I think people would be surprised to know most of my micropoems for this month's "A River of Stones" take place right in the heart of Bakersfield.
Some of them were on impromptu road trips: one in particular was Tehachapi, but the river -rat-running, the incredible sunrises and sunsets are all here in the heart of the place I live: not out on a special mountain top oasis or Shangri-la but right here. Right here ~ which is where, I believe Shangri-la is.
It is in one's perspective, in one's attitude in the choices one makes.
In preparing for my birthday next weekend I have been busily writing, coming up with some notes and plans to make this next year od my life as fruitful and joyfully expressed as possible.
Today I was working on a list of tru-isms and this one fits here perfectly.
I haven't said the words, "That's not fair!" for years.
I think it is at least twenty-one years, since my daughter died. It was then I learned first hand that life just isn't fair and the sooner I came to grips with it not being fair, the happier I would be. After all, is it fair I get to bask in the last rays of sunlight in the day or see a moon set as glorious as last Wednesday morning? No, that isn't fair at all. That is grace at work, just like the "bad" or "unfair!" events that unfold right under my nose.
I don't have to like all those events. And I don't cry victimy whine rant of "not fair" instead I look at circumstances as, "This is what is and now, it is up to me to cope with what is... well, or like a pouty spoiled child who stomps her feet looking for someone to blame.
I would rather explore the urban wildness where some burrowing animals ~ kit foxes, weasels, rats, who knows? Have built quite a network of homes which I walk upon and capture with my camera as the air gets chillier and the rays of the sun lengthen and then, disappear. Right here, in urban Bakersfield. I don't have to go anywhere to experience nature. That isn't fair, either. It is lucky. And it is my choice, to discover what is here. Right nere. Right now. Here.
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