The theme for Shared Focus this week is Faces and was suggested by Martie. Yeah, we’re back at it after a hiatus of, hmmmm….well, too long. We needed a break after last year’s wild ride; both of us dealt with home moves and Martie also came out of retirement to work towards buying a home (which she recently did!) . Things have settled down somewhat and life moves on. My home is built and we’ve moved on to landscaping. Martie is living and working in California now with a new home waiting for her in Louisiana. Meanwhile, the creative urge was nudging us to begin collaborating again, so here we are contemplating the word “faces”.
Faces speak to us in a language without words. They speak eloquently of our pain, our sorrow and our joy. Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh has said that not only is our smile the result of our joy, but that our joy can also be the result of our smile…if we’re not “feeling the joy”, we can smile anyway and amazingly, we will begin to feel happier.
(“Thay” as he is affectionately known, knows from his own personal experience that this is true. He practiced “engaged Buddhism” as he lived through the destruction of his homeland during the Vietnam war and then after visiting the U.S. and Europe in 1966 on a peace mission, he was banned from returning to Vietnam.)
The face above is wearing a soft, spring sunshine smile of peace and quiet joy. She is my daughter and I am her mother and this alone, brings a smile to my face.
Martie:
I wonder, looking at her face, what is on her mind.
Why is that soft brow so furrowed?
What heart-ache can she know at such a tender age?
What sorrow?
Her face, so full of trouble, I imagine.
I ask her - and delight fills my soul as I hear her reply,
"it's too sunny out there, Grandma!"
Thanks so much for stopping by!
