A Day Comes

A Day Comes

A day comes
when the mouth grows tired
of saying "I."

Yet it is occupied
still by a self which must speak.
Which still desires,
is curious.
Which believes it also has a right.

What to do?
The tongue consults with the teeth
it knows it will survive
both mouth and self,

which grin-it is their natural pose-
and say nothing.

Jane Hirshfield


I just found this poem in the spring issue of Inquiring Mind, a Buddhist journal I get twice a year, and find it exactly the piece I need to begin this new journey.

It seems that every few years I reinvent myself. I think this started in my childhood when as a architect/homebuilder's daughter I moved every few years out of one of many houses my father built on speculation into another he had started but hadn't quite finished. It seems that as soon as the "new" house was done he'd sell it and on we'd move in to the next one. In my 6th grade year I attended 4 different schools. As a result I became good at becoming whomever it was I had to be in order to make it in my new school and neighborhood.

Throughout my adulthood I've found myself restless at times, ready to take on new challenges, feeling done with whatever it was I was doing at the time and beginning something new. Here I am, in my 64th year and something is once again nibbling at me.

Starting a blog is something I never dreamed of. Blog? What's that? Then one day a friend started one and from then on I'd hear about this blog or that blog and how they were reading the climate of the country's population or influencing an upcoming election. I've been thinking about blogs for a while now, visiting them once in a while. This past weekend a chance meeting with a lovely young woman in Washington, DC who has a wonderful blog of her own inspired me to take my first step. You can visit her blog at visual-voice.net

To speak or not to speak, that is the question. There are times when I have something to say. There are times when I don't. I think of this blog as place where I can speak ... express myself in any way that I choose whether it be through a poem, an image or a quotation that inspires me. The point for me is to see what I have to say and to watch where this new pathway will lead me. If you choose to watch with me I welcome you and if you don't that's fine too.