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That is Swimming

First, you submerge into a different world. That’s the way I was taught. Sink. Quiet descends. The world turns cloudy, blurred. Bend your knees. Curl your legs and press your toes against the wall. Stretch your arms forward, cross your hands into a vee. Push off. You are an arrow cutting through the water. Take a breath, quick, under your...

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My New Pair of Wings

My favorite wings are the silver and brown leather wings I bought for myself several years ago. Christmas had arrived, and all the years of my childhood, Christmas meant new wings. Bright-colored jeans and a long sleeve snap shirt and cap guns in their holsters, too. Maybe I was nostalgic or maybe I was feeling sorry for myself, but I wanted a new...

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The Gaze of Compassion

“Imagine the moment when the presence of Great Love gazes with compassion on the parts of me with which I struggle.” This prompt was brought to us by a member of our Contemplative Writing Group gathering. At the time, all-consuming Great Stress filled my life; I struggled to remember Great Love. So writing contemplatively on the gaze...

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Love Lives On

This week, our family lost a loved one. The funeral was heart-wrenching. An incredible light, gone far too soon. But joy too. Gratitude for having her, the delight she was on this earth. One thing I know from the service: love lives on. For the nine hour drive to-and-from the funeral, rain pounded. Windshield wipers flailing, me squinting to...

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Wild Poems

My emotions rocklike wavesa victim of forces uncontrolled. My heart singsLord, it’s beautiful.How does that calm survive the chaos? Purple Martins fly,Ripe plums bend branches.Beautiful brick marcheswhere grass grows green.We will all be okay. A jigsaw of cloudsWhat looks forebodingcreates contrast, warning us,“We are alive.” We...

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That Humming is You

No one is getting out of this alive. The flow will continue after you, it never stops. Don’t dam it. Jump into the stream. Don’t struggle. Roll. Submerge. Stopper your ears and listen. That humming is you, your life energy. What you bring into the world. Once you are gone, that particular humming will stop. Love it. Marvel in it....

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Ode to Mud

My first love was mud. In the backyard of the pink house in Denver on the corner of a street lined with other one-story tract houses, my little family lived. Mother didn’t plant, Daddy Joe didn’t garden. The bushes were scarce and scraggly, whatever the developer had set in the ground. Untended, like three-year-old me in the springtime yard in my...

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