Dusted off stories and listening looks……a love story
I’ve been following the treeline and parking in the sky
to the place inside where stories tug my mind to come and look,
look again and see the changes left when time and truth came washing
like a current swiftly flowing
disheveling the storylines in my heart.
I’m looking again in a curious light
at old reels long been playing
as life spills the cutout figures I keep and my mind goes to set them on the storyboard fresh
like flannel cutouts that I know because I held the scissors that shaped them
and placed them, one-dimension, where I decided long ago.
There they are, the people that helped shape me,
the ones my mind holds in story now
just exactly as I think
because it makes me safe
and right
to know things.
But life has a sweet and smouldering way of helping you lose the keys
to the broken stories you made
in the long-ago scramble to make sense
of big waves that didn’t care how tall you were.
Funny how the stories you keep dusty on a board in time
can become the very fabric of what ties you up frozen
in the wasteland of reason and blame.
I welcome you along as I dive in to untie my own
because our stories somehow happen to us all……
I knew my Father first by the buttons
pressed hard against my face as he squeezed me hello after the plane from Korea
brought him home again to us when I’d known him only as a figure in a frame.
I kept my face shy to his shoulder and felt the shy of him, too, as he held me unfamiliar tight.
I didn’t look up. In time I’d come to rarely take the look,
the circuitry between us
a current that would take a lifetime to learn to swim.
Come along this Fall as I pull words around some stories
that seem to be knocking on my heart to have a say.
“Life is not about counting the losses and the lost expectations,
but rather swimming,
with as much grace as can be mustered,
in the joy of it all.”
– Leisa Hammett
I will happily journey with you – anywhere you care to take us.
So much thanks for your kindness and support; you make me brave:)
Big joy to you,
Jennifer
I will, as always, look forward to accompanying you on this journey through time. xoxo
So much thanks, dear Jeanie:) Somehow you help pull the words out and encourage me
that it matters what I write down. I appreciate that so dear.
Big joy to you,
Jennifer
Honored to be one of the recipients of one more deep dive described in your poetic prose.
So grateful to have you along, Lisa:)
I appreciate your kind listen so much.
Big joy to you,
Jennifer
I would follow you, catch you, hold you, and watch you fly as long as we both push through life. Friends always. <3
Friends always, indeed, you:) The biggest thanks and I hope you can hear me over here
cheering always in your corner, too.
Always,
Jen Jen
I just love you so much, your hope and your faith. I love how you use your words and share your thoughts and put it all out here to connect and to help and support. I love how you live your life and make your beautiful art and grow your flowers and nuture your family and friends …. okay, I’m just a groupie with a girl crush and I admit it.
Gahhh, your words are crazy-dear to my heart:) As are you. You are pure gift, Susan.
Much, much thanks:) xoxox
-Jennifer
This gal isn’t going anywhere! I’m definitely along for the ride. Your writing just makes my heart swell each and every single time I read one of your postings. LOVE.
Heart swelling here, too – oh your words make me brave. THANK you for fertilizing my resolve:)
I appreciate you Robin, I do:)
-Jennifer