The Longest Walk

Photo: Sue Vincent

 

She rose with the sun, her brow still damp with the essence of dream. Soon enough her feet were, too, from dew and from the small drops of silence that mornings bring.

There was little to say, and much space to accompany.

It was a good day.

It had to be.

There will be time much later on, for all the things she might still need, and all the words she may still say, and all the sorrows she no longer wished to borrow.

In the meanwhile, she walked on, crushing dandelions, breathing lavender.

The fields stretched ahead as the disc of light leaned hot against the sky. The air shimmered, dancing in the sun.

Or wavering.

It would not matter, in the long run.

She walked on.

Eventually she’d have to turn around, retrace her steps, return into the pace of tending, bending, sending, lending, fending.

And it would still be a good day.

For the dawn poured the generous morn into her, washing her, filling her, scenting her soul. Step by breath by step by breath, immersed into the longest walk her present moment could recall.

 

 

For Sue Vincent’s WritePhoto

 

 

Delicate Rest

ButterflyRest R.RZ

Photo: R. RZ

 

Take a moment

To rest

Ere you once more

Take flight.

Let the weariest

Parts

Lean their weight

With foresight,

For the breath

That will come

Delicate

In the light.

 

 

For the Tuesday Photo Challenge: Rest

 

 

Pensive Park

before i die PhilipCoons

Photo: Philip Coons

 

In a park, on a lawn,  by a

Trail

This board aimless wander

Curtails,

And the question it

Raises

Brings along varied

Phrases.

What would your heart

Assign

If you saw such a

Sign?

 

 

For Kammie’s Oddball Challenge

 

Notable Moment

child view OsnatHalperinBarlev

Photo: Osnat Halperin-Barlev

 

In the lush-rush of life

In between breath and sigh

She pressed pause

To take note

What makes special

This time

And all moments

To come.

 

 

For The Daily Post

A Moment in Time

Atara Katz - a moment in time

A moment in time (Photo: Atara Katz)

 

In the pause

Between the breath in

And breath out

There’s a moment

In time

Of

Eternity

Slowed,

All movements

Frozen,

Thawed,

Life

Buoyed.

Before

be-kind-dalai-lama

 

Before you lash out,

Hesitate.

Before you wit your words to punch,

Take pause.

Before you bully to submission

Before you weave a snarky thread

To tie another’s tongue

Before you bask in righteous indignation

Before you bathe in perceived superiority

Of color

Nationality

Views

Beliefs

Affiliation

Possessions

Excess …

Breathe a moment

To consider

And re-assess

The empty value

The pseudo-justification

In power used

To inflict hurt.

 

 

For The Daily Post

Pause

pause_-_chocolat

 

Before you lash out in righteousness to put down someone else,

Pause.

Before you cling-wrap your views against dissent or protest,

Pause.

Before you rush to justify hurtful decisions others’ made,

Pause.

Before you call ‘your’ God the only ‘right one,’

Pause.

Before you claim your nationality inherently superior,

Pause.

Before you blind yourself to others’ pain in a show of pseudo-legality,

Pause.

Before you seek to follow those who leave others behind,

Pause.

Before you point out others’ hate as ‘causing’ yours toward them,

Pause.

Before you rate some lives more worthy of respecting or protecting,

Pause.

Before you stand behind those who object injustice by inflicting it,

Pause.

Before you turn your back on instability you’d contributed to but now blame on others,

Pause.

Before you shrug off bullying, rudeness, disrespect, as “saying like it is,”

Pause.

Before you pack away the sway of facts, veracity, science, reality,

Pause.

Remember,

None of the above need be automatic.

None are the only way,

To live with some decisions you have made

Yet elect to look away from

Now that push has come to shove.

You are better than that.

Your soul will recall compassion.

It still remembers how,

If you just pause.

 

 

Perspective …

Life rushes by.

Essential tasks tick looming.

Hardly a single second left to breathe …

Slow down … take heed …

Even in the midst of chaos,

the heavy endless canyons of dark asphalt,

and sky-high gray concrete,

even in the angry honking of a thousand yellow taxis,

in the press of harried people on the streets,

in the tasks that frustrate waiting,

in the overwhelming wish for time and needs–

Pause now.

Find perspective.

Take a moment.

Change your point of view to rise above

and slow the moment’s speed.

It’s there. Believe.

Even in the concrete jungle

There’s a wide green lung

Awaiting, present; a potential reprieve

A slower pace

A gentler space

Reminding you to pause and breathe …

nyc from above