Up on Top

Photo credit: penywise from morguefile.com

After stumbling a long time over impossible trails

you are up on top.

Hardship didn't crush you, you trod it

down, climbed higher.

That's how you see it. After life has tossed you

away, and you ended up on top

like a one-legged wooden horse on a dump.

Life is merciful, it blinds and provides illusions,

and destiny takes on our burden:

foolishness and arrogance become mountains and marshy places,

hate and resentment become wounds from enemy arrows,

and the doubt always with us becomes cold dry

rocky valleys.

You go in the door.

The pot lies upside down in the hearth,

it sprawls with hostile black feet.

~ Olav H. Hauge

_________________________________________________

Life's not always fair. Sometimes you can get a splinter even sliding down a rainbow. 

~ Terri Guillemets

Up on Top

Photo credit: penywise from morguefile.com

After stumbling a long time over impossible trails

you are up on top.

Hardship didn't crush you, you trod it

down, climbed higher.

That's how you see it. After life has tossed you

away, and you ended up on top

like a one-legged wooden horse on a dump.

Life is merciful, it blinds and provides illusions,

and destiny takes on our burden:

foolishness and arrogance become mountains and marshy places,

hate and resentment become wounds from enemy arrows,

and the doubt always with us becomes cold dry

rocky valleys.

You go in the door.

The pot lies upside down in the hearth,

it sprawls with hostile black feet.

~ Olav H. Hauge

_________________________________________________

Life's not always fair. Sometimes you can get a splinter even sliding down a rainbow. 

~ Terri Guillemets

What I Learned from My Mother

Photo credit: lisafanucchi from morguefile.com

I learned from my mother how to love

the living, to have plenty of vases on hand

in case you have to rush to the hospital

with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants

still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars

large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole

grieving household, to cube home-canned pears

and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins

and flick out the sexual seeds with a knife point.

I learned to attend viewings even if I didn’t know

the deceased, to press the moist hands

of the living, to look in their eyes and offer

sympathy, as though I understood loss even then.

I learned that whatever we say means nothing,

what anyone will remember is that we came.

I learned to believe I had to power to ease

awful pains materially like an angel.

Like a doctor, I learned to create

from another’s suffering my own usefulness, and once

you know how to do this, you can never refuse.

To every house you enter, you must offer

healing: a chocolate cake you baked yourself,

the blessing of your voice, your chaste touch.

~ Julia Kasdorf

________________________________________________

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.

~ Terri Guillemets

What I Learned from My Mother

Photo credit: lisafanucchi from morguefile.com

I learned from my mother how to love

the living, to have plenty of vases on hand

in case you have to rush to the hospital

with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants

still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars

large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole

grieving household, to cube home-canned pears

and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins

and flick out the sexual seeds with a knife point.

I learned to attend viewings even if I didn’t know

the deceased, to press the moist hands

of the living, to look in their eyes and offer

sympathy, as though I understood loss even then.

I learned that whatever we say means nothing,

what anyone will remember is that we came.

I learned to believe I had to power to ease

awful pains materially like an angel.

Like a doctor, I learned to create

from another’s suffering my own usefulness, and once

you know how to do this, you can never refuse.

To every house you enter, you must offer

healing: a chocolate cake you baked yourself,

the blessing of your voice, your chaste touch.

~ Julia Kasdorf

________________________________________________

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.

~ Terri Guillemets