Tag Archive | Poetry

A letter to myself

imageThis is a letter I write to myself
As listen to the birds chirp
As I look out the window
And see the buds on the trees

This is a letter to myself
To remind me that no matter how dark
Everything my seem
No matter how little hope may be left
The dawn will come

This is a letter to myself
I write it now
So I can read it in the darkness of winter
And the gloomy hours of life
To remind myself that things will change
Laughter will return
And the sun will shine

This is a letter to myself
And I know that one day
I will read it in disbelief
Because things have changed
And I’m walking in the shadows again
But I hope that what I write now
Will give me strength to carry on

This is a letter to myself
Signed and sealed
To remind me
That these are the challenges of life
And I will overcome them eventually
Maybe slowly
Maybe painfully
But each and every time

 

-written a few years ago

Jagged lines

We want what we do to be perfect from the start
We feel the need to succeed right away

But no success has come without trials
There is beauty in the imperfect climb
People who succeed
Have failed many time
They know how not to get discouraged
And stay focussed

They keep their eyes on the goal
And keep climbing
Detours and road blocks are
Part of the climb

If we keep doing something long enough
And improve as we go along
There is no way we can’t succeed
And the jagged lines of our climb
Make our path beautiful and unique

 

March 2016inukshuk

Scars

beach

Scars become part of us
And define us
Most times they tell the stories of hardships overcome

Scars upon our souls are invisible of course
But they have stories too

We walk around with visible and invisible scars
Sometimes we forget they’re there
Sometimes we relive old times

One thing’s for sure
We all have scars

Maybe we can learn to acknowledge them as parts of who we are

Not look at them with disdain
But as rungs of a ladder we climb

August 1st, 2017

Illusion

IMG_2993

Sometimes, life seems unfair
Those who are honest
Don’t succeed
Those who lie brazenly
Get away with it

But do we ever consider the soul
Of the one who lies, cheats and climbs
Do we ever think of how they
Will be remembered
When they die?

Can they bring their power
And fortune with them?
I wonder if they’ve heard of Karma

The repercussions of our actions
Will be felt when we journey on
This world is an illusion
Reality awaits us

 

July 27, 2015

Sweets from Yazd

imageThere is something about the familiar
Which is very comforting
No introduction necessary
Old feelings come to fore:
A box of Persian sweets from Iran
Brought by my cousin
Sent by my aunt
Takes me back to my visit to Yazd

I pick up the Sohané Ardi
And gently take a first bite
As it melts in my mouth
My senses take me years back
When one spring
My father, mother, brother and I
Drove to that part of Iran

My first memory is of gazing at the sky
Dotted thickly with luminous stars
So many stars that the sky seemed white

The endless dessert around us
Dust on the road
Dust in the car

The wide streets of Yazd
The numerous bakeries in town
Seeing pashmak* being made
Smelling the sweets all around

I take a second bite of Sohan
A feast for my taste buds

Now comes the memory of Naw Ruz
When we used to live in Iran
Where our Haft Seen table was prepared with love

The family visits
The sweets we ate
The shirini** my mom baked
The love we shared

And now…
The Haji Badoom, Baklava
Nane Berenjy and Sohan
Cause these memories to flood my mind!

Lida Berghuis
April 4th, 2010

Written after receiving sweets from dear aunt Badri

*pashmak is a Persian sweet resembling
cotton candy

**shirini is sweets in Persian

Feelings

Sometimes you just have to sit with the feelings you feel

They can’t be explained or reasoned out

They can’t be banished from your mind

They can’t be ignored

The only thing you can do is accept them

You have to walk through them, not around them

July 17, 2017

Another mystery

image

I travel to meet people who are living a different life from mine

I enter their lives for a short time and having exchanged thoughts, ideas and feelings, I depart

Sometimes it will be years before I see the same people again

Sometimes I’ll never see them at all

It’s a short intense relationship
A connection of the hearts

And the fact that I won’t be with these friends for a while, seems not to matter
I don’t know why!

July 14, 2017
Amsterdam

Removing barriers

Rediscovering my homeland from afar
Sometimes I feel like a tourist in my own town
There are also things I’m discovering for the first time
Technology makes this possible now

I travel to my place of birth everyday
And hang out with my friends
I learn about them and their experiences
There is good and bad everywhere
And there are challenges there as there are anywhere else

What I’m experiencing with my friends
Which is special though
Is an openness that’s new to me
My friends accept me as I am and
I feel a sense of belonging

I missed this feeling in my childhood
The feeling that I could share all that was dear to me
There was always this barrier between us
A divide in understanding

Time and distance, and new experiences
Have removed this barrier
And in some ways now, in a land far off
I feel closer to my countrymen

June 26th, 2017

image

The inner child

img_4219Who is the inner child we speak of?
The one who has a sense of wonder and awe?
The one who is innocent and honest?
The one who laughs and giggles?
The one who is creative and fearless?

Yes, all of the above!
Our inner child has all these qualities
That may become veiled over time

Layers of responsibility, sorrows and challenges faced
Can cover the face of our inner child

We can become jaded
Disappointed
Forget to dream and
Become our own worst enemy
When we set limits for ourselves

We can become over cautious, conventional and
Look back at our childhood with nostalgia

Some of that is normal and necessary, but
We have to guard against
Looking backward instead of forward
We need to continue to see ourselves
As agents of change
Plan new adventures and
Fulfill old dreams

Hanging out with those who honor their inner child is very helpful
We can inspire each other to see possibilities instead of road blocks
We can nurture our friendships and build strong bonds of camaraderie
We can look at the period that remains of our lives as a crowing event, a farther climb

Our inner child is still there
It may be hidden under some veils but we can remove those veils and bring those wonderful qualities back into our lives

July 30th 2017

Change

When your long held ideas about something
Begin to change
When light starts shining through the blinds
When you reconsider how you thought about things
Because pleasant surprises come your way
You feel a newfound joy
You feel lighter

How we feel and think about things
Is not carved in stone
And even if is
The passage of water
And the flow of ideas can change it
And if that change leads to greater unity
What a blessed change it is

July 25th, 2017