December 9, 2017, Prescott-
I awoke this morning,
in a state of tension.
“Come off it, self!
This is Saturday,
and no one expects
anything of you,
except that you
take part in the
noon conference call.”
I got myself together,
drove to one friend’s house,
picked up a bin of cut juniper,
and delivered to another’s house.
Somehow, I will want to do better
than that.
The pieces of wood are small
in the second friend’s eyes.
Aren’t we a funny breed?
A person is entitled
to big, to fine, to proper,
to sufficient.
I thought of other friends,
in Ojai,
looking at the embers
and foundation, where
once, there was a
home similar to
the second friend’s
house, here.
Where is their piece
of entitlement, now?
Once upon a time,
an angry young woman
demanded of her mate,
that he throw me out
of the house
that five of us shared.
It was mid-February,
cold, snowy,
central Maine.
An older couple
took me in,
two days later.
Seems the Universe
decided that I
was entitled to
dignity, and
freedom from
pneumonia.
Here’s how I see it, now.
These are our entitlements:
Respect, with regard to
our persons,
our time,
our necessaries.
Love,
unconditional,
therefore, never forced.
Opportunity,
to make choices
and to follow through,
on those choices.
These three
are enough for me.
All else proceeds
from them.
A Sagittarian Seeker 