Radiant Creatures

 

You don't see them.

At least in my experience you don't.

You sense them,

which is sufficiently convincing.

Oh, doubting Thomas that I am

I sometimes long for the validation

that a sighting might bring

but for the most part

I'm content to know

what my other senses tell me:

They're here!

They are here

for minimal but miraculous moments

in our lives,

flickering beyond the edges

yet clearly communicating

just when we are most in need.

Occasionally we make or buy

some tangible representation—

not at all like the real, of course,

for who could imagine correctly?—

but a reminder nonetheless:

Look! They do exist.

Imagine them here with you today—

to light and guard,

to heal and guide.

Pay attention

so you are ready to sense them

when they arrive.

 

Ann Tudor
Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com
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Guilty Pleasure #402

Last week DinoVino brought home six large avocados. We ate two of them on Sunday as avocado toast, but the next night I had no choice but to make a giant guacamole with the remaining, very ripe, four. Rather than our usual baked tortilla chips, I made fry-bread. The previous evening we had eaten pissaladiere, the onion and anchovy pizza from the south of France, and I'd saved out a lump of that dough expressly to make fry bread (see how I'm always thinking ahead?). I divided the lump into six little balls and rolled each into a thin circle. Then I slipped them, one at a time, into about an inch of hot grapeseed oil.

 

I haven't made fry bread for thirty years, for the obvious reason that no one needs to be eating fried food on a regular basis. Once every thirty years is probably about right. But now I'm wondering why I would willingly deprive myself of such a treat. Thin and crisp. Delicious. And because of my ever-present batch of sourdough I can always get my hands on a lump of dough. Fry bread. Better than doughnuts—and a heck of a lot faster to make! Maybe once a year would be a good compromise . . .

 

 

Copyright © 2021 Ann Tudor
Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

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Open Your Eyes

The daily refrain: open your eyes.

I vow to avoid envying those born with open eyes.

Having to learn (over and over)

to notice my world, my life,

from stem to stern,

from here to yonder—

having to focus consciously on this

makes me no less valuable

than those who have known it from the start.

 

So keep rewording the refrain.

Reframe it each morning to meet

that day's needs.

Pay attention.

Notice.

Be here.

Be in the moment.

Or, simply, open your eyes,

for that way leads to joy

(pardon my optimism).

That way leads you to know

that This Is Happiness.

Open your eyes and you will know it.

 

 

Copyright © 2021 Ann Tudor
Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

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Lights on the Path

The lights that I left on the twisted path of my life illuminate my past, overcoming the darkness so that I can see other paths and other lights than mine. I see the paths interweaving, tangling and doubling back, crisscrossing paths, interconnected paths. And every step of the way is lit by a light. My light, your light. His light and hers. Their lights, placed here and there along the path.

 

Some left a lot of oil lamps, some left very few. But because the paths twist and intertwine, the entire landscape of the past becomes lit with gold, visible to anyone who looks back.

 

A mere lamp or two cannot illuminate the path of a long journey. It takes a village of lamps. Each of us deposits a candle, a torch, an oil lamp, a lantern along our path, as frequently as we can bear to do so. One person's lamps are insufficient to show the overview of our pasts. But when each of us has laid down candles and lamps, the resulting glow illuminates our world.

 

So continue to do it. Leave a lamp along the path when you can. We all glory in its light.

 

 

Copyright © 2021 Ann Tudor
Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00JI4758O

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