Monday, September 12, 2011

Let There Be Light

Thought for the day: Every day is as important as an anniversary, birthday, or holiday. To be cherished on any given day is more important to me than being lavished with gifts and good wishes simply because the calendar dictates it.  


hope in the ruins
Yes, I know yesterday was the tenth anniversary. Many of you blogged about your recollections of that awful day, what it still means to you, and I respect y'all for doing that. But I can't. I can't allow myself to dwell on the horrors of that day. I can't let myself feel that much bleakness again.

Yes, of course, I remember, and I grieve. Not to acknowledge the date at all would have been tantamount to ignoring the polka dotted elephant in the room. Yes, it's there. But I'm not gonna talk to him. Not today. Maybe not ever.

 I prefer to concentrate on the flowers growing in the midst of the rubble, not on the devastation that created it.  I'd rather talk about hope, the light that helps us make it through the darkness.

                So, let's pull our asses out of the doldrums and do just that.
Up and at 'em!

                                                        Song of Hope     by Thomas Hardy

                                                      O sweet To-morrow! - 
                                                      After to-day 
                                                      There will away 
                                                      This sense of sorrow. 
                                                      Then let us borrow 
                                                      Hope, for a gleaming 
                                                      Soon will be streaming, 
                                                      Dimmed by no gray - 
                                                      No gray! 

                                                     While the winds wing us 
                                                     Sighs from The Gone, 
                                                     Nearer to dawn 
                                                     Minute-beats bring us; 
                                                     When there will sing us 
                                                     Larks of a glory 
                                                     Waiting our story 
                                                     Further anon - 
                                                     Anon! 

                                                    Doff the black token, 
                                                    Don the red shoon, 
                                                    Right and retune 
                                                    Viol-strings broken; 
                                                    Null the words spoken 
                                                    In speeches of rueing, 
                                                    The night cloud is hueing, 
                                                    To-morrow shines soon - 
                                                    Shines soon! 

Hope  by Sri Chinmoy
Hope
Knows no fear.
Hope dares to blossom
Even inside the abysmal abyss.
Hope secretly feeds
And strengthens
Promise.


                                                      
     

                                                         "Hope" is the thing with feathers—

                                                          That perches in the soul—
                                                          And sings the tune without the words—
                                                          And never stops—at all—

                                                         And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
                                                         And sore must be the storm—
                                                         That could abash the little Bird
                                                         That kept so many warm—

                                                         I've heard it in the chillest land—
                                                        And on the strangest Sea—
                                                        Yet, never, in Extremity,
                                                        It asked a crumb—of Me.

                                                                                                   Emily Dickenson

Wanta feel good? Wanta cry for happy? Then check out this video. It shows an amazing reunion of two elephants. Jenny was the only elephant at the Dallas zoo for twenty years. Think she was lonely? When Jenny was a calf, and Shirley was in her twenties, the two spent a year together at a circus. They say elephants "never forget." You be the judge.


this picture, and bird pic, courtesy of perfectlytimesphotos.com


We've made it through some dark days, and we'll undoubtedly face some more in the future, but bottom line is there is ALWAYS hope.With hope, we will endure. After all, in the end, our happiness doesn't rely nearly so much on our position as it does on our disposition. Our attitude.

Consider a lawn overgrown with dandelions. We can look at it and say, "Oh, crap! Look at all those weeds!" OR we can choose to look at it through the eyes of a child, and say, "Oooh, look at all those wishes!"

Just pucker up and blow.
Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

18 comments:

  1. Monster Child has a thing about dandelions, and I let her. Truthfully, dandelions are the only thing that grows in my yard so I take them, because they are kind of pretty, yellow flowers and all. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

    And elephants never forget is so true.

    I didn't watch any of the coverage on tv. I saw the first two minutes of the reading of the names and cried so much, Monster was getting upset. I tried to explain to her what happened but she couldn't understand why men would do that. And I couldn't answer the "Why?"

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  2. The events of that day 10 years ago left me wordless then and so I remain. Best to turn your back on it and move on.

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  3. Lovely post, Susan. Thank you. I'd rather see wishes than weeds, too. :)

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  4. I always live in hope, Susan. I also choose to live with fogiveness. Without those two, there can be no joy.

    My favorite words are from the Prayer of St. Francis

    Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
    Where there is injury, pardon.
    Where there is doubt, faith.
    Where there is despair, hope.
    Where there is darkness, light.
    Where there is sadness, joy.

    Your post was perfect.

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  5. To remember isn't always to dwell. Some memories are more vibrant than others and we remember them better, I suppose. Yes, September 11th was a sad day, but it doesn't mean that every September 11th has to be. [Heck, we had a birthday party yesterday. :)]

    Memories, even painful ones, aren't always a bad thing. It is what you do with them that matters.

    Hope you have a great week!

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  6. I tried to remember the one person I knew who had been involved. The rest is too gigantic anyway. Sadness has taken over from anger.

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  7. Hi, All. Thank you so much for your comments.

    Anne- I'm glad you're a dandelion person. That makes me smile. I didn't watch any of the special TV coverage yesterday, but it was impossible to avoid entirely. The newspaper was filled with accounts, and some of the commercials even touched on it.

    Delores- Agreed.

    Linda- Me, too. (Nice alliteration, too! Should be a post or book title.)

    Starting Over- Thank you. I still say we must've been separated at birth. There's actually a copy of that prayer on the bulletin board in my office.

    Skippy- True. I read your post yesterday, and it made me cry. So heartfelt. Beautiful. But the thing is, on December 7, 1951, there were no big commemorative ceremonies and no newspapers were filled with dramatic accounts to mark the tenth anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It happened, and it was devastating, but the country moved on. That doesn't mean anyone forgot the bombing. None of us will never forget the bombings of 911, either. But that was the only time in my life I felt that bleak and hopeless, and the feeling lingered for so long. I cannot bear to see those images again, to feel that hopeless again. The gash is still in my heart, but I want to let it scab over. The reminders, the commemorations, they pick at the scab and make it bleed again.

    Cro- I read your post, too. Beautiful

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  8. Kudos, Susan. I knew that elephant video was going to make me ball my eyes out... off to get a tissue.

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  9. Hi, Carrie. Yeah, but it was a "feel good" kinda cry. Take care.

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  10. well said that woman!!!!!
    (love the sun photo!)

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  11. Hi-ya, John. Thank you, dear sir. Yeah, I really like that picture of the sky, too.

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  12. What a wonderful post! After all the crying I did yesterday, this was a uplifting change.

    "So, let's pull our asses out of the doldrums and do just that."

    ROFL - That picture!

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  13. Hi, Donna. Glad you think so. We can only cry so long.

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  14. I love that poem by Emily Dickinson. I share it with my class every year. And, is that really an ass in a hole in the ground?

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  15. I with you on this one. I've gotten kind of 9/11'ed out and would like to move on to the future. We should never forget and do our best to make sure it never happens again, but I don't know if there is any point to keep on talking about it. I could say a lot more but I won't.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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  16. Hi, Dianne. Yes, ma'am, that's a picture of an ass stuck in a hole. (Think they're pulling him out on the Sabbath?)

    Hi, Arlee. Thank you for visiting, dear sir. I'm glad you agree. I was kinda afraid people would consider me unpatriotic for my opinion on this one.

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  17. Oooooh, Susan, it's you! Thank you for stopping by. The minute I saw your pic, I think, therefore I Yam came to mind. Looove that title!

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  18. Hi-ya, Kittie. Yup, I yam what I yam. Good to hear from you again.

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