@whispering_oak
CALL
Coming to yourself always happens when a true call reaches you / A vocation is a call that you will hear no matter how far you run
DREAM
Dark rooms with no edges and no doors / Reaching for something that keeps moving
DANCE
Done before breakfast with no particular reason / Arms moving because the body wanted to
NAME
Nothing holds a truth more lightly than the word we give it / All naming is a kind of claim and a kind of letting go
SIGN
Something in the pattern points to more than accident / In the recurring theme, a message waits for you to read it
PRIDE
Pause before you name it, pride has many kinds of face / Real dignity does not require someone else to fall
YEARN
You keep a place inside for what is gone / Every reaching forward leaves it open
TOWN
The butcher still knows what you usually take / Old lampposts that have been here forever
ABOUT
All understanding starts with asking what a thing is really for / Being willing to reframe is how the stuck thing starts to move
LOVE
Light that follows even into shadow / Often showing up unasked and uninvited
NAME
Nothing holds a truth more lightly than the word we give it / All naming is a kind of claim and a kind of letting go
LIMIT
Loving your limits as teachers rather than enemies changes their effect / In knowing where you end, you also know where you most need attention
SAFE
Somewhere the constant guarding finally rests / Arms that hold without condition or demand
FIELD
Far from the city the grass grows as it pleases / In the late sun the wheat turns amber
SIGH
Something settles when you breathe it out / Inside the pause between the noise
AGES
All the great turnings of the world were once just ordinary days / Going back far enough, you find the thread that still runs through you
HILL
Here the wind has worn the grass to silver / In the old turf roots remember rain
PETAL
Pulled loose by one particular wind / Each one falling in its own slow way
GALE
Going end to end across the estuary / And not one bird takes wing while it blows this hard
WAVE
Welling up from somewhere far offshore / Arriving without warning at the sand
SNOW
Silencing the road and the dog and the crow / Never as cold inside as it looks from outside
CALM
Choosing the slow breath over the quick reaction is learned greatness / A center that holds under pressure is built long before the pressure
MOON
Midnight opens like a silver eye / Over the hills a pale glow rises
HOPE
Holding the possibility open even when the evidence closes it takes courage / Opening yourself to what has not yet happened is the engine of the future
HOME
Hat on the hook and the day let go / One kitchen that knows all your habits
SNOW
Softly erasing what the year put there / Now even the deepest footprints fill with white
CREEK
Cutting between the cottonwoods in July / Rocks glazed green and gold beneath the flow
SKY
Still above everything that tries to reach it / Keeping every bird it ever held in memory
GALE
Going through the treetops like a rumor / All the loose things lifted and then lost
BLOOM
Between the stones a brave flower opens / Light finds it before anything else does
DREAM
Dwelling in the possible before the actual is how vision forms / Refusing to believe only what is visible keeps the future open
PATH
Pavement cracked in the same places every spring / Always the dog from number twelve coming out
LUNCH
Later in the day and the appetite sharper for it / Under the window while the street does its thing
CARE
Coming early and staying late for love / A choice made daily without applause
HOME
Hallway light left on for you / Old jacket on the chair
CHEER
Calling out across the distance / Here to celebrate the almost-there
SONG
Singing only when the neighbors are away / Old tape playing from somewhere I’d forgotten I had
WARM
Woven through the ordinary hours / Arriving without announcement or fanfare
RISE
Returning from the low place is the oldest human story / In the falling, you collect what the standing never finds
FEAR
Feeling at the threshold, looking in / Every shadow throws a longer shape
DEPTH
Diving past the first layer of any thing reveals the second world beneath / Every great work of human thought was made by someone willing to go deeper
BREAD
Bought on the way back without planning to / Rising sound from the oven before it’s ready
TIME
The past is just a door that you no longer need / In every ending, something new is taking root
MEAN
More than words, the intention behind them is the meaning / Every message carries two things: what is said and what is felt
TRAIN
Tired and glad to sit and do nothing useful / Rumble under the feet and the passing dark
LOVE
Longing that outlasts every season / Opening wide without a guarantee
WIND
Without a shape but with so many voices / In the long grass it signs its name in circles
OPEN
Out beyond the walls you built, something is waiting for you / Pulling down a single wall is how you start an opening
CHEER
Calling out across the distance / Here to celebrate the almost-there
TRUST
Taking someone at their word / Resting in another's care