Thoughts and Photographs from the West Coast
A wandering agnostic amongst a sea of Easter hats
no hat to call my own, moments captured
hardly convey this half way house,
this purgatory on parade.
Turning, Turning…
I move through cobbled streets
and find no spot to settle
a restless dog rotating above it’s bed.
Salvation is offered
at the tip of a blue laced finger
I pass, move forward …
but give an upward glance
as Magic forms above
on this Louisiana morning.
photo credit westcoastwomanWe crawl paved arteries,
Protective metal shells
Inch their way forward
No bumper stickers here
Metal emblems shout our allegiances.
“Oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz”
The City called last week….
should have let it go
to Voice Mail.
Screen all talk of departures,
Words that draw me back.
“Dialing for dollars is trying to find me”
Retracing walkways now paved
with distant memories,
New eyes open to reveal
familiar tender traps
laid with immaculate precision.
“Prove that you love me and buy the next round”
Early light… dust of snow
I walk as the city sleeps,
Soft footsteps join my path
Coyote and I share a gaze
Half domestic, half wild, still untamed
We stand, lost in translation.
Eyes unlock
heads turn
together the step
in the same direction.
“I’m counting on you Lord, please don’t let me down”
photo credit west coast woman
J.S.
photo credit west coast woman
unknown photographer
Searching for the right words to describe a ‘moment in time’ and you discover someone already found and assembled them for you…..
She Let Go
by Safire Rose
She let go.
She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.
She let go of the fear.
She let go of judgements.
She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around in her head.
She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons.
Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.
She didn’t ask for advice.
She didn’t read a book on how to let go.
She didn’t search the scriptures.
She just let go.
She let go of all of the memories that held her back.
She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.
She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.
She didn’t promise to let go.
She didn’t journal about it.
She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer.
She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.
She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.
She just let go.
She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.
She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.
She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.
She didn’t call the Prayer Line.
She didn’t utter one word.
She just let go.
No one was around when it happened.
There was no applause or congratulations.
No one thanked or praised her.
No one noticed a thing.
Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.
There was no effort.
There was no struggle.
It wasn’t good, and it wasn’t bad.
It was what it was, and it is just that.
In the space of letting go, she let it all be.
A small smile came over her face.
A light breeze blew through her.
And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…..
As if in reply
to an unformed question
illusion of secure
grounded, stable
is revealed
perhaps reformed
Life nursing life
Foundations on shifting sand
surrenders, exposes
no safe haven
no inland retreat
life recalculating
Trickster emerges
Coyote, Raven
New vision. New rules.
No limits…
Co-operators are standing by,
“Woof, Woof, wanna play?”
Finally free
of the Walled City
layers shed, what’s unearthed
will not be contained
My heart full
My arms empty
Tumbled to the shore
of a year waiting to be born,
In surrender, longing
to commune
and so commun-icate
wordless but understood
language of the Sea
message of the waves.
unknown photographer
Walking and watching the River yesterday, the power of nature, constant movement, wearing away, giving in. Photographs and words hardly touch it, “there is the trying though”….
River
Shapes stone, cuts stone,
Banks and bottoms
Nothing escapes the reach,
the filing down, the silky caress
water seeking touch, truth,
the constant Reveal
what is hidden, Exposed.
Three a.m.
thoughts, inspirations,
no escaping the raw Reveal,
comfort knowing others
are Awake
giving in
to the flow, tumbling,
releasing, realizing,
You Can’t Push the River
There is the trying though,
interior ache
screams it’s message
mouth and arms stretch open
breast exposed
All exposed
shape, cut, touch , caress
reveal, Allow
The Run of the River.
