The Happiness of Pumpkins

 A wonderful poem.... 


Joy Comes Back
               by Donna Ashworth

When you finally realize that joy is less fireworks
More firefly 
Less orchestra, More birdsong
She will come back much more often

For joy will not fight
With the fast pace of this life

She is not in the shiny or the new
She breathes in the basic,
Simmers in the simple
And dances in the daily to and fro
Joy has been beckoning you for many a year my friend
You were just too busy doing to see

The very next time joy wraps her quiet arms around you
As the garden embraces your weary body in its wildness
Tip her a nod

She doesn't stay long
But if you are a gracious host
Joy comes back 

When The Earth Rumbles

 By Maryanna Gabriel


For no reason last night, I found myself awake and listening. To the silence. Then a rumble. Like a train coming down the tracks. The rumble got louder. The next thing I knew the entire house shook. And then it was over. Or was it? The wait and see. More? Not. After a few minutes I researched the magnitude. It was a 4.0. That's getting there.

Eclipse, comet, sun flares, hurricanes, unprecedented flooding, war. You would think one could rest in bed to absorb it all. Apparently not. 

Besides inner work, the times call for what, exactly? How best to deal? My antidote is this. Self care. Give oneself a gift every day. Right now it is a fabulous herbal tea made with lavender and honey which I am sipping with pleasure. The other is to extend kindness when called for. It is a means through. When the earth rumbles, compassion is a means through.