take a bite

sharply pierce the rind
gently ease the zest
from the membrane.

stab it open
feel the sting, the spray,
the cutting scent.

if sweet or sour,
it's yours to discover,
but a bite is required.

share it
with me
entirely.
  

I am reading The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz.  If you have read it, please share your reaction.  If you have not, there are four codes of conduct explored.  Stemming from ancient Mexico's Toltec teachings they are:  Always do your best, Don't take anything personally, Don't make assumptions, Be impeccable with your word.

have a fruitful day, Dianne

pathfinding

How long does it take to find a path to travel?


1) Pick a destination: forward.

2) Obtain a roadmap: experiences vs. unknowns.

3) Choose routes: 70 mph?, Yosemite and Grand Canyon?, visits to kindergarten buddy and sisters?, downhill and straight highways?, rocky, wet, overgrown, unmaintained? known roads and pre-mapped courses?

4) Organize gear: money, map, car, bike, foot, phone, bedding, food, water, friend.

5) Take action: take a step.

…….. 1)  Choose a Destination:
                                                                          now

Photo: J.T.Giese

fire and ice

Fire and ice

don't mix you say?

I've met fire

with icy frost.

But this time they're merging...

when an iceberg is melting.

You can't see 90% of

the ice below water's surface.

Melt the tip

a bit at a time...

and the surface area
in view grows flatter.
Easier to stand upon
with surer footing.

I doubt we have enough
fuel to melt it all down,

but the steam is flowing

becoming droplets to the sea.
And the sea is infinitely
vast enough to carry
our tears away...



I face my birthday tomorrow with hope and trepidation, as a new life lies ahead, one moment at a time.

what is the stuff all about?

“A room is not a person,”

said the voice.

Opening the door to find no one there,

but

the room was filled
with photographs of
faces, quilts and crocheted afghans,
boxes of clean books about cooking,
clothes bursting from the closet,

closing the door against the effort
of the crooked frame
and the stuck handle

decidedly,

the voice was right.

First Rain

-

-
During the night it woke me, drip drip dripping

like a clock, like a tear, a spreading puddle
changing all my plans into soggy sponges.

But during my 9:00 A.M. race through the hills
to the fields of soccer games,

the blinding ochre and straw hills
shot out wet and gleaming
patches of sun in the spaces of sky.

before the earth warmed,
before the air dried.

Tangible breaths of the invisible
rain-soaked air awakened a thirst
I did not know I had:

charged by the smell of the wet ground,
damp dust, and growth
wicking a sip for the first time.
-
-All rights reserved

Rain is good, but sometimes...

Summer began after long drives through passes
glistening with new grass, after she withered and writhed away from me.
I re-learned to dance in the sun, drenched with sweat from the light-play through leaves,
unstoppable, in a little excess.

Anticipation of the forced end
of summer walks, morning rides, and evening jogs,
keeps me in bed, nowhere to go, no dry path ahead.
With a little attitude, a little rain or not.

This winter cold makes me feel old,
and stuck in the bed, while a light rain is taking hold
of the pounding ache in my head.
A little cold, a little rain or not.

It’s reverberation is impossible to ignore.
To move would be to give up
the pelting percussion outside my French doors.
A little rain never stopped anyone.

Before the rush, the arguing
over the line to the bathroom,
and the news blaring one notch below the rhetoric,
Oh to hear a little rain a little longer.

So here, halting the day, hidden away, without a contingency, without an elixir,
Without the mix of light in the expanse,
A little bit away a little while longer,
A little rain never stopped anyone.

(Epilogue:
So if you reach out and I reply with a long furtive hug,
or if I only heard the question the third time,
while looking past you to the grey curtain, remind me,
A little rain never stopped anyone.)

-
-
(from a dark day 1 year ago, now I love the rain, the changes, the clearing of the excess, the new growth of all life sprouting ...see the Haiku to come....)