Easy

            The old saying “take it easy” sometimes starts me wondering whether life could be “taken” in such a way – taken the way I might take a drink of water or a loved one’s hand. Life, after all, is a gift, and surely it’s good to take a gift in a sweet-tempered, considerate manner. Whatever way the gift of life offers itself – as washing the dishes, as feeling the pain of loss, as driving on the interstate, as facing a fear of the unknown – I should take it with the same sense of spontaneity and effortlessness I would show in taking a taste of a delicious dessert, or in taking a tailor-made bike ride with my wife Delycia, as we did this morning – and see what we passed: two horses taking it very, very easy.

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EASY

Standing beside a river, he understands

the easy way that water lives

as it lets its life drift along

with poise and munificence,

a master of taking the most stress-free way.

While he struggles with obstacles, 

a river simply rolls around and under and over them,

and then stays on its steady, undisturbed course.

In winds and rain, the river doesn't resist,

but gives in and goes gracefully along

in easy, happy-go-lucky waves.

If rivers sometimes flow over fields and towns,

they do it with the certainty and appropriateness

that nature always employs,

whether spreading oceans of stars across our skies,

or sending rivers

on their unruffled travels.

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And here are some flowers from Delycia’s garden taking it very easy as part of a bouquet on the dining room table, while she takes it easy making her daily lists.