The circle of life

I am so thankful I have it all

What has ever happened to me

The spring awakening, winter sleep,

The ups and downs and energy

Which comes with every sunrise and sundown

The buds which will bloom,

The roads we went along and missed too.

I am so grateful we had so much life

Without trying to be who we are not

Being a mother, being a wife

The circle of life, the renewal and the end

I am so happy I have always had it

The future, the past and today

Everything what has happened to me.

From the beginning to eternity

I am so thankful I have it all

The tears, the smiles and tranquility

The highs and lows and feeling of luck

The circle of life

Surrounding me.

In the middle of spring,

In the middle of garden

In the middle of blooms

And listening to songs

Which have no words

Since birds talk another language

In the middle of life

In the middle of sorrow

Hoping we get better as soon as the rain comes

Or the sun shines

Or our hopes come true

In the middle of garden before the dusk

Where the silence is full with wind

And the only words are what birds say

In the middle of eternity

Love, forgiveness and grief

It’s the only place to remain

In the middle of garden

In spring

I hope my poetical writing or poems describe better what I am feeling and what I am up to. Yes, it’s a new awakening, a new cycle in the newer ending renewal of everything and everybody that lives. I’ve been absent for a moment, but that is what happens in this life. It can be very kind to you at some moment and turn the nasty side to you in another moment.

Well, please, read the poems, please try to feel what I am feeling and maybe that inspires you also not only to write something, but planting a garden also.

End of October, the last of colors

The angry clouds

And sunny gaps of heaven

The gold of leaves now turning into rust.

Ghosts of the past, they love this weather

When days just crawl along.

It’s only memories which linger

Among the shadows of our broken dreams

And wings are put away for winter.

Getting older is like watching seasons change – late fall can be quite tolerable and even enjoyable at times. The last of golden days will be gone tomorrow. It’s very obvious why poetic people like the slight melancholy which comes with the decreasing sunlight and everything becoming grey. Less and less color, until the white of snow covers up all struggles and dirt.

We often live in waiting – waiting for Christmas, waiting for the New Year which might bring something better, waiting for spring, for time when everything becomes perfect, waiting for wedding, waiting for kids to grow up – endlessly. Quite often the waiting is more satisfying than the actual event. Quite often the beauty is in the fact that all good things come with waiting. On the due time.

Nobody is waiting for old age. Lots of people see it as a dread and disaster. However, if you are privileged to experience it, you should be already happy. As somebody who’s spent many decades researching medical issues and finding out how absurdly complex each one of us is, I often wonder how we just slide over and past all diseases and cure what’s curable. I wonder how we still are with all what’s happening around.

Old age is wise and knows what we tried to figure out many decades ago. There’s so much we learn over our lifetime! Consciously or subconsciously, we are aware of what’s ahead. Many books mention how somebody feels scared and old when they are 40 or 50. No need. In my experience 50-60 is a fantastic time. The saying “If youth knew, if age could” is attributed to quite a few wise men. I don’t care who said that, but that briefly descries how we evolve and, regretfully, are unable to carry out what we know is necessary when we reach really old age which I haven’t yet.

I knew this quote always, cannot remember from where, but I recall it here and there. Therefore, I don’t think people around 20 – 30 can be experts. In science or their occupation, sure, in life – no way. Things change drastically, and only decades later we realize what we did right and what were the crucial life-changing mistakes. No point suffering from regrets. Everything becomes experience – every step, every discovery, every loss and gain. I love myself just as much as when I was younger. I’m looking forward to many more years, I’d love to spend this time just as my parents lived – busy, always doing something, always staying firmly on the Earth.

Wishing you good transition into late fall and early winter!

Please, come and sit with me

While the trees are in flames

While the life feels so good

While I am still blooming

Please, come and sit with me

On the sun-drenched porch

While the days are still plentiful

While the blood runs so hot

While the love remains live

Please, come and sit with me

On the sun-drenched porch

It’s only October, still far until frost

It’s only autumn, it’s far until snow

While the light lives here

While we are intact

Please, come and sit with me

On the sun-drenched porch

In memoriam of my mom.

If I were a musician, I’d put it in tunes. I’m an artist, so I use colors.

My mom was October – colorful, sunny and windy with splashes of rain, putting abundance of harvest on our table. She was talented and wise. October is always my mom’s birthday for me.

Old age isn’t a disaster or bad news. Old age has learned what tolerance means. Old age is forgiving, wise and understanding. Old age knows how to distinct between superficial show-off and true love.

Not all of us are privileged to experience it, but the ones who are, should treat it simply as part of our life cycle.

Wishing everybody fantastic October, the season of poets and artists!

When summer meets fall

I’d like to stay here, on the doorstep of change,

extend this moment before summer meets fall.

While the winds are caring and sun is friendly,

and hopes stand tall.

This summer promised so much, just like always.

What a delusion! It never came true.

Go with the flow, become like trees, –

that’s all I can do.

I’d like to stay here, in the living garden

Extend this moment before summer meets fall.

Before frost and cold come,

Before time takes it all.

I usually write when slight sadness overcomes me, when I get to think about the unforgiving flow of time. We can reverse and mend many things, but what time has taken, never returns.

Happiness is a rare moment when everything falls into place. It doesn’t require extra words. It either is or it isn’t. No point in verbalizing such moments.

This summer was really bad. Mostly, due to the weather and insufficient portable air conditioner. Heat and extreme moisture caused a lot of physical pain. I cannot also neither write, nor paint when I am drenched in sweat. No normal human can or wants to do something when they feel exhausted, tired and off. Therefore, I didn’t even try. Not a big loss.

I would love the early fall to linger on a bit longer. Finally, it feels like it should have felt during the summer. Plants are still growing, flowers still blooming, huge tomato harvest this year. I don’t think I want to make preserves, but there are definitely too many tomatoes to consume right away.

I use time as well as I can. The older we get, the more we understand how fragile and delicate everything is. Losing days to pain is not what we intend to do, so, the only way to conquer pain means we push ourselves more, grow stronger still and use more efficiently the extremely beneficial things around us: fresh air, great, natural food, outdoor walks and keep busy working and creating.

Wishing everybody good fall season and pleasant weather!

Late November

The rusty gold of leaves and rushing winds

Majestic clouds race in the brilliant blue.

Late November. Still sparkling, but

The winter will erase the colors.

The human nature –

It wants to hold, to keep, stick tight,

To grab, to hug and have it safe

And never say good-bye or part.

Yet, by design it all is

Loosing, letting go, releasing,

Forgetting, giving up and separating,

And making space.

Late November. I’m picking up one leaf.

All glory of the fading colors in just one maple leaf.

I place it in a book. I am so human.

I know I can’t, but I am trying to preserve the beauty.

Maple leaves

My Life School blog was never only about gardening, green living and growing our own food. I actually started it to publish my writing, life philosophy and stories about surviving aging in a great way, for instance, never gaining extra weight, maintaining bright and good memory and doing things in spite of some health conditions which crawl upon us after 60.

I paint beautiful and light-filled art because my life has been very difficult and painful at some stages back in Europe. That’s to keep everything in balance.

I write thought-provoking and visually-perceivable poems and reminiscent stories since I’ve spent almost 50 years in Europe and the recent 17 years in Canada. Life was very different back in Europe from what it is here in Canada. My articles frequently compare many sensitive areas of both lifestyles.

Red leaves

I dealt with medical research for 4 decades, and these discoveries, too, find their way into this blog. Finally, my strength is visual art and I’m trying to always publish great photos. You can find all of these specific areas if you look at the menu and choose one particular item.

Thanks for reading and I hope you’re having a good transition into late fall and winter.

The soothing Sunday thoughts: peace, love and joy

I hope we are all at peace with each other

Since we are still sharing the candlelight

And a hug, a kiss and I love you

Whether you have just one slice

Of bread and a glass of wine

Whether you are in a castle

And you would never know

How much suffering is out there

I hope we are all at peace with the world

The fighter, the lover and the loser

The dreamer, the angry and the doubtful

The smart, the holy and the simple

I hope we are all at peace with our heartaches

Since we can still send our love

To those who are desperate, hungry and forgotten

I hope you can see some snowflakes

Dancing down and falling from the sky

The promise, the hope and the wisdom

Of someone who we all know

I hope you can see how snowflakes

Cover the graves, the streets and the cities

So that we all could have peace and joy

Like white, untouched and pure snow

At least in our thoughts

And the soft warmth of this calming candlelight

For I hope we are all at peace with ourselves and others tonight

Merry Christmas! Peace, love and joy to every home and family! Happy holidays blogging friends!

life

Life

Life isn’t what we think about it

Life is all the things what it does to us.

We are never in the same place. Ever.

As we stroll through the sky which is actually alive

With the speed that is not approachable even in sleep, even in dream

We do not know what is going to happen the next minute.

How would we know about the next year?

This is an endless flight which might end abruptly at the destiny’s door.

Between grasps of air some face reminds you that there actually was something.

Long ago. Far away.

Was that you setting up the alarm which never went off?

And so, we are flying without the warning system.

Without suggestions. Without instructions.

This flight has no stops.

We literally circle the sky until somebody gets moody or tired.

That’s when the next flood or ice age starts.

It would be unfair to just circle in the sky without ever learning anything.

So, what’s the lesson my dear?

Life isn’t what we think about it

Life is all the things what it does to us.

life

After extremely tough weeks of all kinds of health concerns and issues, after some sleepless nights and a very disturbing feeling of hopelessness, I am returning with a summary of thoughts about things which did not want to leave me alone.

I would love you to also stop at the art website: https://inesepogagallery.com/2017/12/10/shop-heartwarming-unique-nature-art/

I started an initiative to raise some money, but it got interrupted by different matters, including the lack of internet when construction workers cut off our cable. I’m not thrilled knowing that the next year might start off on the wrong foot with some delayed treatment. I haven’t had any chance to really try or sell anything this year, so, hopefully, you can help spread the word. I do appreciate any purchase of any creation on the art website.

Absence of shadows

We are shocked so frequently with extremely bad news.

We cannot be in a steady state of sorrow and grief.

I am focusing on the good things that surround me. These are mainly colors and the sunny backyard.

I used to cry for everything and I was crying a lot even reading books and watching movies. It seems I am in a place now where there are no long shadows.

It is much more peaceful since the entrance gate is locked. It’s not that I have built a wall around me, but I am carefully   selecting the things that get in.

When we allow strange forces and energies to take over, it can be very difficult to get back to oneself. Almost impossible since we are scattered all around like falling leaves.

I have to immerse myself in colors. The stunningly dark red and the blindingly bright yellow.

This is so refreshing.

I let my thoughts go.

I skip the sad pages and get back to colors.

It will be never so that everybody will smile and breathe easily. There is day and night. Light and darkness.

We are energy. We can be pure and clean energy and we can damage us allowing too many dark shadows cover up the light.

So, this is today.

I hope it is a good tomorrow.

I have no idea how the weather will be after that.

I am walking around live colors. I am inhaling them and they become a taste, too. What a relief! Meditation. Simply: I let the time disappear.

For it’s going to be a good tomorrow.

Enjoy!

The pink

The yellow

The deeply red

Christmas fairy tale: Going home

Going home for Christmas

The lonely walker feels that home shouldn’t be far anymore. A full moon just like 2000 years ago has scattered silver and snow diamonds all over the frozen trees and along the path. The lonely walker does not feel tiredness or exhaustion. The warm flavor of freshly baked bread and pies will be mixing together with the adorable scent of Christmas tree, and that is a dream to come true for somebody who hasn’t had eaten home-cooked meal for quite a while. He has a small gift for everybody, it wasn’t much he could buy, but he is full of hope that the gift of love should be enough for everyone.

Shadows stretch across the road and fade away in the distance. The sky is covered with black velvet and large stars appear on it like golden distant sparkles from eternity. Hardly any wind disturbs the frozen landscape, it is the silent night and everybody who has a home is trying to be there by now.

Candles are everywhere and their flames whisper: it is so peaceful and magic, and the shine in our eyes, the sparkles in the tree, the shimmering of stars in the sky confirm: there is no other miracle possible and needed. Lights are in every window, on any porch and the sounds of Christmas songs are flattering in the crisp air.

The lonely walker rushes his steps, although, the snow is deep and it can be quite tricky to get over some snowdrifts. He isn’t angry about the small obstacles on his way home. He knows he is getting closer and closer with every step, and the roof top should become visible just behind the next bend. A dog is barking somewhere from the darkness, some metal gate opens and closes, sounds vibrate far away and make one long even more for being in the safety and calm of his own home.

Just along the old apple trees, just five steps up onto the porch, and the door opens. For a moment he is blinded by all the warm and bright coziness of the inside, and it smells ever so good in here! Hugs follow hugs, and there is nothing like returning home for a lonely walker through the night.

Yet, one from the distance is watching these smiles and kisses and listening to laughs, and he is aware they don’t know how carefully and softly he is holding their every move in his welcoming and forgiving hand. The one who shines the light through the deepest night.

 

Going home for Christmas

The soothing Sunday Thoughts: I saw this morning

autumn-leaves-2

I saw this morning

How cautiously a leaf was swirling

Down to the ground.

And hesitantly,

And as if wanting to make this moment

An endless dance.

The tree had let it go,

To fly, to shine and die.

Small, tiny star, made up of purest gold,

With sunshine in its veins

And rain in every cell.

It had accomplished

Its mission.

Good bye is in the air,

And wisp of smoke from fire,

From burning leaves.

It raises straight to heaven,

To reach the clouds.

The wisp of smoke from tiny burning star.

autumn-leaves-3

P. S. We have been awarded with a fantastic, sunny weather. It is so warm, and the air is so full with fall flavors. The sun is dancing in reflections and leaves. The beauty of this season is breathtaking and sad at the same time: this is the feast before the long silence and sleep, yet, there is no way to describe the passionate intensity of colors. My artistic nature enjoys every single one of these colors, every shape of disappearing beauty. These days have been so uplifting, cheerful and inspiring.

autumn-leaves-1

I wish everybody a pleasant walk into the fall!

autumn-leaves-4