Garrison Keillor and I were both awakened after a fall…

This is not a sermon, just a fact: since I cut out alcohol 22 years ago, I’ve often awoken in the middle of the night with beautiful ideas, which is a golden gift for a writer, better than emeralds. Tuesday night, for example, I woke at 3 a.m., next to my sleeping wife, arose, dressed, slipped out of our hotel room in Minneapolis, and sat in the lobby with my laptop and started writing a book with a ten-word title about happiness. I’m a happy man, I am qualified. Last week I did two shows, just outside D.C. and in Vermont, two serious locations, and I made those people laugh so hard, they were glad they’d brought an extra pair of pants. I went to Minnesota hoping to solve a Medicare problem that I’d spent years on the phone about, listening to mind-numbing music on Hold, waiting to talk to a clueless functionary working from home, TV blaring in the background, dogs barking, and in Minnesota I went to an office, sat across the desk from a human being, the way we used to do, and he solved it in a matter of minutes. And he thanked me for my patience. Life is good.

I’ve been waiting a long time to become as old as I am and it was worth the wait. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back to being young again. I did dumber things than you’d think possible for a university graduate. That’s why I excused myself from the jury — paying off a porn star and claiming it as a business expense? Heck, I’ve made accounting mistakes, too. But — this is the beautiful 3 a.m. idea — you’ve got to have some disasters, the kind you walk away from, to notice the bluebird on your shoulder. My disaster was a series of falls I took while walking around Manhattan. I’m 81. I used to have a good jump shot from the free-throw circle, I have hit for extra bases in softball, but that was a long time ago. Now, as I walk through LaGuardia, men driving passenger carts stop and offer me a ride. I decline. They say, “Are you sure?”

I fell twice crossing 89^th Street, once in the middle of the street, once at the curb. I misjudged the step, crashed down on my hands and knees and chin, and once I walked into a tree branch on the path around the Central Park Reservoir and got plonked on my keister, and each time strangers rushed to my side to ask if I was okay and I said I was and jumped up but now I see these falls were a turning point in my life. Once you come crashing down, there is no longer a need to have a smart opinion about everything; you’re simply part of the human race. Your job is to be a biped rather than a quad. As Scripture says, It is God who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.And so long as you can stand up and baa, you can do comedy. I have a good sense of sentence structure and my vocabulary is exemplary. Thanks to my aunts Elsie and Margaret, I speak clearly. They listened to me recite my verse in Sunday school and said, “We could understand every word.” From Ephesians and Ecclesiastes to stand-up comedy is a hop and a jump.

Life is so enjoyable once you no longer need to be cool. Once in an ER I sat in a curtained alcove in a blue gown and my undies and was closely examined by a neurologist who wrote something on her clipboard and I asked to see it and she gave it to me. It said, “Very pleasant 80 y.o. male, tall, well-developed, well-nourished, flat affect, awake, alert, and appropriate.” It described me so well, especially the “awake, alert, and appropriate” but I took exception to the “flat affect” — I felt euphoric. The embolism had landed in a rural grassy part of my brain, far from the bustling neuron metropolis, and when I considered other possible outcomes (O.P.O.), it was exhilarating.

So I feel awakened, more alert to the beauties of life, and the appropriate thing is to write about them. I don’t need to fall down again or be examined by a neurologist. I need to go do my work. I retired years ago and I’ve been busier ever since. Gotta run. Bye.

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Garrison Keillor is in his Brisk Verse era. Buy his latest book and see for yourself!

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Is delerium giving you a message?

noun: delerium

• 1. a disturbed state of mind or consciousness, especially an acute, transient condition associated with fever, intoxication, and certain other physical disorders, characterized by symptoms such as confusion, disorientation, agitation, and hallucinations: “somewhere a patient shouted in delirium” Similar derangement dementia ,dementedness, temporary madness/insanity
• Opposite lucidity,coherence.

All hallucinations have their own symbolism.

Journal on them when you look in your soul the next day.

What does water teach us?

What Water Teaches
Let your poem speak of what we can learn from water’s behavior. The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive. It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.

In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true. In ruling, be just.
In business, be competent. In action, watch the timing.
Tao Te Ching
Translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English

My Hands…

My Hands

flexed fingers, knuckles, nails
feminine tapered tools.

calligraphy touches ascend
and ligatures join
A L O F T
thru space.

major and mini letters revolve:
the dance of chance:
Calligraphy!

JP
4/22/24

Let the Spirit enter…into me…Be born again, so that I am led by Him/Her , and I never know when it will end! Pope Francis

“Being a Christian is not only obeying the Commandments: we need to do that, this is true; but if you stop there, you are not a good Christian. Being a good Christian means letting the Spirit enter within you and lead you, lead you where He wants. In our Christian life very often we stop, like Nicodemus, before that “therefore”. We do not know what step to take, we do not know how to do it, and we do not have the trust in God to make this step and let the Spirit enter. Being born again means letting the Spirit enter into us, so that I am led by the Spirit, not by myself, free, with this freedom of the Spirit, and you never know where it will end.”

The world is completion and cycles to be embraced…

A woman dances inside an almond-shaped space surrounded by symbols of the four elements, all of which are visible to her. The World can signify completion and cycles. You feel like you have taken your last stride, only to realize that you are back where you started. But now, you have a better grasp of the situation. You have accomplished something recently, attained some level of completeness, pleasure, or satisfaction by working hard, or even just holding on. This could be related to your education, a relationship, lifelong goal, or meaningful journey. You think this part of your life has come to an end, yet you will continue to develop and be ready to go on a new adventure soon.
The World marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one. Everything is coming into place for you, and everything will come to a good finish and a happy ending. You have the opportunity to achieve your heart’s dream.
The culmination of a massive and irreversible shift, of tectonic breadth, is indicated by the World. This shift symbolizes achievement and an opportunity for you to put an end to the Old and make a strong start to the New. It’s a sign of growing maturity, inner harmony, more knowledge, and satisfaction. It indicates that you’re getting closer to a more complete feeling of enlightenment, as well as the sense of self-assurance that comes with age. It also symbolizes the dissolving of borders, sometimes in a spiritual sense, but more often in a merely physical one, suggesting future trips or adventures.
What exactly is victory? How does it feel to have everything you require? To be at peace with yourself and with the world? We get glimpses of it now and again. A wonderful meal with friends and family. A big cup of tea, a nice blanket, and a lengthy conversation with someone you care about. When you arrive at your ultimate destination after a long and exhausting trip. The world seems as though it belongs to you when you are happy, healthy, and complete. The World card represents completeness – the sense you receive when a story comes to a satisfying conclusion. A sense of peace.

The Alpha and the Omega
Accomplishment is the moment when your ambitions become a reality. It’s conceivable that this sensation won’t hit you immediately, and it’s also possible that you’ll be able to ignore it. Some individuals accomplish great things but never allow themselves to feel proud of themselves. The Fool had no idea what he was in for as he started on his trip. He knew he had discovered one thing definite as he reached the end: a feeling of achievement. The World card indicates that you should work hard to achieve your objectives and resolve your problems… and then relax and enjoy the sensation.
Finally, and maybe most significantly, the World is a clear indication of completion. We all want to be satisfied in many aspects of our life – our homes, our workplaces, our hobbies, and our leisure time are all places where we seek true fulfillment. People, it seems, seldom get the fulfillment that they seek. The World card is reminding you that happiness is there at your fingertips – all you have to do is reach out and get it!
Another facet of the star is its calmness. When they gaze up at the stars, many individuals claim they feel like a completely different person: they don’t feel tiny, but rather larger than they give themselves credit for. Looking up at the stars, you can see a thousand distinct flickering lights in the sky: the sky is similar to our planet in that sense, and each individual is a bright, lovely star. Spend some time gazing up at the sky and absorbing the genuine peace it provides. The Star’s tranquility is like this.
When you get the World card, it’s a great opportunity to reflect on your life and ask yourself a few key questions. What do you think would make you happy? Do you have a sense of accomplishment? Could you give me a sense of accomplishment? What might you do to make your life more complete? Is there already completeness and goodness in your life that you can’t see or appreciate?
What The World Means for You Today
The World card has appeared today to indicate that you have come to an end of a particular cycle in your life. This could be obvious but in some cases, these cycles can be quite subtle. In either case, you have learned what there is to learn from a pattern in your life and it is time for a new one to begin. Whether it’s psychological, emotional, spiritual, or physical, you are moving on to a new chapter. This can also suggest that there are greater forces at work in your life and it is time to allow the world to shape itself around you.

Eating breakfast together as a slave…

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2024
 
“We Christians too, in our journey of life, are in this state of walking, of progressing in familiarity with the Lord. The Lord, I could say, is a bit “down to earth”, but He is down to earth because He walks with us, we recognize that it is Him. No one asks Him, here, “Who are you?”: they knew that He was the Lord. It is an everyday familiarity with the Lord, that of the Christian. And certainly, they ate breakfast together, with fish and bread, certainly they spoke about many things naturally.”

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2024
 
“Once, when the Apostles were arguing amongst themselves, they were debating “which of us is the greatest”, Jesus took a child and said: “The child. If your heart is not a childlike heart, you will not be my disciples”. A childlike heart, simple, humble but a servant. And there he adds something interesting that we can connect to this gesture today. He says: “Pay heed: those who are supposed to rule over nations, lord it over them … but it shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be a slave”

Pope Francis

Let your poem today be a peephole into the complexity and perplexity of the human shadow, your own perhaps. Let it somehow focus on the spiritual process of incorporating your own shadow-side or learning to show compassion for blatant displays of shadow in others.

I’ve been told that we should generally leave a few shadow
threads in each of our poems even if only for contrast.
To go into the dark with a light is to
know the light.ie. go dark.
Go without sight, and find that the dark, too,
blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
Wendell Berry

Man’s shadow, I thought, is his vanity.
Friedrich Nietzsche

This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine.
Shakespeare

How to be an elderly woman:

How to Be Old
It is easy to be young. (Everybody is,
at first.) It is not easy
to be old. It takes time.
Youth is given; age is achieved.
One must work a magic to mix with time
in order to become old.
Youth is given. One must put it away
like a doll in a closet,
take it out and play with it only
on holidays. One must have many dresses
and dress the doll impeccably
(but not to show the doll, to keep it hidden).
It is necessary to adore the doll,
to remember it in the dark on the ordinary
days, and every day congratulate
one’s aging face in the mirror.
In time one will be very old.
In time, one’s life will be accomplished.
And in time, in time, the doll—
like new, though ancient— will be found.
May Swenson
Anthologized in Waltzing on Water
edited by Norma Fox Mazer
and Marjorie Lewis

the RESURRECTION:

 

The shattered hearts of the apostles were broken when Jesus died.

But when Jesus blessed the bread, they recognized Him.

The wisdom walk with Jesus is every minute of Jesus’s new state.

Repentance and forgiveness is proclaimed,

What are we walking toward? The Resurrection!

We touch His wounds. They are filled with promise!

The new reality is love and a renewed self.

All things in Christ are the Resurrection!

All sinners hope for R E S U R R E C T I O N!

               jp
              4/ ’24