Buddha in Training!!!
Out and about
on my new mobility scooter;
chance encounter with a neighbour.
You look well, she said.
Thank you, I replied, so do you.
No, what I mean, she said,
is that it’s nice to see you’ve done your hair,
put on a bit of makeup.
Enlightenment would have to wait;
I wanted to run over her toes.
But sitting here in the sun today
listening to the silence,
I can see chiffon clouds across
the clarity of a forget-me-not sky,
the big black wet nose of my dog
as he decodes messages privy only
to an animal world;
I smile as my cats lazily pad the
soft wood chip in their own Zen garden,
and a vivid orange tulip opens her
generous heart right here, in front of my eyes.
Perhaps there is hope for me yet,
as I am offered once again,
another gentle reminder, that these are
The Important Things.
journeyintopoetry 
Jun 06, 2013 @ 13:50:41
Well said Christine. That was a lesson for me today too 🙂
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:13:07
Thank you Norma!
Sometimes I think I have this compassion and kindly awareness thing nailed – and then WHAM!! Its gone! And I have to re-train – again! X
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:20:26
Exactly what I felt today too! *hugs* x
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:22:45
🙂 Xx
Jun 06, 2013 @ 13:52:17
That’s lovely. I feel inspired. I’ll now go to the workshop and make something lovely.
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:13:57
Thank you very much Harry!
Everything you make is lovely 🙂
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:06:37
You see what is important and beautiful in the world around you, and treasure moments. In that sense you are doing much better than many of us.
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:15:58
Thank you Peter!
I can easily see that to live life in this way gives us most peace, but sometimes!,,, 🙂
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:11:40
Lovely! 🙂 xx
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:17:13
Thank you very much Ali! 🙂 xx
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:18:22
That’s funny Christine, you should have run over her toes…
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:29:49
Thank you Susan!
Your comment made me laugh! Youre not supposed to encourage me!! Lol
I am certainly seeing things from the other side of the fence these days! People can be so patronising to someone disabled. There is no “malice aforethought”, Im sure, but words matter and more importantly the thoughts before words are uttered matter too. My disability hasnt taken my brain or who I am! Oh just listen to me!!! That desire ro crush toes hasnt really gone has it?!! 🙂
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:25:18
Christine, you are so loving and gentle. She is lucky it wasn’t me. She might be home nursing injured toes! 🙂
Loved your poem and your wisdom.
Love,
Lea
xxxxx
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:33:46
Thank you Lea!
I think I only just caught myslf in time! My daughter could tell where I had gone with this one; she stepped in, changed the subject and diffused the situation! i let rip when I got home!! Lol
Love
Xx
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:28:57
Oh, Chris, this is just beautiful, but I have to say, “you should have run over her toes!” lol And I love Jack decoding messages privy only to animals! If only we could or would slow down to really take in the important things. Sending many hugs, my friend! HBL ♥
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:37:29
Thank you Lauren!
I am getting far too much encouragement here on the running over toes front!! Lol
But yes, when I spend time, outside mainly, just observing and simply being, these other things beome diluted and the really important things take their place.
Many hugs back to you too
HBL ❤ XX
Jun 06, 2013 @ 14:55:21
Well let me join the list of those who would have “run over her toes”!!!
Some days I find myself hoping that someone will come up to me and pick an argument – just so that I can have a good row!!!
Mind you, on those days, nobody does!!! 🙂
But then I laugh at myself and sanity is restored 🙂
Love this poem
Much love
David
xxx
Jun 06, 2013 @ 15:17:00
Thank you David!
And your comment about an argument made me laugh out loud! I know the feeling exactly! I think I was concentrating on steering my new “car” or the story may have had a different ending! Lol
Laughing at ourselves can be the best medicine sometimes! Though Im not too sure about my state of sanity even then! 🙂
Much Love
Christine
Xxx
Jun 06, 2013 @ 15:18:24
I’d have run over her toes then backed up for a second run, but then I’m known for my naughtiness and for my short fuse with rudeness. I’m more a smack the other cheek, than turn the other cheek type person. 🙂
Seriously, you took this rude remark, acknowledged the hurt, and then used it to take us to place of beauty and gratitude. For me, wisdom is about truth as well as acceptance. This beautiful poem is full of both.
Big hugs my dear friend. xoxo
Jun 06, 2013 @ 16:15:31
Ha ha!!! Tricia! Thank you! I can see you backing up for that second run, firing on all cylinders!!
I was certainly stunned, and as I said above in another comment I am certainly witnessing being on the other side of that silly fence that separates us. And I say “silly” for want of a better word. What is wrong with people?!!! Why does driving a scooter give some the impression that one is also in possession of an empty bag of marbles?! Its very strange. But it was nice to be able to return to my place of calm afterwards. 🙂
Love and big hugs to you too
Xxxx
Jun 06, 2013 @ 18:14:43
Hello, Christine 🙂 The flowers smile for you x
Jun 06, 2013 @ 18:17:10
Hi Martin!
What a lovely thing to say. Youve made my day, thank you 🙂
Jun 06, 2013 @ 18:18:39
You’re welcome, Christine 🙂
Jun 06, 2013 @ 18:21:47
Christine, I LOVE “forget-me-not sky”–that’s my All Time Fave, anywhere!!! And I think you’re a saint for not running her down–people can be so stupid, myself included some days. I celebrate the “important things” with you–as you know, I have my own limitations, so the days when my focus is “calm” and I can see the miraculous in small moments, I rejoice! Love to you today!! xxoo
Jun 06, 2013 @ 19:47:47
Thank you very much Caddo
I think if you had been with me we would just have laughed all the way to wherever we were going! 🙂 and then we would go home and I would do my exercises while you.made apple crisp!! Sounds good to me! 🙂
Love you to bits xxx
Jun 15, 2013 @ 03:39:01
I think you’re absolutely right, Christine–sounds like a wonderful day to share together!
Jun 15, 2013 @ 09:41:24
Its so good there is auch a thing as dreaming 🙂 xx
Jun 06, 2013 @ 19:24:45
Ah yes – holding on to the important things is hard sometimes…. Especially when someone says something like “you look well” and something about the way they put it leaves you wondering “well what do I normally look like?” 😉
Oh and I love the dog’s nose in this poem.
Jun 06, 2013 @ 19:41:32
Thanks Holly.
Ive never gone anywhere in my life without doing my hair. Why would I neglect this becuse I am driving a scooter?! The psychology involved in people seeing peope with a disability is fascinating if you can look at it objectively. Its fascinating if you cant see it objectively too! Lol anyway Ive deided when I come across this ignorance again, because thats what it is, and I will come across it again, I will simply stop and think of my dog’s big black wet nose 🙂 xx
Jun 06, 2013 @ 20:00:17
As everyone said Christine, its beautiful.
Jun 06, 2013 @ 20:13:19
Thank you Harry!
There’s always something new to experience and deal with! 🙂
Jun 07, 2013 @ 03:51:28
Running over her toes would be just a perfect idea! 😉 Compliments from others is always nice (if well intended!) but sometimes the silent beautiful things around us, the things we often take for granted, are the things we cherish most, but often don’t realise. Sometimes we need to meet the empty headed, plastic forms of life to be reminded of what is real! 😀
Jun 07, 2013 @ 08:20:49
Thank you Suzy for this lovely comnent.
Your last sentence made me laugh out loud! I love “empty headed plastic forms of life” !! 🙂 and you are right!! If it takes ancounter with this to ground us again, then its been worth it! 🙂
Jun 07, 2013 @ 15:32:06
Loved this Christine, especially ‘enlightenment would have to wait, I wanted to run over her toes’ – but you didn’t, right, so to me, you are enlightened! Beautiful imagery; chiffon clouds, forget-me-not sky – gorgeous. Blessings on your weekend my friend. Love, Harula xxx
Jun 07, 2013 @ 15:48:45
Thank you very much Harula.
Maybe not running over her toes could be a positive sign but I think I have a long way to go before enlightenment!! 🙂
Hope you have a lovely weekend, we have amazing weather at the moment, I hope you do too.
Love
Christine xxxx
Jun 08, 2013 @ 09:27:27
oh 🙂 …well put, Christine…. you did not do it, so .:-) it was just a thought swept away by the important things in life.. 🙂
Love and hugs.. xoxox
Francina
Jun 08, 2013 @ 09:46:16
Thank you very much Francina!
Oh how I was tempted! Lol But my compassion and kindly awareness meditations are obviously at least beginning to work! 🙂
Love and hugs
Xxx
Jun 08, 2013 @ 10:38:15
Oh Christine, prayers to those who speak without thinking…and much meditation for those on the receiving end! Big hugs my funky teapot friend Xxxx
Jun 08, 2013 @ 11:21:13
Thank you very much Jane!
What a beautifully succinct comment which says it all!
I know the path I am following (or trying to) tells me attachment to material things doesn’t help in the long term, but I can feel a new teapot coming on! 🙂
Love and big hugs xxx
Jun 08, 2013 @ 21:52:49
This is a wonderful poem, Christine, its bite and raw reaction countered by the realization that the lyrical beauty around us is what’s important.
It made me think of a dream I had just last night – in fact you and Ina were in it! I was looking for you both and found you with my old boss seated between you. I just said “hello, D….” and she started to rant on about how I hadn’t fit in with the company culture, etc., etc. I stopped her in her tracks and said: “Oh, shut up, D…! You’ve done the worst you can to me, and I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think of me!” (Well, that knocked her into stunned silence)
Oooh, it did make me feel good! (Yes, ‘Enlightenment would have to wait’…) So, perhaps a dream of running over that insolent woman’s toes … and even bumping her off her arrogant pedestal!
Back to your beautiful poem: this verse is enchanting:
‘But sitting here in the sun today
listening to the silence,
I can see chiffon clouds across
the clarity of a forget-me-not sky,
the big black wet nose of my dog
as he decodes messages privy only
to an animal world;
I smile as my cats lazily pad the
soft wood chip in their own Zen garden,
and a vivid orange tulip opens her
generous heart right here, in front of my eyes.’
How could anything else really matter … especially to disturb our appreciation of ‘the important things’! XXXOOO ♥♥♥
Jun 09, 2013 @ 09:56:59
Oh Diane, what a wonderful comment which had me smiling all the way from beginning to end!
Aren’t dreams the strangest things?! I wonder if D… was telling Ina and me what a good team you were when you were there!! I remember you telling me this. 🙂
Oh what a very satisfying dream for you!! I will have to loan you my scooter so you can run over her, back up and do it again! Now- back to enlightenment! 🙂
And thank you for your lovely comnent on the last verse. Nothing else does matter when I am in that precious place; I just wish I could hold onto it. I will keep practicing 🙂 oh, and making sure I keep doing my hair of course! You see! I’m at it again already!! Lol
Lots of love ❤ xxx
Jun 09, 2013 @ 20:32:54
I definitely agree, it’s the small things which are the most important. A really hopeful, inspiring write and funny about the neighbour! 😀 x
Jun 10, 2013 @ 08:32:37
Thank you very much Becky! Lovely to see you here.
As long as we keep looking and noticing the small important things, then we come to realise they are actually the big things! And all that other stuff pales into insignificance – on a good day at least!! 🙂
Xx
Jun 12, 2013 @ 19:04:50
You’re welcome, it’s always a pleasure reading your posts 🙂 I agree wholeheartedly, life is about all the small things. . . x
Jun 12, 2013 @ 19:11:11
:). Xx
Jun 10, 2013 @ 23:33:33
Hi Christine,
This really is a delightful poem! I really love that line too “the clarity of a forget-me-not sky…”. Just delightful! 🙂
I would have been tempted to run over her toes too. That sort of judgementalism really gets to me.
Your experiance reminded my of being out with my mother. It’s interestng how people treat her being visually impaired. Even though she has a guide dog you’ll get at least one person who has to talk loud and slow like somehow having a guide dog means she she can no longer hear or understand people or in shops sometimes people who won’t acknowledge her at all they’ll only talk to me, like somehow my mother is incapable of purchasing a coffee! *shakes head*
We have a long way to go before people’s perceptions of disability are truely turned around.
That you are able to shake it off and enjoy the beauitful gifts of nature that surround you and gain a sense of peace and joy again…you’re a lot closer to enlightenment that you may realise. 🙂
Wishing you more lovely sunshine and many moments to enjoy outdoors
With lots of love and
(((BIG WARM HUGS)))
Tikarma
xoxoxox
Jun 11, 2013 @ 09:00:45
Thank you very much Tikarma for this lovely understanding comment.
I was pondering, after this incident, what the neighbour would have thought or said, if I had said the same thing to her!!
I am experiencing the other side of this silly fence quite a lot so I can totally understand your mum’s experiences that you mention.
I was at a hospital appointment recently and the consultant gave my return appointment slip to my daughter who had accompanied me. I was holding my hand out for it and she by-passed me!!!
Only small actions but massive impact. 🙂
Lots of love and
(((BIG WARM HUGS)))
Christine
Xxxx
Jun 11, 2013 @ 19:25:52
Oh, what a rude and superficial comment. I would have wanted to run over her toes, too.
The poem is beautifully written and is a good reminder to focus on those important things that help nurture and sustain us, rather than on the comments and actions that serve us no purpose.
Jun 12, 2013 @ 09:10:14
Thank you very much Fergie! Yes it did rather shock me at the time. Its yet another example of attaching some generalised stigma to someone just because they arent standing upright!! As is sometimes said “it beggars belief” ! 🙂
Im just glad I was able to turn it round for myself before I let myself suffer as a result of it. “The Important Things” are so, well, so important!! Lol
🙂 xx
Jul 07, 2013 @ 17:50:52
You need to publish another book, Christine! This is excellent, as is all your poetry, and I hope your put together another collection when you can. (Though I know it’s a lot of work! But ALL your poetry deserves to be published in book form.)
Jul 08, 2013 @ 12:01:26
Thank you very much Betty! What a wonderful compliment you have just handed to me; it feels all gift wrapped with ribbons!
Its so good to have tou back again after all your upheaval. I hope you are settling; change is difficult even when its good.
Love and hugs xx