Perle Champion

Reflections

we dash twixt dawn and

dusk blind to miracles strewn

like gems before us

a life reduced to

birth and death dates and one small

dash engraved in stone.

I wrote this poem 4/4/14 after rereading my 4/4/12 Blog on the letter D.  

I find I need reminding from time to time, to get out of my rut and live my Dash. So although the text below is mostly a reprint, the double haiku above is my own.

4/4/2012 perlechampion.com

Too often, we dash between dawn and dusk barely noticing the miracles, large and small, strewn like gems throughout our days.

I read an article in which the writer said ‘live your dash’.  What I wondered did that mean.  She went on to explain that as she wandered through a cemetery one day, she noticed that beneath each name there were two dates with a small dash between them.

I never thought about that – a lifetime reduced to a birth date and a death date separated by a small dash.

I know people who plod through their days for whom that dash is far too large.  I know people who dash through their days and never notice the day’s bounty.

And I know people for whom that dash is far too small to encompass the life they live.

I’m determined to live my dash from dawn to dusk and then some.

Are you living your dash?

I’m recently re-reading Women Who Run With the Wolves.

I’ve always a loved Fairytales. The originals – not the sanitized and disneyfied ones. They  teach us,  if we pay attention, about life.

Author, Jungian analyst, storyteller, and true  cantadore, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, explores the female psyche in this book.

I believe that all the characters are aspects of ourselves. We are all of them: the miller’s daughter, the miller, the king, the faithful servant, the baby, and Rumpelstiltskin.

And too, we are the straw and the gold.

#perlesaerie Still reading Obama’s Promised Land. But for desert, cookbooks. I frequently check out cookbooks I hear about. My library run yesterday had this one on hold for me. Jamie Oliver’s “7 Ways” is wonderful and I may have to buy my own copy.

So perfect when you get bored making the same recipes over and over again. He takes favorite vegetables, eggs, mushrooms, meat, fish and fowl and gives 7 different recipes for each. So simple and quick, I wonder I never thought of these variations myself.

Who do you write for? Yourself or others? I only know I must write.

Virginia Woolf said, “Never mind the misses and the stumbles…” “The habit of writing for my eyes only is good practice, it loosens the ligaments.”

My morning pages do just that. Unadorned. For my eyes only. Throughout my life, my journal is my shrink, my confidant, my sounding board for rough drafts for poems, stray thoughts and published works.

Laying Life on the Line

she sat pen in hand

journal open before her

her life paced the lines

glory, inglory

marching cadence cross the page

bare and unadorned

#perlesaerie Although I bought it the day after it hit the store, I just opened Obama’s Promised Land last night thinking I’ll read a chapter or 2 every evening. Or so I thought. Not. I couldn’t put it down. I had to force myself to turn off the light at 2am and go to sleep. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Today, I made my coffee and went back to bed to read n sip. I’ve ignored chores all day and a holiday open house this evening to just curl up in my favorite corner of the couch and keep reading. Made a pizza n beer run to the corner store, so I didn’t have to cook. I just kept reading.

I actually got a few texts from concerned friends asking why I was not on social media or our n about much today.

I’m fine. But with a good book, I’ve been known to dive head first down the rabbit hole. I really need an exercise bike so I can read and peddle. Riding the couch isn’t going to help me shed this Covid 30.

Mañana y’all. I’ve hundreds of pages to go.

#photooftheday #urbanlife #citylife #reading #books #pleasure

@barackobama @michelleobama

Wow. Forgot it was pecan season. Instead of walking circles at the Park, I took off down 10th court and in to 10th Avenue. For some reasons these folks never bother with the pecans falling from their trees. Actually seen them raked into the piles of leafs to be bagged. So no guilt this morning as I filled both my pockets to overflowing.

Tomorrow I’ll take a bag.

Rabbit rabbit rabbit. Spoken aloud for luck on this 1st day of December 2020, as last night’s full moon begins to wane along with this most trying year. The wheel turns, and Rona still roams the land.

But 2021 seems brighter for so many reasons. Make it so. Make it so. Intelligence and better yet, sanity, return to the people’s house. The vaccines show promise. And I always choose hope.

Rabbit sculpture photo was taken @beverly last year.

Most of us travel w a smart phone. So when you visit a local small business or restaurant, snap a picture, check in and post it on Facebook and/or Instagram.

We all have a diverse sphere of friends, and every little bit of exposure helps.

Let’s keep all our struggling entrepreneurs in business. I really want them all to make it into the new year. 💕