It Cannot be Unplanted.

 

I am so grateful for the counsel of the children in my life. As always they lead me to the simple truths. In a family where rescuing cats and kittens comes way too often Tamara’s daughter Natasha knows yes isn’t always possible yet HOPE prevails. This time maybe? I know we couldn’t keep all the others, but this one? PLEASE? My five year old daughter is the same way. I can present her with a litany of NOs and still she can always muster another another request. When I ask her, “Why do you keep asking when you know my answer is no?” she replies with a matter of fact, “Well there is always a maybe!!”

Hope lives in our children and it also, as January so brilliantly finds, lives in us too.

Hope

   by January Handl

I never knew it waited
Ever patient
Breathing softly
Ever still
Budded blossom
with the color of the bloom
just beginning to show

a promise of unfurling beauty.

At times of dark catastrophizing
Or anxiety ridden moments
Of shadowed teeth-clenching doubt
In times of grief unfolding
Or of sorrows waves of pain
Or of weariness toward death

it seemed so far from my tender call.

Of course I felt it vaguely
Of course I had heard of it in
the ancient songs
Of course my people
tried to make me know it’s
subtle fragrance

was ever present

So when spring’s sunshine
warmed my bones enough
for faith and truth to offer
solace and light to find a way

inside my heart,

the blossoming left no room
for leaving behind the knowing
that it always waits.
It always springs forth
from the seed
of the core’s planting,
beyond the boundaries
of the body/heart/mind
my truth and my redemption:

it cannot be unplanted.

Hope cannot be unplanted. Perhaps you haven’t given her the chance to warm your most resolute of NOs but she is there, waiting to give flight to your hearts most fervent desires.

So this week’s Bliss initiative is to HOPE. No matter how grim things look consider my daughter’s advice “There is always a Maybe!” It worked for Natasha, because this time she did get to keep the kitten, now named Marshmallow!

What will you be hoping for?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tamara and January are here each Monday to help set the mood for the week!

Tamara Magnitsky

Tamara Magnitsky, a child of the wild blue yonder,
has been an ardent student and advocate for poetry, photography and excellence in general.
She is the mother of a 6 year old daughter and a beloved wife.
She can be found most days.

Bio written by Cary Brosius ~Tamara’s husband  🙂

 

January Handl

January Handl is first and always a mother, has been a preschool teacher and parent educator for 25 years. She is currently the Director/head teacher at Gazebo Park School, and lives at Esalen Institute in Big Sur. She lives simply in awe of existence.

She calls her photo “hot tub bliss”  🙂