Unless you lose yourself to this,
It will ever elude you… Oh,
there are too many who are great
of mind and small
of heart,
and the breadth of their world
is the gamut of their village
or less – their cul-de-sac
maybe.
But no judgment.
Even the least of us can turn
manure into fertile soil into plump tomatoes…
the smallest, least alluring dregs and details add up,
more often than not,
to the most
basic
sweeping
reliable
Truths.

The summer my grandfather fell off the roof and broke both his wrists,
was the first time I’d ever seen him have to ask
for help.
But even in two casts from wrist to elbow — and beyond —
his mind worked
to keep him independent.
He invented holding sticks he could use as hands
in most every situation.
His pride
remained intact. He didn’t have to wait for both tibias
and fibulas to heal.

Many who pass this way are intent on mistaking
a soft underbelly for failing,
convinced that leathery,
horn-hard shells
are the only fitting emblems of the tough.

Not so.

2003 – 2022