Blogs 2020

It's a long time since I have made it here to write! I apologize to those who keep exploring the pages and I intend to share some thoughts here weekly or bi-weekly from now on. The pandemic/quarantine is changing everyone's life and giving us opportunity to explore what is important for everyone. Reflection helps...and leads, and widens our small personal worlds. Especially considering "what is my heart doing during this time?" Not my mind or thoughts, but my Heart Presence in the unfolding moments of the daily changing circumstances.

To this end, I offer you the following poem by a fifteen-year-old Irish girl, granddaughter of my friend and writing colleague Margarita in Dublin. Holly inspires us all by her deep perceptions and how she is expressing them here:

PACKING FOR LOCKDOWN

Holly Lusted.

If I could have packed for this,

Prepared myself,

I would have packed everything I would miss

I would have packed the beach

          and the city

And the laughter of children in a playground

Where everything is slippery with

          melted ice-cream

          and sunscreen

          rubbed on red, prickly skin

By the turquoise swimming pool in a hotel.

If I could have packed for this

Prepared myself,

I would have packed the shopping centre

          and the park

          and the town café.

I would have packed a family dinner

With Mum’s chicken and Gran’s cakes

And Dad asking “How was the journey up?”

I would have packed a school tour

To a history museum only I seem to care about

and the queues at IKEA

and the screams and splashes

Of a great gang of girls

getting caught in a rain shower,

and a football match.

I would have packed handshakes,

Hugs, and a kiss on the cheek.

New music and petting a dog.

I would pack everything I would miss.

I would pack until my suit case over flowed,

Until I could press my ear

To my luggage and hear

Life as it we know it fly by.

I would carry my suitcase for years

Without opening it once,

Until I had children of my own

To give my suitcase to,

so they could know

Happiness, sadness, freedom and rage.

The sun and the moon

And the squawk of gulls by the sea,

The cinemas, the playgrounds and all of the shops

So they don’t go without it.

I would give them a suitcase of their own and say;

“Fill it up”

So my grandchildren would know it too.

20^th June 2020.