“Our deepest fears are like dragons, guarding our deepest treasures.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

I love Rumi, Emily Dickinson and Longfellow. Who can turn away from anything written by Kipling or Dickens? Who hasn’t read Poe, Shakespeare or Whitman? We had to in school and I wasn’t a fan. I never understood it.

Whereas, now, I am profoundly moved by poetry. In my very recent youth, I found it too esoteric. However, I have found there is a beauty to the cadence, symbolism and energy of scant words used in abstract and metaphorical ways that intrigues me these days. I believe this has to do with the freedom plus the wisdom having lived this long bestows me. Moreover, I find poetry attracts and calls to me even more than story occasionally when melancholy or frustration hits.

Perhaps it’s the depth and the power of poetry. Or the rhythm and sound of it. Maybe it’s the way words are used so differently and put together in seemingly haphazard ways that all of a sudden make sense to me.

Who can dispute Rumi’s love of love and life? Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you or when describing his being smitten with, no one knew who was the lover and who the beloved.

Alone in her room, failing time and again to publish her poems Emily Dickinson writes, I dwell in possibility and to live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

If you haven’t read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, you are missing out. He wrote outstanding epic tales in lyrical form like The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline.

I would recommend re-visiting these poets and more if you have never enjoyed them before. I believe there was and is a certain maturity and level of introspection that all this chaos of the last few years (not to mention the verbal and physical violence and brutality that is all around us as if it was normal) have helped us seek if even a little, self-reflection and awareness. Poetry will make sense of it all for the exact reason that innocence denies the dark and poetry transforms it for us.

“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be”. – Maya Angelou

Oh Maya! Always on point and a reminder for my spiritual path on earth.

The ideal Authentic path for me would be to live with integrity, intuition, intelligence, intention, inspiration, involvement and with an Itinerary. I fail time and again to hit and check off all these boxes, but this is the dream. This is what would make me amazing.

To live with integrity is to do the right thing even when no one is watching.

To live with intuition is to listen to my gut and my first impulse for kindness instead of over analyzing with my logic or inner censors.

To live with intelligence is to check in with the present moment and not allow future tripping or distortion of reality by believing propaganda or lies.

To live with intention is to know right from wrong and follow the path of goodness.

To live with inspiration is to imagine a world of love, trust and respect for all sentient beings and Mother Earth.

To live with involvement is to participate and add to community, connecting with others, being of service and helping not hurting the collective.

To live with an itinerary is to actually have a plan and a timetable.

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud” – Maya Angelou

I can at least endeavor to make someone’s day. That is amazing too.

One of my favorite things is to write with my hands around a pen and hear it scrape across the paper. Even gel pens have a sound.

I can’t imagine dipping into an inkwell just as the younger generations can’t imagine hours of practicing cursive. I am glad my kids were exposed to cursive handwriting before it stopped being taught in schools. It will become a lost art just as pretty journals and day planners become an extension of one’s creativity and more like a hobby.

It’s the pull and push of life. The friction and the smooth release. The tension and the languid exhale.

For Christmas recently, my friend P sent me a puzzle of baby Yoda in a Santa suit. That got me on a tear and I have since put together many puzzles of 100-750 pieces and been gifted a felt puzzle wooden table that you set up on a slant with 4 drawers to parse out however you want to organize your pieces. I prefer making the frame first and then assign pieces to each drawer according to color.

I have since that day also gifted puzzles and we are sharing them once solved for the next person. One thousand piece puzzles await in a drawer for that day when I feel I have some experience and success behind me.

Meanwhile, so far after around eight completed puzzles, have lost one piece in just two. They are like socks. No one knows what happens to them. They just disappeared.