poetrybyheart.me

Sometimes everything has to be enscribed across the heavens so you can find the one line already written inside you. Sometimes it takes a great sky to find that small, bright, and indescribable wedge of freedom in your own heart. David Whyte

Less Is More

This is a strange Christmas. I feel stretched by the Corona virus and diminished by the task of preparing for the Holidays. I am not up to doing all my usual decorating, though it is modest in size. I need a new proportion.

First I got out my front door decoration, a small Christmas tree in needle point with sequins and beads. It was a gift to me when I was doing an internship with a hospital Chaplain which included working with Hospice. The secretary in the unit whose name was Bob (I no longer remember his last name) gave it to me as a Christmas gift. It’s been around for thirty years. I hung it on the front door of my apartment like I do every Christmas.

Next I got out a miniature sized Santa Claus and his companion, a reindeer with a red bow around his neck. The little figures were given to me by a young woman named Ann I once counseled.  I leaned them against a potted plant on my dining room table – like I do every Christmas.

And there I had a tree, Santa Claus, and one reindeer. Everything I need for a strange, and oddly wonderful, simple Holiday.

12 Comments »

Speed Bump

Six years ago it all began
Sleep-canceling pain in my right knee
No stranger to old-age infirmity
I sought help

I’d only been in town a month
Few physicians on my speed dial yet
An orthopedist seemed a likely choice
My son steered me to one who treated him

The doctor listened to my tale
Proclaimed the problem not my knee at all
Inflamed nerve from spine was sparking pain
His diagnosis was sciatica.

Prescription a dose-pak of pills
Worked like a charm and I could sleep again
My new internist said he has sciatica as well
Calls it a speed bump when pain slows him down

I’ve traveled freely ever since
Until a speed bump’s bad pain road-blocked me
I called my internist to prescribe
Same meds did the trick again.

And here is the part that I love best
The medicine’s generic and so old
It only costs $1.99
Aging has its benefits

10 Comments »