Muscle, A Poem.

Fist sized little bundle...

of muscle, valves.

Always busy,

not for show, though.

Resting between beats

but laying it down.

Like the sledgehammer

of a great big man

driving the spike 

into the wooden sleeper. 

Boom…boom.

Boom...boom. 

Call & Response. 

How is it 

that this tiny bundle 

of muscle, 

not actually pretty,

wouldn’t stand 

in front of a mirror

reapplying its lipstick, 

(knowing it’s worth 

is beyond the visual.

Visual pretty only touching 

the hem of bliss,

pointing at it…

but not…even…close).

How is it that this

is the center of our feeling?

Of our desires?

Of our…

Love.

Rumi said lovers 

are like two lamps.

Their light blending 

into each other, 

never separate…

never truly one.

This is as it should be. 

How can it pump

blood 60,000 miles, 

beat without a brain,

without a body 

and still manage to 

give everything in this

little world meaning.

Power to the People.

Good morning world!

I woke up today to a post from my friend on my Facebook account. It was a quote from Glinda, the good witch of the North, "You had the power all along, my dear," which was absolutely perfect for a bunch of reasons but one is because anyone who knows me well, knows that The Wizard of Oz is one of my all time favorite movies.

My top 5 movies of all time...

1. The Wizard of Oz  2. Out of Africa  3. Moulin Rouge  4. Romeo and Juliet  5. Eat, Pray, Love

Just a side note.

Anyway, back to the story... I awoke to that post and also to a feeling of being okay with not having it all figured out anymore. Isn't it funny how this happens in life? We think we've got it all figured out and then...we don't. Actually, the funny thing is how we ever believed we'd had it all figured out in the first place.

What a silly concept. We are not God. We are perfectly imperfect human beings. So we can never have it all figured out 100%. We can know who we love, what we love, what we don't like and what we do for a living but sometimes even those things change. And if they do that can be really scary, but these things happen to show us another layer of who we really are.

So please, love yourself! I know that this sounds simple but so many people don't love themselves at all. Love yourself and then love life and people and animals and the colors of the sky in the morning. Love the feel of the breeze upon your skin while standing next to the ocean and feeling like your skin can actually taste the salt in the air. Love your dog snoring softly at the foot of your bed and your cat snuggled up on your chest, purring as if she wants to make your heart burst! Love the laughter of your friends and your family and just love everyone else in the world because, my dear, you do have the power.

We all have the power to love. To have our hearts broken sometimes. To question our change of careers but still jump and go for it. To help a loved one face their death while facing our own heart breaking because of it. To lose our beloved pets who are truly family to us and face the house when it is empty of their presence. You are strong enough to face all of the uncertainty and doubt and curves in the road. The tests and the signs... and sometimes taking too long to figure it all out. You do have the power, you have been groomed for this moment. It is yours, this sometimes hard but beautiful lesson. If you make a mess of it, stop and figure out what the lesson is and if you are avoiding it. Because there is always a lesson.

But first, love yourself because you are a beautiful and unique work of art that only exists in the form of you once in this world. Share that with the world, embrace it and love it in your own space and know that you do have the power.

In closing, I want to say thank God (in whatever form you choose to believe in God, remember, I am only a human and don't profess to have it "all figured out.") Thank God for people who support you through these times of figuring it out and laugh with you during the times when you have nothing in the world to worry about. Because we all will be the person who is helping someone face their death and at some point...we will all be the person who has someone helping us face our own in this beautiful, tough and very real cycle of life. We do have the power, but a lot of that power comes from sharing love with others who are special in our lives. Otherwise, why would Dorothy ever have left Oz to go back to Kansas?

xox.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I really don't have anything spectacular to talk about today. I love the romance of Valentine's Day but as my husband says, every day is Christmas and I think that we feel pretty much the same about Valentine's Day as well. Don't think that I'm saying this in a disappointed tone, it takes on that meaning when other people hear it. But I'm just being honest. We will give each other cards and have dinner but there is no big flowery show of being "Valentines" around here. No house full of roses and candles, not that there's anything wrong with that! The thing is you can do that stuff on any given day.


I wanted to share with you an excerpt from Elephant Journal that I read today. "Even for those who fall in love in high school and get married and live happily ever after, their love begins anew each morning, each moment. Love is a practice much like meditation- and just like meditation, I and many others can be pretty bad at it."


Love is a practice. Just like yoga! You choose it daily, choose to give just a little extra when your spouse really needs it, such as a backrub even though you might be exhausted. Focus on the good that your spouse provides for you instead of the fact that maybe he works too much. Look at them and wonder what is it in them that you have never seen before because every day is a new day and just as your cells regenerate, so do human beings as a whole! Be present, be grateful, be in love.


And for those of you who may not have a Valentine, Happy Valentine's Day. You are enough. Sometimes, we can feel differently but you are a miracle. For real.


Hearts,


E