Category Archives: Social Issues

February 26, 2017

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

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: Shi Sai, week in Reverse, why i write | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Social Issues, 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