Missing

March 23

MISSING

The good times we never had but should have, the pleasantries I endured waiting for the pleasure.  I remembered your potential with fondness.  The days, weeks and years I waited for you to grow to me have passed, and yet--- time is what I have, not you.  Hope is a wonderful thing until it turns on me and bites.  Images I built have tumbled and colors wash from your portrait.  I carefully remind myself it’s the idea of you I miss, not you.

Practice your manners on yourself.

*

Water Buddha

The longer on the river I am

the less I fear the river.

I still don’t know what lay ahead,

anything may wait for me

just around the next bend,

but I fear this less and less.

Experience is a great foundation

no matter what you are building

or in which direction.

I’ve gotten my sea-legs,

a sure sign of the mind cooperating

with the realities the body is experiencing.

I have learned to avoid some forms of trouble

and anticipate fortune more often.

Further on could be a waterfall, ocean or dam;

I will contend with any or all, come what may,

for when it comes to riding the river

I have learned the most important thing:

I don’t need to push.

You are reading selections from Sober on the Way to Sane and More Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault

http://www.amazon.com/Sober-On-The-Way-Sane/dp/1440417342/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388576888&sr=8-1&keywords=sober+on+the+way+to+sane

http://www.amazon.com/More-Lines-From-My-Life/dp/1448677203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388576956&sr=8-1&keywords=More+Lines+From+My+Life

The Story as a Stowaway

November 20

The Story as a Stowaway

I want to tell you a story, but I want to tell it to you quickly, so I can give it to you and then you can carry it on your way.  For what good is my story to you if you must leave it where it lay?  Your need to be elsewhere presses on us both and I wish to give you what you can take rather than to try to stall you here for an epic you might never lift and certainly not dream of dragging along.  I want you to be on your way and take a part of me with you.  I wish to sew myself in your mind; tether my tale to your soul.  I believe in forward motion and the need to carry on.  Where you’re going I can’t go on my own but I know that if I am funny, quick and lite, part of me goes even to the end of your world and my hope is to help you make it bright.

Apprentice yourself to collaboration

*

MIRACULOUS

Sometimes the blind lead the deaf.
The subtle signs are the bumping into trouble
And the inability to listen to reason.
It is an expedition into disaster.

Unfettered by common sense or boundaries
Tumbles and falls propel this pairing
To unknown destinations.
The attraction is baffling but undeniable.

These pairs can be seen through the ages.
In spite of this confounding coupling
Sometimes the blind find their way
And the deaf hear the call.

Even when they don’t life seems to roll along
But try to keep your eyes and ears open anyway.

You are reading selections from More Sober on the Way to Sane and Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault

http://www.amazon.com/More-Sober-The-Way-Sane/dp/144141231X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1374072329&sr=8-3&keywords=sober+on+the+way+to+sane

http://www.amazon.com/Lines-My-Life-Sherrie-Theriault/dp/1448652820/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374072576&sr=1-1&keywords=Lines+from+my+life%2C+Sherrie+theriault

Uggs

November 8

Uggs

This is a big hurdle until it becomes a little step.  I will struggle with it as long as it takes for me to see it as something I can conquer a bit at a time, then, often as if by magic, it will melt into curbside snow and I can slosh through it in my boots.  I am vanquishing obstacles, which seemed insurmountable mere months ago.  I am not so much stronger than I was, but I have stopped feeding the weakness in my mind and this has made all the difference.

Accelerate your willingness

*

FLORAL TROPHIES

Captured pet plants grow in my window
Why these specimens are given such regal care
I suspect but can’t explain.

Delicate shoots pile out of sturdy stalks
Roots force the confines of my decorative pots
How many neighborly blooming faces
Stare into my kitchen greeting me mornings

I am amazed what good company
My leafy friends can be when I am loving myself.
Advantageous to my mental health
I breathe their exhaust and they breathe mine.

Symbiotic we live
I grow and flower
Grateful these plants keep me.

You are reading selections from More Sober on the Way to Sane and Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault

http://www.amazon.com/More-Sober-The-Way-Sane/dp/144141231X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1374072329&sr=8-3&keywords=sober+on+the+way+to+sane

http://www.amazon.com/Lines-My-Life-Sherrie-Theriault/dp/1448652820/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374072576&sr=1-1&keywords=Lines+from+my+life%2C+Sherrie+theriault

Floral Trophies

November 21

FLORAL TROPHIES

Captured pet plants grow in my window.  Why these specimens are given such regal care I suspect, but can’t explain.  Delicate shoots pile out of sturdy stalks; roots force the confines of my decorative pots.  How many neighborly blooming faces stare into my kitchen, greeting me mornings?  I am amazed what good company my leafy friends can be when I am loving myself.  Advantageous to my mental health, I breathe their exhaust and they breathe mine.  Symbiotic, we live.  I grow and flower; grateful these plants keep me.

Allow also small dreams that fit in your hand.

*

Jet Lagging

Baby’s feet kick in the isle

and we are all cocooned in our seats.

The movies play and earphones dangle in our ears.

We are jetting across the country in our own little worlds.

Landing can not happen soon enough for me,

not that I want to foreshorten the flight.

I just know I have a stack of lives waiting for me

and I would like to get back to living them.

I have been a week away, a vacation for sure and true

but I have my keep to earn, my obligations are many.

I hope to have done myself proud when I am through,

but until then there is much to do.