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The Tulips
Another poem appears to have written itself. The Tulips The tulips have come up again Carefully sprinkled throughout the yards along the street in clumps of frilly pink. Rows of gentle yellows and creamy whites line the walkways. The vacant lot turned park by a gentleman bachelor is fronted by a vibrant cacophony. Its variety is antagonistic to the guileless lawn it embellishes. With a disparate nature that reflects the push and pull of hungry hearts, Unanswered questions, and an eternal yearning for spring, They stand for a moment. A brief diverting beauty even as their edges curl.
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The Matter of Motives
Living with others, there are hundreds of opportunities daily to be of service to someone else. I was reminded of this recently when I saw my neighbor running awkwardly behind her young son as he bravely joined the world of cycling without training wheels. We peel carrots for lunch bags that aren’t ours. Walk dogs and fill gas tanks that aren’t ours. Why? Somebody’s got to do it, right? Like mowing the yard. Or because it just needs to be done–like the laundry needing to be washed. Perhaps it is because people deserve to be honored. Even in simple ways. Consider that something as seemingly impersonal as shoveling snow or doing yard work has…
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Come and Get It
The shared meal elevates eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from mere animal biology to an act of culture. –Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto There is something remarkable that happens when people eat together. While we share our thoughts, feelings, and waffle fries, we connect. We become known to one another in a more intimate and familiar way. The fancy term for this is building social capital. It happens by degrees, running the gamut from a quick lunch in the corporate cafeteria to working shoulder to shoulder in grandmother’s kitchen at Thanksgiving. (The kitchen in every home…
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Hypotenuse (or As the Crow Flies)
Hypotenuse – The side of a right triangle opposite the right angle. There is something in me that craves efficiency. Perhaps it’s a flavor of impatience. It says that if I am here and what I want is there, getting what I want should be as easy as traversing the distance from here to there–traveling the hypotenuse like the proverbial crow. The problem is…life isn’t straight lines and short cuts. Life is filled with crab walking, roundabouts, and waiting and seeing. When we think we know where we’re going, our circuitous routes feel like detours. When the destination is less certain, the path can feel like a perpetual aimlessness. We don’t fly like crows.…
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It Still Takes a Village
I am on the road this week and thought I would share some of the first blogs I published before I began posting them on social media outlets. The need for human connection in all we do is real, intrinsic, and urgent. Here are thoughts on making those connections. It Takes a Village originally published August 4, 2015. Thanks.
