Physical violence won’t subdue the spirit of these freedom fighters
The wounds they suffer will not weaken their resolve
Their spirits are strong
You can pummel their flesh
You can shoot their bodies
But their spirits are strong
They will rise again stronger this time
November 4th, 2022
“A painter paints pictures on canvas
Musicians paint their pictures on silence”
A writer paints her picture on the tablet of the readers’s heart
Words are the paint
Some vibrant
Some subdued
Words are the paint
Sometimes splashed across the page in rage
Sometimes applied with gentleness
Words are the paint
They create a masterpiece
From ordinary subjects
Words are the paint
The colours endless
Words are the paint
The pictures they paint bubble up
From the soul of the writer and
Mesmerize the observer
Words are the paint
The paining a reflection of the spirit of the writer
March 16th, 2021
The vision quest
I’ve only read about them
Going into the wilderness alone
Communing with nature
Listening to the voice of the ancestors
Contemplating one’s place in life
The vision quest
A right of passage
The gate to maturity and responsibility
Seeking one’s animal guide
The vision quest
Reaching out to the Great Spirit
Asking questions
Listening attentively for answers
The vision quest
January 29th, 2021
Sometimes a period of solitude is good
Unplugging
And instead of going to far off places
Going within
Sometimes a period of solitude is good
Listening to oneself think
Or just simply being
In my solitude I like to write
That’s how I keep myself company
My dialogue is an internal one
I speak intimately with my spirit
I pose questions
I present ideas
I mull things over
I analyze
Sometimes we need to listen to ourselves
Reflect a bit
Recharge
Solitude can be healing and energizing
But for me it should not last too long
October 24th, 2020
“Separation brings with it burning grief”
The loss of a loved one
A friend moving away
One’s children moving out
These things can cause us immense sadness
This is the way of our world
This is how we see things
If we think of physical separation
In the world of the spirit, though
We are close
We never leave one another
I will focus on our spiritual reality
When I feel sad about the loss of a friend
Or their moving away
We are always close in spirit
Separation has no meaning
May 2nd, 2019
The silence of the early morning
When the world is still sleeping
When the sun has not risen
When my mind is refreshed after a night of rest
When the day ahead awaits
All I hear is the tick tock of the clock in the living room
And the hum of the heater
And that’s if I listen for it
Otherwise, I’m lost in my thoughts
On a sea of tranquility
No one to distract me
No one who needs me
No urgent feeling to do things
Other than contemplate, read and write
It’s the magic of the early morning
Is my spirit closer to its source?
Is my mind not clouded with the tasks of the day?
What is the source of this calm I feel?
March 4th, 6:00 am
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
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
Should I mourn the time lost?
Should I cry over spilt milk?
Should I wonder what if this or that?
Should I think of what could have been?
It’s all water under the bridge
It was what it was
Can’t change a thing
I can dwell on it
I can feel sorry for myself
Or, I can count my blessings
And be happy again
Sometimes I wonder
Why we are so attached to this life
This life that brings us sorrow
And tests and trials
And how does the human spirit overcome?
How does is endure and not break down?
How does joy replace sorrow?
How do we start to laugh once more?
These questions remain unanswered
Most of the time
But I’m sure eventually
We will find out
The veil will fall from our face
We will see clearly
What was vague
But until then
We must sing our song
In this golden cage
We call life
Our body is an external shell
Our spirit what animates it
Our body matures and eventually declines
But our spirit in on a never ending journey
The delight we take in beauty and art
The creativity that flows from us
The compassion we feel for others
Our patience and perseverance
These qualities of our spirit never age
If anything they flourish in time
Experience polishes them
And makes them shine
Age is an expression of the days we’ve lived
But as far as our inner attributes are concerned
Age does not lead to decline
On the contrary
We can continue to climb
August 29th, 2016
lida's musings 