How do I engage with inner freedom that is stable, independent of outer circumstances?
Outwardly, my life in the care center is shifting. Now we can rejoin the larger community and though we are all vaccinated, we from the care center must wear masks at all times, and stay distanced. To sit outside in the sun chatting with a friend, looking out on the pond in front of the main entry to Kendal, with no one to time me, or escort me, was like being on vacation. I relaxed in ways I hadn’t known I was missing. It has been very nourishing.
What is freedom? I wouldn’t recognize this gift if I didn’t already know it deep inside. Gratitude for the slow reintegration with other Kendal residents is blooming with the tulips.
Though still masked and distanced, I am reveling in new-found freedoms. leaving the care center to see the campus, friends, and community gathering areas once again.
Molting Goldfinch
I am shedding
my olive drab winter feathers
growing new ones of
aconite, forsythia, crocus, daffodil yellow
glinting in the spring sunshine
I dominate the bird feeder
propagate my species
crack open my sunflower seeds
while she delights in watching me
her seeds from a package
on top of her morning oatmeal
She is also molting
shedding gray prohibitions
of a pandemic
and growing new feathers
of golden hope
in trust for her species
I write from Ohio and am not sitting beside Lake Erie, but my body knows the waves.
Sitting on the Shore
4/7/21
Yesterday in the high wind
thoughts rose up
rising from the surf
of a thousand white stallions
crashing down on the shore
their flashing hooves
disappearing into sand
the foam sizzling away
only to arise and return
over and over again
Today my feelings are at low tide
the gentle slap and sigh
slap and sigh
lulled by waves
that come and go
to and fro
freely within
the greater body
Sitting still
I gaze
beyond the horizon
from east to west
sitting still
what remains
beyond rocks that spawn each earthy grain of sand
beyond drops of all the rippling waters, salted and fresh
beyond photons of light radiating from our star’s fire
beyond molecules of oxygen blending into outer space
Sitting firm and utterly still
breathing in and out
freely like waves
within the greater body
Judi Bachrach