The Vibrant Channeled Creator

Girl in the Doorway
by Dorianne Laux
She is twelve now, the door to her room


closed, telephone cord trailing the hallway


in tight curls. I stand at the dryer, listening

through the thin wall between us, her voice

rising and falling as she describes her new life.

Static flies in brief blue stars from her socks,


her hairbrush in the morning. Her silver braces


shine inside the velvet case of her mouth.


Her grades rise and fall, her friends call


or they don’t, her dog chews her new shoes


to a canvas pulp. Some days she opens her door


and musk rises from the long crease in her bed,


fills the dim hall. She grabs a denim coat


and drags the floor. Dust swirls in gold eddies


behind her. She walks through the house, a goddess,


each window pulsing with summer. Outside,


the boys wait for her teeth to straighten.


They have a vibrant patience.


When she steps onto the front porch, sun shimmies


through the tips of her hair, the V of her legs,


fans out like wings under her arms


as she raises them and waves. Goodbye, Goodbye.


Then she turns to go, folds up


all that light in her arms like a blanket


and takes it with her.

“Girl in the Doorway” by Dorianne Laux from Awake. © Eastern Washington University Press, 2007. Reprinted by permission. 

Shadra

Mind

Mind your business
That comes to mind

Do you mind if I hold the door for you?
Do you mind if I drive from the back of the car?

Private schools develop a regal mind.
Mind your p’s and q’s!

No I don’t mind.
I mind revenge.

You fill my mind with rainbows!
You empty my mind with heart beats.

You are mindfully polite.
I am mindfully thoughtful.

I never mind your body sounds.
God bless you for them!

Poland
5/1/23

SUNDAY APRIL 30, 2023
 
 “The matter of equality in dignity asks us to rethink many aspects of our relations, which are decisive for evangelization. For example, are we aware of the fact that with our words we can undermine the dignity of people, thus ruining relationships within the Church? While we try to engage in dialogue with the world, do we also know how to dialogue among ourselves as believers? Or in the parish, one person goes against another, one speaks badly of another in order to climb up further? Do we know how to listen to understand another person’s reasons, or do we impose ourselves, perhaps even with appeasing words? To listen, to be humble, to be at the service of others: this is serving, this is being Christian, this is being an apostle.” 
Pope Francis

If you see Psalm 23, you feel watched and cared for. “You are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” A crisis can break our defenses. There is green water in time of struggles.The holy shepherd calls us each by name.The sheep intermingle with the shepherd. He calls and they follow. I am a follower of Christ on still water. We are attentive to God and have life in abundance.We are called to reconciliation, trust and courage. We find rest in His peace!

SATURDAY APRIL 29, 2023
 
 “We discover we are children of God at the moment we discover we are brothers and sisters, children of the same Father. This is why it is essential to be part of a journeying community. No one goes to the Lord alone. In God, no act of love, no matter how small, and no generous effort will ever be lost. Just as we recognize a tree by its fruit, so a life filled with good deeds is enlightening and carries the fragrance of Christ into the world.” 
Pope Francis

Come Home to Yourself

When I first heard the Buddhist description of hungry ghosts — beings with stomachs as big as caves and throats as narrow as pins — I was positive I was going straight to hell as a hungry ghost. After all, this was an exact description of my experience with food. And not just with food, but also with life.

After years of being haunted by this image, I think I’ve figured out what the hunger is about. It’s about missing my own life. It’s about having food (both physical and emotional) right there, and not being able to taste it because my attention is somewhere else. We’re all walking around hungry for an elusive something, and we’re missing the very thing that could fill us: showing up, being present in our own lives.

 
My friend James, a frequent curmudgeon and always successful businessman, recently told me he was amazed to realize that when he was lifting his foot and was actually aware of lifting it, he was completely happy. He said, “I know this sounds odd, but I feel the kind of happy I only thought I could be if the deal I am working on were to come through next week. I mean, the kind of happy that gives happiness its good name.”

James was talking about showing up for his own life, feeling alive. When he was aware of his everyday movements, he felt that all of him was living his life, instead of his mind being off planning his next meeting while his body was walking, riding in the car, or climbing stairs. James was talking about a quality that we already have because we are born with it. It is called presence — being (body, mind, and soul) where you are and feeling it.

Every day, we open our eyes, get out of bed, eat breakfast, brush our teeth, talk to our families, do our work. And most of the time, our minds are somewhere else. When we get out of bed, we are thinking about something we should have done yesterday; when we talk to our children, we are thinking about the phone call we need to make; when we walk to the bathroom, we are thinking about the chocolate we shouldn’t have eaten. Or want to eat. Or are going to eat. Or how great our lives are going to be when we lose weight or get a promotion or fall in love.  …

But Geneen Roth tells us: “When you are present, nothing is missing. Time seems to stretch. A day seems like a week, like a year”

At the Station
by Anya Krugovoy Silver

When the girl got off the train at the college town,

she leapt up and wrapped her legs around the waist

of the boy she’d come to visit, and they spun

around, embracing and shrieking with joy.

Their love set off a piccolo’s vibration.

Those years are gone for us—I see you every day,

we eat meals together from decades-old plates.

But when we lie in bed at night, you take my hand

and I feel the orb that’s formed around us tighten,

while you and I, like knitting needles in a ball

of yarn, lie beside each other, fingers touching.

“At the Station” by Anya Krugovoy Silver from nothing. © Louisiana State University Press, 2016. Reprinted with permission. 

WEDNESDAY APRIL 26, 2023
 
 “The Lord is happy whenever we open ourselves to him. There is a good way of doing this, it consists of dedicating some time, every evening, to a brief examination of conscience. We can begin today, to dedicate this evening a moment of prayer during which we ask ourselves: how was my day? What were its joys, what were its sorrows, what were its mundanities, what happened? What were the pearls of the day, possibly hidden, to be thankful for? Was there a little love in what I did? And what are the falls, the sadness, the doubts and fears to bring to Jesus so that He can open new ways to me, to learn gradually to look at things with different eyes, with his eyes and not just our own. May Mary, wise Virgin, help us to recognize Jesus who walks with us and to reread- the word: re-read – every day of our life in front of him.” 
Pope Francis
 

Enough

The Necessary Brevity of Pleasures
by Samuel Hazo

Prolonged, they slacken into pain
   

or sadness in accordance with the law


   of apples.
            One apple satisfies.


Two apples cloy.
                     

Three apples
  

 glut.
        

 Call it a tug-of-war between enough and more
   

than enough, between sufficiency


   and greed, between the stay-at-homers


   and globe-trotting see-the-worlders.


Like lovers seeking heaven in excess,


   the hopelessly insatiable forget
   

how passion sharpens appetites

   that gross indulgence numbs.

Result?
         

      The haves have not
   

what all the have-nots have
   

since much of having is the need


to have.
               

Even my dog

   knows that—and more than that.


He slumbers in a moon of sunlight,


  scratches his twitches and itches

   in measure, savors every bite


   of grub with equal gratitude


  and stays determinedly in place


   unless what’s suddenly exciting
   

   happens.
               

Viewing mere change
   as threatening, he relishes a few


   undoubtable and proven pleasures


   to enjoy each day in sequence


   and with canine moderation.


They’re there for him in waiting,
 

  and he never wears them out.

 

“The Necessary Brevity of Pleasures” by Samuel Hazo from A Flight to Elsewhere. © Autumn House Press, 2005. Reprinted by permission. 

TUESDAY APRIL 25, 2023
 
 “Before Christ’s love, even that which seems wearisome and unsuccessful can appear under another light: a difficult cross to embrace, the decision to forgive an offence, a missed opportunity for redress, the toil of work, the sincerity that comes at a price, and the trials of family life can appear to us in a new light, the light of the Crucified and Risen, who knows how to turn every fall into a step forward. But to do this, it is important to drop our defenses: to leave time and space for Jesus, not to hide anything from him, to bring him our miseries, to let ourselves be wounded by his truth, to let our heart vibrate at the breath of his Word.” 
Pope Francis

 Garrison,

This ongoing optimistic outlook from you lately makes me wonder if your ophthalmologist also gave you rose-colored glasses.

I’m wondering if this is just your natural disposition or whether you had some sort of recent awakening.

I’d like to know how I can get some of what you have.

from Mark Thomas
—

from Garrison Keillor:

I spend less time reading the news

and more time writing limericks.

I wrote one for Bruce, in fact:

An orno-ophthalmologist Bruce
Made specs for a Canada goose
So the V in his view
Was not a W
And the poor bird

Got to stay with the herd
And not become a recluse.

 MONDAY APRIL 24, 2023 

 “It is important to reread our history together with Jesus: the story of our life, of a certain period, of our days, with its disappointments and hopes. Besides, we too, like the disciples can find ourselves lost in the face of these events, alone and uncertain, with many questions and worries, disappointments, many things. Today’s Gospel invites us to tell Jesus everything, sincerely, without being afraid of disturbing him: he listens; without fear of saying the wrong thing, without shame at our struggle to understand. The Lord is happy whenever we open ourselves to him; only in this way can he take us by the hand, accompany us and make our hearts burn again

(cf. Lk 24:13-35).” 

Pope Francis

Graphic by Walter Koessler

April Hurts

by Jeanne Poland

All rights

4/22/23

Yesterday

the birds off my desk

shrieked with pain.

April hurts!

Woodpeckers

drilled a cave

staccato. style.

sweet wood.

Gold finches

lighted on the feeder

pecked the seeds.

Black birds

surveyed the fray

Lorded over!

Smaller birds

fled the sight

Balconies above!

The pecking order

reigned!

  FRIDAY APRIL 21, 2023
 
 “The treasure we have received with our Christian vocation, we are obliged to give: it is the dynamic nature of the vocation, the dynamic nature of life. Just as we recognize a tree by its fruit, so a life filled with good deeds is enlightening and carries the fragrance of Christ into the world. Let us set out each day praying for one another, working together as witnesses of the peace of Jesus, by persevering in the same journey by our practical acts of charity and unity. In all things, let us love one another from the heart.” 
Pope Francis

The world is as beautiful as ever though we live in a strange time of outrageous political fevers, a dysfunctional Congress intent on partisan thwacking while basic governmental obligations go unaddressed because they don’t make lights flash and bells ding. House Republicans seem focused on paranoid conspiracies, compared to which, Richard M. Nixon was an honest and upright public servant worthy of having a statue of him in a public square.
If I thought ahead ten or twenty years, I could easily despair for the country, but at my age one lives in the present and so the encounter with the ophthalmologist looms large in my experience. She is smart and funny and kind and she accomplishes good in this world and I doubt that she got there by having out-of-body experiences. She paid attention in school and somehow became fascinated by the human eye and attained skills to make a huge difference in the lives of little kids.
Clarity. I am grateful for it. I don’t need head trips or expansion of consciousness. The best minds of my generation were not destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked angel headed hipsters looking for a fix, some of them became heart surgeons and ophthalmologists and thanks to them I walk in the park and look at the beautiful people and love America for the goodness and fascinating varieties of individualism all around. Thank you, Dr. Science.
Garrison Keillor
4/21/23