Scenes from the Journey: Hesitant Light/Hesitancy; Scenes from the Journey, vol. 20, no. 53

Sunday, December 31, 2023

Hesitant Light/Hesitancy; Scenes from the Journey, vol. 20, no. 53

This Scene completes Volume 20 of Scenes from the Journey, which means I have been sending an essay or a poem to you every week for the past twenty years. I have always enjoyed it (don't know whether you have), but it is time for a change.I will continue to write and send Scenes, but not on a weekly basis. You may see one every other week, or once a month, or even occasionally two in a row. Who knows? Who can predict how firmly I will be clasped by the Muse of Spontaneity? It will be a surprise event for me as well as you. As usual, I welcome your responses.

Hesitant Light

May the light shine boldly.

Let's have nothing hesitant about our light.

We slow our step, our sight, our very minds,

allowing the best and most of light

to enliven us with its glow.

The glow, the shine, the brilliant sparks

will open into our dark places

and by penetrating the penumbra

lead us to a new level of understanding

that goes beyond the mind and

instead

incorporates the slow body.

We need that light to show us slow.

Hesitancy

Having evoked the idea of hesitation, I feel compelled to channel my father, Myron Johnson, whose advice to us was succinct, if ambiguous: Look before you leap, for he who hesitates is lost. This was a typically Myron evasion of the serious, but also a cunning reminder that every folk saying has its opposite. Therefore, don't believe any of them. And on that note, we say farewell to 2023. See you in the funny papers.