Epiphany –
I don’t have to feel anything
I’m not required to judge
every experience, every encounter,
every moment with a happy face
or a sad face or a thumbs up.
I don’t have to feel angry or sad,
aggrieved or offended or put upon.
Sometimes I can just let it go
and live through it
and take it for what it is
and be.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
Sunset in Skagit County, WA (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)
Has no one ever told you
who you are?!
Jeepers.
You are the child of Truth!
The image and likeness
of Love itself!
You are AWESOME!!!
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”
– Kathryn Stockett
“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another… We are made of starstuff”
– Carl Sagan
“You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees or the stars;
you have a right to be here.”
– Max Ehrmann
“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
– A.A. Milne
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them… And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”
– Genesis 1
“In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry… Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
(Heron skimming Lake Padden in Bellingham, Washington. Photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell.)
Pep talk to self:
To the last breath –
Honor Truth.
Celebrate Life.
Love without limit.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
(Photo of dragonfly by Karen Molenaar Terrell)
is Love…and it’s maybe the best poem of all, too. 🙂
From my friend, Nikkita –
I cried
By Nikkita
I cried today.
I cried for my family, my town, my country.
I cried for our world.
I cried for people I love. People that love me.
I cried as I listened to our president justify hate.
Justify bigotry
Justify Racism.
Justify terror.
—
I wept today.
I wept as I saw my cousin, my beautiful biracial cousin, crumble in my arms.
I wept as she asked why, why, why
I wept because I don’t know why
I wept as she asked if he, her president, cared at all
As she asked how he could defend them
Defend those bigots
Defend those racists
I wept as she asked wasn’t she worth loving
Worth saving
Worth caring about by the man who holds the highest office in our land.
I don’t know why.
I don’t know.
—
I screamed today.
I screamed in my head, so loudly, because my vocal chords can’t.
I screamed as the president tore down reporters
I screamed as people defended his behavior
I screamed as the replays of disgusting people chanting “Jews Will Not Replace Us” filled the screen.
—
I cried today.
I cried because I don’t recognize my government
I don’t recognize my nation
Anymore.
I cried because these are the groups, the very same groups,
That believe my Jewish grandmother
My black cousin
My gay best friend
My disabled friends
And me
Should be cleansed off this earth and
The president defended them.
—
They aren’t good people.
Never good people.
For if you are not a Nazi
But can protest with a Nazi
And chant their chants
And stand and say nothing
You are worse.
Worse than the Nazi
Worse than the KKK
Worse than their hate
Because you claim to not be filled with hate
But you stood there. You stood there.
And you said nothing.
—
I wept today
For my country, my world.
I wanted to smile
To be joyful
Full of love
And light
And peace.
But not today.
Today I cried.
Tomorrow?
Well, tomorrow
I FIGHT BACK.
—
I will fight hate with love
Bigotry with acceptance
Racism with inclusion
Ethnic cleansing with diversity
And terror with peace.
—
I FIGHT BACK
I will fight back with my voice
My actions
My deeds
My heart.
—
I FIGHT BACK
By saying no
By insisting that my government say no
By demanding equal rights
Equal love
Equal care.
—
I FIGHT BACK
By refusing to let this go
We can’t let this go
We can’t normalize this hatred
We can’t pretend.
Pretending got us here.
Pretending he would change
Got us a president
Who defends Nazis.
—
I cried today
Tomorrow I might smile
And the next day I might laugh
But not today.
—
Today I cried
Because tears and outrage
Horror and Disgust
They are the only correct reaction.
I cried today.
Tomorrow I fight.
The next day I love
And the world WILL change
For good
Because
You and me
And everyone good
Will not forget
Ever.
In memory of Heather Heyer, H. Jay Cullen and Berke Bates
Driving back from our hike –
son is sitting in the seat next to me
his head nods forward
and he is asleep.
And I have a flashback
from 22 years ago –
same son, but a toddler then,
strapped in his car seat
behind me. I glance in the rear
view mirror and see his baby
head nod forward in slumber.
Same peaceful expression.
Same comforting white sound
from the moving car.
Same feeling of love filling
our moving bubble.
And I feel Moz join us –
I feel her love with me,
with her grandson.
There is no separation in time
or space or death.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
Paper clips. Who could have guessed
that paper clips would become
my talisman? Two years ago I needed one.
There were none to be found
in my entire home. I took a break
from my paper clip search to run errands.
A few hours later my car was stalled –
bum alternator – and I was waiting
for a tow truck. A few hours more –
after many wonderful adventures
and new heroes and friends met –
and I was picking up my car
from the repair shop when I looked
down and saw a paper clip winking
up at me from the pavement. A symbol
of prayers answered. A symbol of supply.
A symbol of protection. A reminder
to trust. A wink to make me laugh out loud.
And it has been paper clips ever since:
On the floor of my dad’s doctor’s office;
on the stairs at work during a challenging day;
on a sidewalk as I grieved Mom’s passing.
Just when I feel the most alone,
and the most bereft, a paper clip will appear
to remind me that I am always connected
to Love. A paper clip will appear to bring
me a smile and a lift to my heart.
Paper clips. Who could have guessed
it would be paper clips?
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
P.S. I found an interesting article on the invention of the paper clip. The article states: “During the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War II, Norwegians made the paper clip a symbol of national unity. Prohibited from wearing buttons imprinted with the Norwegian king’s initials, they fastened paper clips to their lapels in a show of solidarity and opposition to the occupation. Wearing a paper clip was often reason enough for arrest.”
Wow! Hail to the humble paper clip!
I heard the news today and thought how unfair life is –
and, for a moment, I didn’t want to be part of it, anymore.
And then, in the next moment, I was filled with gratitude
for life – gratitude that I’ve been given the opportunity
to know you here – to experience your beauty and
kindness and love. Nothing can take you from us –
not distance nor time nor death. Your love will live on.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
Well… dang!!! When I first published my latest book I went through it with a fine tooth comb – cleaned out the misspellings, the commas in the wrong places, wrong tenses, yada yada, before letting everyone know it was out there, and then I re-published it. So this morning I started reading the up-dated book – and… ahem… it seems I ADDED a wrong tense when I re-published. Yeah. On the very first poem. For those of you that spent your hard-earned money to buy the edited version – the version wherein I edited in an “s” to the end of a word that should have stayed s-less, my heart-felt apologies. It has now been fixed and re-published. In the words of Vonnegut: “How embarrassing to be human.”
Here’s the poem I fixed:
Two Earthworms
I came upon two earthworms on the sidewalk today –
their noses suspended in the air, frozen by the heat
of the sun – dried out and stiff
and I reached down and plucked up the first
and carried him to the dirt.
I dug a little hole for him and covered him
with earth – a grave to bring him back to life.
Gently I used my fingers as tweezers and pulled
the second worm from the sidewalk
and lifted him to the moist soil, laid him down,
and covered him with a wet leaf.
Fare thee well, my new friends –
May you revive and spend the rest of your days
happily leaving a trail of rich earth in your wake.
The revised revision should be listed on Amazon in a couple days…
Sigh.
Hush.
It’s alright now.
That was just the last echo
from a past that was healed
long ago. It can’t touch you
or hurt you anymore.
The past brought you
to where you are now.
Be grateful for it.
And let the last echo
bounce harmlessly off the wall
and fade to nothing.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 