High Holy Hilarity
Those who learn to love with laughter
Will best live Happily Ever After.
Seriously!
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Tag Archives: love
Let’s Just Hug It Out
The Cuddlesome Kraken
You think that I’m all hands, my love,
Controlling, holding tightly so?
Don’t wriggle, struggle, push and shove;
This is the only way I know!
I love you, darling, s’truth I do,
So let’s just cut right to the chase—
Let me wrap all my arms ’round you—
Embrace, embrace, embrace, embrace!
There’s No Pleasing That Woman
So Crotchety behind Her Crocheting
Does this seem troubling to you? All grans aren’t tiresome, it’s true,
But this old lady nurses ire as if she kept eternal fire
Cooking for gleeful roasting of all who would dare to fall in love,
To be successful, find delight in anything, morning to night,
That is not hers, and hers alone; she glowers as if from the throne
Of Empire, threatening with doom all who would dare challenge the gloom
With which she paints her own worldview; I find her hideous, don’t you?
The only worse soul, I should think, would be my own, if I would sink
To wishing others ill because they weren’t as awful as I was.
Elsewhere
My mind is one place. My body is elsewhere. Isn’t that just the way of things?
Today, it’s not problematic, signifying only that I’m privileged to be on holiday with my beloved and friends, yet attempting to keep a small corner of my normal schedule in the mix, i.e., posting to my daily blog. (So, Hi!) The way that any holiday’s events, from traveling exotic and remote lands to a simple ‘staycation’ involving no travel, only a change of pace, change our entire thought pattern almost instantly right along with the alteration of the days’ expectations, and that makes it easier to find change of spirit and attitude. That’s the real reason to take a holiday of any sort in the first place, isn’t it.
So I’m beginning to feel a seeping sense of the lassitude and restful forgetfulness that I always find so welcome on such breaks. But there’s still that edge of wariness that comes with fearing I’ll forget or fail to do something essential at the required time. This, too, is the way of things in real life. Letting go is harder than we think.
This week, the only essentials in actuality are being present at the right times and places for wedding-related events today and tomorrow, our primary reason for being together and on holiday with this group of dear friends. So I will endeavor to let the other stuff happen however it does or doesn’t happen, including that if I should slip up and fail to post every day in the coming week, and know that when the wedding has been properly feted with all of its events and all of the players in them equally joy-filled, then what was necessary to the days has been fully accomplished.
The important lesson that I most need to learn, however, is that the same is true when I’m not on holiday: I should sort out the essential from the non-essential and not obsess over things that only fill up my hours and days, not worry that every small item be crossed off the list perfectly without regard to its actual value in bringing joy to my life, let alone anyone else’s. It’s perfectly fine to let down my guard and simply revel in knowing I’ve seen to the true essentials: fulfilling genuine requirements, yes, but first and foremost, spending time with those who matter to me most.
Alive & Well
Sing Now & Always
To celebrate at breaking of the dawn
Or close of evening, or the stroke of noon,
There is no sweeter pleasure than a tune
Well sung by everyone, an antiphon
To peace, to sorrow, or to happiness;
No matter what the poetry or text,
It truly matters most that what is next
Is choral concord to renew, redress,
Resound through all the unseen years ahead,
A clarion, an anthem or motet
Grander than any ear has heard as yet,
And run to distant history, a thread
Of melody and harmony so strong
That no one can resist joining in song
The Last Place on Earth
In Profundum Maris
Deep in the ocean, fathoms far,
Beyond the reach of the brightest star,
In the abyss of the secret sea—
Seemingly past where life could be
Sustained—lies a billowing bed of kelp
That waves in the dark, where sleep, where help,
Where mystical mending music calls
As the tides turn back and the current falls,
As the storms above relent, abate,
Becalm, bring peace—it is not too late
To dive in the depths with delight, embark
On the garden path of the ocean’s dark,
Miraculous beauty, unseen, immense,
Suffusing the soul in every sense,
To lie in the rush as the seas roll by
And think it a joy too fine,
To die…
The Longed-for Sound
Awakening
Whose is the voice that speaks my name, Aloud or silently, the same,
In gentle speech or radiant song, Unspoken care, forgiving wrong?
Whose is the loving, laughing voice That makes my waiting heart rejoice,
That wakes my hope and lights the sky With stars, to which my sole reply
Is humble gratitude, delight That such a voice breaks through the night
To search me out, my heart in two, And make it whole?
Your voice. Yes, you.
Sweets for the Sweet (& All Others, Too)
Remember this…
Long-Awaited Benison
The sweetest sound the human ear has heard
Was not a waterfall or splashing brook
To thirsty thoughts; nor thirsty mind, a book
Read out; nor singer’s voice, nor whistling bird
In spring’s cool song; it wasn’t kittens’ purr
Or baby’s comfortably cooing charms
When resting safely in his mother’s arms
—Though it might then seem wildly sweet to her—
It wasn’t the “I love you” of romance,
Nor was the sweetest sound of clinking gold,
—Though to its owner, that cannot grow old—
But rather, barring mystic happenstance,
The miracle of sound most truly sweet
Was Mama’s voice announcing, “Come and eat!”
Lesser Lights
The major stars are always more visible than those around them. It’s demonstrably true not only in the galaxies but in the more modest constellations of humanity. Our attentions are naturally drawn toward those who shine most impressively and dramatically—for good or ill; those more modestly gifted or less showy mostly find their own lights muddled or even eclipsed by the intensity nearby, and as a result we seldom spot and take note of them.
Even those of us who are not only accustomed to, but also aware of, being humbled and diminished by comparison to others’ flashier character can easily forget how this applies to others. Just because I might feel neglected doesn’t necessarily mean I notice others being equally shortchanged; indeed, it’s more likely that if I’m feeling under-appreciated I get too preoccupied with my longing to be Special and resentful navel-gazing to think that I’m probably in the majority rather than otherwise.
Still, there’s hope. Just as a supernova will someday burn to nothingness, human stars tend mostly to flash into the general notice, burn however brightly for however long, and be dimmed by eventual inattention or death. They, too, will eventually be outshone and/or replaced by other stars whose time has come.
And if I, or any other, should in the meantime feel unreasonably hidden from sight, we are still free to seek our own bit of gleam. For some folk, that seeking comes in ambitions for accomplishment and fame. For the rest of us, the surest way to kindle the blazing fire that gives off sufficient heat and light to be noted by anyone else is to turn our focus outward. Devoting energy, attention and love to causes and works outside of our petty selves, and especially to other persons, is the spark that, when kindled in their spirits, creates the steadiest, most lasting kind of light. Even the smallest and weakest among us shines brightly in this tiny act of selfless will.
A Couple More Things I Tell Myself
…since I seem to be in the mode of self-improvement. Or, more likely, just talking to myself as usual…
Art-Colored Glasses 