Tag: poetry

Soul Sunday

******Dear Friends and Readers, I have an announcement to make. I am no longer going to be blogging on a daily basis. I have some fun, new personal projects going on, which are currently taking up a lot of my time and my attention. I made a vow when I embarked on our empty nest, to never have, nor make any relationships based on fear, obligation or guilt. And lately, bloggling on a daily basis has felt more like an obligation, and that has never been the spirit of the blog. I always want my writing to be done out of feelings: as an urgent need, or a deep joy, or an enticing pulling. At this time, I still plan to keep the blog open, so that I can make an occasional post here or there. I want to thank you all for your dedication to reading Adulting Second-Half and for your precious time and for your attention. Thank you for taking this journey with me, from the very beginning (summer of 2018!), or somewhere along the way. Thank you for your kindness and your validation and your thoughtful comments. Thank you from the deepest wells of my heart. Thank you for helping me to grow and for being a witness to my growth. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sundays are devoted to poetry. Today’s poem by Mary Oliver is one of the best poems I have ever read:

Wild Geese | Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2996. What do you think people undervalue today?

Soul Sunday

Good morning!! Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit Have a happy last third of the year! I’ve really enjoyed 2024 so far. Have you? I had a delicious morning of rest and respite that I really needed. I wish for you, exactly what you need this holiday weekend.

Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog. Here is my poem for today:

There’s a game I play,

where you try to fill an empty space

with dropping fruits, coming from the sky.

The big fruits, are huge and exciting,

but they take up space quickly.

Leaving a lot of blank empty space around,

Only a few rare large fruits of plentifulness

The tiny beautiful berries that drop from above

Make room for more and more and more fruit,

Efficiently filling the space with as many tiny driblets of joy

That can be squeezed into where they are being dropped,

Leaving no empty space for anything but colorful fruits of joy.

Perhaps it really is the little joys that fill us up to fullness,

A constant trickle of happiness is true and renewable satiation.

Whereas when we rely only on the big harvests of happiness,

We leave a lot of empty space to be filled with sorrow and fear.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

999. How often do you self-reflect? (um, like always)

Soul Sunday

Welcome to poetry day on the blog. Jorge Borges was a famous Argentinian writer and poet. This is what he said about why poetry is important in an interview:

Tell me, does this poem below move you? It was written by the American poet, Laura Gilpin (who only wrote one prize winning book of poetry, until she became a nurse, and a hospital reform advocate and she worked in medicine for the rest of her life). If this poem (or any other) moves you, “it is not an insignificant event.” A poem is a tiny little gathering of words, which has the ability to evoke deep emotion and poignant energy which reminds us about just how alive we are in our own bodies, not just by the way of our senses and our mind’s perceptions of our senses, but from the sentimental longings of our own hearts.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

662. Have you ever been in a submarine?

Soul Sunday

Hi friends. Sorry to be MIA this weekend. I find myself distracted with researching a new project. I’ll be back in full form tomorrow. Perhaps on this Sunday (Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog) we should play around with haikus. Haikus are three-line poems with one line of five syllables, the next line having seven syllables and the final line having five syllables. Here is a good one:

I am distracted

Writing is good for my soul

So I will be back

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

1355. What is your favorite part of the weekend?

Soul Sunday

Good morning. Welcome to poetry day on the blog. This past week our middle son and his longtime girlfriend and our granddog, Otis have been visiting, which means we have gotten even more bonus visits with our youngest son and his girlfriend, who live in our town. We are picking up our daughter tonight from her summer away, where she was studying abroad. I can’t wait to bring her home. My heart is full. I’m happy that we are a “place” which our adult children still want to come to restore themselves. I found this poem in a blog that suggested that we all could change our own personal stanzas to this poem which so aptly says, “I am from those moments.”

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2179. Which part of democracy do you not agree with?

Soul Sunday

Good morning. It is a strangely lovely day here. We have steady rain, but not the fearsome winds, and angry noises that sometimes come with late summer storms in Florida. It feels cleansing and like a reset, like a “cooling off” period. Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog. Here is my poem that I wrote this morning (write a poem today. Poems can often be an emotional cleanse or a cooling off period for our souls.):

When I have considered what I have given birth to in my life:

My children, my devotion to my lover, my writing and insights,

My experiences planned and unplanned, my habits and choices,

The places and animals who I claim as my safest rest spaces,

My depths dared to be shared with my dearest friends,

My curious exploration of my connection to the natural world and beyond,

These are my life, my world, my heart, my loves, my history, my offerings . . .

I am so deeply grateful to be part of the wild nobility of womankind,

For we unabashedly give brave birth to every facet of the whole of life,

And we bear the beauty, mystery, sufferings, joy and awe of everything which we’ve brought forth,

With a solemn strength and sacrifice which comes with our dignified vow,

To open our hearts to be the willing vessels of co-creation with the divine.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2918. Have you ever written a love letter?

Soul Sunday

Good morning. I’m a little late with today’s post because I got waylaid on this website:

https://www.teamusa.com/athletes

I was lead there when reading an article about the sport, “breaking”. (some of us oldies may remember this as “breakdancing”. Its name has been shortened to “breaking” IYKYK) Anyway, that site listed above, gives a list of all of the sports being represented at the Olympics, and all of our American athletes competing in those sports. Athletes perform beautiful poetry with their bodies, don’t they?

Back to poetry with words, as Sunday is devoted to poetry on the blog: Recently, I was reintroduced to the poetry of Nikita Gill. Nikita Gill is a living poet and she stirs up words into pure poetic magic. Here is a taste of one of her poems:

May today be a poetic day for all of us. What makes life poetic? One of the definitions in the dictionary of poetry is this: “a quality of beauty and intensity of emotion.” Don’t be afraid of your intensity of emotion. Use it to make poetry in your life. Find an outlet for your intensity of emotions. Our Olympians use that intensity to make magic with their bodies. Poets use that intensity to write their words. Artists use that intensity to create tangible beauty. Your intensity and beauty needs an outlet. Find that outlet for your own unique beauty and intensity of emotion, to uplift yourself, and thus, all of the world we share.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2508. Do you think morals are universal, or relative?

Soul Sunday

Good morning. Welcome to poetry day on the blog. This is the poem to soak in and to feel and to live today, and onwards forever. Walt Whitman speaks of the confidence and the unconditional love we need to have for ourselves. There is no other way to peace. Sit content in this poetry. Sit content in yourself.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

439. Whom do you trust the most in your life?

Soul Sunday

Good morning. Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog. Below is the poem which I wrote for today. Write your own poem today. Poems are secret messages from your soul.

When?

When will the world stop its tantrum of anger and fear?

When will the world settle into the stillness that’s here?

When will the world turn to the wisdom of the heart?

When will the world lean into intuition’s level of “smart”?

When will the world stop creating its own pain?

When will the world start behaving like it’s sane?

When I stop my tantrum of anger and fear,

When I settle into the stillness that’s here,

When I turn to the wisdom of my heart,

When I lean into my intuition’s level of “smart”,

When I stop creating my own pain,

I help the world turn “insane” to sane.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

1869. Where is the most magical place on earth, in your opinion?

Soul Sunday

When I was in London, my friend who is an English teacher and a fellow writer, sent me this Instagram video about the Poetry Pharmacy. The Poetry Pharmacy is located on an upper floor of the flagship LUSH store in London. Of course, right after my friend sent me this video, I was on a mission to go there. And I got there within mere hours of her sending the video!

Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog. I got three “prescriptions” from the Poetry Pharmacy in London. Let’s see what “medicine” they have to offer all of us today:

From the Be Original pill bottle which has only one hot pink pill in a sea of white pills, the hot pink pill held this:

“Let it hurt. Let it bleed. Let it heal. And let it go.” – Nikita Gill

From the For Mothers pill bottle which is filled with red, pink and white pills, today’s pill had this to offer:

“This is a fifty-year-old love. It’s heavy, so I fold in moonlight, the sound/ of water spattered on leaves. Dim stars, bright moon-/our lives. The cake imperfect, but finished.” – Eva Saulitis

The pill from a pile of brightly colored pile of “pills” from the Happy Pills bottle offers us this:

“Suddenly I realize That if I stepped out of my body I would break into blossom.” – James Wright

Words are like anything else. They can be used for good or they can be made into weapons of evil. Words can certainly make for good medicine. Poetry is the formula for making words, the ethereal agents of our own healing.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

1886. Have you found the purpose of your life?