree and wondrously through billowy skies.

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH, and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C. You can link to my B.C. Fairies page HERE.

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

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Artistic Impressions & The Buzz Around Broligarchy

The beach artist reminded me of my Penelope Puddle character, maybe because of her cute hat and the creative carefree vibes she was giving out. Artists do love to come to Crescent Beach for inspiration, especially when weather is warm and people-friendly.

Most were busy sailing, swimming or playing in the sand, drawn to the water on a day when even flowers exuded sunshine. My mind, however, was buzzing around the word broligarchy,  combining "bro" and "oligarchy" to define a small group of mostly men in the tech industry who seek to rule the world. This prompt by Poets and Storytellers United inspired my few lines below:

Their wealth builds like webs upon strands

Broligarchy's grip entwining all of mankind

Eyes on the stars, nouveau rulers of masses

Storm roars in and the sticky weave crashes

At the canvas of our planet sailing the cosmic sea and surrounded by unpredictability, the beach I visited is a lovely work of art that could do with some rain clouds painted into the sky by Mother Nature. Yet the hottest temperature in Canada this summer has not been near me but rather in Lytton, B.C. at 41.3 Celsius. In 2021, Lytton broke a record at 49.6 Celsius, an unlivable 121 Degrees Fahrenheit. Powerful as some are, life, along with its human inventions, is a fragile gift no matter what our status.

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH, and Saturday's Critters.

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C. You can link to my B.C. Fairies page HERE.

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

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The Inner Soar

Summer scenes and my daughter's fairy art remind me it's time to soar whether it's a bird about to fly, a bud about to bloom, a kite about to catch a gust of wind or a life that wants to unfurl. All this, much like a baby's first steps, requires an innate hope in possibilities that can get lost along the way, inspiring my take on the "important steps" prompt by Poets and Storytellers United and the first line of an Emily Dickinson poem.

If hope is a feather, despair is the gale that

flings the thing into sorrow's well where its

quill is a sword that pierces the soul and joy

is a forgotten, ensnared and tuneless chord 

Yet often when thrust into darkness, the mind

in defeat seeks a leap, plucking out the sting to

reclaim the inner flight, it finds the first step in

rising back up is to let in a single gust of light 

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH, and Saturday's Critters.

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C. You can link to my B.C. Fairies page HERE.

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

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Seashells, Stars, Froth & Bubbles

"Life is mostly froth and bubble … two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble and courage in your own." – Princess Diana

   

Various events were happening simultaneously so not all beach goers paid rapt attention to the touch of Hawaiian (or was it Polynesian) culture that recently graced our Crescent Beach shores in southwest British Columbia.

A blow into a seashell and the dancers started to sway.

Young women twirled effortlessly to the music, their bare feet sinking into the sand.

There was symbolism in every move. You can learn more about the hula dance HERE.

The up and coming littlest performer looked on. Soon it would be her turn.

It takes a bit of courage to dance like no one is watching and perhaps even more so when attention is desired and/or anticipated.

The beach, like life, is a stage of "frothy bubbles" where one never knows what to expect. Sometimes gifts of kindness catch us by surprise in these cruel historic times and sometimes, when we turn our gaze from things distant, treasures await nearby.

 

In one of my daughter's B.C. Fairies drawings that I recently refreshed for fun, Muriel didn't find the shell she might have wished for but she did discover what appeared to be a very good omen in the form of a beached star, inspiring my few words below:

I sought a seashell once of many hues

to hear sounds of angels in the hollow

but roar of rancor echoed out that lair,

as sweetly and discreetly, by my hand

for easy grasp, a star from heaven fell. 

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH, and Saturday's Critters.

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C. You can link to my B.C. Fairies page HERE.

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

Read more