A Drink of Water
Posted: March 12, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: compassion, family, Identity, Jeffrey Harrison, kindness, life, love, meditation, nature, passion, Poetry 16 Comments…
When my nineteen-year-old son turns on the kitchen tap
and leans down over the sink and tilts his head sideways
to drink directly from the stream of cool water,
I think of my older brother, now almost ten years gone,
who used to do the same thing at that age;
and when he lifts his head back up and, satisfied,
wipes the water dripping from his cheek
with his shirtsleeve, it’s the same casual gesture
my brother used to make; and I don’t tell him
to use a glass, the way our father told my brother,
because I like remembering my brother
when he was young, decades before anything
went wrong, and I like the way my son
becomes a little more my brother for a moment
through this small habit born of a simple need,
which, natural and unprompted, ties them together
across the bounds of death, and across time …
as if the clear stream flowed between two worlds
and entered this one through the kitchen faucet,
my son and brother drinking the same water.
Greeting to Spring (Not Without Trepidation)
Posted: March 5, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: blogging, compassion, Identity, kindness, life, love, meditation, nature, passion, Poetry, Prose, Robert Lax, writing, yoga Leave a comment…
Over the back of the Florida basker,
over the froth of the Firth of Forth,
Up from Tahiti and Madagascar,
Lo, the sun walks north.
The first bright day makes sing the slackers
While leaves explode like firecrackers,
The duck flies forth to greet the spring
And sweetly municipal pigeons sing.
Where the duck quacks, where the bird sings,
We will speak of past things.
Come out with your marbles, come out with your Croup,
The grass is as green as a Girl Scout troop;
In the Mall the stone acoustics stand
Like a listening ear for the Goldman band.
At an outside table, where the sun’s bright glare is,
We will speak of darkened Paris.
Meanwhile, like attendants who hasten the hoofs
Of the ponies who trot in the shadow of roofs,
The sun, in his running, will hasten the plan
Of plants and fishes, beast and man.
We’ll turn our eyes to the sogging ground
And guess if the earth is cracked or round.
Over the plans of the parties at strife,
Over the planes in the waiting north,
Over the average man and his wife,
Lo, the sun walks forth!
– Robert Lax
How About : You :
Posted: February 27, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: beauty, Bicycling, blogging, Comminity, cycling, hate, kindness, love, meditation, Omaha, passion, social media, Urban Transportation, writting, yoga 18 CommentsI left my youth behind me. It peddled the bicycle while I rode on the handlebars-
” … Get a car you ironically tattoo adorned, Lycra sporting hipster!!!” I remember these harsh words as though they were strewn upon me yesterday morning, instead of two months ago commuting to work on bike.
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Was I shocked? Somewhat. I was simply making a right hand turn after stopping at a stop sign at 5am, when over my left shoulder, I was spewed vile hatred upon by some dude. I thought briefly about trying to catch up with him, and having a gentlemanly conversation. Instead, I simply put my head down and set a good pace up the next few hills that eagerly awaited me.
What worries my heart the most, is the need to make these flippant remarks in the first place. It makes me wonder about our current human nature and the impulse or desire to engage in this kind of behavior. The kind of behavior we witness online, where our words carry a great weight with little or no courage, to form a coherent and critical response.
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Why does it bother someone if I ride to work on my bike? Have tattoos and practice yoga? Why do people feel the need to project hatred and vomit at every turn? Kindness and love have been cast ad acta, a relic of a bygone world. We live in a world now where a fussilade of hate awaits us around every corner in life.
Daily Meditation:
As we gently ease into March this coming weekend. The undercurrents of my posts will warm to the wonders that cycling and nature so kindly present us. I hope you tag along for the ride …
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.
Gone : Again :
Posted: February 18, 2015 Filed under: Kindness, Meditation, Yoga | Tags: blogging, kindness, life, love, meditation, passion, weekend, yoga 1 CommentThere’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out-
Chances are, a vast majority of us will experience some kind of adversity today. Know what’s cool and interesting – Each one of us is blessed with the capacity to bounce back on our feet after suffering a setback in life. What’s even more cool, is that we all have the potential to improve after we dust off our knees and bandage our open wounds, or as I like to say: Become more resilient.
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Sometimes we learn “things” about ourselves from the act of stepping out of our comfort zone(s). These tender moments in our lives can be a way to clarify what is truly important. I find that being open and vulnerable can be a good reminder of my prioritie(s) in life. For me, I cannot convey to you easily enough how easy it is to get swept up in the day-to-day hustle and bustle: Kids, school, work, getting a few cold weather rides in when I can, yoga class and the tedious process of signing in online. Taking some during the day to embrace the comfort of peace and hope truly helps me. Although, we don’t often associate resilience with comfort do we? Resiliency often connotes pushing aside what truly matters to tackle what lies in plain sight … Often a Son who refuses to get dressed for school and a yoga studios website that fails to load quickly enough.
Daily Meditation:
We can find peace and hope in resiliency, we certainly can.
CultFit 