Light: Handle with Care

We' ll leave a light on for you

Tom Bodett





Light is a funny thing

It can illuminate or blind

It can burn or warm

It is all in how you use it.

When I get a facial (as the years pass that happens a lot more frequently with markedly less results.)

the esthetician puts a huge light on my face for the single purpose of exposing every flaw and problem.

Not my favorite part of the process....

Well meaning but hurtful people can be like that as well.

They are people who race in to your life with a huge spotlight (conveniently turned away from themselves)

declare all the ills they see in you and the rest of the world,

call it tough love

only then to flounce off in a haze of self righteousness thinking "job well done!"

Oh dear....that kind of " light" only leaves people blind and hurt and looking for cover.

But have you also met those who bring that light of warmth and peace and hope that makes others want to grow

That's the good stuff!

So go!

Be a light for someone….be a kind light…a soft light…a light that brings hope, not pain.

Then stand with that person and watch the darkness disappear

for both of you.

And that's poetiquejustis

The Parable of the Wok

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task." ~William James

Day’s end division of labor is easy at our house-

One person does the dishes and the other takes Daisy the Wonder Dog for her final walk of the day.

It was my turn to wash the dishes.

I don’t mind washing dishes- suds and water and bubbles and all that

I was mindlessly scrubbing away, staring out the window at the summer night when I remembered we had used the wok.

Yuk

I do hate cleaning the wok.

I looked around the kitchen

It it had already been washed!

Either by myself while in a self-induced dish-washing trance or by my dear husband

Either way- it was done and I was giddy with joy.

The relief I felt was almost silly over something that small- but it struck me:

If having the wok washed already made me feel that light and free,

what would happen to my soul if I just DID those things I have been putting off out of fear, or just plain laziness.

What would life feel like if I did not have this little army of tasks treading after

me whenever I went

....tasks of my own design that I had set aside until the time was right?

What would happen if I accepted that the time on life's clock is always "now"

So go….do that thing you have been putting off

Write that letter or that book...or that symphony.....or that play!

...send out that resume.....

revive that dream- it is not dead....it simply dozed off while waiting for you

Do whatever it is that you have to do to "get the wok clean" .

And that’s poetiquejustis

Tasting Success

Everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing himself

Leo Tolstoy

Are you sure about that, Mr. T?

Have you taken note of our insatiable appetite for self-help books?

We want books to tell us how to change everything from how to eat to how to make friends and influence people

Don’t get me wrong…..

I love books.

Always have.

As a kid, my fondest memories are sitting up against a tree or lying in the screened in porch all summer with my nose in a book.

Yes….I was the kid with the flashlight under the covers long after “lights out” still reading.

But here is the thing about books.

They are life once removed.

Sometimes, you just have to be brave enough to taste and see to know

If life is sweet

Or sour

Or bitter

Whether we are tasting success

Or failure

It does not matter- what matters is having the courage to live and look for answers

Life will not jump off the pages for you- you have to leap out and find it.

Get bumped and bruised, but live!

If you think you can have found all the answers in a how-to book,

then maybe you need to be a little braver with your questions.

So go….close that newest self help book and leap in to life

And that’s poetiquejustis

Never Let It Go

Sitting on the steps of Madison Garden- a café in Laguna Beach

Waiting for a friend

I like it here...

It is a secret garden in the middle of town,

And, as the traffic whizzes by on Pacific Coast Highway

I sit,

absorbing the sun and what passes for peace in our mechanized world.

The traffic stopped-

mercifully held up at a stoplight a block away.

I could hear them now....

The garden windchimes making music all around me.

It was like a symphony played by angels.

I was amazed at beauty that had been hidden from me only seconds before.

Too soon, the cars blew up the hill in a new rush, and the chimes were lost once more

But now I knew that the music was there-

underneath it all,

underneath the traffic of the streets

and the traffic of my life

there are always windchimes filling the air.

And knowing that makes all the difference

So go….find the melody beneath the noise in your life.

Can you hear it?

Can you hear the melody playing just below the chatter of your everyday life?

Of course you can.

Hum a few bars....

And never let it go

And that’s poetiquejustis.

Walter

Walter and I have a relationship that has been building over the past year.

We would often ride the elevator together,

but usually he would keep his eyes straight ahead

He is quite a bit shorter than me, so I really could

not see his expression- but he seemed pre-occupied- anxious to get out of the building.

It took several months before Walter really even acknowledged my existence on those rides.

He is British and seemed a bit reserved,

So I didn’t press

I gave him his space. I smiled, even told him how nice his coat looked one time

Little by little, he thawed.

A sniff here and a snuffle there- I knew we were starting to communicate.

But today-

Today something very special happened.

Today, Walter stopped, looked at me with those big brown eyes

and put his paw out for me to shake.

I was speechless.

I was thrilled

I was honored.

For a second I had the impulse to curtsy

Walter moved way beyond his comfort zone and reached out to me

It made me want to go and make someone else feel special.

May I shake your hand?

It would be my honor.

So today....reach out

- not in that business sort of way we have to make connections-

Really reach out

Stretch if you have to meet someone more than halfway

If you have drawn tight boundaries around yourself,

you can erase the chalk lines-

If Walter can do it, so can we!

And that’s poetiquejustis.

When you write down your life, every page should contain something that no one has ever heard about.

Elias Canetti

And that is why you have to reinvent the wheel!

Because you are going places the old wheels never dreamed of!

You are going to travel roads that no one else has traveled!

Find things that were made only for you to find!

Do things that only you were created to do!

And you are going to have to invent the wheel that gets you there.

Good News!

You came to this earth with the instructions on how to invent that wheel!

Helen Keller said: Life is either a great adventure or nothing at all.

Go! Invent that wheel that will take you on YOUR adventure,

AND

the road!

It is the only way to get you where you are supposed to be.

And that’s poetiquejustis

But Seriously?

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds.

A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. William James

Why are we so interested in being taken seriously?

What is it about us that is always mentally grabbing for the imaginary podium, or life’s editorial page?

Beauty tip: furrowed brows are not attractive.

Let the laughter begin, and let it begin with me!

I am a constant source of humor to myself- especially when I start to take myself seriously

Get enough letters after your name, and that can happen- until you realize you have once more lost your keys, your battle with that last five pounds, and- worst of all- your sense of humor!

Seriously...you just got to laugh!

Today, everyone you meet will have od’d on bad news before they finished their first cup of coffee thanks to the raging media around us.

They will have heard we are in debt, at war, and at odds with each other.

Trust me- they do not need our being serious.

People are looking for hope, for joy, and for someone who can make them smile.

Today- be the comic relief- be the bright spot.

Be the common sense that knows enough to dance.

Have the courage to not be worried about being taken seriously.

And that' s poetiquejustis

I Want to See Pirate Ships

I had not realized just how dull I had become until my little granddaughter Lauren and I were at the park.

We came across a jungle gym that took up what seemed like a quarter acre

Complete with rope bridges, wheels, sliding boards and ramps.

Bein a practical adult whose mind's eye has been dimmed by the demon practicality

I assessed the best way to get from one end of it to the other without breaking a limb

in the shortest amount of time.

Lauren saw a pirate ship.

Within minutes, I had been shown to my “cabin”

and we were sailing the ocean blue

Firing off our canons, and searching the horizon for other ships.

And to think I could have missed all of that with my from- point-a- to- point -b mindset!

I hear that youth is wasted on the young

I say life is often wasted on grown ups!

I want to see pirate ships in a mess of metal

And fairies on buttercups

Don’t you?

So go….find the magic – it is still waiting for you everywhere

You left- it did not!

And that’s poetiquejustis

Fairy on flower by Marie "Dreamer" Chapa

In Search of the Unexpected

Sometimes, the mind for reasons we don't necessarily understand, just decides to go to the store for a quart of milk.

Diana Froloy and Andrew Schenider , Northern Exposure, Three Doctors, 1993

It is Saturday

Be impetuous

Take the path that leads to where-you-have-not-been

.... that place just around the corner,

.....around the bend

......around the world

.......That place on the other side of your mind.

Go to that place,

that face

you have never seen

It's Saturday!

So go…buy that cosmic quart of milk so you do not have a lifetime of Mondays

wondering why you never did.

And that’s poetiquejustis