Spirit

May14

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A smile is a smile
No matter our race or class or nationality
Tears are tears
No matter where we are from

Laughter is exhilarating
No matter who is laughing
Heartache is painful
No matter the colour our skin

Hope gives us wings
No matter where we were born

Despair makes our days
Cloudy and dark
No matter how rich or poor we are

Kindness and a loving heart
Don’t depend on what we look like

Patience and humility
Come from inside us

Our essence
Our qualities
How we make others feel
And how we feel, emanate from and are felt by the spirit inside us

May 14, 2018

Me time

Apr21

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What do I do when I want to relax?
What do I do to get away from it all?
What do I do for me time?
The answer is simple: I write

Sometimes what I write is interesting
Other times, not so much
The purpose is not always
Creating a work of art
It’s emptying my cup

There is a calm that comes over me
When I write
I can’t explain it
Don’t know why
But that writing is one of my favourite things
There is no doubt
Give me a pen and paper
And a writing spot
Preferably in a coffee shop
And I’ll be happy and satisfied

Why expressing myself
Brings me joy, I don’t know
Why do I have this need to write
I don’t know
All I know is that writing gives me life
Refreshes my soul and cheers my heart

April 21st, 2018

Connection

Apr19

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Why is connection so important?

Why is friendship essential?

Why do we need good friends in our lives?

Because friendship is a reflection of love

And love is the essence of life

It’s what gives us life

It’s what sustains life

And it’s what makes life beautiful

The collage

Apr9

 

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A second book
Another essay on life
My life
With its challenges and trials
With lessons learned
With hope and optimism
Written with love

The collage of me
Is a collage of prose and poetry
The coming together of various experiences
And exploration of various cultures
Of Travel
Of connections
Of fellowship and camaraderie

It tries to answer the questions
Who am I?
And where do I belong?

It explores issues of identity and immigration
And the coming together of East and West
And the essential oneness of man

Earthquake

Apr4

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When assumptions I’ve held for a while
Are shattered
When the veil falls off
And what’s underneath is clear to see
It causes a little earthquake inside me
I have to recalibrate my understanding
The aftershocks come as well
It takes a while before all is quiet again
But of course the shape of the landscape has irreversibly changed

April 4th 2018

In common

Apr3

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People are fascinating
We are all so different and yet the same
We have similar needs
But fulfill them in different ways
In the end, we all want to be loved and valued
We hope to contribute somehow to the society we live in
We want to be seen and heard
We want to have true friends in our lives
We want to learn and discover and fulfill our potential
These needs transcend Nationality, race and culture
These needs are human needs
Common to us all

April 2nd 2018

Best Recipe

Mar25

Paper,color and texture
Grids
Nets
And patterns
Opacity
Luminosity
And beauty
Needle, thread
Glue
And lots of love

Combine them
With enthusiasm
A radiant smile
encouraging words
And music, divine

Put them in a place
Surrounded by art
Masterfully made
Beautifully hung

Add eager participants
Creative souls
Eager to try

Mix and stir
And what you will have
Is a Washi* collage workshop
With Lorraine Prichard

March 25th, 2018

*Washi is Japanese handmade paper

Storm

Mar23

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There are times in our lives
That the intensity of our emotions
Overwhelms us
We feel deeply
We yearn passionately
We hurt intensely
We miss others badly

These powerful emotions
Sometimes bring us to our knees
We want to get out of the whirlwind
But we can’t
We feel the same feeling over and over
And it hurts

And at the same time
These are times that we feel most alive

The waves created by our emotions
Keep crashing against the cliff of our spirit
But in the end
Our spirit makes it through
It survives another storm
And arrives at a place of calm

March 23rd, 2018

Intertwined

Mar16

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Painful experiences lead to beautiful insight
A painful birth to a most beautiful child

In our world pain and beauty are intertwined

Beauty can be painful
Can wrench the heart
Beauty can cause us pain and trauma

Beauty and pain are intertwined

March 11th, 2018

My thoughts

Mar16

 

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There is a thought that keeps going round and round
In my head
I feel like I’m caught in a whirlwind

It’s a battle of sorts
That I have with myself
I try to make sense of things
But don’t manage

Is it a matter of letting go?
Or is it something to hold on to?
Am I being fair to others and myself?
What do I need to be doing different?

I’ve been over all these thoughts in my head
And I don’t find any answers
Some issues are simpler than others
And this one is most circuitous

March 15th, 2018