WARNING:CAUTION!
As you open this blog and begin to read and listen please consider this:
If you have a loved one , friend or know someone in need you want to talk to…do it now If you are putting off contacting that long lost acquaintance do it now If there is someone you know needs a hug do it now If you need a hug tell someone now If there is an unresolved conflict with someone you love , move to resolve it now If you haven’t taken a moment to reflect on the people and things you are grateful for …stop…and do it now When you are ready....I hope you find this post worthwhile
Force Majeure : A #GirlDad lament
Hardwood giants wept uncontrollably
With the news that The Black Mamba , his princess
And seven others without warning went down in flames.
One of the wounded warriors spoke
Of how he admired the Mamba Man and was also guilty of
Being obsessed with and addicted to working hard
To achieve success at any cost.
“I wish I had been more addicted
To my wife and family,”he sighed.
The pilgrim recalled the week before
Launching out again with his partner on
Another passage of love
The road travelled was a familiar one
Then as their eyes blinked , suddenly they were ambushed
Split second memories flashed in a nanosecond
Jolted and shaken they walked from the wreckage
No blood was shed....no bruise , scratches,no regrets
The distracted driver who unwittingly drove into them
Was not as fortunate
The first one thought what if we left a minute earlier
Or what if we departed a few minutes later?
No time for what ifs when life just happens.
Words like “you two were lucky” and
"Your car did what it is supposed to do and saved you."
Who would have thought?
His father suddenly had his first and last heart attack
Passing 40 years ago this month,
9/11 and the second chance healing of his broken heart
All had shoved him into conviction, to metanoia.
He was warned that “amnesia” of the awakening would
Eventually prevail.
A soft consoling voice whispered “One more time-
Time is a gift.
Sometimes we don’t think about the 1,440 minutes each day
That we have been gifted.
The distractions and mindless meanderings
Get in the way allowing ourselves to become complete…
To pay attention to what and who is really important In one's life”
That voice he heard- was his own…
- JF Sobecki
#GirlDad
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“… There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
- excerpt Ulysses , Alfred Lord Tennyson
The Buddha's Last Instruction by Mary Oliver
"Make of yourself a light"
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal-a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire-
clearly I'm not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.
Give me love, Give me Peace - The Avett Brothers (G. Harrison)
VIDEO
What Happens to the heart - L. Cohen
VIDEO
Got To Get Better - E. Clapton
VIDEO
Sometimes We Cry - V. Morrison
VIDEO
Salt Of The Earth - Rolling Stones
VIDEO
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End - Beatles
VIDEO
March Winds in February - V. Morrison
VIDEO
Ok How about one more From Van to take us home?!
St. Dominics Preview
(You can turn it up and stand up as you watch this one)
VIDEO
(shhhhh- don't tell anyone but when I dream about performing I see this !)
amdg
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved JF Sobecki LLC
