Mommies and Pops, it's not a bad idea to keep a small pack of gum in your pocket or purse. Sometimes your little kids - 3 and up - will start to squabble while you are in church or a library or someplace where the noise is not permitted, and you can't at that moment figure out what the problem is, if there is a problem. Half a stick of gum can temporarily provide quick relief. You can address the squabble details later if necessary.

(P.S. Save the wrapper for later. Proper disposal of the chewed-up miracle intervention is advised.)

feast

i feast on apple pie
peanut butter
and peaches preserved;
walnut strudels
corn tortillas
cranberry muffins
with hot cafe
count my blessings
birds fetch the crumbs
and sometimes share
perhaps their fears
and sorrows fade
come apple pie
and walnut strudel

Ducks

Wouldn't it be neat to go to an art exhibit whose theme is ducks? There are art exhibits around the world, but I've never seen a duck art exhibit. There could be Audubon or Sibley paintings and sketches, there could be fine polished decoys, carved of hard woods. A Korean totem pole, with ducks calmly perched at the little platform on top would be quite moving.

Mallards and wood ducks swimming in a pond are such a peaceful sight. They float in a kind of unison, as though they are separate but in some way, contentedly connected. Ducks seem to be quite cheerful neighbors to us all. They don't attack and they don't squabble very much, just quack quack quack and dive for a little pond weed. Mother ducks are a remarkable sight, with their fluffy ducklings waddling single file behind them. 

I saw a mallard all alone on this morning's walk. A duck all alone appears a bit confused. What am I doing here? the solitary duck seems to ponder, standing motionless at the water's edge; something is missing.

God's violin

 God's violin

sparrows' chirping chirping
rising and falling within
the dry rustle of summer leaves.
buggy wheels rattle and growl;
baby's high pitches
pierce and slide;
shoes whisper
against the sidewalk pavement.
cars roar past -
then grumble and snore
in pause at the stop light.
pigeon's wings flutter
as he rises to a bough -
i listen for the sound
the chords of love
the bow against the strings
of God's violin

In Passing by Albert Huffstickler

In Passing
by Albert Huffstickler
1927-2002


There's a way people come to know each other
without ever speaking -
like on a bus at night
or in an apartment house over the years,
passing each other in the hall,
meeting at the mail box;
eating in the same diner at opposite ends of the room,
passing in the street year after year
on the way to work or on the way home.
In the silence of the night sometimes,
faces come to us in the darkness -
the faces of people we have known
but never spoken to.
And in the night, these faces glow
with a gentle light
and they're like the faces of angels
descended from some high place
to tell us it's all right,
that the loneliness will end,
that somewhere in a place not known to us yet,
we're together and always have been.

siren

There was a siren, a type of salamander, that lived in our ditch when we were kids in the 1960s in south Louisiana. There was always an inch or two of water, and on a summer afternoon, we'd go out with a piece of thread and a bit of bacon or cheese to see if we could catch a crawfish. But sometimes, something much heavier tugged on the string. Slowly I'd pull so as the catch wouldn't let go. When I saw the great wide mouth and slippery body of the siren emerging from the mud, I'd drop the string and run away, hollering. I was the one that let go, and the siren got to eat the bacon or cheese appetizer.

I think about that salamander sometimes. It seemed to be living in the smooth thickness of mud, not on land nor in the water. How does a siren breathe in the mud? How do they reproduce? Are there families of sirens that live in the mud?

Maybe it was at age seven, for First Holy Communion, I received a gift. The gift was a book, a Holy Missal, bound in white and protected with a clear vinyl cover. The pages were very thin, and lined with gold. There were five slender ribbons of different colors, that let you mark your place without folding the corners of any of the pages. The section with the Holy Mass was written in Latin on the left page, and English on the right. The book was illustrated with pictures of  saints and the Holy Family in beautiful colors, and halos and suns that sparkled with light and very thin lines of gold. There was a section for Mass, for Rosaries, and for the yearly calendar that matched the saints to Masses on specific dates. The book also included a description of different items at the altar, and the vestments that the priest wore at Mass, and their significance.