our spinning world cries
like a wounded animal
care for it gently
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Haiku for a Wounded World
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Category Archives: poetry
It Has Been an Interesting Morning
Such a strange weave today.
Yellow butterfly flits in the flowers
and flaps higher and higher
into the evergreens before I can
get my camera out.
But she’s so pretty!
I round the curve in the path
and look across the river
and see half a dozen officers
in blue, surrounding a body,
I think. Red emergency vehicle.
And Whatcom Falls brings peace
in a white sound of rushing rapids
over boulders, over logs.
And then I hear a man yelling
and cursing the world,
but I can’t see him – is he ahead
of me? or above? or below?
And now the butterfly is back
and this time she poses in the flowers
for me, then flutters away
and is joined by another butterfly.
“Did you see that?” I ask the man
coming down the path towards me.
“The dancing caterpillars?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “Wasn’t that cool?!”
Cussing and rushing
water, a body, and butterflies.
It has been an interesting morning.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
This New Day
This new day holds a promise
of opportunities
to do something good
see something beautiful
meet a new friend
have a good laugh
heal someone’s pain
find the magic
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
“To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.”
-Mary Baker Eddy
Let’s Stay to the End
You know what?
I can’t promise things will get better.
I can’t promise that people will care.
I can’t promise that things will be easy.
I can’t promise here will be better there.
I can’t promise we won’t ever go backwards.
I can’t promise we won’t lose what we’ve gained.
I can’t promise our country will heal.
I can’t promise that there won’t be pain.
But if we leave this story in the middle
we won’t know how this story ends.
If we leave this story right now
we can’t be part of helping it mend.
Let’s stay to the end.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Treasure-Hunting for Hope
I can’t sleep and go
to my friends’ FB walls
treasure-hunting for hope;
for love that calls
to all creation; for jewels
of inspiration and wisdom
that go beyond human rules
and resonate with the rhythm
beating in my own heart.
And I bring back these gifts:
A poem about father-love;
A photo of a puppy nestled
in her new human’s arms;
A painting of a golden sunrise;
Posts about epic bike rides
and happy-together times;
Pictures from mountain climbs;
The blessing from a flute;
Photos of home-grown fruits;
and everywhere magic.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
What’s Real Can Never Change or Die
So much has changed
in the last day, week, year –
and I feel great fear.
But then Clara Kitty curls
up on my lap and I see
Love is still here
and a butterfly flutters by
the window and flits
through the blue sky
and I feel Life moving ‘round
me in an eternal satisfied sigh.
Life and Love: what’s true
and real can never change
or die.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
It’s Too Big for Words
I know.
I can’t find the words.
It’s too big for words.
So much seems too big
for words these days.
It’s hard to wrap my head around
the fact that we live in a country
where we are all at the mercy
of other people’s religious beliefs.
Just know you’re not alone.
You have a world of mothers,
and fathers, aunts and uncles,
and sisters and brothers
standing right there with you.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Experienced Navigator
experienced navigator
moves with brave caution –
ready to move when
conscience says to go,
but listening for the echos
that warn of looming ego
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Spoiler Alert: This Has a Happy Ending
Spoiler Alert: This has a happy ending.
I have felt really stretched and fragile and on the edge the last little while. I know the last few years have been challenging for all of us – and we each have our own slant and perspective on the challenges. A lot of my perspective comes from the point of view of someone who is hard of hearing.
Imagine being someone who depends on hearing aids and smiles and reading lips and facial expressions to communicate with others. And then imagine lips and smiles being covered, voices being muffled through masks, and hearing aids getting all tangled up in mask strings and falling out. I have been conscientious about wearing a mask when I knew it was helping others and helping allay fears – I felt it was something I could do for the good of my community. But I think two years of feeling shut off from the voices and smiles of others had slowly pushed me to the breaking point. So when a loved one suggested I wear THIS kind of mask because it had THESE kind of strings that wouldn’t get tangled in my hearing aids – I reacted more strongly than I might have two years ago. NOOOOOOO!!!!! No, no, no, no, nope. I pointed out to my loved one that he has hair that’s an inch long – and I have hair to my shoulders – how was I going to get those strings through my hair? And and and… earrings, hearing aids, sunglasses…. NOOOOOOOOO…. it was, like, the last straw for me. I told my loved one I never, ever wanted to hear another word about masks. I’ll wear them when I need to, but I don’t want to talk about it. He got the message and we moved on to happier topics.
So a couple days ago a friend called for a chat on the phone. I have to take off my hearing aid when I’m on the phone so it doesn’t whistle at me. I was sitting in the dining room, picked up my hearing aid from the window sill, and moved to the family room while I was talking to my friend. And somewhere between the dining room and the family room I lost my hearing aid. I mean. It completely vanished. Disappeared. Poof. Gone.
I felt like I had finally broken. I wondered if I was going crazy. I had a kind of panic attack about it. I might have made a sort of cursory prayer about it – “there is nothing lost that won’t be found” and “nothing is lost to God or outside Her consciousness” and “everything is exactly where it needs to be – nothing is misplaced in God’s universe” – but really, I felt like I couldn’t even deal with one more thing right then. So I gave up and went to bed and hoped for happy dreams about smiling unmasked faces.
Fast forward to Father’s Day. We’re all sitting around the table – the husband, the sons, and the sons’ wonderful wives – and I start talking about my missing hearing aid, and my youngest son gently taps me on the arm and says, “Kyla is wondering if that might be your hearing aid over there?” And I look over to where the son is pointing – and there’s my hearing aid! – sitting on top of a candle on the window sill!!! My daughter-in-law, Kyla, had been listening to me tell my story and her eyes had gone to the window sill behind me and she saw the hearing aid sitting right there!! (Insert the music of a heavenly choir here and rays of light shining down on the hearing aid.)
Hugs and rejoicing all around! For me, that hearing aid had come to be symbolic for my life, and it was found again!
Amen.
My Father-Mother never stopped loving me,
or took a break from being All-Good, everywhere.
She is always now, always here – Love Be-ing.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Father’s Day: Public Tribute to a Private Man
public tribute for a private man –
thank you for your love for us –
thank you for sharing in our adventures
and helping us clean up our mess
after our misadventures brought us less
or more than we’d anticipated or guessed
thank you for helping us laugh
in a world that sometimes seems daft
and thank you for your perspective –
for helping us see what seems
huge is just a mole hill in the grand scheme
of things – a small blip in the human dream
thank you for being with us through
the joys and the terrors of living
thank you for your constant being and giving
and not running away
when we needed a hero who would stay
with us and be our safe place –
our stable base –
in a hurled, spinning world
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 