Family

A HAIKU FOR TODAY

Stopping beside cows,

we were all peacefully still,

and our bikes rested.

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Several years ago, Delycia and I went to St. Louis for a family reunion, but it seems to me that the prefix is not the proper one. Instead of a re-union, perhaps we should have seen it as something like an ultra-union. The prefix ‘re’ implies that we were joining in a union again, as though an earlier union was broken and now we were redoing it, but the truth is that our family union has never been broken, and in fact cannot be broken. Actually, all of us on earth – people, plants, animals, the widespread sky and mountains and oceans – are part of an enduring union, a family of wonders working together without realizing it. We are all as closely connected as the air we share and the sunlight that lands on each of us. There’s our human family, yes, but then there’s the family of the universe, which consists of all the miracles ever made – every person, speck of dust, maple tree, and mouse. It’s a family – a union – that cannot come to an end, cannot be de-unioned, and therefore never needs to be re-unioned. Our gathering in St. Louis was not so much a reunion as an ultra-union  – a celebration to heighten and intensify our appreciation of the everlasting union of which all of us across the universe have always been members.

Today, on a delightful bike ride along Wheeler and Al Harvey Roads, we came upon this family of cows – mom and a few kids.

As we enjoyed our pause for a snack, they drifted over to the fence to look at us newcomers. Delycia thinks they came over hoping for some treats, but I prefer to believe they somehow knew that we and they were all part of the real family – the one that includes stars in the sky and crickets in the grass and thunderstorms and old bike riders and quiet, curious cows.

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 OFF-SPRINGING

(concerning Sharon Z., 82, Blessings, CT)

 

On some days,

she knows she’s the offspring

of winds and lights,

the child of swirling stars.

On those days of wisdom,

she wonders how the limitless universe

is able to be the mastermind

of all mountains and weathers

and mosquitoes and women like her.

She feels her family all around her –

the flowing air,

the always unfolding light,

the moments singing as they arrive and leave.

She knows she’s a youngster

surrounded by brother and sister trees

and streets and restful clouds

and people poised on the brink

of being born again

every single moment.