Up early

Things (and people) show growth as they are made to show growth. Sometimes it's curly growth. Up early today, witnessing the curliness of things.

Up early,

I learn the curly willow

Is up early

As well,

Lit by morning sun

Shadowed curly

On the living room carpet.

Up early

I learn

Pussy willows green

In a different order

Catkins first

Then comes green.

Up early

I write this

In its particular order,

Somewhat curly

In its own right.

The order of things

I often get reminder notices from my brain.   I have not had a generalized seizure in over a year (Yay!).  I know the medication helps, but I also know I have learned to pay attention to the warning signs.  I continue making plans.  I also realize plans may need to change.  I keep my prayer list next to the places I go to chill out.  When I drive, I travel familiar routes.  This allows me to explore the wilderness with my clients.

I shower and dress

For a funeral

Then realize

My brain has ordered

A different day

Than the one

I had planned.

I change back

Into my pajamas,

Pray for the people

I will not see

Today.

This is a lesson

I must learn

Again and again.

Today I may pray

With the windows and doors

Open to the world,

Me in the blue recliner.

Today I may pray

A different way

Than planned.

Such is the order

Of things.

Sometimes it is different

Than I had planned.

Making order

Yep, the rumble is thunder.  Day two of DUI training.  Guess I*ll be driving in the rain.

We have been cleaning

For two weeks now.

The cat seeks familiar

Mess.

He currently sleeps

In the newspaper bin.

It fits him just right,

His cheek balances on the edge.

The newspapers,

gone,

Are being recycled

As I write,

A rumble in the distance

might be truck,

train on the tracks

Or sky.

The cat sleeps.

My beloved

Sleeps.

We count down to Saturday

When our student flies in

From Paris.

Turns out the rumble

Is sky.

I can always count

On the sky

And the cat.

Reordering

I have a sense of things being reordered.  I wonder whether the new order will look like the old.  It is Advent 3.  We are always beginning again.  Sometimes we are oblivious to the fact.  Sometimes it hits us in the solar plexus.  Sometimes we take the instructions out of the kitchen drawer, unfold them, and consider the pieces.

I watch the world

As it strives

To reorder itself.

Tab A

Into

Slot B.

This end up.

This end down.

Instructions put away

In the kitchen drawer

Are taken out again,

Unfolded,

Wrinkles smoothed,

Laid on the dining room table,

Perused.

Tab A

Into

Slot B.

This is the top.

This is the bottom.

Find the sides that hold

The bottom to top.

Read the instructions

Again.

Tab A

Into

Slot B.

Re-arranged

It occurs to me that perhaps the order we count on so much is really a figment.  The images swim (like the coot) through my dreams, and my brain strives to make sense of them.  There is probably gift to be found in disorder, in the chaos of a house undone.  There are branches piled on the grass next to the street.  They were cleared by a man in need of money who returns about once a year.  It is a two-part job, for which he has been paid in part.  The rest comes when he finishes.  He is supposed to return today.  It is one more uncertainty on the plate.

I dreamed a lot

Last night.

We moved to a new place.

It was completely re-done

Pristine.

I walked out the door.

Now it seems we live on the waterfront.

The biggest coot

I have ever seen

Was swimming

In front of the house.

A Target superstore

Was directly behind

The house.

My sister was in charge of sales.

She was front and center

Arranging clothes on a display

Dressed in alb and stole.

It seems my world

Is being

Re-arranged.

Completely

Re-rearranged.

Library

I forgot about the library.  I dare not check out books with such disorder at home, but the library space is amazing in its order and simplicity, not to mention the view out the window.  It is balm.  I have even discovered the Vish Puri murder mystery series.  They will transport me... to India.

Once again I find

The library.

The voices are low

And pleasant.

There is no background music.

I sit and face

A bank of windows

Floor to ceiling,

Look out on golden trees

Against a pearl gray sky.

I imagine the kitchen painted

In fall colors.

Here is

More order

Than I have encountered

In days.

Here is big space

In big order.

Soft voices.

Library low and pleasant

Leaves gold yellow,

Pearl gray sky

Through wide-paned windows

Floor to ceiling.

Top down

There is most often an order to things.  The trick is to figure out which order makes sense.  Sometimes it seems that the thing I most want to do (the kitchen, for example) comes absolutely last.

Now we work from the top

Down.

Silly us.

We thought to do the kitchen

First.

Thank goodness the bids 

Came in

Too high.

So we started

With the leak

In the roof.

We have learned again

To work

Top down.

The kitchen

Will come last,

Probably right before

We move.

Considering the ordering of things

Sometimes it is important to consider all that is already in front of us, instead of adding things to the pile.  It is important to have good staging for this exercise.

This morning

I will unearth the vases

From the sideboard.

I will bring greening branches

Indoors

As reminder

That everything still goes on.

Everything grows.

Green branches will provide

The backdrop

The staging

For things to come.

This morning it*s time

To sit with the data

In front of me,

Not worry about

New stuff,

Simply consider

The old,

The way it all fits together.

For now it is enough.

After all is considered,

There is nothing new

Anyway.

All of it

Has been here

Forever.

This morning

I will clean and sort things

Into new piles.

I will make new order.

Green branches will provide

The backdrop.

The columbine by the window

Has one purple beginning.

I saw the hummingbird there

Last year.

Leaves

It is meteorological autumn today.  Jeff and Sawyer are back in school.  As the light changes, I also notice the shift in order.

All the autumn things

Fall back into place like leaves.

Summer saw a different order.

Jelly Donuts

What are your odd thoughts in the middle of the night?  

I figured this one was worth considering as we watch Spring unfold.

I*m pretty sure it was not God who came up with the way we do taxes.

Who*s to say

We are the culmination

Of creation?

Perhaps we were God*s thought

After

Jelly donuts,

Before

The concept of Spring.

Maybe

It was all created

 At once

In the full perfect order

Of Love.

Consequently

We do not have to worry

About order

At all.