Category Archives: Life Lessons

February 26, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 26 February 2017

By Kat Myrman


Happy Sunday! Today’s Shi Sai is a bit like a ping pong ball that has pinged out of play and is now ponging off random surfaces. It happens. Sometimes my little experiment with words goes off track. At least at first reading.

It is only after a second read through or a third…maybe a half dozen more that I am able to decipher what spilled out of my brain over the course of the past week.

Sometimes I wonder why I do it. Why it is so important for me to write day after day; words upon words and more words. I tell myself I do it for myself; that it keeps me sane. That much is true.

And there is this other thing. I suppose it’s also true, for me at least, what they say about writers and artists. We long to be remembered, to be understood, to be known. I admit this part is true, too. I am entering the last decade, or if I’m lucky, the last two or three more, of my time on the planet. My life has mostly been about deepening the rut of survival, raising kids, sleeping, working, sleeping, working.

And there is a third reason why I create words, art and the like; to counter the negativity best expressed in the saying, “Life is a bitch and then you die.” I don’t believe this; that nothing matters. Everything and everyone does. Matter, that is. Like renegade ping pong balls we bounce off as many surfaces as momentum and gravity will allow because inertia is not an option, because not ping ponging is death.

Oh…and we bounce off each other too. That’s the best part. The messy, magnificent part. My words, this blog allow me to bounce off more of you than I ever imagined possible. And so I write. A lot. It’s as if I am saving the best part for last. When all is said and done…and written, it’s not a bad way to go.

Have a great week in and out of the rut. keep pinging! ❤

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 26 February 2017

I think I’ve missed the point.
we call it prayer
the power was ours all along
pools of vibrant life force welling
at water’s edge
fire meet ice
the heat was rising
what of the shattered remains?
I can be spontaneous
it’s not that I’m not strong, you know
it’s early morning drenched in dew
breathtaking
elusive
hear the truth
be windows
truth
nectar of the
fog
she had a mind and wasn’t afraid to use it
you likely know a scapegrace
when days grow long
memories of dying stars
we’re all but lost but for the brave

~kat

12 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Social Issues, Spirituality

February 20, 2017

Magnetic Poetry Monday – 20 February 2017

By Kat Myrman

we only need
to know one
thing to make
it here…
the power was
ours all along

kat – 20 February 2017

11 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Life Lessons, Magnetic Poetry, Poetry, Spirituality

February 19, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 19 February 2017

By Kat Myrman

Another week, another Sunday of looking back. The second line of this week’s Shi Sai was troubling to me when I read it back for the first time. “God is not there to listen”. What does that mean? Why am I troubled by this?

True enough, the world is a noisy, obnoxious place. I am guilty myself of zoning out; muting the cacophony that grumbles for my attention day after day, endlessly, mercilessly, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. I do it to maintain my sanity. Does god worry about maintaining sanity? I wouldn’t blame her if she did.

Just what is it that I expect from a god, a deity or a higher power? Does god exist to make my life heaven on earth, or more specifically…

…to help me pass the exam I didn’t study for?

…to land me that promotion or raise or fortune that I didn’t work for?

…to move the traffic along; to give me green lights all the way to work because I indulged my own laziness by hitting the snooze button once too often?

…to heal me or my loved ones; even thwart death, making us all immortal in a world where everything dies?

…to win the argument or war that I have stirred up in god’s name…when it is really my own selfishness, greed or self righteousness that needs defending; that needs to win?

…to make this person or that love me, appreciate me, see me?

…to fix my furnace, car, toaster or unclog my toilet?

…to fix the mess I’ve created for myself and others through my own actions?

…to make everyone just like me, and if they refuse to get in line, to make them go away…forever?

…add your own “please god” here…this is by no means an exhaustive litany…

We let ourselves off the hook too easily by repeating “god is in control” when the shit we’ve hurled at the fan comes back to slam us in the face. -kat 2017

We’d really like to be able to “let go and let god” and “surrender all” but those “come to Jesus” moments usually hit us when we are in the thick of chaos of our own making. It’s the ultimate “get out of jail free card”, absolution and immunity from accountability. An “in control” god gives us reason to praise and celebrate when the going is good, while taking personal credit for our own good judgement for having had the faith to believe. And when things go bad? We cry out, stomp our entitled feet and gnash our teeth toward god who we believe has “forsaken us”; who has stopped listening.

It’s complicated. What do I really expect from god? In all my wailing and pleading and groveling I think I’ve missed the point. And the point is not whether or not god is listening. 

The point is, am I?

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 19 February 2017

the dreary gloaming makes me weary
God is not there to listen
a stubborn squatter with a frosty bite
“Tomorrow,” he sighed
I don’t need chocolate or flowers
bits of bread and stale saltines
sight is relative
the deafening silence had an unintentional consequences
I just don’t want to be left behind
it has no value
frail shells of starved flesh
the sea is calling
a speaker’s nightmare
what’s most important to survive
nature secretly longs
bread, day old, crumbs to sustain
what I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall

~kat – 18 February 2017

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Social Issues, Spirituality, Week in Review

February 17, 2017

A Bit of Kindness Please…Thank You! 

By Kat Myrman

A Bit of Kindness

On her feet for meager wages
armed with high tech laser wand
she tallies groceries one by one.

Hurried shoppers, rude, impatient,
expect her to serve selflessly,
ignoring her humanity.

She returns their scowls with smiles,
the boss says customers are right,
“Come back again, have a good night…”

She needs this job to pay the bills
but every month she must decide
what’s most important to survive.

Remember this next time you shop,
acknowledge her, don’t look away,
smile, say thank you, make her day.

~kat – 17 February 2017
(A Constanza Poem)

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Constanza, Life Lessons, Poetry, Social Issues

February 12, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 12 February 2017

By Kat Myrman


Well, it’s Sunday again and I’m happy to say as I write this, and if you’re reading this, we’re all still here. I have to admit, it’s been touch and go for a few weeks. Still, the sun and moon have kept to their schedule. We even saw a comet pass by with little fanfare or disruption to our day to day. In fact you might be tempted to think that it was a normal week, or at least as normal as anyone can expect…except…

There were a few collateral casualties this week, depending on your point of view, on a whole host of battle fronts…education, speech, equality, ethics, justice, retail profit and loss, immigration, environment, freedom, separation of powers, diplomacy, and healthcare. And as a final exclamation point to wrap up the week, North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan (no it wasn’t the aforementioned comet…that happened too) while Japan’s Prime Minister golfed with the president at his Florida resort residence.

But many people probably missed all of this because…well because the sun and moon kept to their schedules this week. And that’s okay. Following current events is a daunting task after all and not for the faint of heart. Fortunately there are those of us who persist, nevertheless.

So, no worries. I hear the sun is scheduled to rise again tomorrow morning. Those of us who concern ourselves with the details, with the minutiae of the day, who are not afraid of the dark, who persist…and who resist will keep the light on for you. Have a great week!

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 12 February 2017

So, this is an “alt-clerihew”
but that was not his mortal sin
their family grows
separated, what a pity
but here’s the thing
your days were numbered
denying reality
Liberty’s a bearded fellow
return home to the freedom of the sea
Love is everything
just as I believed…
Drum roll paleeaaze
those who curse the rain
beguiling, mesmerizing, looming
unless they’re a duck
spinning alternative facts
ferocious and wild
easily flustered, weak and unruly
keep us in suspense too long
not that I notice such things.

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 specified period of time. I use it as a review of the previous week. 😊

4 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Social Issues, Spirituality, Week in Review