Archimedes Put a Boulder in my Path

October 28

ARCHIMEDES PUT A BOULDER IN MY PATH

Place a lever under the boulder and press down, never so hard as to warp the lever.  Move the pivot and push under in a new place.  Keep doing this until you have pushed deeply and well from every aspect of the boulder in your path.  This works every time, not because it dislodges the boulder but because it somehow changes me.  The path may also appear different and often the boulder drops from view.  It may not be gone but seems less intractable.  My life goes on.  I have found it important to retain my lever and pivot; there is never just one boulder.

Invent a new greeting.

*

To Your Health

Health is a pleasure;

health restored is celebration

girded with gratitude.

The shock of illness quickly imbeds itself

to an irrefutable unchangeable fact.

When this veil is lifted the body responds with glee,

the soul with relief touched with disbelief.

The satisfaction of being hale is the bedrock

and once this is shaken

its return is nothing more than astonishing.

I am never more aware of the miraculous nature of life

than when I feel alive once more

after having felt the doom of sickness.

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

A Thousand Windowed House

December 26

A Thousand Windowed House

I am like a house with a thousand windows. When I am lit up inside you can see all the way through; when I go dark the reflection of the world around me is all that is visible when you look my way.  My sprawling mind is what creates this effigy of me.  A tribute when I am well tended and a fire trap when I neglect my duties.  If I learn to celebrate in all the rooms this house is my home, so I must practice; dance and sing in the hallways so I can pirouette into the rooms with full voice.   For what is the point of being a house with a thousand windows, if I don’t live there?

Host sympathy

*

Love Lets

Love melts the icicles in my heart

Allows the oxygen to my brain

Lets me work unfettered

Love pours the warm bath

Heats my bones

Lets my breath come easy

Love wakes me to sunrise

Beds me at dusk

Lets my body unfurl

Love builds me a pantry

Fills it with goods

Lets me eat my fill

Love rights my boat

Bails my bilge

Lets me sail on home

Love dresses me in safety

Undresses me in secret

Lets me see myself

Love opens doors

Closes windows

Lets me go my way

Love puts a penny in my hand

A dollar in my pocket

Lets me save the fare

Love burns your image in my brain

Holds you tight within my heart

Lets me dream of you

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

To Your Health

October 29

To Your Health

Health is a pleasure; health restored is celebration girded with gratitude.  The shock of illness quickly imbeds itself to an irrefutable unchangeable fact.  When this veil is lifted the body responds with glee, the soul with relief touched with disbelief.  The satisfaction of being hale is the bedrock and once this is shaken its return is nothing more than astonishing.  I am never more aware of the miraculous nature of life than when I feel alive once more after having felt the doom of sickness.

Throw out ancestral trash

*

QUILTER

What more comfort can exist in the world
Than a conglomeration of turned edges and love?
Fancy stitches or not the assembled world of cloth
Stands testament to devotion and diligence.

Careful collections, meaningful to the collector
And mysterious to the possessor,
Fulfill the primal urge to shelter and be safe.
Time is testimony to endurance.

Thread against thread,
Solidarity is strength embracing flexibility.
The bed of life is made and remade daily
With the affection of kind quilters needles of love.

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

I am not an Island

June 27

I am not an Island

Upon finding myself alive I decided to throw my life back into the sea.  I was not living on this dry and sandy shore.  The baking sun does nothing to improve me.  I was dis-engorged onto the beach, but never belonged there.  I tried to see myself as evolving, tried desperately to sprout some legs.  Sucked air through my gills and attempted to sing, but I am not ready for this today.  Perhaps this is my future, the way the current will carry me that I can’t yet tell.  I do know I need the water on my scales and pressure in my lungs right now. I do not know what tomorrow brings or what I am capable of just that I will not fault myself for not having been born a dove.

Remember that time passes

*

COLD AND FLU SEASON

The spiritual cold and flu season is upon me,

I am awash in reaction and confusion.

I have been overexposed to the dry thinking

And barking orders of the cough

So associated with this disability.

My eyes swell and blur with my refusal to accept reality

The tickle of discomfort from inhaling disagreeable ideas

Is small in comparison with the nausea I suffer when I swallow

Every line put forth from my dizzy and congested mind.

There is no pill to dissuade my symptoms

I must raise the heat on this inertiac little bug

Parasites breed in the stagnant water of my paralysis.

If I move in my sobriety, sweat a little and flush my system

I should be able to shake this insidious germ

Then I can reach my hand out to the people

Who caught the spiritual flu from me.

Black & Dedication

May 31

Black & Dedication

The brand of equipment endorsed by my Higher Power is built so that my hand is clasped inside lest I feel alone or unaided.  A closed mouth and an open mind work very well when I can manage either of them and Step 10 works when I can’t.  I am usually the problem in my life but I am always the solution.  Others may change and contribute; I am the one and only one, responsible for my happiness.  Dropping blame from my vocabulary and adding responsibility, learning to differentiate between what is mine and what is yours; these tools are keys and they open worlds of possibility to me.  Also they shut out the demons of wrong thinking, wrong acting and desperation, which used to plague me. There are still greater tools I yearn for but like everything I must be patient and build my muscles to handle the heavier machinery.

Dine with hope

*

GULPING

The plug that lodges in my throat

From too much, too fast

Causes the anxiety to rise in me.

The panic fills my contracting muscles

Into rock solid revolt.

I can’t live, is the predictable result

Gulping attention, acclaim, excitement, sex,

Does the same thing

My heart clots and my personality stops in mid-flow

Everything in carefully chosen, well chewed bites

Makes the process proceed

My life works along workable paths

If I stay away from oversized freight

I can never swallow myself whole

Why would I keep trying to imbibe giants like desire?

Archimedes Puts a Boulder in my Path

October 28

ARCHIMEDES PUT A BOULDER IN MY PATH

Place a lever under the boulder and press down, never so hard as to warp the lever.  Move the pivot and push under in a new place.  Keep doing this until you have pushed deeply and well from every aspect of the boulder in your path.  This works every time, not because it dislodges the boulder but because it somehow changes me.  The path may also appear different and often the boulder drops from view.  It may not be gone but seems less intractable.  My life goes on.  I have found it important to retain my lever and pivot; there is never just one boulder.

Invent a new greeting.

*

To Your Health

Health is a pleasure;

health restored is celebration

girded with gratitude.

The shock of illness quickly imbeds itself

to an irrefutable unchangeable fact.

When this veil is lifted the body responds with glee,

the soul with relief touched with disbelief.

The satisfaction of being hale is the bedrock

and once this is shaken

its return is nothing more than astonishing.

I am never more aware of the miraculous nature of life

than when I feel alive once more

after having felt the doom of sickness.

To Your Health

October 29

To Your Health

Health is a pleasure; health restored is celebration girded with gratitude. The shock of illness quickly imbeds itself to an irrefutable unchangeable fact. When this veil is lifted the body responds with glee, the soul with relief touched with disbelief. The satisfaction of being hale is the bedrock and once this is shaken its return is nothing more than astonishing. I am never more aware of the miraculous nature of life than when I feel alive once more after having felt the doom of sickness.

Throw out ancestral trash

*

QUILTER

What more comfort can exist in the world
Than a conglomeration of turned edges and love?
Fancy stitches or not the assembled world of cloth
Stands testament to devotion and diligence.

Careful collections, meaningful to the collector
And mysterious to the possessor,
Fulfill the primal urge to shelter and be safe.
Time is testimony to endurance.

Thread against thread,
Solidarity is strength embracing flexibility.
The bed of life is made and remade daily
With the affection of kind quilters needles of love.

To Your Health

October 29

To Your Health

Health is a pleasure; health restored is celebration girded with gratitude. The shock of illness quickly imbeds itself to an irrefutable unchangeable fact. When this veil is lifted the body responds with glee, the soul with relief touched with disbelief. The satisfaction of being hale is the bedrock and once this is shaken its return is nothing more than astonishing. I am never more aware of the miraculous nature of life than when I feel alive once more after having felt the doom of sickness.

Throw out ancestral trash

*

QUILTER

What more comfort can exist in the world
Than a conglomeration of turned edges and love?
Fancy stitches or not the assembled world of cloth
Stands testament to devotion and diligence.

Careful collections, meaningful to the collector
And mysterious to the possessor,
Fulfill the primal urge to shelter and be safe.
Time is testimony to endurance.

Thread against thread,
Solidarity is strength embracing flexibility.
The bed of life is made and remade daily
With the affection of kind quilters needles of love.