Trouble comes—and we must simply live above it.

When a day feels hard, remember this:

We are more than our bodies.

We are beings of light —

thoughtful, radiant, alive.

We are creators and dreamers. Music makers. Book lovers. Keepers of stories. Raisers of hearts. Carriers of grace.

Dancers. Writers. Artists. Lovers.

Minds full of wonder. Works in progress. Potential—our worth unmeasurable by what we provide, what we perform, or what they see on the surface.

All this world is a stage, and we each have only our hour upon it. Let us spend that hour celebrating who we are.

Not things to be owned. Embers glowing, waiting for breath to become flame.

Not vessels to be emptied. Rather, vineyards — rooted, growing, and alive.

Every word spoken in truth, every song offered into the night, every kindness given in another’s storm — these things remain.

May we be seen beyond our bodies. Smiles bearing spirits from one heart to another.

Let our giving come from the hearth of our soul, Where we are learning to be like God.

And when the lights grow dim, may His voice in the silence say:

'I see you. You are whole. You are beloved.'

#poetry #prayer

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“May your seas be wide enough for wonder, your harbor always waiting, and your light never fail when another soul is searching.” – The Lantern Keeper

Sometimes we are born again through the memories we left in cold rooms.

I was looking for my hat—the wide-brimmed one I wore when I was someone else, someone who drove through red dirt roads and squinted into the sun like it was a dare. The kind of hat required in Dust Meridian.

It had been missing for years. Maybe longer. I didn’t even know I was looking until I opened the refrigerator and there it was, perched beside a frosty beer and a carton of eggs.

Cold to the touch.

But not dead.

I blinked.

“What are you doing here?”

I wasn’t joking.

It felt like it owed me an explanation. It had disappeared ten years ago. I looked high and low, traveled and called everyone I knew, but it never materialized. I lamented its loss—the countless adventures we’d shared. It was practically part of my identity for nearly a quarter of a century.

The hat turned slowly—almost shy—and answered, but the words slipped sideways, as if the air between us was warped. I heard syllables like birdcalls, like eucalyptus leaves whispering in spirals.

Like a secret I knew once, but had since packed away with my passport and the smell of old firewood.

Still, I smiled. Not because I understood. But because something in me stirred—some flicker of a self I’d shelved. Not abandoned, exactly—just chilled for safekeeping.

I held it to my chest. It smelled faintly of sweat and eucalyptus, of rain that never came.

I considered putting it back in the fridge. Maybe it liked it there. Maybe it was hiding from the heat of a life half-lived.

But I didn’t.

I slipped it on, and for a moment, the kitchen spun into something vast the wood floor cracking into gravel, the hum of the refrigerator becoming cicadas in the trees.

And there I was.

There WE were.

Me, and the version of me that remembered what the wind felt like in wild, open places. The one who once drove toward the horizon with no map.

And no need for one.

2025-08-02 11:09:49

#reflection #essay #memoir #journal #100daystooffset #writing #dream #poetry

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“May your seas be wide enough for wonder, your harbor always waiting, and your light never fail when another soul is searching.” – The Lantern Keeper

You’re covering me
 with cat hair.
 My fine Sunday suit,
 for the Lord.


You know this.
 You must know this. It gives you, no doubt 
evil glee.

But you don’t care,
 You’re purring,
 stretching, scratching
 at my pants —


getting all the joy and comfort 
you can stand. Now that you’ve learned 
to sit here beside me.


As an evil cat should. No doubt, I’ll need an evil 
lint brush.

After all, What evil genius Is complete Without his cat.

#poetry #cat #storytelling #write

2025-04-27 09:56:32

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“May your seas be wide enough for wonder, your harbor always waiting, and your light never fail when another soul is searching.” – The Lantern Keeper

As long as humans exist, there is reason for joy.

Tiny joys that aren't so tiny:

• Sunshine • Fresh sheets • A long shower • Real belly laughs • Someone checking in • That first sip of coffee • A song you forgot you loved

A young man once asked a wise old man: “How can I be happy when there is so much wrong in the world?”

What you repeat to yourself becomes a fulfilled promise. If you search for wrong in the world, you will certainly find it.

The opposite is also true. If you search for what is right in the world, you will find that, too.

Many deny themselves of seeing the right and beautiful in the world out of anger, bitterness, or a perceived righteousness.

But what good does your stress do the afflicted? Does your anxiety heal the sick? Does your anger clothe the needy?

I challenge you honestly, that if you believe there is truly no light left in the world, then you must become it.

Be someone's reason to be happy. Be the reason someone is grateful. Be the reason someone believes there is still good in the world.

For as long as there are human beings, there will be love, goodness, and reasons to be happy on the Earth.

Recognize that whatever you seek, you shall find. Realize that making yourself miserable is unproductive. Be a light and a beacon of joy to others. This is the way.

Afterword:

It is not the mountain to climb that breaks us, it is the pebble in our shoe.

#poetry

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“May your seas be wide enough for wonder, your harbor always waiting, and your light never fail when another soul is searching.” – The Lantern Keeper

Long poems are easy to write, hard to read.

Short poems are easy to read, hard to write.

Which is better Depends on which you are.

Writer, or Reader.

Lover, or Loved.

#poetry #storytelling #write #100daystooffload

Orig Pub: 2025-04-27 12:26:52

https://hypocritepoet.ghost.io/writers-paradox/

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“May your seas be wide enough for wonder, your harbor always waiting, and your light never fail when another soul is searching.” – The Lantern Keeper

It's a big enough umbrella, but it's always me That ends up getting wet

Originally published November 20, 2024

Butterflies rest when it rains because the droplets can damage their wings.

It is okay to rest during the storms of life.

You will fly again.

I will fly again.

Seek shelter in the warmth and safety of your memories. If you cannot move forward, it is here you must learn to survive.

The present is already consumed, becoming the past as we experience it. Time will gild these moments and they will shine and light your way forward. Watch as they are brighter than you ever saw through the experience.

Ahhhh, the storms of life… how they affect us all. We tend to think of a storm as a destructive force that ruins our hard work and takes from us.

But in reality, we need storms to reset the environment, flush out the collected litter and rubble that settles in the proverbial gutters of our life.

Like the forest fire that burns away the clutter and undergrowth and releasing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium back into the soil, the moments that make us pause give us time to reset and enrich ourselves. Our past is forged into fuel for the future.

This is especially important for you, as you likely do a poor job of self-care and focusing on refilling your spiritual and emotional tank.

When this storm passes, do not lament the changed landscape or what you have had to become; focus instead on the snap of the crystal clear air, the brilliant blue of the sky and the fresh smell that a summer torrent leaves behind.

You, little butterfly, are beautiful. Delicate and brilliant. Rest and celebrate your renewal! Relish the new landscape and revel in your day.

#poetry #confession

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“May your seas be wide enough for wonder, your harbor always waiting, and your light never fail when another soul is searching.” – The Lantern Keeper

love saves us by teaching us how to be a stranger.

You may pass This life as A shadow of Who you Truly are.

Only then Can you do The least harm To yourself,

And more Importantly, others.

The happiest ending may be not getting what you want,

But accepting superior things instead.

It is not an easy truth to accept. This is the stuff of heroes.

That is the gift of love.

#Poetry

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“May your seas be wide enough for wonder, your harbor always waiting, and your light never fail when another soul is searching.” – The Lantern Keeper

and if you have the ability to love love yourself first

I love reading Burkowski after a couple of drinks. He's dirty and gross and bold in a way that few writers are without being unreadable. Even so, he is not for the faint of heart. Simple, but sometimes crude.

This poem certainly needed the first 3rd chopped, but I like the rest of it:

and if you have the ability to love love yourself first

but always be aware of the possibility of total defeat whether the reason for that defeat seems right or wrong -

an early taste of death is not necessarily a bad thing.

stay out of churches and bars and museums, and like the spider be patient - time is everybody's cross, plus exile defeat treachery

all that dross.

stay with the beer.

beer is continuous blood.

a continuous lover.

get a large typewriter and as the footsteps go up and down outside your window

hit that thing hit it hard

make it a heavyweight fight

make it the bull when he first charges in

and remember the old dogs who fought so well: Hemingway, Celine, Dostoevsky, Hamsun.

If you think they didn't go crazy in tiny rooms just like you're doing now

without women without food without hope

then you're not ready.

drink more beer. there's time. and if there's not that's all right too.

#poetry

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“May your seas be wide enough for wonder, your harbor always waiting, and your light never fail when another soul is searching.” – The Lantern Keeper

I am not afraid.

“Most of the old moles I know wish they had listened less to their fears and more to their dreams.”

People, you know, survive. You gotta survive. But then you have to know when to step away from that survival. Because see, life is not—it's never going to be the same. It's always changing. And it's not always comfortable. And you have to take a chance and a risk and the chance and risk you have to take is on you, right? It's investing in you... The universe is ready to catch you. But you have to take the step

#book #quote #poetry #motivation #aom

Discuss...

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“May your seas be wide enough for wonder, your harbor always waiting, and your light never fail when another soul is searching.” – The Lantern Keeper

Art is not for commodity. It is for passion.

Someone set the sky on fire.
Just now—
in those grey-dark moments
before the day begins,
a match was struck,
a tiny ember glowing.

In minutes it flared
into a red-hot blaze,
burning through
the eastern clouds.

Pastels spread,
then yellow,
orange,
red,
indigo,
violet—
a spectrum spilling wide.

No gavel will ever fall
on this masterpiece.
The artist sketched it in a breath,
then cast it into being,
a gift to his
greater creation.

—

#essay #memoir #journal #100daystooffset #writing #poetry #

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“May your seas be wide enough for wonder, your harbor always waiting, and your light never fail when another soul is searching.” – The Lantern Keeper