Rippling... Never Underestimate how your Life Affects Others

Never underestimate how things will ripple out.  My dearest friend Karen's still continues to affect others in the most possible way.  We celebrate & cherish what we had, still have.  Another poet shared this with me this morning in her honoring Karen's memory...

For My Friend (In Memory of Karen Hurst: Friend to Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney)

By Dana L. Veach ©11

The creamy silk of lilies,

Gardenia’s spiced perfume

Are only pale reminders

Of the rareness of her bloom.

She gave through tears and laughter,

The vibrancy of life.

The world is darker, rougher now

Since she passed from my sight.

The air, how stale without her;

The light, how dim it’s grown.

My friend who shared a lifetime,

Before me, home has flown.

How can I share the wonder 

Of knowing such a friend?

What she meant requires that self

and grief come to their end. 

I’ll carry on in honor.

She’d want no less for me.

As fiercely as she filled my life,

Let me now live so free.

When she watches me from Heaven

May she cheer to watch me try,

With the strength she left, seize life-like her, 

And milk its fullness dry. 

All Rights Reserved DLV © 4-21-2011

I Get By with Some Help from My Friends...

Yesterday, I had 2 separate opportunities to converse with 2 sisterfrends on opposite sides of the U.S.

And the second one was a renewal of someone who had not seen or spoken to in several years. It was not that we had any problems with one another, just time, circumstances and busy stuff got in the way.

We fell in together as time melted away picking up a familiar rhythm from times of yore. I commented to her of the ones who have re-entered my life from a not to distance past that I'm happy to see again. in fact, she gift me wth a qote: "Between rocks & these hard places, I am makng diamonds". A right on spot at a moment I needed to hear it.

I also have been to connecting with my best friend from high school who I was delighted to tell her today what I did not know in 1964 & that she was my Nettie (from the Color Purple) when we were both 14. Much to my suprise she told me she used to call me Jackie O (in 1964 she wold have been Jackie Kennedy) that I had style even then...And here I thought of myself as this shy, skinny nobody wanted to be around me teenager...

Having friends near and far is something to not take lightly as they are your living breathing "her-story". I cringe when I hear yong(er)women say they do not get along with other "females". Or do not trust them or limit their tme or heart with other women. Not "females" but real flesh & blood walking recordings of your life, your phases, your growth.

To deny yourself the richness of that experience is sad & a loss not easy to retrieve.
Try to get by without help from your friends and see how empty your life will be.You will get by, yes, but s that what yo want to settle for?

As the Beatles sing: " What would you think if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not o sing out of key

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

Do you need anybody
I need somebody to love
Could it be anybody
I want somebody to love"

I'm gonna try with a lil help from my friends...