To teach
Is to impart pieces of yourselves
Your knowledge
Your perception
Your intent
To scatter them like seeds, into the universe of another’s mind
To take root
In another’s heart
Thanks to the teachers
You don’t know what seeds will take root
Which will be nourished
Grow tall
The lesson taught does not always match
The lesson learned
We will build and grow our own perceptions
knowledges
intents
But the seeds came from you, the teachers
Sowers of ideas
Reservoirs of knowledge
Thanks to the teachers
You live on
in many minds
in many hearts
May 26, 2025
May 26, 2025 at 5:54 PM UTC
A pool of shadow
A black shirt,
puddled on the floor
Is it him?
Creeping around corners
Yowling up stairs
Heat seeker
A patch of sun
A roaring fire
A warm lap (at the least convenient time)
No more
Nevermore
Gentle spirit
Demanding voice
A presence to fill a room
Emanating
from such a small body
No more
Nevermore
Always up for an adventure
New places to explore
The cat that makes a house
a home
No more
Nevermore
Purring soundtrack
Loving bites
Steady, everlasting love
Singing the song of your people
Heard only in memory,
Beloved
Jan 8, 2025
Jan 8, 2025 at 10:51 PM UTC
Invasive
Intrusion
Colonizer
Usurper
You who do not belong
Before
Who cause destruction
devastation
violent change
Now
Your presence means
An absence
of others
Yet
However you came
Wherever you came from
You’re here
Now
You will be here
Into the future
Is there a way
A path forward?
Amidst this change
Your coming has wrought
To make you
No longer invasive
alien
How can we integrate
Our invaders
Our colonizers
Change can build
Even as it destroys
Whether thru the passage of time
Or conscious effort
Eventually
can the invader become native-made?
How can we make the process
Less destructive
Less devastating
Less violent
Transform the invader
as much as
The invader transforms us
Mar 28, 2024
Mar 28, 2024 at 12:22 PM UTC
Each of us is a world
Self-contained and sprawling
With high towers and deep caverns
Open fields and endless skies
Our worlds can collide
encroach
Drift into others
Accidentally
Deliberately
With a rush of wind and crash of sound
Or creeping in like mist, slow and silent
Many of us build walls
protection from encroachment
actual or feared
Walls provide distance from others
Space to breath, to think
To exist
Wall-building is difficult
It requires practice
Rebuilding to maintain them
Sometimes our walls grow spikes
Provide offense
as well as defense
Cause harm
To both encroachers
And passersby
Or they grow so high
We can’t see over the top
Can’t distinguish a siege attempt
from a knock on the wall
Walls provide necessary protection
Room for respite, but
Our walls can’t discriminate for us
a threat from an invitation
We must stay aware
of the worlds beyond our walls
Build walls of glass
Instead of stone
View with curiosity
All who approach
Distinguish true encroachment
From clumsiness or ignorance
Retain the ability to reach beyond your walls
Reach out
without encroaching
To connect with other worlds
Mar 28, 2024
Mar 28, 2024 at 11:56 AM UTC
Belonging
The feeling that you will always be
accepted
Integral
one of us
Faults forgiven
Triumphs celebrated
Your past and future
Integrated
into our story
Such an important feeling
Vital
To our sense of community
our sense of self
The ground feels shaky
Prone to destabilizing quakes at the first crack
If that feeling is lacking
Withheld
The floor disappears from beneath you
If that feeling vanishes
Or is withdrawn
Usually it takes more than one
Of the us
To expel or invite
But perhaps
The most influential
One of us
Is you
At the end of the day
You decide
Unconsciously
Consciously
If you are worthy
Of belonging
Of being
One of the us
Sometimes though
The better question may be
Are we worthy
of belonging to you?
Aug 8, 2023
Aug 8, 2023 at 11:47 AM UTC
Who will you be?
What will you like
dislike
loathe
love?
Will you love me?
As I will love you?
Dependence is no guarantee
Of love
Of trust
Children make up their own minds
Parents can influence
but can’t control
I can’t wait to meet you
Discover your likes
dislikes
needs
desires
thoughts
dreams
I can’t wait to meet you
To see the world
and myself
through your eyes
Aug 3, 2023
Aug 3, 2023 at 2:03 PM UTC
Rationality
Consistency
Integrity through time
We hold these up as ideals
Self-evident
As good
Right
Correct
While the messy inconsistency
Irrationality
Splintering of integrity
Of our common humanity
Is bad
Wrong
Meant to be overcome and
overturned
Seems straightforward
Some may acknowledge the
Unattainability
But not question
the correctness
Of the goal
And yet...
If I were to achieve perfect consistency
Through past, present and future
Wouldn’t that also mean
I stop learning
Stop evolving
Stop changing
Perhaps the
inconsistency
irrationality
We all feel in ourselves
from others
Is just a snapshot
Of our continual state of change
The evolutionary process
unfolding
in real time
I sometimes wonder
if humanity’s greatest strength is the ability
To hold
To embody
Conflicting ideas
With equal conviction
Of course
Lack of awareness of the inconsistency
of our ideas and actions can be frustrating
Infuriating
In ourselves
In others
Potentially dangerous
Especially in our leaders
But perhaps cognitive dissonance
Is not a malady to cure
Or a failing of our nature
that we must fight a losing battle to overcome
But an opportunity
To decide:
How will I change next?
Apr 28, 2023
Apr 28, 2023 at 1:05 PM UTC
Victim
Survivor
Two words
Could describe two people
Or two different versions
of the same person
Victim
What others made you
What some continue
To make themselves
This doesn’t happen in a vacuum
Without reason
Without incentive
Victims garner attention
Sympathy
Kindness
Everyone needs attention
Sympathy
Kindness
But eventually
The spectacle fades
Attention wanes
The world moves on
And the victim
Has no new identity
On which to stand
Survivor
What you make yourself
You may be given this label by others
But only you can define
what it means
Each day
Each moment
Ultimately a choice needs to be made
To live in the past
Be what others made you
Or live in the future
Be the vision you make
Of yourself
Survivor
Victim
Two words
Interlocked
Two very different realities
Inextricably linked
Which do you choose?
Each day
Each moment
Your choice yesterday
Need not determine
Your choice tomorrow
We are not given a choice about the first identity
Don’t relinquish your choice
To embrace the second
To be self-defined
Feb 11, 2023
Feb 11, 2023 at 12:07 AM UTC
Ripples through time
Perturbations
in the world around you
Originating
In word
In deed
Circles ever widening
Of influence
And impact
Even when we are gone
From the room
Or from the world
In body
In spirit
Our ripples spread
Merge with others
Shape them
As they go on
To shape others
Even when we are gone
Even when we are forgotten
Remember
Your ripples move on
Merge
Intersect
Transform
But always spreading
Through time
Sep 13, 2022
Sep 13, 2022 at 2:09 PM UTC
Choice
Responsibility
Interlocking concepts
But rarely as simple
as cause and effect
We always have a choice
To act
To react
To endure
To survive
Choice is a source of power
It can’t be taken away by another
Don’t believe them when they say
“You have no choice”
Even if they
are you
But our choices alone
are rarely the only cause
of our circumstances
Other peoples’ choices
The systems we must navigate
Our environments and ecosystems, human-built and beyond
All contribute to determine
the fertility of the soil
from which our range of choices grow
In fertile soil
Choices abound
But even in barren soil
You still must choose
To act
To react
To endure
To survive
While holding onto hope
for future change
Through intention
Through community
Through action
To believe that your choices alone
Are responsible for an outcome
Whether fortunate
Or dire
Is the height of arrogance
Born of a need to feel in control
Of the world around you
We all should be held accountable for our choices
But take care
How you parcel out responsibility
and blame
To yourself
To others
With awareness of the state of the soil
from which those choices grew
Aug 20, 2022
Aug 20, 2022 at 8:34 PM UTC