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Excerpt
from Volume 1
On
Change
"How
true the old saying,
'Yield and you need not break'!
How completely it comes home!"
-Lao Tzu
Once,
I heard someone observe
that human beings are by nature uncomfortable with life,
that we are not at ease with our journey.
My
father used to say,
"Life bloodies us,"
and then quote the poet:
"'Life ain't no crystal stair', son."
Today,
thumbing through yellowed pages,
I found Lao Tzu's ancient words,
And found them full of wisdom:
"Yield and you need not break:
Bent you can straighten,
Empty you can mend; …"
I
thought then of Jesus,
sitting on a hillside long ago
with his flock, his lambs,
saying-
"Consider the lilies of the field…"
Fathers,
poets, philosophers and God's Son-
All with wisdom for God's children.
Change?
We must.
Worry?
We are bound to, at least a little-
But we try to follow the advice of sages, of God:
Bend, yield,
search for Divinity and heal…
We
must ever remain a green twig,
Green inside, no matter our age in years
(time being an illusion, I suspect more and more).
We
must be molded and shaped,
By God, by fate-
It
is bend or break.
And
if we break, for lack of bending,
having become rigid, dry, unbending-
we must heal, take time to become green again inside.
Change
is our lot.
And
when we join in our bending with others and with God,
in a dance of green twigs,
intertwining, weaving our lives together, our spirits-
we make beautiful baskets!
baskets in which others, wearied and broken, are carried,
baskets in which gifts are given,
baskets which are both gift and giver.
We
carry others that they might rest, and be healed-
and
sometimes
we too are carried.
A
poem on family…
SONG FOR PAPA AND COTTON
Oh
my papa, my papa
You took me fishing for blue gil
And made for me cardboard-box automobiles,
With paper plates for wheels.
My
papa, my papa
You gave me Tom Sawyer to read-
Said if I'd search for wisdom
I'd have all I'd ever need, I'd have all I'd ever need.
Oh,
papa, your father, he was a wearer of slouch hats,
A weekend giver of trinkets,
Cigar boxes and baseball hats,
Cigar boxes and baseball hats.
And
your father he was called Cotton, for his white hair
And Cotton became a child as he grew older
And just wasn't there,
He just wasn't there.
And
Cotton, oh Cotton
Worked the railroad for awhile,
Until the bottle took his strength and ate up all his will,
It ate up all his will.
And
Cotton, oh, Cotton,
So the family legend goes-
Left his family, lived with his mom,
But he always made us smile.
When he was there he'd make you smile!
Oh,
papa you did not leave me-
You gave me everything you had and more;
And papa you did the best that you could
To give me a great deal more
Than what you had known before.
Oh,
papa, You loved Cotton, just as I love you.
And Cotton must have loved his father before him,
This is what fathers and sons must do!
Oh, papa I know its not been easy to give up so many dreams;
But papa the journey, with all its disappointments,
Is so much more than it seems!
Thank
you for all your dreams,
For teaching me to dream-
To love the beauty of a noble dream!
©2002,
Michael D. Purvis
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