October 23, 2012

Clouds giving way to an absolutely clear vibrant blue sky, the kind that makes your eyes ache to look at it!  It's warm and humid, but still a very lovely day.  Every thing appears as if you are looking through a lens that makes it sharper and clearer.  The nice thing about fewer leaves is you can see more of the birds.  Two blue jays are bouncing around the bushes outside, as they bounce from branch to branch they look as if they are creating there own storm of movement in the smaller branches, which flip up after their passing and tremble, eventually quieting only to be bounced on again.  The mockingbird with the terrific repertory was outside this morning, singing in the dark, and I was lying there listening to him.  He must have sung the same really long sequence of song at least seven or eight times, I was amazed that he could remember the order of something that long and complicated, and it sounded like he was having a great time!  Usually I don't here any birds often in the dark except the owls and one time that loon, but occasionally something makes the mockingbirds wake early and start singing, and I was glad to listen this morning.

Sometimes we are what we know . . . and sometimes what we don't . . .

Not knowing

I may not know my original face

but I know how to smile.

I may not know the recipe for the diameter

of a circle but I know how to cut a slice

for a friend.  I may not be Mary or the Buddha

but I can be kind.  I may not be a diamond

cutter but I still long for rays of light

that reach the heart.

I may not be standing on the hill of skulls

but I know love when I see it.

Stephen Levine

The one I like is . . . I may not know the recipe for the diameter of a circle . . . I love that it's a recipe not a formula, a recipe, something we use every day, an ordinary thing, the sharing.  And I can be kind . . . everyone can be kind, but most of the time we forget to do it, or are too busy, or are not forcefully presented with the opportunity, which is when we need to just look around and see what needs to be done.  I would like to think that I know love when I see it, but sometimes love takes strange forms that we may not recognize.  I may not know my original face, but I like the face I have now, and it does know how to smile! 

Sometimes in looking for poems I find a website that is worth exploring and gives me a lot to think about.  Today I found a website that asks the question . . . why do you do what you do?  And people answer with a photo and a sign that gives their answer.  Some answers were heartbreaking, some were joyful, some were hilarious, literally!  Anyway I thought I would include a link here www.wdydwyd.com so that you might see what I am talking about.  My favorite one so far showed a person in a wave, the ocean big and roiling and in pale white letters it says:  Because the line between persistence and futility is often less than clear.  It cracked me up because it is so true and we all know it!