My dear...

When you smile the sun shines brighter
or the rain turns sweet and the clouds a soft lavender

When you laugh a rainbow appears
the flowers lift their heads and bloom

When you play butterflies dance
the birds take flight and sing a joyful song

When you run I happily follow
my spirit is light and prances along


when you sleep my heart is at peace
the quiet night worships you

On the Edge of a Dream

Drifting on the tail of a dream
Dancing on the edge of a song
Swimming in a sea of violet soft clouds
In the lavender stillness of dawn

The quiet of night does fade
As the first of the morning birds wake
From the spark of day shines a ray of hope
For this day is mine to make

Opportunity waits like a star
My heart its only voice
Do I reach out to grasp my destiny
This journey...my only choice

What If...

What if love was always stronger than fear? What if joy always won out over despair? What if I was really brave enough to live how I want to live? What if I wasn’t afraid to sing in the street or give a stranger a hug? What if I really didn’t care about money? What if I actually put other people first? What if I realized all the time how much power was in my hands to help others and acted on it? What I was able join with others from around the world to break down walls and unite with a dream?

What if this idea was brought to fruition…

What if I could travel around the world and ask people from all walks of life to finish the phrase, “What if…” Would our answers be shockingly similar? Do we all want the same things no matter our age, ethnicity, or socioeconomic condition?

I would like to find out.

Directional rant

I have always taken pride in the fact that I have a strong sense of direction. This is, of course, absurd. It’s like being proud of having blue eyes or being bilingual simply because you grew up in a household with parents of different ethnicity. A strong sense of direction is one of those things that you are just born with; something you have very little, if any control over. So, to be proud of this skill is silly. Yet, here I am proud nonetheless. Proud and annoyed…

Since moving to Sao Paulo, Brazil, my sense of direction has become slightly skewed, and I am utterly annoyed by this fact. I’m not quite sure if it is just one reason or if it is a compellation of many. My street, for instance, neither runs north-south or east-west. Rather it moves one way in a southwesterly direction. Therefore, I don’t have a direct N,S,E,W reference point; at least not one as easily identifiable as a street. Then, to make matters more complicated, none of the streets seem to follow the logical grid pattern that I am used to. They seem to tangle and collide at random points of intersection. Any the one ways… that’s enough to confuse the hell out of even the most competent of navigators. There is no rhyme or reason to the pattern of one ways here. You might think that every other block would be a logical layout, but no, the civil engineers of Sao Paulo prefer to wreak havoc on the would be drivers. There are even a number of streets that switch direction from one way to another with little other than a sign and the sight of oncoming traffic charging toward you to act as warning. Surprise!

Perhaps the buildings are to blame for the bulk of my confusion. In every other area where I have lived, I could always count on the sun traveling across the sky in its predictable east-west pattern. Yes, I know you book worms and astronomy geeks; it’s not directly east-west as it shifts slightly with the seasons, but you get the picture. Of course it does the same here in Sao Paulo, however, the sea of skyscrapers stretching from one end of the horizon to the next make trying to find the sun more like a game of hide-and-seek or peek-a-boo!

To sum it up, I guess I’ll just have to be more patient, and learn to trust the GPS. Thank God for Garmin!

My Ocean, My Friend

Pushing and pulling
roaring and foaming
She calls to me up on the sand

So I run to the shoreline
and into her foam
Plunge under a wave
where she welcomes me home

There under the water
I feel the sea dance
rocking and lulling me
into her trance

She rolls me on forward
and tangles my hair
her great waves are tempting
but oh, do I dare!

To ride to the shoreline
is such a delight
but to take on the "big one"
can be a fierce fight

So I'll romp in these shallows
until the day's end
and soak up her beauty
my ocean, my friend

The Space in Between

Floating on the edge of awake
Drifting in and out of a dream
Not quite morning
Yet, night has passed
Soaking up the space in between

You are Beautiful!

You are beautiful
absolutely beautiful
Yes, I am talking to you...

You are the sun shining
the rain falling softly on the earth
You are a bird calling
and new life springing forth

Every wrinkle
every roll
every freckle
every mole

Yes, you
You are beautiful
You are a gift to this world!