Category: haibun

2020.04.27: safe passage

Here it is Monday again and yet I’m not driving to work. Instead I’m looking out across the backside of my property through a neighbor’s garden onto a greenbelt of trees that is vibrantly alive with the colors of spring. Having worked at the same place for 12 years I’ve found all the different ways to go to work when the highways come to a standstill. I’ve taken country roads through scenic farm lands and desolate streets through inner city neighborhoods and everything in between. Yet my favorite commute is the one I’ve been using since the Shelter-in-place order was issued. There are good things that has come from this dreadful virus. Stay safe and have a good week wherever you’re staying or going.

crossing back and forth
squirrels avoid open field
highways in the trees

2020.04.14: culling

We humans have become arrogant. We think we are no longer a part of the created world. We think our tools and inventions make us immune to the natural laws. Time and time again, nature reminds us that we are creatures born to live and die. Are we any different than the wildflowers in the field – here today and gone tomorrow?

cold spell
what did not die – becomes
even stronger

2020.04.09: dystopia

This new age of quarantine has brought many changes. Going to a doctor’s appointment is no exception. No longer are family members allowed to accompany the sick unless they are a child or unable to walk by themselves. Instead we’re asked to wait in our cars in the parking garage. So it is that I find myself in my car, surrounded by others locked up in their cars with the motor idling, the air conditioner running, and the radio blaring. Can this really be the dream we want?

worshiping comfort
blind to the poison we make
slowly slaying us

2020.04.05: isolation

My more than five decades of memory can’t recall a time when there were no Sunday services. We are moving through historic times. I’ve always wondered how people who lived through historic times felt. Did they know that their daily news would be in the history books? Did they just want their historical events to come to an end so they can return to living in ordinary time? I find that my days although somewhat changed are still ordinary days. I find comfort in knowing that these trying days like all things – will also pass. In the mean time we can emulate what some brave folks did during some very rough times: “Keep calm and carry on”. Above all I’m learning to treasure each day like it’s a gift -finding joy and wonder in small things and loving the ones I’m with.

procession of palms
we all watch it on TV
Jesus rides alone

2020.03.13: March Madness

Last night in a dream I was running through a field dodging blobs of green pulses and firing back at the shooters. I quit while I was ahead… Then I was leaving school with my best friend. {Yes, high school.} I drove out the entrance away from where everyone else was queued to leave the other way. I turned left away from the school but my car was travelling right. {This isn’t right.} So I turned my body to face the rear window just in time to see a kid running at my car. I see her laughing face. STOP! No one dies in MY dreams…

I lie awake replaying yesterday’s news. The local NBA game was cancelled. The season is suspended indefinitely. The NHL season is suspended.The men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments are cancelled. All spring sports championships are cancelled. Schools are extending spring breaks for at least one more week. The local universities are resuming online. My wife’s employer sent her to work from home. The computer is coming tomorrow. STOP! I’m going back to sleep. No one dies in my dreams.

crisscrossing the world
for business and pleasure
we bring home virus