Rollercoaster at Riverview: That's Life!
Samples from the book
Rope Bridges
Life has this habit of creating surprises and being so unpredictable it seems unstable. But I have to
wonder if the feeling of instability isn't really just within us. It's like crossing the canyon on a
rope bridge -- you know it won't fall, but it feels kinda scary when it starts to sway in the wind.
But if you slow down and move with the sway, you can make it. Then later, once you've crossed to the
other side, you laugh at the fears you once knew to be so real.
- David Bailey
A Rainbow Ritual
Each day at 4 PM sit down and bring your awareness wholeheartedly into the present moment. Do
this by allowing your eyes to close over lightly, take some long slow deep breaths and feel your body
soften and relax with each outward breath. Be aware of your weight and posture, the pressure of the
chair, the floor, your clothing against your skin, the touch of the air against your cheeks and hands
and all the sounds within and outside the room.
Then visualize that you're sitting under one end of a rainbow. Imagine all the iridescent colors
that surround and envelop you and take a moment to breathe in your favorite colors. Extend the other
end of the rainbow out through the ceiling to all those living with cancer around the world. Visualize
them bathed in the light and color of the rainbow, filled with its hope, peace and contentment,
connected by a bridge of love. Extend your love and blessings across the rainbow to all in need.
"I hope you feel the peace and blessing of this ritual."
- Petrea King
Coming to Terms
This is the step I've made
To take Old Age by the hand and draw it into the daylight.
Hello old eyes
blinking at brilliance,
greedily supping at beauty of river, tree and mountain top
seeing them blur and knowing
that too is a kind of beauty all its own,
like the time my youngest child
cried to her siblings "Hey, everybody
take off your glasses and look at the Christmas tree."
So we change.
I let the blurring slip into my head
so that experiences fuse and blend
Past overlays the present. Time flows
back and forth.
Hello old bones,
Teeth that break on a cold chocolate bar,
deciding to complain that the job is too much
by grating bone against bone, bone against nerve,
asking "Where did the cartilage go?"
I have seen your shadow in the x-ray
and you look surprised, shocked out of shape
and a little comic.
Thank you, bones, for all these years of service.
I wish I had been wise enough and well enough
to feed and use you a little better.
We are thoughtless when our bodies don't hurt.
Thank you for reminding me that you are there.
You who have been the miracle of structure
that's carried me all these years.
You may have holes in you now.
Do you know something?
You are Holy bones.
Hello old flesh,
Muscle and fat under the skin
you have dwindled and flabbed
folded in upon yourself
yet still you are not without a certain beauty
I never perceived in youth.
Hello old skin,
brown and very wrinkled
dry and weather-worn.
On my face a little flick of cancer
that will be taken off next week,
that little touch where Death
laid an exploratory fingertip.
How kind you've been to hold me together this way,
to stretch and slough and heal when wounded.
Let me ease with oils and respect
your unfailing resilience.
Remarkable body I salute you.
You have moved, danced, climbed, skied,
stooped, lifted, swum, borne children,
carried me with grace and delight.
I shall always be grateful.
Mobility is a noble, shining gift
however long it lasts.
And now, Old Age, that we have met each other
Can we come to some kind of understanding?
I will do my best to care
for the body that is mine
as long as I can.
When you from your bag of tricks and bones
pull some surprise upon me
I will look at it,
Receive it carefully
and decide how it is to be treated or used.
You, on your part,
Can teach me your arts and wisdom?
Patience is one.
I ask
That you will not dominate me,
but that we work together
hand in hand.
- Peg Stark
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