Saturday 1:39 PM October 24, 2015
Once I had a dream where the world was filled with inspiring words and teachers. We were all cradling our precious lives and our beautiful planet. We respected ourselves enough to respect all others. Entangled fates all strung together in time and in deeds.
My fantasy lived on… into my waking moments, and I began to realize that I come from a place where the world could be, how our tiny pieces could come together to be huge winds of change and resilience.
I am truly beginning to love myself again – breathing life into the very chasm I dug for myself so many years ago.
There are times for caves, but now is not one of them.

  

I’m thinking about it, wondering about it, getting to it.

Seeing as how all things come in waves and in circles and in squares sometimes, maybe happiness is one of all things.

What makes me happy? Trust, Fun, Play, Quality Time, Justice, Creativity, Support (both verbal and active), Consideration, Adventure, Comfort, Meaningful and Intimate Conversation, Healthy Habits, Sunshine and Rain, Humor and Laughter, Respectful Challenge, Inspirational moments, being right here, Learning to be aware of my body and mind, Not feeling sick or afflicted, feeling strong and talented, Singing and Playing, Witty Banter and Food, good, wholesome food.  Poetry, good fiction, prose, listening to the radio and records and dancing.  I LOVE going to the movies, that makes me happy, even when I cry all the way home because it was a sad movie.  I love remembering people who have passed on and how grateful I am to have known some of them.  I am happy when I am with my grandparents and know that they love me to ends of their time on this Earth.  It makes me happy to drive out to the parkway and find a spot to sit and read, or sit and watch the sun go down, or walking through the chilly Autumn forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I love a clean and organized space – helps me think clearly and feel a tiny bit of stability. I enjoy moving furniture, building and making incarnations of spaces.  I enjoy learning new things and I love Mister Rogers.  I enjoy alone time, and I enjoy the quiet.  I enjoy eyes to eyes and hearts to hearts.  60s French pop music and old-time jams.  Garage rockabilly and downtempo Groove Salads.  (this list could go on and on)

What things create happiness in the world? It seems to me that peace creates happiness among some, along with reconciliation, trust, equal rights, and justice.  How am I contributing to the happiness in this world? Trying to make the world more fair, working for Everyone having a voice, not just a chosen few.  RE-writing the past habitual patterns – just because it’s always BEEN this way, doesn’t mean it has to continue to BE that way.  Forgiveness can make us happy, if we can just get there.

I enjoy feeling comfortable in my own skin.  I enjoy trusting those around me and feeling accepted and loved and treated with kindness, respect, and manners.  I enjoy saying thank you, please and you’re welcome, with fervor.  I enjoy not forgetting that this world and my part in it is a miracle, a stunning blip on the Universe’s radar.

I am unfurling from a seed, with tiny leaves of green

New veins of life reaching towards the sun

I see roses and black-eyed Susans sitting in the window

Beyond the pane, clouds and humidity linger

I am uncurling from a past position, building a heartbeat

Regeneration of appreciation in this situation, getting out of my seat.

To my left, a sleeping grandmother, to my right a sleeping grandfather

The ancients among us, the rituals of long times passed.

The stories we’re woven from and will shoot from our hips

In an instant.

Our bellies prepare for dancing, our mind for the breaking fog

for exploring within it.

Within fog is clarity in the mind’s eye

Come and sit next to me

hold my hand and give me your ears

I will give you my story and you’ll give me yours

Our trains may pass in the night,

but I can still smell the memories we’re going to create.

The luscious, delicious lore.

This is what happens when you say yes.

Say yes. Say yes. Say yes.

(art by Peter Loose and words/drawing I found on the interwebs)

Hazard, Kentucky’s up on blocks

Coal’s everywhere, coal’s staining their socks

The swollen river North Fork rolling through the cracks

Headed on to Whitesburg, crossing RR tracks

The Sun’s gone down and I’m filled with doubt

that most’a those people there’ll ever get out

No news here in this part of the world

about the lives and the deaths of miners all burled

up in this river valley between tall hills

filled with coal and a history of chills