The Unclad Soul

I saw a child in a grocery basket Singing in the produce section And I smiled at the cheerfulness Of children. I saw a white crane perched on a dead tree At peace in a pond at the golf course And I wanted to stand with it In the sunshine. I saw an old man with a cane Hunched over and walking wearily And I thought how nice if I could Carry him to his destination. I saw a woman sitting at the bus stop In the cold, her face covered with a scarf And I thought how selfish when I complain My car heater takes so long to get warm. I saw a couple kissing in the parking lot With shopping bags resting beside them And I reveled in how love often ignores Its surroundings and blooms fearlessly. I saw teens volunteering at an SPCA stand Outside the mall, warmly holding and petting Dogs and cats and chatting with customers And I thought we don’t give teens enough credit. I saw the sun setting gloriously as I left work The colors stunning a...

“Cherish your solitude. Take trains by yourself to places you have never been. Sleep out alone under the stars. Learn how to drive a stick shift. Go so far away that you stop being afraid of not coming back. Say no when you don’t want to do something. Say yes if your instincts are strong, even if everyone around you disagrees. Decide whether you want to be liked or admired. Decide if fitting in is more important than finding out what you’re doing here. Believe in kissing.”   ―   Eve Ensler, Playwright/Author/Activist

In a magnificent poem by Stephen Dunn there are these lines: “The world thought I didn’t understand it, but I did, knew that to parse was to narrow and to narrow was to live one good way. Awash with desire I also knew a little was plenty and more than I deserved. And because I was guilty long before any verdict, my dreams unspeakable, I hunkered down and buttoned up, ready to give the world, if I had to give it anything, no more than a closed-mouth kiss.” It is that closing off to the world, to people, to ourselves, that diminishes life. The world thinks we don’t understand this, but we do. We just too often don’t admit it to ourselves. It is a scary business to live wide open, exposed, accessible, revealing our true thoughts and living by longings and knowledge, insights and beliefs and identity we own and refuse to deny or disguise. How easy it is though, how tempting, to give in to the pressure to live “hunkered down and buttoned u...

What I Believe (Not an exhaustive list) I believe in autumn with its cozy evenings and crisp mornings, its falling leaves and fading colors, its slow pace and its call to long forgotten memories. I believe in movies and the movie theater with its dark anticipation and couples huddled around a box of popcorn sharing a large soda, its giant screen and high back seats, its opportunity for escape and the chance to be transformed in 90 minutes. I believe in children with their shining eyes and raspy voices and endless giggles, their open arms and sparkling unblemished hearts, their enduring energy and their flawless uninterrupted sleep. I believe in the Christmas of my childhood with its manger scene beneath the tree, its limited gifts, its shiny foil icicles, its wintry feel, its reverence for something no marketing scheme could ever match. I believe in Roe vs. Wade, in Gay rights including the right to marry, in Equal Rights, in Civil Rights, in a woman’s right to choose with...

In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy, Linus, and Charlie Brown are resting on the lawn one afternoon looking at the clouds.  Lucy speaks: “Aren't the clouds beautiful? They look like big balls of cotton. I could just lie here all day, and watch them drift by.  If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations. What do you think you see, Linus?" "Well, those clouds up there look like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean... that cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor...and that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the stoning of Stephen...I can see the apostle Paul standing there to one side." "Uh huh. That's very good. What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?" "Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsy, but I changed my mind!”   I’m with Charlie Brown today.  I’m looking for the simple things in life.  Most of everythi...

The Archipelago of Kisses We live in a modern society. Husbands and wives don't grow on trees, like in the old days. So where does one find love? When you're sixteen it's easy, like being unleashed with a credit card in a department store of kisses. There's the first kiss. The sloppy kiss. The peck. The sympathy kiss. The backseat smooch. The we shouldn't be doing this kiss. The but your lips taste so good kiss. The bury me in an avalanche of tingles kiss. The I wish you'd quit smoking kiss. The I accept your apology, but you make me really mad sometimes kiss. The I know your tongue like the back of my hand kiss. As you get older, kisses become scarce. You'll be driving home and see a damaged kiss on the side of the road, with its purple thumb out. If you were younger, you'd pull over, slide open the mouth's red door just to see how it fits. Oh where does one find love? If you rub two glances, you get a smile. Rub two smiles, you...