Afternoon Matinee

 

Shadows grow longer

as I gaze from work's upper story windows

down onto the coiffed grounds

where a silhouetted,

more quiet, bronze-orange afternoon

takes the place of the earlier

energetic, effervescent morning.

 

The days are shorter

even with the same hours always given;

yet light is more quickly upstaged

by the dusk-to-dark act.

 

Lingering and looking

At the matinee performance of light and shadows

I am wistful and full of memories. . . .

 

 

 

While the warmth of the western sunshine

pours through my picturesque porthole to the outside,

I ponder, worship,

and feel grateful for a moment more.

 

 

Then moving on to all that awaits me the rest of my day

I pick up the pace

before darkness falls.
 

 

Unburdened

The unanswers, anxieties,

and clamor of things

that need plans laid

and  decisions made took a back seat as I walked

from my car to work's door this morning.

Startled from my self-absorption, I noticed

color had arrived in the many trees
dotting the campus.
Reds, oranges, and yellows amid the fading green--
all against a backdrop of sky blue.
The morning breeze scurried leaves
in swirls on the ground,
and the morning sun poured
through the colander of trees
creating shadows and shafts of dancing light.

I looked and saw,

tasted and knew
God is good.

This  masterpiece morning reminded me that

the Master Artist, the ever-present I AM
knows, sees, and acts
in this world,
in the pain,
in the present,
in my life.

With morning and all its color, light, and gust

giving my face a last caress
before I entered a day's worth of insideness,
I smiled grateful for hope anew.

 

by ckh --  experienced at Baptist Health-North Little Rock 11/10/14

Softening the Less

 No child

nor spouse

nor mother

nor father

do I hold in my arms.

So when

I pick you up

and bury my face in your fur

smelling the scent of chimney smoke

from your night air jaunt,

I smile.

A little joy and lots of love

fill up the vacancy in my heart--

softening the less,

giving me more

just because you

nudge your head

against my lips for one more kiss

on the tip of your ear.

You will not always be.

But for now you keep

the cold of lonely away,

at least for one more day.

(. . . regarding ztc)