I stood painting on a path in a park
That winds itself round a corner 
That finally ends with a bench in a quiet spot

A man walked by me and stopped to look 
After what seemed like careful ponderance
He finally gave me the verdict
"I have to congratulate you, you've done a good job" in a cute accent

Because he seemed to have given it thought
I found myself trusting his opinion

I asked him if he frequented this park often
Yes, eversince his wife died 5 years ago
He comes everyday to read in this serenity

May I come and take a photo of you
Surprised at myself for asking a stranger such an odd question
To which he in turn surprised me with a 
"I would be honored"

I did visit him around the corner
And took a couple of photos of him 
Quietly reading his business letters

After a while, he came back to check on my progress
We started a chatting and I asked him questions
This 85 year old man has got to be interesting, I thought

So, he had been in the war when he was 15 or 16
Then left Romania with his brother 
To venture to a new land that is now ours
And worked for CPR on the railway tracks
For many a years

I asked him if he had been so afraid to have been involved in a war at age 15 or 16
NO was his most unexpected answer
He had never been more afraid than last week
When after his cataract surgery
His eye had started to bleed and his vision was reduced to a tunnel

I for one who uses her eyes a lot 
Can so empathise with that
How scary it would be 
To feel like your eyesight is being threatened

"You know what is the most important lesson I had learnt in life" he suddenly asked
This man is about to give me the shortcut to the most important lesson in life!!
Please DO TELL, I begged
"It is just as important to be on the right track as it is to be on the right train"

Wowsers, I thought : That means you can be on the right track and be on the wrong train
Or you can be on the right train but be on the wrong track!?
How much more complicated can life get?

"And you know what's the other most important thing I had learnt" he asked 
Looking at my painting friend who had just joined us
"That the woman is always right.."
My wise friend bade goodbye, he was tired

I looked at my painting friend
I rubbed in the new lesson just dispensed with a wide, amused grin
Did you get ALL that!?

THE WOMAN IS ALWAYS RIGHT and hey, I didn't say that

He did, pointing to the wisest man I had ever met 
Walking off into the distance.......

OKAY, okay, Brothers, you're probably right some of the time
But women are right ALL of the time 
According to that wise not-that-old gentleman I had just met.....

Went in search of a subject matter to paint
An empty bench facing the water 
Is always so enticing and so inviting

Apparently not just to me
As I painted, various people walked by
And plonked their butts on my bench
This lady came by with her cutie dog
Who waited ever so patiently while its mistress read
It turned around and sat staring at me 
I smiled at it and continued
Grateful for the pose it was striking

The sun was out strong and the lady felt she had enough
Walked off with her faithful furry friend trailing behind her
Next came a couple who had an animated discussion
About something or another

Then came a young man maybe with his Grandma or Aunt 
They sat for quite a while
He looked back at me a few times
And I know just that look
They finally got up to leave
But he strutted in the direction of my easel
A keen pleased look on his face
The kind that precedes this ubiquitous question
SO DID YOU PUT ME IN YOUR PAINTING?

Sorry, nothing personal
But you had arrived after my painting had  advanced 
To a point of no return
He looked disappointed for a slight moment
And then recovered enough to quip 
Nice Painting, waved Goodbye and followed after his Grandma or Aunt

Yes...timing is everything in life
Wonder how many times I had just made it
And how many times I had just missed it............

No need to wonder, I tell myself
I think I am all right just where I am...........

So this is what it feels like
If you are not here
So this is what it feels like
If you've never walked into my atmosphere
So this is what it feels like
Without you to make waves for me to ride on

Do I wish you've never been here
Do I wish I've never talked to ya
I would have to say 
I ... dunno...

Of course, I DO KNOW.....

I learn something from everyone I meet
I am blessed in some way by everyone I meet
I am raised to a different horizon by everyone I meet

Privileged to see things in a different light
Enthralled to see things in a different dimension
From how I've been looking for far too long...

My mind is stretched to fathom something new
Made aware of a  different view 
Your stancepoint is different 
Because of where you've been 
And it's where I've never ventured into

That's why I love meeting new friends....
Each of you come with a different story
To enrich my little world

Hope you feel free to share your story with me..... you continue to enrich me...thank you!

I am thankful to have cross paths with you
I am thankful for our many conversations
I am thankful for letting me see the light that's in you
That in turn switched a light in me

A glimpse of your wonderful, unselfish spirit
That inspires me to try to be better at being the same
You have no bitterness for what had not panned out in the past
And now you look forward to the future 
With earnest, hopeful cheerieness
I'm sure you have moments of doubts and uncertainties
But you rise up with renewed fervour
You live each day as it comes with a flashy smile on your face
And ever ready fortitude to handle come what may

Bless you, my friend, bless you richly..
May the dove of light hover around you
To illuminate your way 
May the deepest desires of your heart
Ignite with the Universe's plans for you
And you be engulfed in the exhilirating joys 
As you see them unfold...

They may not be what you thought
They may not be what you even dared dream of
May you walk each day with palpitating wonder.......

My little friends had come to visit
We had a wild time chasing each other and frolicking in the sun
Somersaulting and rolling down slopes
Stopping to see if there were fairies 
Asleep in the flowers

Children have that innate joy
That they express so freely
That innocent sense of wonder
And curiosity easily piqued
They say the darnest thing
When you least expect it
Which makes me burst out laffing
In a way that not even the most charming, entertaining man ever could

My prayer for these little ones
Is that they grow up with all these precious qualities preserved
That no nothing come to betray their trust in their beautiful world

I'm so glad they came to visit
They made me pick up my feet 
And skipped alongside to their joyful beat.....

My daughter had come home
From shopping for jeans with her friends
She told me how much they were: hmm a little more than she had spent in the past
Then she unfurl her little find for me to see
What I saw were a pair of faded, worn out jeans with shreds and holes in both knees!!!

WHY IN THE BIG, WIDE WORLD WOULD YOU PAY MORE FOR LESS JEANS??
You call having threads and shreds in the knees cool and hip???
What ya gonna do in winter when in the air there's wind a howling and a nip
I could have taken one of your old faded jeans
And your Mama could have done wonders in the cool and hip department
With a knife and a pair of blunt scissors 

She looked at me with a side glance with an all knowing smile
But obviously did not share the same sentiment

Then she did it again, bought another one of those silly jeans
After the offer I had given to save her hard earned cash

One evening she had loaded her jeans into the washing machine
When she went to retrieve them, I heard a yelp and a scream
She ran upstairs to me...perplexed, half-laughing and yet horrified
There were bits and pieces of her jeans in her hand

WELL, I said, what DO you expect
When you buy jeans that are already well worn with holes to begin
Of course, they're gonna  disintegrate in just a few spins....
She walked away bewildered and with a knitted brow
While I tried to stifle an ever exploding boiling laff

I had cut up an old pair of jeans
And replaced her laundering pair in the machine.....

YES, you may borrow my brilliant prank for 2014's April's Fool Day
It doesn't have to be in the vein of teaching a kid some sensibility...
Only remember me and gimme the credit on April second.....

I paint my dreams,
I paint my reality
I may paint about my conflicts
And my insecurities

But I don't paint  nightmares any more
I don't have any...really 
Am pleased to say
Over time, I've had them resolved and banished.... 

This stirring shift that I have been feeling
I don't quite understand

Is it caused by some nature's inadvertent random rewiring of my brain
Or from something I've been consistently ingesting into my blood vein

I don't recognise myself in so many ways
I am quite alarmed and am curiously piqued
Its causing me to spill things, spill tears, spill words, spill thoughts
I had before all kept to myself 
I am sorely afraid at times 
Yet I can talk myself into fortitude at other times

What else can I do but...
To everyday pick myself up and steadfastly carry on...

I shall have faith  I am where I am today...
Reluctant as I may be, to walk through this veil of uncertainty
There is a much bigger picture my eyes can't span
And my finite mind can't fathom

But let me emerge on the other side of this journey
With tears of triumph rather than tears of regret
At times, I get a glimpse of where I like to tread
A place where I have not set foot before
But if I don't bravely step out and give it a try
I would have lived an insipid life 
Filled with what if's and why had I not's
 
Let me appear at the other end of this what seems like an echoing tunnel
With  well-earned exhilaration and unbridled ecstasy 
When it all comes clear what the bigger picture had been all along
And I had played well the role I had been given