Jeff Flesch 6:00 pm on February 28, 2021
Tags: .poetry, beauty ( 39 ), darkness ( 6 ), Life ( 507 ), lightness, Love ( 509 ), nature ( 350 ), poem ( 568 ), symbiosis, wonder ( 14 )

Darkness, Lightness, Symbiosis

Darkness
Worn like a cloak
On a brocade
Of silence

Memories are translucent, and

Fibers of my being
Are hard, at times,

To piece together.

They fit in a splash
Of overlap, one
Scene runs
Into the
Next,

And, I’m often quite
Transfixed,

By the pictures I see,
So much so,
I wonder
If they
Are

Even really me.

Lightness
And, as the shadow
Lifts, light begins
To creep in,

Not all at once, no
Slowly, one measure
At a time.

The light must be
Careful, not to
Scare too
Much

Fright
Into the unsuspected.

Those who are not
Used to its fullness,
Stillness, and yes also
Goodness.

Yet, it does invade,
And pervade the senses,
Bringing with it, a new dawn,
With all of its new drawn-

Out histories, yet to be
Lived, and then, yes, eventually,
Told.

The question, so bold?

Why the darkness and
The lightness? What’s the
Story of this symbiotic
Relationship,

Which manifests in
So many different ways
When at play, during the
Day, and, yes, even when
We are hiding in the shadows
Of its fullest measure.

Our pleasure unrecognized, not
Fully brought to its light.

Symbiosis
In the end, dark and light
Are a pair of opposites,
Just like the rest of
The world.

While we get carried
Away in a whirl-winded
Exploration of why;

Why not try to simply
Accept the reality that is.

Lightness exists,
As does darkness, and,
Paradoxically,

And, oh so commonly,

You can be in the light,
While in the dark, just
As you can be in the dark,
While in the light.

It works that way, all
Throughout our days
Until we are finally carried
away.

Instead of a diary entry this week, I am choosing to share this three-part poem with you. I wrote this a few weeks ago just before traveling to the coast. At that time, it occurred to me to write a poem about three concepts, darkness, lightness, and symbiosis. Yet as I wrote the poem, they felt like three distinct parts of an overall unified whole, so I structured them and am sharing them just as they occurred to me. Fun.

Have a lovely week, everyone.

#poetry, #beauty, #darkness, #life, #lightness, #love, #nature, #poem, #symbiosis, #wonder

Jeff Flesch 6:00 pm on February 27, 2021
Tags: .poetry, centered ( 2 ), centeredwithin, Life ( 507 ), Love ( 509 ), poem ( 568 ), wdys#70

Centered

upended, we can
feel at times, with the hustle
and bustle of life.
yet, I am
centered in the knowing of
life’s richest treasure within.

In response to the WDYS #70 prompt from Keep it Alive, by Sadje.

#poetry, #centered, #centeredwithin, #life, #love, #poem, #wdys70

Jeff Flesch 1:00 pm on February 27, 2021
Tags: .poetry, Haiku ( 34 ), Life ( 507 ), Love ( 509 ), memory ( 9 ), past ( 9 ), poem ( 568 ), Poems ( 279 ), present ( 10 )

Haiku #10

memory, like a
whisper of times forgotten,
behold, this moment.

#poetry, #haiku, #life, #love, #memory, #past, #poem, #poems, #present

Jeff Flesch 6:00 pm on February 26, 2021
Tags: .poetry, dunes, Life ( 507 ), Love ( 509 ), nature ( 350 ), poem ( 568 ), Poems ( 279 ), sand ( 2 ), sea ( 18 ), unity ( 3 )

Tanka #6

Vast sand dunes at sea,
Such a juxtaposition
Underneath? The same.
Pondering the truth of life,
Watching for the nexus. Unity.

#poetry, #dunes, #life, #love, #nature, #poem, #poems, #sand, #sea, #unity

Jeff Flesch 6:00 pm on February 25, 2021
Tags: .poetry, concepts ( 5 ), Life ( 507 ), Love ( 509 ), poem ( 568 ), Poems ( 279 ), reality ( 42 )

Deep Down

When we are born,
We get it, and then
A little at a time
That which was gotten

Becomes the forgotten.

Concepts invade our every
Sense, even though we know
We are blessed, these concepts
Pervade, like dew drops

Covering our eyes in a grand
Masquerade.

Reality becomes blurry,
And, at times, with such furry,
We lash out at others,
Because we feel quite smothered.

Lost in concepts,
Of our own creation,
A mentality develops
Of great separation.

And, yes, isolation follows,
Yet there is another way
We may harken today,
Recalling what we got
So long ago,

By remembering that
Which we already know.

You, me, and that tree,
And all of the other concepts
That you do see, are not
Separate, my friend,

For that, know it does depend,
On a realization, which you can
Make with some fixation, and

Steadiness of Mind,
By uncovering that which
Is deep down inside.

#poetry, #concepts, #life, #love, #poem, #poems, #reality

Jeff Flesch 6:00 pm on February 24, 2021
Tags: .poetry, autumn ( 2 ), Haiku ( 34 ), leaves ( 3 ), Life ( 507 ), Love ( 509 ), nature ( 350 ), poem ( 568 ), Poems ( 279 ), winter ( 3 )

Haiku #9

Leaves fall from the tree,
The sky is cloudy and gray.
Autumn fades. Winter.

Photo Credit

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Photo by Greg Shield on Unsplash
Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash

#poetry, #autumn, #haiku, #leaves, #life, #love, #nature, #poem, #poems, #winter

Jeff Flesch 6:00 pm on February 22, 2021
Tags: .poetry, being, creativity ( 34 ), Life ( 507 ), Love ( 509 ), poem ( 568 ), Poems ( 279 )

Creative Beings

Is a wondrous
Part of the human
Art form.

Something we’ve
Been given, entrusted
Into our care, is the power

Of a special order,
One that does grow as
We get bolder, and understand
Ourselves more.

Even as we shoulder
More responsibility,

It is still possible to continue to
Develop our innovative agility.

Beguiled by life, as we
Can sometimes be, it’s
Important for you, and well,
Of course, me, to
Remember,

We are,
And always will be,
First and foremost,
Creative beings.

#poetry, #being, #creativity, #life, #love, #poem, #poems

Jeff Flesch 6:00 pm on February 21, 2021
Tags: .poetry, askingforhelp ( 2 ), blog ( 17 ), blogger ( 29 ), blogger's diary ( 35 ), blogging ( 56 ), diary ( 30 ), education ( 10 ), personaldevelopment ( 12 ), personalenrichment, Poems ( 279 ), professionaldevelopment ( 13 ), remoteclasses ( 2 ), spring ( 2 ), Writing ( 94 )

A Blogger’s Diary 2/21/21: On Writing and Reflecting, Spring Term, and Asking for Help

Do you ever feel like you have so much to say, and there’s just not quite enough time to say it all? Well, I’ve felt like that some this week, so have some new posts coming in the next few weeks, which I’m pretty excited about. Before we get to that, let’s take a look at 2 reflections from writing that occured this week. Alright, here we go.

On Writing and Reflecting

Forgiven

I had a great time reflecting upon and writing the poem forgiven. It was prompted by the Saturday RagTag Daily prompt, by Punam. The prompt was hugs.

As I reflected upon the concept and actual practice of hugging someone, it occured to me to write about a warm embrace in two ways, which are paradoxically, and not, one way. There is something very special about the contact between two people that occurs in a hug. Magical in fact.

The concept of falling into someone’s arms is about sharing something so special with someone else that in a way in that moment the two become one, and all of life’s complexities, challenges, and even disappointments disappear and are forgiven. Lovely.

I miss hugging people. I look forward to a day when hugging people is something we all do again as a normal everyday practice.

Imagine

I had an equally fun time reflecting upon and writing the poem Imagine, which was a WDYS prompt from Keep it Alive, by Sadje. As I considered that beautiful tower, I wondered what the tower would think about the state of the world today. I imagined, pun intended, that the tower would long for a day when people would be bustling up and down it’s steel reinforcements, and walking, laughing, and playing at its base.

Of course, as with all things we write about, imagine is also a poem about my reflections about the state of the world. The hope and knowing I hold deep inside that in due time, we will all be in-person together again, walking hand-in-hand, and laughing and playing again like we did not so long ago.

I look forward to that time.

New Writing

I have several new posts I’ve been working on. Here is a preview.

My One Thing This Week: Creating a Vision Traction Organizer
The Reflection Series #8: Causal Loop 101
A Developmental Moment #5: Patience as a Concept and Practice
A Developmental Moment #6: Why Learning to Ask for Help is Necessary and Needed

Of course, I have some new poetry, which I am also excited about. More to come!

Spring Term

Well, last year at this time, we were just about to embark on pivoting 5 educational programs to fully remote. Something we’d never done before, pandemic or not.

And, as we prepare for this Spring Term classes, registration for which begins on Monday, I am filled with such gratitude and appreciation for each person I work with. Their persistence in the face of adversity, determination to never give up, and to always acknowledge our current reality, while creating new ways forward within that reality, is such a treat and joy.

The department has over 120 remote classes, workshops, and training on offer for Spring term, and each term, as I’ve written before, we reach more and more people with opportunities for them to be with other people. This last term, we had students from Europe and all across the US. Super fun.

Asking For Help

For a very long time, I did not like asking for help. In fact, I would say that I avoided it at all costs. It was a part of how I was raised. Part of that individualistic mentality that is so pervasive in the US.

However, it is mere confusion at best. Why? Because, as I’ve written about before, the idea that we are independent of other people is an illusion. Simple. We are interdependent, nay, really One.

Therefore, living in an illusion that you are an individual separate from the rest of humanity and the world is a space full of pain and suffering. Seriously, I know. I lived that way for a long time.

When we are aware and realize that we are all interconnected, and that, in fact, all things on this planet are interconnected, the idea of asking for help is much more palatable. In fact, when you take that idea further, and realize that you ask for help everyday without saying the words, the concept of asking for help sort of becomes a part of who you are.

That does not mean, however, that it is easy for everyone. And, in fact, when I am super busy at work, my old pattern will reappear at times, and I have to always keep asking for help present for me. Important.

When we need help, we need to ask for it. Simple. You are not deficient or in any way less efficient or effective when you ask for help. In fact, the paradox is that you are way more effective and efficient when you ask for help. Yep. True.

I have an upcoming article on asking for help, which will come out in a few weeks.

Alright, that’s all for this week.

Stay healthy and well, and have a tremendous week.

#poetry, #askingforhelp, #blog, #blogger, #bloggers-diary, #blogging, #diary, #education, #personaldevelopment, #personalenrichment, #poems, #professionaldevelopment, #remoteclasses, #spring, #writing