There’s a certain serenity and sense of security
Sitting in the front row of a lunar spectacle
And watching it unfold as it should be
A feeling so special and absolutely unforgettable
What if the moon got stuck, forever casting shadows
Stopping todays from becoming tomorrows
Thankfully we don’t have to worry about such a thing
We can all get up early and see the sun rising
All I ever wanted to do was fly
Leave this world and live in the sky
I lift the C-130 out of Fort Worth Town
I go up some day, don’t wanna come down.
—Angel Flight, Darden Smith
Angel Flight, by Darden Smith
It’s a new week
Whatever it brings
Make it a great one
We are bombarded with information about all that is happening to us and around us. Trying to separate truth and facts from fiction and bullshit can be a rather daunting and overwhelming task. It is normal to seek to understand and keep up with the events that unfold at the speed of sound; a lifetime zoomed by in the past ten days, it seems.
Read, listen, watch, and connect with others. Talk about things, ask questions. Knowing and understanding will help us deal with the fear and anxiety that are normal in times such as these, and make better decisions.
Go ahead, be curious.
These are difficult times for all of mankind, at the local scale and the global scale, and all points in between. By our collective actions, we are defining a new “normal.” Life will go on, eventually. We will continue to be the human race… Let’s make it better.
The dark clouds will clear, eventually
And when they do, you will see
That the brightest moments
Were those when we all learned…
To be kind.
The orange half-moon winks at us as it drops to the ground. The Canadian continues its journey westward, unaffected by the darkness that envelops everything around it. In the dark coach car, only a few reading lights point their narrow pencil beams to the seats below, lighting the worn pages of books in the hands of passengers awaiting the sandman.
I lean my head on the cold window and close my eyes, hoping sleep will come soon. I can hear the young couple chatting and laughing, loudly, a few rows behind. They’ve never heard the saying “use your spa voice,” obviously. The lady across the row, the one with the sleep mask, the fluffy pillows, and the thick comforter, talks to the characters in her dream. I hope she doesn’t sleepwalk. A green light flies by; I see its glow through my closed eyelids.
Then two red lights. Don’t two red lights mean stop? For a brief second, I wonder if the engineer could have missed the signal, barreling down the track toward the next freighter heading in the opposite direction. I shift in my seat and look around. Seems I’m the only person who has noticed. The train’s whistle blares, its sound sliding by me toward the back of the train. The collision I imagined never comes. The night steals Saskatchewan… The sun will rise in Alberta.
Night time on the rails
Signal lights break the darkness
Lonely and cold out
Early
Ghostly
Brightly
Briefly
Grey clouds gave an early, ghostly glow
Sun and moon peeked brightly, briefly, though
What if the moon got stuck, forever casting shadows
Stopping todays from becoming tomorrows
Fear not such a lasting concealment
Eclipses last but a moment
The moon rose slowly
A thin crescent only
Like a wink from an eye
The same usual dance
Only I found the patience
To watch it climb up high
Until this strange bird up high
Traced a path across the sky
Obscuring the space between me and you
For a moment only
Carried away softly
Letting you shine through
Full moon and fireflies
The owl and the cicada
Concert just for us
Le monde est trop pour nous : tôt ou tard
Prenant et dépensant, nous gaspillons nos pouvoirs
On réalise très peu tout ce que la Nature nous offre
On aura vendu nos coeurs, une bien sordide affaire.
—Woodworth
By Lens and By Pens 