Sunlight Streaming

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

This morning
the sunlight said things

to me like, “Here. Come

here!” It pointed the way
saying, “Slowly and with
great joy.” It went on with,

“There is something around

this bend in the road just

for you.” I wanted to
hesitate. I know about changes

in direction. You might have

experienced a few yourself.
But, I kept going. And, the leafy green

trees around me were happy, and the gravel
below my feet was very happy. It made

sounds as I walked. And, there it was!

There around the corner

was the road ahead.
That is all.
The road ahead.
And, for the first time ever, I knew,

without doubt,

that was the road for me

to follow.

And, I took the next step. It was my own.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

Published in "Coming Home: Learning to Actively Love this World"

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What Breaks Your Heart?

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

What breaks your heart so completely

that the entire world can fall in?

This is what I want to know.

This is what would give me hope:

You, finding the answer.

© 2015-2019/Jamie K. Reaser

From: Coming Home: Learning to Actively Love this World

Published by Talking Waters Press

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Dwelling

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

Can you dwell on something that you pass

on by daily, never linger to know, and find the

beauty in it? That is what this tired world needs

now. Attentiveness and awe. Just devote yourself

to something small and simple. Take your time.

Go slowly. There’s no need to make a fuss about

it. We’ve had enough of that.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author

From "Coming Home: Learning to Actively Love this World" 

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Returning

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

The catbirds have returned from their winter where-evers. They

are attitude in the thickets, claiming themselves, claiming 
territory, rambling on about a wide variety of things that are so 
very important to them, it would seem. I love them, how and 
when they show up like this and change a place - make it both 
more known and more mysterious. Oh, how I delight in these 
simple wonders that will rip your heart wide open if you let 
life in. I’m a mess every spring: torn apart, remembering my 
humanness. Returning.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author
From "Truth and Beauty" (a work in progress)

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Dog Prayers

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

If you are stroking a dog's soft ears,
you are praying for something
better to become of this
world. Perhaps, you don't see my
logic, 

but I bet you can
feel it.


(c) 2015/Jamie K. Reaser
From "Conversations with Mary"
To be published by Talking Waters Press in 2016

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Living

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

Everything that is me, cannot be

contained in one version of me,

cannot be contained at all,

really. There is so much in here

that wants to get out into the world

and try on a thousand – maybe 

a million – ways of being. “What

do you do?” Oh, so many things.

So many wonderful things.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author
Published in "Conversations with Mary: Words of Attention and Devotion"

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Hiding Easter Eggs

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

She was terrible at it.

We’d find the pastel-colored, plastic

eggs filled with stale candy months,

maybe a year or more, later.

Behind the curtains.

Under the sofa cushions.

Beneath the lamp shade.

Perhaps a family dog would eventually

alert us to them, or we’d get around

to cleaning, or be looking for something

necessary that we’d misplaced.

We’d say, “Count them first!”

We’d say, “Make a map!”

But, it never happened and we’d be

left to joke that we had a particularly

senile Easter Bunny.

We can lose things so easily.

***

“Be attentive,” counsels Mary Oliver.

***

Tomorrow, we’ll hide eggs for the kids.

Across the green lawn.

In the trees and shrubbery.

On the jungle gym.

When all is said and done,

the baskets filled and

the sugar coursing, we’ll pretend

to have lost at least one.

We’ll say, “That’s in honor of

Grandma Billie.” And, they’ll

think us nuts.

***

It’ll be our way of being attentive.

© 2015-2019/Jamie K. Reaser

From "Portraits" (a work in progress)

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