paths of long-term security
dead-end without notice
in the mercurial maze of life
—Terri Guillemets
paths of long-term security
dead-end without notice
in the mercurial maze of life
—Terri Guillemets
my life is a mess
but this moment is perfect
my life is perfect
—Terri Guillemets
Time is as Sand
Flesh is as glass
Sand quick is Run
Life soon doth pass.
—Author Unknown—
public domain image, undated
source: wellcomecollection.org
We’ve lost, we’re losing,
it’s so much loss, too much.
But the clouds are rolling
and the breeze is blowing
and nature is so beautiful
and the dried delicate leaves
are doing their dance of balance
between hanging on and falling away
amidst their wintry shiverings —
they love the wind
for helping them let go —
they fall to the ground
and the gentle rain comes
and helps them nourish the earth.
A gray bird lands on a bare gray branch
both unadorned, yet so, so beautiful.
And the leaves are drifting
and our lives are drifting
and loss is just another form of beauty.
—Terri Guillemets
black eyes and broken bones
rainbows and sugared donuts
overthinking and over-loving
have gotten me to this point
and still I’ve never yet made
a five-year freaking plan —
and even if I did — nothing
ever actually goes
according
to
plan
anyway
—Terri Guillemets
wishes come
wishes go
life is trapped
between
—Terri Guillemets
Hummingbird mama
abandons her nonviable eggs —
but keeps checking back
a few more times, just to be sure.
An arm falls from a sickly saguaro
and breaks open on the ground
like a prickly green eggshell —
after decades of desert still-life
a few seconds of death-motion.
But the night breeze is so beautiful
those breezes are — so beautiful
it’s hard not to get swept away.
—Terri Guillemets
At a certain point, some of us just sit down and watch the rest of our
Don’t let it happen to you!
—Terri Guillemets
Fortune is a centaur —
half man, half luck
—Terri Guillemets
After reading countless health books over the past couple of decades, I can tell you it pretty much all boils down to this: Eat plenty of veggies, work, play, rest, and don’t worry.
—Terri Guillemets
A headstone is just a bookmark in our unfinished lives.
—Terri Guillemets
Some torture Fate beyond recognition rather than let him have his way.
—Terri Guillemets
We all have those moments in our lives that transform us — something small or big happens and we’re never the same.
Sometimes we remember these moments in our personal histories as leaps, or falls — or just serendipitous wanderings — from one life segment to the next.
Or we mark them like stars on a map of self — constellations of life-changing moments. Some seem crazy small and wouldn’t even register as stars in others’ systems. But in our own they blaze bright.
Or maybe our days are raindrops and our lives rolling clouds and these moments are lightning strikes. Raindrop days, lightning-strike moments.
These maps and moments imprint our souls, our minds, our memorious hearts. Our stories of self are made from them.
—Terri Guillemets