The birds sing. The animals dance.
Haiku for these times (revisited)
Author’s note: During Lent of 2020 I wrote and posted 40 haikus (Haikus for Lent) with a photo and my thoughts related to the haiku on my Facebook account. That generated good interest from my Facebook friends and I continued the series with Haikus for these times, Haikus for different times and Haikus for another time. Yeah, maybe I got a bit obsessed with the haiku form.
The haikus became a journal for me, an on again, off again chronicle of the last five years. I still find a haiku an excellent way to capture a moment, an experience, an idea, an emotion.
I use the “That was then, This is now” pattern for older haikus as a way to frame the haiku, image and my thoughts from that time (That was then) and what I am thinking (This is now) when I revisit the haiku.
That was then
April 24, 2020
Driftwood morning grace.
The birds sing. The highway whines.
The animals dance.
Recently all of my mornings have been like this. I watch the sun rise. I listen to the birds welcome the day with their songs. I listen to the whine of tires and the rumble of engines on FM 150. I watch as Louise and Gus move through their morning stretches.
I slow down and align myself with the rhythm of the day and wait for the rest of the house to waken.
This is now
It is now late February 2025 (took at least two tries to quit typing 2024). My traveling days are pretty much done. From the onset of the Pandemic in 2020 I worked from home with only a few business trips in that entire time. For several years before the pandemic I traveled almost every week, sometimes near, sometimes far. I don’t miss the traveling, of waking up nights in a hotel room not exactly sure what city I was in or what day of the week it is.
I still get up early most mornings. Yesterday was a little different. I slept until 5:30 AM when Lynn’s work day alarm went off. Most of Lynn’s work days I am up well before the alarm, either due to me waking up on my own or one of the animals waking me up.
Yesterday morning, like most mornings, Louise and I went outside and looked around the neighborhood. The sky was partly cloudy and many of the stars were blazing brilliantly amongst the clouds. I could hear the whine of tires along FM 150 and the songs of the night and day birds as one shift ended and another began.
These are some of the photos from yesterday morning.
Some things don’t change. When the weight of the world gets a little too heavy for me I go outside. I look at the clouds and stars to remind me that I am a small piece of a larger universe.