In these tender first days of a fresh year, I offer no resolutions, declarations or dictates. Just this poem, stored as reminder for the days ahead.
Your mind is a muscle
Stop your thoughts.
Replace chatter with stillness.
Make choices.
Happiness is available.
Some days it takes so little to amuse me.
It's rarely the I-won-the-lottery! stuff that gives me the grins. Instead, it's the silly, trivial things that float through and dust the day with easy appreciation. On this Thankful Thursday, I'm grateful for all the loopy, goofy things that make me grin:
Men in food suits.
On this one, I'm easy to please. Something inexplicable cracks me up about men dressed as food. This look delivers my favorite kind of smile — the one that makes no sense but feels so good.
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. The children's book was published in 1961 and I'm reading it now for the first time. It's a modern fairy tale packed with word play and puns, and travels to the town of Distortion, the Island of Conclusion, and the Kingdom of Wisdom. This book is a charmer!
These words:
It's Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to appreciate people, places and things. What are you thankful for today? What makes you smile?
Earlier this year, Spirit First put out a call for poems on the themes of meditation, mindfulness, silence, stillness and solitude. With this simple gesture, the nonprofit organization kicked off their first annual poetry contest.
Response was overwhelming: A flood of 741 poems, from 42 states, and 23 countries.
Winners were chosen.
Poems posted.
Cash prizes awarded.
But that wasn't enough.
Recognizing the bounty of good work, Spirit First Director Diana Christine Woods suggested a book.
The result is Moments of the Soul: Poems of meditation and mindfulness by writers of every faith. The book features 84 poems by 61 poets from all over the world.
I am honored to be a contest winner and to have two poems — Unless You and Last Light — in the book. And I am grateful for the steady, earnest effort of Diana Christine Woods, and humbled to be in the company of creative, introspective writers.
Moments of the Soul can be purchased ($12) here and here.
Note: The deadline nears for the second annual 2011 Spirit First Poetry Contest. Submit your poems by January 31, 2011. For details, go here.
Greetings Readers!
It's been more than two years since I (with the help of friend/artist/webmaster Tracy Weil) created this website, and nearly a year since a platform change (from Blogger to SquareSpace). In that time, I have grown older, my eyes more tired, and my patience more thin.
The internet has changed how I read (more skimming, less absorption, scant retention). I want info quickly, cleanly and without much effort. I'm not yet reading Large Print books or wearing bifocals but I do spend a great deal of time online and appreciate easy-to-read sites.
All of which is to say, I have increased the font size on this site. Can you tell? Do you like it? Is it too much, or not enough?
Obviously I'm fishing for feedback. I've been studying my screen and annoying Tracy with my requests for half-point adjustments to a dizzying degree. I can't see clearly. How about you? What do you see? How do I look?
Thanks for your feedback. You're the tops! the bee's knees! the ampersand in my typewriter keys!
Eagerly yours,
Drew
It's Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to appreciate people, places and things.
You can't judge a book by its cover, a man by his clothes, or a gift by its bows, but a pretty package always makes me smile.
Today, I am thankful for ribbons, wrappings & bows.
Monday, January 3, 2011 at 4:07PM