Posted in Gratitude, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged gratefulness, gratiku, spiritual journey on November 5, 2020| 6 Comments »
“If the only prayer you say in your entire life is ‘thank you,’ it will be enough!” ~Meister Eckhart
What is it about November that brings out the gratitude in us? Is it the holiday of Thanksgiving? Is it the cool fall air? Is it getting close to Christmas? Or is it the number 11? Today Ruth is gathering Spiritual Journey posts about gratitude.
Thank you
releases air,
a breath.
In American sign language,
a hand to mouth and out again.
From inside of me
to the spirit of you,
I thank you.
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Teaching, Writing, tagged April Halprin Wayland, In One Word poem, spiritual journey on September 10, 2020| 7 Comments »
I’ve been raising monarchs. See this post. I am also planning for hybrid teaching, some in person, some virtual. Finding my direction through these tasks has challenged me in new ways.
The word alchemy came across my radar. I found this definition: “a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.” The process of metamorphosis is alchemy and in many ways, so is the way we have to teach this year. I decided to mine alchemist for words using Wordmaker. Following a poetic process created by April Halprin Wayland, I wrote a poem that probably doesn’t make sense to anybody but me. Let’s just say, finding my direction through this unique school year has taken some proactive effort. (The words from Wordmaker are in bold.)
Finding Direction
Connect line by line, etch
Margaret Simon, draft
a trail through calm
worry, eyes that smile
despite each
new hurdle to scale.
Raise the latch
and release butterfly-mail
to the gods of ethics—
Teach.
Posted in Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged balance, spiritual journey on July 16, 2020| 5 Comments »
“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness and the word ‘happiness’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” – C.G. Jung
Ruminating on balance today with my Spiritual Journey Thursday group.
Balance doesn’t happen all in one day.
Like love, balance is a process.
I strive to be stable,
but some days are riddled with self-doubt.
Even in these sheltered days,
I lose sleep, lose faith, slip off the stack of stones
onto the cold hard floor of reality.
“It’s always about balance,”
says my daughter in defense of screen time.
My brother-in-law’s philosophy is “Eat a donut,
then have a grapefruit.”
After a long walk in the sun,
your body craves water,
water, water…
There are some balance rules
you must obey. Your body
is one of them.
In the chiaroscuro of light and dark,
we see clearly and in blurred lines
where our balance lies. Tip-toe in,
but don’t worry if you have to hold
onto the rails sometimes.
Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth, tagged #NaPoWriMo, #NPM20, bird poems, spiritual journey on April 1, 2020| 9 Comments »
Welcome April! My favorite month of the year when skies are blue, flowers are blooming, and poetry abounds!
I am committing myself to writing a poem a day this month, but I am not committing to a prompt. I will get inspiration from where ever the muse takes me. Last night as I was settling down for the night, I found NaPoWriMo. The early bird prompt posted on March 31st was to write about your favorite bird.
Here is my first draft:
A Prayer
Everyone was supposed to pray with the pope tonight,
but I got struck silent while watching
a hummingbird at the feeder
hovering as on angel wings
disappearing into the green like a spirit.Where does our spirit go when we die?
Does it hover like the hummer
watching and waiting
for the lift off?I wonder if the pope even knows?
Margaret Simon, 2020 draft
We pray what?
What should I say?
There is nothing to be done
but stare at the feeder
and wait for another sighting of wings.
The first line of the Kidlit Progressive Poem is a multiple choice from Donna Smith. The progression of the poem is in the side bar of my blog. Scroll down.
Posted in Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged spiritual journey on March 5, 2020| 6 Comments »
Fran Haley is hosting today, and she proposed the theme of Balance.
Balance is something I search for in my daily life. Being an introvert, I crave alone time. I think that’s why I enjoy writing so much. Writing is a quiet alone-time activity, like walking my dog or meditating or taking a long bath. ( My husband jokingly said I would love a quarantine.)
One of my students gave me this beautiful journal for Christmas. I had it in my car until on Ash Wednesday, I had an idea to carry it with me into the service. I wrote during the sermon. I wrote again this past Sunday and will try to keep this going during Lent. The writing helped me listen in a different way. Kind of like taking notes, but I also allowed my own thoughts to enter in.
I also achieve balance through yoga and meditation. There are so many ways life can get in the way of living. Taking time for myself and clearing my busy brain helps me be a better me.
This weekend we were babysitting my 14-month-old grandson. By 5 in the afternoon, he was so tired that he could no longer keep his balance when walking. At first it was funny to him to walk quickly and fall, but it happened one time too many, and he ended up in tears. In a similar way, when I am exhausted, overstretched, and too busy, I get out of balance.
What ways do you use to keep your life in balance?
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged Nature poems, spiritual journey, water poems on February 6, 2020| 10 Comments »
Living on the bayou gives me a daily view of seasonal changes. We have a huge cypress tree that drops its needles all over the back deck when the days grow shorter. They burst out in bright neon green as the days grow long.
While cypress respond to daylight, other plants respond to temperature changes. On my morning walk, I’ve been watching a Japanese magnolia bursting into bloom. Maybe it’s just me, but I think it blooms earlier and earlier each year. The beauty is striking. I used the tree as a subject for my Poetry Friday offering for tomorrow.
One way I pay attention to seasonal changes is to write poems. I am writing every day with #100daysofnotebooking and with Laura Shovan’s February poetry challenge. When I commit to a social media group, I have accountability, so I get it done.
On Saturday, I wrote a quick notebook draft responding to the quote by Robert Louis Stevenson “There is no music like a river’s”
Listen to the cry
of mother wood duck,
clicks of red-headed woodpecker
on the old oak.
Hear the train whistle
in the distance, and the peaceful
ringing of wind chimes.The bayou wakes up slowly
Margaret Simon, draft 2020
on this winter Saturday
playing its music
for the clouds
welcoming first sun,
first light,
new day.
Posted in Gratitude, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged embrace, One Little Word, spiritual journey on January 2, 2020| 12 Comments »
Choosing a One Little Word for the year has been a practice I adopted years ago. Sometimes I spend a lot of time mulling over what my word should be. Not this year. My son-in-law Grant has tuned in this practice of mine, and I’ve been doing so much holding of new babies in the last year, he told me he thought my word should be “embrace.” I didn’t give it another thought.
This year of 2020, I will embrace my grandbabies even more. My youngest daughter will be getting married in October, so I will embrace another family connected to our family.
Embrace is related to the word Grace I chose last year. My life is full of love, and love comes from grace. Embrace is a way to be humbly grateful for it all.
There is really no way we can predict what a new year will bring. Some years I choose a word that is a goal, something I want to be better at, but a word like Embrace lets you just be present. Here. Now. Holding on to the ones you love. Acceptance and Grace, wrapped up with a bouquet of roses.
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Posted in Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged Love, spiritual journey on September 5, 2019| 6 Comments »
As long as I am here, I will continue to grow and change and learn. I once thought that the first Corinthians verse was about love between a husband and wife. It’s often read aloud at weddings and speaks clearly about how you successfully love your spouse, with patience and kindness, without self-seeking and anger.
This year I’ve been engaged in a study of The Course in Miracles. My instructor reads the lessons daily to me (and others) using Voxer. She offers a meditation practice as well. The process of growth has been slow and gradual, hardly even noticeable if you know me. The language is what is changing. My instructor has changed the word God to the word Love. This seems small and insignificant, like a little nudge to my thinking.
I have attended church all my life. I’ve heard the words of the Bible over and over. Yet changing God from a person-like thing to an emotion has had profound effects on my thoughts. When God is with us, Love is with us.
We are called to be Love to one another. To be patient and kind in all that we do. Not to envy or boast or look out for ourselves. This is a call to service. God is Love. Love is God. How simple! How true!
I find peace in the knowledge that God has already given me everything I need to be successful. Love. It really is all we need. Love is everything. Love is enough.
Posted in Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged connections, spiritual journey, Spiritual poetry on June 6, 2019| 4 Comments »
Today, Spiritual Journey First Thursday is celebrating connections at Ramona’s site, Pleasures from the Page.
Tuesday was a tough day. I sang in the choir for a good friend’s funeral, gone way too soon after a brave battle with breast cancer. As I was talking to her best friend, the friend who had been by her side and the friend who kept me updated, I mentioned that I had sung in a community choir with the soloist. Juliet said, “My mother sang in that choir. Her name was JoEllen.”
I lost it. Tears flowed. I held onto Juliet. I had known her mother.
Connections are multi-faceted. You may connect to someone once or over a period of time. JoEllen and I sat next to each other in the community choir every fall for a few years. Once we went to a musical concert together, but we rarely got together outside of choir rehearsals. One December, she stopped coming to rehearsal. Someone said she lost her voice. It wasn’t until later that I found out that JoEllen was sick with cancer. I never saw her again.
And here was Juliet, someone I had connected with over a mutual friend’s illness. After we took a long hug, I told her, “I don’t want to lose touch.” We both loved our friend Amy. We both loved her mother JoEllen. Now we needed each other. Connections are essential, magical, and meaningful. May we all find meaningful, loving, and God-filled connections. Peace!
Posted in Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged #DailyCalm, spiritual journey, Spiritual poetry, Wendi Romero on April 4, 2019| 4 Comments »
See more Spiritual Thursday posts with Dani at Doing the Work that Matters.
Today is the first Thursday in April and a group of bloggers are gathering at Dani’s place to write about “renewal.” I am working on mindfulness daily. Focusing my thoughts on light and love keeps worry at bay. But sometimes the clouds cover the sun, and it’s hard to see the light.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51
Renew a right spirit in me, Oh God.
Help me walk in the path of light and truth.
Keep me from wandering far from you.
I am weak, but my heart is eager.
I open my soul to you
like a flower seeks the light, reaching.
Your grace is mine, I know.
Guide me to the light.
Iris in a neighbor’s garden. Photo by Margaret Simon
The following is a poem from a Facebook poet friend, Wendi Romero. She is posting daily poems during Lent. This one spoke to me.
Lent: Day 23
Leaning Toward Light
I see in the morning
what I’m unableto see in
the dark of night—how flowers open
pink with promisehow slanted rays slice
golden through aged mossI’m beginning to see
how every living thingeven in the shadows
leans toward lightthe more I lean
the more I awaken©️Wendi Romero
Our address on the Bayou Teche
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April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 2 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 3 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Denise at https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/
April 6 Buffy at http://www.buffysilverman.com/blog
April 7 Jone at https://www.jonerushmacculloch.com/
April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 9 Tabatha at https://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/
April 10 Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 11 Rose at Imagine the Possibilities | Rose's Blog
April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
April 13 Cathy Stenquist
April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainly Write
April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 21 Tanita at TanitasDavis.com
April 22 Patricia Franz
April 23 Ruth at There's No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town
April 24 Linda Kulp Trout at http://lindakulptrout.blogspot.com
April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
April 26 Michelle Kogan at: https://moreart4all.wordpress.com/
April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight
April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors
Reflections on the Teche 