Small Stones Saturday

Craven Image
There is no courage
in saying you believe something
if everyone else approves.
...

There is no bravery
in going along with trending values
and standing where there is no real risk.
But what if there is risk on both sides?

What if you know, if you speak
there will be some who approve
and some who will not, either way.
Then you discover what true values are,
things you will fight for no matter what.
It is then that you know,
how timid the soul truly can be.
And how great and rare
and brave beyond measure
a single voice speaking
is.

A Different Sort of Small Stone...
My three year olds' question.
"Hey Mom? Can I throw a rock?"
(She has rock in hand). ...

All I can say is...
Thank goodness she asked.

Begin Again
Fail fail fail fail
fail fail fail fail
fail fail fail fail...

fail fail spectacularly
and fail again

but...
I will keep trying
until I get it right.

 

Going to the well

It stings to know
the well has been dry
for some time now....
I keep going
and looking in
hoping at some point
when I wasn't looking
it rained.
Every day
is an exercise
in hope against experience
maybe this time
I'll be able
to drink deeply.

I am a writer.
Was it a description? Yes.
A wish? Yes.
A declaration. Yes.
...

But what did it mean
and why?
Why did I want
to take words
and sculpt bone and ice
pain and light?
I wanted to invite others, all others
to run away with me in story
and find the world of my imagination
a place they wanted to stay.
That is why I write,
in hopes of creating that whole universe
that someone else discovers and says,
yes, it is very good.

Being Epic
We all live
for that moment
when we are...
epic, wise, beautiful
and change the world.

What we do not understand
is we change the world
when we go about
the business of living
even if it is tedious and hard
(and it often is),
by not surrendering,
we grow in wisdom,
the struggle is epic,
and our success,
all the beauty the world can bear.

Small Stones Saturday

There is a great and silent beauty
to the night,
to the snow,
to the whole world waking
It's just once we rise...
we forget to see it.

The beauty fades before us
as the heat of our days
melts it away
and so we do not stop
we do not slow
we do not remember
to wonder
And thus the world goes on fasting faster
starving and anxious
hoping someone will stop
and recall
this life was made for beauty.

Filling out a resume
It's been 20 years
since I had a job
the world would pay me for doing.
...

Listing dead places and dusty contacts,
never before have I felt
like I allowed so much time
to pour out
without taking full notice.

Pediatricks
For all her schooling
she really should have known better
than to think a three year old ...
my three year old
would agree to talk to her.
She shut her eyes
sucked her fingers
and declared NO to everything.
So the doctor
couldn't check the boxes.
I could have told her
if she listened
none of my children
ever check the boxes
but it isn't because they couldn't,
it's because they will to won't.
All the way home,
she proves the point
answering everything
she'd been asked
and pleased as possible
that the woman who asked
didn't get the answers.

Overheard at the Barber's shop
When I grew up
I lived near that house
set back against the woods...
down the street.

My sister and I
and eight other kids
learned to ride horses
from the old woman.

She trained for the Olympics
so she wouldn't take money
so my parents gave her
boxes of Scotch.

But the houses got bigger
and the families got smaller
there are fewer horses
and fewer people,
and something besides scotch and horses
has been lost.

Embers or Ashes
I have to wonder
why I write
when friends say...
they won't read
what I've written
for fear they
won't like me
after they've read it.
I have to wonder
do they really like me now,
or am I just far more needy
than even I know...
or worst of all,
both.

Two week Blog Break...

It began unintentionally, because I'm in the midst of graduation/exams/end of school year/first communion/confirmation/normal every day stuff/obligation writings but I'm seeing that this siege on my time is going to continue until the end of next week, so I'm taking a sablogital until June 1st.  Small Stones Saturday will still post, as I've already cut and pasted them into place, as will a link to Small Success Thursday --as I promised to do that to Lisa and Sarah over at Catholicmom.com, but unless something is published (i.e. not by me), I'm taking off from this blog to manage the events of these two weeks.   Thank you for understanding, and I promise to be back, bright and bushytailed and blog-a-liciously funny when I get back.  

Here's a link to Small Success Thursday so you can be part of it even though it's Friday, because we can always count our blessings.