Rest.
Posted: February 19, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: beauty, Identity, kindness, love, meditation, Omaha, passion, Poetry, Prose, rest, Richard Jones, winter, writing, yoga 2 Comments…
It’s so late I could cut my lights
and drive the next fifty miles
of empty interstate
by starlight,
flying along in a dream,
countryside alive with shapes and shadows,
but exit ramps lined
with eighteen wheelers
and truckers sleeping in their cabs
make me consider pulling into a rest stop
and closing my eyes. I’ve done it before,
parking next to a family sleeping in a Chevy,
mom and dad up front, three kids in the back,
the windows slightly misted by the sleepers’ breath.
But instead of resting, I’d smoke a cigarette,
play the radio low, and keep watch over
the wayfarers in the car next to me,
a strange paternal concern
and compassion for their well being
rising up inside me.
This was before
I had children of my own,
and had felt the sharp edge of love
and anxiety whenever I tiptoed
into darkened rooms of sleep
to study the small, peaceful faces
of my beloved darlings. Now,
the fatherly feelings are so strong
the snoring truckers are lucky
I’m not standing on the running board,
tapping on the window,
asking, Is everything okay?
But it is. Everything’s fine.
The trucks are all together, sleeping
on the gravel shoulders of exit ramps,
and the crowded rest stop I’m driving by
is a perfect oasis in the moonlight.
The way I see it, I’ve got a second wind
and on the radio an all-night country station.
Nothing for me to do on this road
but drive and give thanks:
I’ll be home by dawn.
For You, Friend
Posted: February 12, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: beauty, compassion, friends, friendship, gratitude, kindness, love, Mindfulness, Omaha, passion, Poems, Poetry, Seva, Ted Kooser, Valentine's Day, writing 5 Comments…
this Valentine’s Day, I intend to stand
for as long as I can on a kitchen stool
and hold back the hands of the clock,
so that wherever you are, you may walk
even more lightly in your loveliness;
so that the weak, mid-February sun
(whose chill I will feel from the face
of the clock) cannot in any way
lessen the lights in your hair, and the wind
(whose subtle insistence I will feel
in the minute hand) cannot tighten
the corners of your smile. People
drearily walking the winter streets
will long remember this day:
how they glanced up to see you
there in a storefront window, glorious,
strolling along on the outside of time.
Jail : Sentence :
Posted: February 10, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: beauty, blogging, Consumerism, cycling, gratitude, Identity, kindness, love, Mindfulness, Omaha, passion, Prison, social media, writing, yoga 14 CommentsIf I spent ten years in prison, I’d probably come to value the small things in life. Things like good food, a comfy bed, and a toothbrush sharpened into a shank-
How can we spring ourselves from this “social media” jail sentence we conveniently lump on our weary souls? For me personally, capturing and restoring a sense of gratitude is the ideal antidote for the nauseating cycle of egotism we confront on a daily basis.
Propping the world on my shoulders, believing and behaving as though I am the center of your attention when I put forth a self-serving blog post. And you know what? Being the center of attention is both exhausting and futile.
I challenge you to reexamine the meaning of gratitude and kindness – Taking to heart the profound impact and value they impart on our lives. Without them, we will struggle to get over our preening, look-at-me sense of self-importance.
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As the seasons gently begin to change, I start to look within and begin to write about the “things” for which I am truly grateful – Your continued support, Family and Friends, Yoga, Cycling and maybe a few other “things” as well. I ask of you – your patience, as I try to move past the obvious and explore deeper the gifts I may have overlooked in the past; becoming aware of how many people made this possible through their hard work. As well as paying deeper attention to nature’s boundless wonders, beauty and mysteries as I once did as a child and have awakened once again as an adult <— Used loosely.
Daily Meditation:
When we learn to forget ourselves – We can enjoy our lives, fully, in this inspiring moment.
: Real Eyes :
Posted: February 6, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: beauty, Body Image, cycling, gratitude, kindness, life, love, meditation, Mindfulness, Omaha, passion, pilates, Reality, running, trail running, yoga 9 CommentsLife is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like-
Have you ever noticed that when someone does “something” to upset you – walks across your yoga mat before class, takes your line during a trail run, leans hard on you during the last corner of a local Saturday night crit race? The tendency may be to belittle them in our minds? Our inner critic and dialog begins to spool up, lamenting the “things” we would like to say to them in the moment. Or, as we so often like to do – Lump all the rude and inconsiderate people in the world together into one group.
What am I trying to convey on this beautiful Friday morning: Other people’s actions can often set off a series of reaction(s) within our hearts. Where we ruminate to ourselves, nauseously, over and over again about being done-did-bad, and there is nothing worse than being in down dog – glancing at your hands, and seeing someones foot print staring back at you!
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The amount of time we spend in our mind (instead of our hearts), talking and thinking about how insufferable other people are – Is precious time spent creating hate and discord. Eventually, theses feelings will manifest themselves in other ways …
Daily Meditation:
Start each day anew my friends and be sure to have a wonderful weekend!
Weather
Posted: February 5, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: beauty, Fathers, George Bilgere-, gratitude, kindness, life, love, Mindfulness, nature, Omaha, passion, Poetry, weather, yoga 10 Comments…
My father would lift me
to the ceiling in his big hands
and ask, How’s the weather up there?
And it was good, the weather
of being in his hands, his breath
of scotch and cigarettes, his face
smiling from the world below.
O daddy, was the lullaby I sang
back down to him as he stood on earth,
my great, white-shirted father, home
from work, his gold wristwatch
and wedding band gleaming
as he held me above him
for as long as he could,
before his strength failed
down there in the world I find myself
standing in tonight, my little boy
looking down from his flight
below the ceiling, cradled in my hands,
his eyes wide and already staring
into the distance beyond the man
asking him again and again,
How’s the weather up there?
CultFit 