Okay, I’ve been derelict.

I think I’ve thawed out.  The winter got me though.  You would think I would have spent the time writing.  Sometimes it just doesn’t do for me.  Sometimes I let myself funk out.  You know what I mean.  You’ve been there.  Honestly, this was probably one of the toughest times I’ve spent with myself.  By myself.  It’s good to spend time by yourself.  But enough is enough.  Things are starting to brighten up and the big yellow orb seems to be showing itself more and more. That’s a good thing as Martha Stewart would say.  I’m going to leave you with a peice of prose and poetry I wrote sometime ago and I hope they give you a lift.

                                                  “Nature’s circle”

                                                              By-John Walker                      1/1/00

Birdsong splits the silence

Sunrays caress the blades of green

Warm breezes rustle busily

Waking up this glorious scene

Exploding bulbs peak from beneath

And puncture through to light

Shade and shadow escape lights rays

To come another night.

The canopy, alive with life,

Stretches to the blue

And flaps it’s farthest reaches

To rid the morning dew

Which spirals down like sparkling tears

To soften up the ground,

And give the roots a watering

They’re happy to have found

The chorus becomes more pronounced

As sunrays warms us all

The songs build to crescendo

And then weave and fall.

Little ones peak out beneath

Their protective lairs

Beginning once again

Putting on playful airs.

Creatures stir of all kinds

Some we cannot see

And all of this brings morning song

For likes of you and me.

Sing, oh bird, play you squirrels,

And feed on what you’ve found

Bring us joy in watching you

Till night sneaks back around.

                                                Embrace your Child

There is a child in all of us, young with energy to spare.

It moves the dusty old limbs of the tree gone stiff and manages to sprout a few green shoots from time to time.

Embrace your child.

Search him/her out.

Find pleasure in the innocence of discovery again.

Search your memory for dreams long since abandoned.

Forget for a moment what you’ve been told or taught about how unrealistic those dreams were.

Discover them anew.

Act on them now with the experience you’ve gained since having them and no matter how farfetched they seem, hold them to the light of your scrutiny to see them in their true elemental innocence.

Feel the excitement of the process as your thoughts carry you through the possibilities they promote. 

Bring that youthful optimism back to your resigned reality.

Surrender to the exercise.

Embrace those dreams that you’ve kept locked up in your “someday” box.

Feel your pulse quicken.

We’ve invented these responsibilities of adulthood.

We’ve capped our optimistic view of what could be.

We’ve settled for the way things are.

We’ve suppressed this child long enough!

The one who was happy to whittle on a piece of wood.

The one who found pleasure in looking with wonder on a bug crawling across the floor.

The one who couldn’t wait to go out in the snow and get wet and freezing cold and then experience the love and warmth of a mother doetting over us, plying us with hot chocolate, admiring our snow fort from the warmth of the kitchen.

Be that child in you again, who for hours could find a use for the box that boring gift came all wrapped up in.

Throw off those thoughts of responsibility for a while today and take a moment to sit under a tree and just listen. 

Think about what you’d like to do when you grow up.

Just use an hour or two for you.

The end of that innocence has only come because you have let it escape.

It’s still there tucked away in the corner of your minds eye and can be a blessing if you’ll only let it overcome the needs of having to get things done.

You have plenty of time for the statesman, warrior, or industrialist to do their bidding, but you need to find the child again or all your well laid plans and goals will have little meaning.

Accomplishment will never take the place of the magic that is seen through this child’s eyes and the discovery that looking on the surroundings with a youthful attitude of possibility can bring.

Like the family dog, who will never be more than a pup, we have a child within us that will never be more than a child no matter how old, knowledgeable, or jaded we become.

Embracing that child, for its energy, enthusiasm, and optimism about what could be, will carry you through the toughest times and help you in miraculous ways!

Sing!

Dance!

Ponder!

And Wonder again.

Light hearted you’ll find yourself, and with that, laugh at what unreal pressures you’ve brought upon yourself.

Seek the child and grow.

Age will become an indifferent consequence of new possibilities!

….well there you have it….Hope you have an extraordinary day!

John

Jw 12/24/00