Sunday, May 15, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
PLEEEZZ!!!
This is what I used to tell my kids when they were young, teaching them to cross the street: Stop! . . . look (both ways) . . . and listen. Three important words every child needs to learn very early in life.
STOP! . . . Is that a word anymore? Are parents allowed to yell that in public? When your two year old is trying to poke the dog's eye out with a twig . . . can you quickly shout "NO"?! Or are you now advised to ask your child if you can have the twig . . . PLEEEZZ??
I remember years ago when my youngest son was two and we'd gone to the playground one cloudy day. I was pushing him on a toddler swing next to three other Moms and their little ones. All the tots were giggling and squealing, when all of a sudden it began to lightly rain. As the drops became bigger and wetter, the two Mom's to my left and myself began declaring . . . "Okay, it's time to go!" . . . "Two more pushes" I said to my pouting child and then took him out of the swing as the other two ladies did the same . . . just before the downpour started. But not so for the Mom to the right of us. She was standing and pleading in front of her two year old daughter in the swing . . . as they both were getting drenched . . . "PLEEEZZ, Sweetheart,can't we stop now?" The little tyrant just shook her head "NO!!!" and screamed bloody murder as her Mother attempted to come near the swing. So the woman stood there crying and repeating her need for permission from a two year old.
I wouldn't be surprised if she's still standing there pushing that swing!
Life Is Love
Life is so fragile
we are all waiting to be born
and held forever
in the palm of God
Life is so beautiful
we've been given a heart
that keeps the beat
for all who've come before
and all who have been promised
Life is so magnetic
attracting, holding fast
the good and bad of humankind
the very best and worst of us
Life is purely gift
forgiving one creation, leaping to another
to please the smiling God whose
only dream is love.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
The Visit
“I saved these just for you” she said.
“I knew you’d come one day to find them.”
Bending to her bureau drawer,
the moonlight swept across her face
and there ‘neath tattered wings I saw
a form familiar.
She picked up bits of ivory
with her musing fingertips
worn now from the years.
A smile, soft and lovely,
graced her frail and shallow face
and flash-backs
just like shreds of lightening . . .
flooded me.
“It was you, wasn’t it?" I gasped.
“All the while it was you . . .
tiptoeing past my bed
like a thief who’d stolen jewels.
I thought that I was dreaming . . .
swore I saw those wings . . .
yes, and that fairy scent you always wore.
You lived with us back then, Grandma,
and all the while . . . I thought that thief was Mom!”
She bid me, “Close your eyes and open up your hand.”
and as if I were standing small again . . . I anxiously obeyed.
Then she dropped them,
my tiny ivory tooth buds saved since childhood
toppled in the center of my palm,
"treasures, jewels" she said . . . her memories.
And there we lay that evening
recalling heart-soaked lullabies
rocking in the dark
till all the breath of all the years
dissolved into my arms
and the long cord of Grandma's love
~ wrapped my heart with gold.
Joanne Cucinello 2010
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