Thursday, May 28, 2020

In broad strokes...

We've been taking lots of bike rides lately
Morning, mid-day, late-afternoon, and early evening
Between e-learning tasks, work calls
Our popular route takes us by a Colonial red brick two-story
built into the side of a gently sloping hill
This time I notice a new landscaping detail
It seems the owner covered all
the special garden 
fountains
tchotchkes
fairies
birdbaths
statuettes
in copper paint

Every single one

I guess it's easy to categorize
creating a world of uniformity and predictability
consistent evidence of preference, comfort
aligned in harmonious detail

I swipe through my quarantine photos
e-learning assignments I emailed to teachers
Bible verse art
themed front-door decorations
the living room e-learning parlor
bedrooms neatly tended
family room game times
kitchen table Monopoly matches
home-schooling charts hung on the pantry door
lists of our triggers and potential solutions
belly breaths
Grandma laughing on FaceTime
my desk upstairs
its remote project to-do list atop stacks of spiral-bound books 
my laptop with its faded keys
recipes I'd like to try when I have more time
screenshots of Zoom meeting codes, passwords
a sunset
random Timehop memories I've saved again
even though the kids are bigger now
from vacations
seasonal family gatherings
ball games
the consistency

Tonight I drop my elder off at his first baseball practice for this season
Later we're packing to go to my parents' for the weekend
the first time in months
I went to a store on Tuesday
it'd been since mid-March
I sipped on a chai latte from Starbucks
my husband brought it to me today while I worked
because I'm still digging out
from the multi-faceted home/work me

Pandemics aren't so easy to categorize,
to create a memory where there's 
uniformity of emotion, space, or time
good
bad
happy 
sad
all
safety
grief
sanctuary
stress
both/and
plenty
want
mixed with
togetherness
loneliness
unending quiet
soft conversations
green grass
new leaves
warmth
missing in my photostream 
priceless
and exquisite
God's provision
my heart

Minus the copper-colored garden...

Write on,
b

6 comments:

  1. So much of this pandemic seems to have been routine and mundane or "copper-colored", but you have shown just the opposite. When we look hard, I think we can all find some celebrations during these last three months.

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  2. Oh, yes - the pandemic time is a mixture of emotions, a mix-up of what we think normal, a life in a muddle. I like the comforting words you have included in your list.

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  3. I'm so glad you wrote this. Your poetry is good for my soul. The short, one word lines, made my heart race.

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  4. I love that line: "Pandemics aren't so easy to categorize." So true. I loved this poem.

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  5. I prefer your world to the uniformity of the golden land. You have life in every word written.

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  6. There's joy in your photo memories and hope in your going-forward activities. Thank you for sharing, as always, from your heart!

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Hi! I'd love to hear what you are thinking right now, so please take a sec and drop me a line. I'm so glad you stopped by today -- thanks a billion. :)