Posted in Uncategorized, tagged attunement, beauty, calendula, strength on October 1, 2020| 6 Comments »
I want to meet the world
the way these calendula blossoms
meet the cold.
While everything around them
has wilted or browned,
they lift up their gold and orange faces
like bright earthbound suns—
not with some agenda
to make the world a better place,
but because they are doing
what they are made to do—
to be soft yet resilient,
beautiful and tough,
to carry inside themselves
the seeds for more beauty,
and, when the time comes,
spill them everywhere.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged courage, mint, strength, tea on April 7, 2020| 4 Comments »
Tonight, courage is the voice
of the mint tea as it lends its strength,
its green to the water.
It’s no small thing
to infuse something else
with warmth, with sweetness.
All day, I’ve wanted to be bolder.
All day, I’ve felt unsure
of what comes next.
The mint says yes, says drink,
says rest. Says, a small kick
can do a lot. The mint says,
one way to get stronger
is patience. It soothes me,
it helps me to sit
and feel what I feel
this smooth tea—
subtle, strong enough.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged daughter, humanness, mother, parenting, poem, poetry, strength on November 3, 2019| 4 Comments »
It surprises me she is fragile,
this woman who labored for eighteen hours
to birth me, this woman who cared for me
every time I was sick, who coached
my soccer team, who led my Girl Scout troupe.
This woman who went hunting and fishing
and still often comes home with the biggest
catch. This woman who walked ten miles
to raise money for hunger. This woman
who prays for everyone, everyone.
And so tonight when I walk her
to her room and she needs to stop
a moment to catch her breath,
I marvel at how human she is,
this woman who has been more
than human to me my whole life—
a super hero, a champion, a star.
And somehow, knowing this, and
understanding that it’s been true all along,
I fall even more deeply in love with her
as she leans back on the bed, lets out
a long sigh, closes her eyes, and smiles.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged delilah, poem, poetry, samson, strength on March 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »
I didn’t know I would love you more
when you were no longer strong—
you were so tender then, and soft.
And gone. They wouldn’t let me keep your hair.
I kept a strand anyway. I wear it
in a locket chained around my neck.
Sometimes I am strong enough
to open it. Sometimes I am strong enough
to weep for what was lost.