deedeewisdom

From the Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
“Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love
and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger,
and you seek him for peace.”
“And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide,
let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should
seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not
your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let
there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart
finds its morning and is refreshed.”

I am thinking of our friends, both close and intimate, like a spouse, but also of those dear friends of the heart, for whom we would do anything. Recently I have been reminded that friends are a gift that we cannot take for granted. And we need to invest in those friend relationships, for they are precious.

Diane Findlen Garrow 2/1/11

I wrote this a few years ago when my grandsons were ages 2 and 4

Fingerprints

“I see them in the morning
I see them there at night
And when I wash them off
They reappear in any bright light

They’re on my fine piano
They’re on my china shelves
You see, they make me smile and laugh
They’re placed by two little elves

Each time they come to see us
Their voices harken joy
‘Grandma, grandpa here we are,
Your two little boys!’

Ages two and four
They beckon in their constant moves
First here then there
Their little fingers leaving  clues…

Clues to childhood flying by
Clues to moments here, then gone
So let’s enjoy their presence
Their visits are a special chorus
In life’s ongoing song!”

Diane Findlen Garrow 2005

This poem reminds me that life is quite short and sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most.

“Well you wonder why I always dress in black
Why you never see bright colors on my back
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down
Living in the hopeless, hungry side of town

I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he is a victim of the time…”

And from the “Prophet”
“Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.
But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot  fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree
So the wrong doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.
Like a procession you walk together toward your god-self.
You are the way and wayfarers…”

Why do I write this? I see that many of the lessons that we need to learn, are right there in front of us. Rather than cast blame, let’s self-reflect and see within ourselves the frailities of our humanity.

Brave and Brilliant in Battle
Florence led the way
Latern in hand, in courage,
Florence made change in her day

“Bring the fresh linens
Care for those wounds
Open the windows –
We’ll make progress soon”

Her band of nurses
They travelled so far
To care for the soldiers
In that Russian war

The doctors of England
Were angry and shocked
No way would a woman
Take charge of their wards

So day in and day out
She struggled to build
The standards and programs
That now we fulfill

One woman of courage
That lantern in hand
She conquered diseases
And took a strong stand

Statistics, procedures
Best practice she knew
The basics of nurse
Today still stand true

Diane Findlen Garrow 1/22/11

“During all the years since time began
Today has been the friend of man.

But in his blindness and his sorrow
He looks to yesterday and tomorrow.

Forget past trials and your sorrows
There was, but is, no yesterday,
And there may be no tomorrow”

Anonymous

It was all black
Not a hint of light
Black
He was afraid

And on that edge of no hope
Close to suffocation
There he felt the tiny, gentle
Breeze of grace

A glimmer of memory saying
Fall
I will embrace you

So he fell
And he was transformed

From the man he was
To the man whom eternity
Had been waiting for

Diane Findlen Garrow  1/14/11

One little word, yet a word with great power.  If made a daily

exercise it change a day from gloom to glad.

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