HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Photo by S. Auberle

A repeat of last year's column, just because I think this Thanksgiving blessing is so right...

Thanks & Blessings be to the Sun and the Earth

for this bread and this wine,

this fruit, this meat, this salt,

this food.

Thanks be & Blessings to them

who prepare it, who serve it.

Thanks & Blessings to them

who share it

(& also the absent & the dead).

Thanks & Blessings to them who bring it

(may they not want),

to them who plant & tend it,

harvest & gather it

(may they not want).

Thanks & Blessings to them who work

& blessings to them who cannot;

may they not want--for their hunger

sours the wine & robs

the taste from the salt.

Thanks be for the sustenance & strength

for our dance & work of justice, of peace.

~ Rafael Jesus Gonzalez

FROM AND FOR

Photo by R. Murre

Whenever I'm at the beach, I have to write. It just seems like a good place to get a message out there, to whoever might be looking--in this world or the next. Here are three quotes from, and for, writers (and sane people who are not writers) to think about...

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"A sheltered life can be a daring life as well.

For all serious daring starts from within."

~ Eudora Welty

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"People make the mistake of regarding commitment

as something solely political.

A writer is committed to trying to make sense of life.

It's a search.

So there is that commitment first of all:

the commitment to the honesty and determination

to go as deeply into things as possible,

and to dredge up what little bit of truth

you, with your talent, can then express."

~ Nadine Gordimer

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"I was a late bloomer.

But anyone who blooms at all

ever,

is very lucky."

~ Sharon Olds

SHE WAITS

Photo by S. Auberle

Do you see her?

Shawl wrapped,

heavy-browed,

withstanding storm and tide.

She waits, watching,

trusting the sea will bring

what she longs for.

She waits, aware,

of the day

that she, too,

will be only a speck

of sand or salt.

She waits, unshaken,

knowing

we all have

nothing less

than forever.

~ mimi

SELF PORTRAIT

Photo by S. Auberle

In case you noticed my absence this past ten days, I've been traveling. Got to see great mountains, rivers, ocean and rainforests. If a word can possibly describe all these, it would have to be that over-used word of awesome. More likely, there are no words. Gathering together sketches, words, photos to, perhaps, write a poem, paint a picture. But it may be too much to condense into my small creations. In the meantime, some words from Thomas Merton that seem to fit:

Do not look for rest in any pleasure,

because you were not created for pleasure,

you were created for joy.

And if you do not know the difference

between pleasure and joy,

you have not yet begun to live.

~Thomas Merton