PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

When I stop to ponder this subject…I’m not as perfect as I think…

I have never been able to whistle…my left eye…I can’t wink.

Without my glasses I can’t see clearly…I have a huge gap between two toes…

My hair has stopped growing on my head…

but it keeps growing on my back 

and in my ears and nose.

I could go on and on…but that’s enough about me….

What if I’m exactly the person my Gods created me to be?

What if the Gods in all their wisdom…as part of their mystique…

decided to make none of us perfect…but all of us unique? 

What if when they got together to create us…

after choosing human as our name

they decided to make everyone a little different…

so no two people are the same?

And what if they hoped we’d come to accept the differences in ourselves..

as well ads in each other…

differences large and small?

Knowing only when we do…

will we have a perfect world after all.

The magic of Christmas Day is truly wonderful…

but I happen to believe…

there is also something magical and exciting about its predecessor…

Christmas Eve.

Perhaps it’s because I was born on New Year’s Eve

that I cherish and adore…

and have such an affinity and fondness for the day and night before.

Every day and night before is filled with hope and expectation.

There’s anticipation and excitement as we wait.

I remember the day before the first Christmas I can remember…

I remember the day before my first date. 

I am blessed that the walls of my mind

are decorated…enhanced…and adorned…

with memories like the day before my wedding…

the days before all our children and grandchildren were born.

It comes down t basic calendarial logic

dating back, I’m sure, to days of yore.

for where would any Christmas, birthday or special day be…

without the day before.

So Merry Eve of whatever holiday or special day you celebrate today

and the rest of your life too…

because there should be a place in all our hearts

for the day before 

the day our dreams came true.

We utter around 16,000 words a day…some days sixteen-thousand and two.

And every now and then, if we’re blessed, we come face to face

with the good our words can do.

A mother and her daughter walked into the bookstore.

The daughter was ten maybe eleven years old… 

and I had no idea the wonder that before me would unfold.

They came to the counter to purchase a book

after browsing through the store for while….

When I said to the daughter, “I love your glasses!”

She looked startled, thanked me and she smiled.

Her mother was smiling too and as she wiped away a tear

She said, “You don’t know how important that was for us to hear.”

It seems they had just picked up her new glasses earlier that day…

and she was nervous and self-conscious about how she looked

and what other people might say.

I told her not to worry that I’ve been wearing glasses since Grade 2…

And, “With my glasses is can see your glasses look beautiful on you.”

Her mother thanked me again and her daughter smiled and waved

as she exited the store….

It’s possible my glasses were a little blurry but I’m pretty sure

She walked out a little taller and a little prouder than she had a minute before.

Of the 16,000 words I say each day…I never would have guessed

that ‘I love your glasses’ would be the four words

that stood out from all the rest.

We’re blessed with a wonderful opportunity each morning as we head out our front door 

blessed with a chance to be a better person than we were the day before.

It begins the exact moment when our feet first hit the floor

and we realize we’re not exactly the same person we were the day before.

Yes, we’re another day older…be we know there’s something more….

That it’s not just our age that makes us a little different than we were the day before.

There were things that happened yesterday..things our heart and mind could not ignore

that can’t help but make us a little different than we were the day before.

Every day brings a new adventure…which means every moment we’re awake

we have a chance to learn as much from our successes…as we do from our mistakes.

So…with each new adventure…as out into the world we soar…

we hope today we will be a little better than we were the day before.

A little kinder, more compassionate, more accepting…and what’s more

perhaps a little wiser than we were the day before.

If we fail, however, at being a better person than we were the day before…

there is one consolation…life provides us an encore….

Because tomorrow we will be blessed with another opportunity as we walk out our front door

another chance to be a better person than we were the day before.

What often makes this trip so alluring and appealing

as on the river of life we drift…

is how every now and then 

Fate loves to hand us…

May we be blessed to take a moment 

to remind ourselves

as each new day begins…

not to race from moment to moment

without taking a moment every now and then

to embrace the moment we are in.

As I’ve grown a little older…when I stop to look around

I see life moves as fast as it always has…but it’s me who has slowed down.

As I climb the ladder of life…each year reaching a new rung…

I’m slowed by knees and eyes and ears 

that don’t work as well as they did when I was young.

“You can’t run on me anymore!”

That’s what my knees would say if my knees could talk.

So instead of running from place to place…I’ve been forced to walk.

And while I’m walking 

because my eyes don’t see as clearly as they used to see

I’m forced to walk a little slower and sometimes stop…

to see what I want to see. 

Because my hearing over the years has started to fade away

I have to look more people in the eye and listen more carefully

to what they have to say.

But…since I have to walk more slowly, 

and look and listen more carefully to the world around me…

I find I have the time to enjoy a little more 

the people and the beauty that surrounds me.

Which makes me wonder about all the beauty I might have missed…

all the wonder

all the fun…

back when I had eyes and ears that worked much better…

atop knees on which I’d run.

When we love someone…with our whole body, soul and heart

We make a vow to love them, for better or for worse…until death do us part.

But what if we are meant to love everyone…no matter how different or diverse?

What if with every person we touch we have the opportunity…the choice…

to make their life a little better…or a little worse?

There are some things we cannot choose.. in life…that are written in the stars…

For instance…I didn’t choose to be born the person I am…

any more than you chose to be who you are.

I did not choose to be born…or the moment my life would begin…

I didn’t choose how tall I’d be, what foods I’d like…the color of my eyes or skin.

I didn’t choose to be straight anymore than others chose to be L, G, B or T.

I was not blessed, as the Native American’s believed, with two spirits inside of me.

But if you believe in a God…don’t you have to marvel at his or her creativity…

knowing…if I was born a different way…I would still be me. 

And if you were born a different way…a different gender…

if your eyes were brown instead of blue

you would still be who you are…you would still be you.

And here is where choice enters the equation…

if you believe the same God who created you…also created me

then you can choose to accept me, to love me, to hate me

or to simply let me be.

Every day as into this life on Earth we are immersed

we have a chance…a choice when we touch another person’s life

to make that life a little better…or a little worse.

Today I pray we all choose to make every life we touch a little better…

to enhance, enliven and strengthen every heart…

no matter how different or diverse we are from one another…

until…death do us part.

When my life turns upside down and the stars no longer align…

I know this may sound crazy but…I search the world for signs.

I look to people, to nature, to animals…to the sky, the sea, the land…

to help me cope with a confusing world I no longer understand.

At Christmas time Dunedin businesses decorate our lamp posts 

with garland, ornaments and lights…

They’re meant to bring peace and joy into our days…

and brighten up our nights.

On Main Street…in front of a church…

where many have left a hope, 

a dream, 

a prayer…

stands a lamp post decorated with an angel…

who looks like she’s hovering in the air..

I stopped in front of this angel…

well before the break of day…

and two owls who’d been perched upon the post…

quickly flew away.

And I thought to myself…an angel and two owls… 

were these two symbols sent to help me cope?

to remind me I would be wise…not to abandon hope.?

Yes, it may sound crazy…but I took them as a sign…

and immediately I felt better…and my stars began to realign…

Who would have thought on a day I was felling low…

a day my heart and spirit needed feedin’

I’d find my strength and hope and courage…

from an angel and two owls on a lamp post in Dunedin.