Happy Sunday! Winter’s fury has descended upon many parts of my country. The weather forecasters and government authorities warn us to stay inside where it’s safe. And we know they’re right. We are reminded they are right by the sound of spinning tires on ice screaming from the silence late at night and by reports of stranded drivers and multiple car pile ups on the evening news. Some people just don’t heed the warnings. But not me. I’m happy to spend the day in my pajamas, eating and drinking warm things and napping between sappy movie binges. Staying safe is bliss!

But after a few days of slugging around behind my sterile four walls, I need a break, if for no other reason than to replenish my dwindling supply of milk and bread. So I dig myself out, venture past my neighborhood into the light of day and join the masses of other cabin fever sufferers who clog the highways and byways, narrow grocery aisles and shopping malls.

We are so predictable aren’t we? So predictable that we are easily convinced to take the safe route. Master manipulators hungry for power are well aware of our weakness. “Let us take care of things for you,” they say, “We’ll make the world great for you again. Let us tend to he details. Stay inside your tiny worlds where you feel safe. Let us handle things. We know things you don’t.”

But eventually it’s time to dig out, because for the world to hum, to thrive, to be great requires our participation. We need to join the masses. There are shopping malls to haunt, restaurants to patronize and grocery stores stocked to the rafters with milk and bread. No one can take care of the details for us. We are the ones who keep things humming.

So as we venture out after the storm, past soot-blackened snow mounds, scary ice patches and bumper to bumper uncomfortable closeness with strangers, with others, it helps to remember that, like us, they are doing their part too.

I’m guessing we’d miss each other if one of us didn’t show up…even the ones who didn’t heed the warnings. And I’m guessing we want us all to arrive safely wherever it is we’re heading.

Stay safe, stay warm…and stay in the game. We need you.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 8 January 2017

beautiful rain at dawn
flattened area under a tree.
lately is not late
time is a tyrant
early birds will lose
all it takes is a head spin
the sum of our parts
flowers and people
it’s not the destination
earth beneath resting
I got here just in time!

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the shi sai features the words of one writer,providing a  glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week. 😊