Category Archives: Week in Review

July 9, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 9 July 2017

By Kat Myrman

There is a full moon outside my window. The sky is almost cloudless and the moonlight is washing everything in a pale frosted glow. 

During the day when the sun is bright and high in the sky we are told as children not to look directly at it for fear of damaging our eyes. But it is in the cool shadowy hours of the night when we can gaze directly at the sun’s reflection on the face of the moon. It is not in fact moonlight that we see, for the moon has no light of her own, but it is the sun’s reflection. 


Sometimes I feel like the moon. Face half hidden in cool gray matte while the other half brightly glows … or like the moon in its phases, in full face glow or completely hidden, shadowed in gray. 

I need to remind myself that I am not a moon. I am not meant to be a reflector of everything around me. But that can be a daunting task when faced with the troubles of our times. It seems so much easier to turn inward when the going gets rough. 

But the truth is I am much more like the sun. Reminds me of the little Sunday school song many of us happily sang as youngsters…”this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…let it shine…let it shine…let it shine. 

We can’t afford to brood; to become reflectors of light hoping to deflect the darkness, because we are suns. If we don’t let the little sparks within us shine the world will just get darker.  

Thank goodness for the dawn and its daily reminder that offers an example to each of us to rise anew, to be light and hope, warmth and healing from the inside out. 


“This little light of mine…I’m gonna let it shine…let it shine…let it shine…let it shine…Have a wonderful week. Your light gives me hope.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 9 July 2017

nature’s song in green
got her
it was a good death, as deaths go
but it could be true
parched, we are drowning
those who dream dance on
their dreams frail as dust
to greening flush and browning
driving us mad
with longing
as though they are gods
out on digital screens

~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.

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

July 2, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 2 July 2017

By Kat Myrman


“Happy Sunday!”

“Happy, you say?!”

“Well, in a transcendental, metaphysical, quasi-spiritual, dreamy, optimistic sort of way, yes, happy. And it is a fact that it is Sunday…unless you reside in the Far East…then it is almost Monday…but I divagate.”

“You what?”

“Divagate….as in digress? Remember? The new word we learned this week.”

“You’re such a diva!”

“Am not! You are! But back to your original question, ‘happy, you say?!’ … yes, I take it you’re not.”

“Well, how can anyone be happy when everything in the world is spiraling out of control?”

“Take a Dramamine?”

“Come on! Global warming, a heath care bill that is going to kill people, an insane, mean old man running the country, Russia (need I say more?), collapsing infrastructure, the assault on our public schools, voting rights, gerrymandering, voter suppression, nationalism, travel bans, ageism, misogyny, racism, homophobia, religious profiling, insane tweets, the wall…”

“Feel better yet?”

“No, I’m just getting started. And just you wait. Tomorrow something else will happen to prove  we’re all up shit’s creek without a paddle. So forgive me miss giddy twinkle shoes if I can’t be happy right now! I’m mortified! It’s terrifying!”

“Oh, but you can. Be happy that is. It’s all a choice. It only takes a second.”

“Harrumph! Delusional you mean!”

“No. Happy. Right here, right now, this moment. Let me show you. First, close your eyes…now think about something that makes you happy.”

“You mean used to…”

“Give it a chance. And you opened your eyes…start over. Close your eyes…think happy something…anything. Got it?”

“Yeah. Okay now what?”

“Now take a deep breath in. Imagine yourself completely enveloped by your happy thing…don’t breathe out just yet…imagine…okay now…slowly…let it go. Feel better?”

“I do actually. I get it. I remember. Thanks self for pulling me off the ledge one more time.”

“Don’t mention it. We’re in this together you know. Happy Sunday?”

“Yeah, I’ll give you that. It’s happy enough, given the circumstances.”

“You’re exhausting!”

😳😊😟😉😜😀😢😣😐😘😌☺️😒😅😮

And…welcome to my world! My mind battles itself regularly. Yeah, the world is a bit, chaotic these days, but it’s important to unplug when it gets to be too much.

We’re gonna survive this, like we have survived every trying time in our history. I’m not going to tell you, “don’t worry, be happy”. That is a bit delusional, and it is important to stay engaged as a member of “we the people”. But…there is nothing wrong with divagating into your happy place every now and again.

Look! There goes a butterfly! A beautiful graceful butterfly…and there! Look! A flower! Oh, and I just noticed someone being kind…Wow! It’s not as hard as you think.

So…Happy Sunday y’all! I hope you can find your happy, if even for just a moment, this week. Just remember to breathe. ❤️

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 2 July 2017

If people only knew
never say it…only
smoldering remains
weeps perfume when crushed
from obsidian to glass
Some souls find heaven in hell’s corridors.
look! a butterfly!
divagating tweeted blips,
because that is what those with the truest hearts do
softly
magic is in the air
make love bloom
dreamers ask,
“why not?”

~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.

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

June 25, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 25 June 2017

By Kat Myrman


Happy Sunday! Today’s Shi Sai reads like story. I have grown to love fiction. I was never a fan before I started blogging. Oh, I’d read a few novels here and there. There are compulsory tomes that we are assigned in school. I read them, sort of. My attention span never let me dive too deeply into the guts of a story. I got distracted and bored. When I discovered “Cliff Notes” I shifted happily to the classics light and fared quite well when tasked with writing book reports.

Now this is not to say that I wasn’t a reader. I gobbled up poetry and shorts, non-fiction and essays. Imagine my delight when I discovered the concept of flash fiction! I didn’t even know it was a thing until I started blogging. And I discovered that fiction can be a series of life snippets. Each chapter of a book is a snapshot, a zoom-in view of the panoramic whole. The good ones have cliff hangers, or at least a tease to launch you to the next.

And fiction, when we know it is fiction can transport us from the realities of our own drama. It gives us an opportunity to reflect. To find gratitude in the fact that things could be different in our own lives, better or worse. Even when the story is all too familiar it offers us the consolation that we are not alone; that someone, somewhere lived through what we are experiencing…and lived to tell it.

So I am a reformed non-fiction junkie. There is great power and inspiration to be found in the web of a well-crafted tale. And there is no one more surprised than me to duscover that I enjoy crafting a story now and again. I hope I do the genre justice. I’ve have even toyed with the idea of writing a novel, or a novelette at the very least. Who’d a thought?!

Have a great week! May your story this week leave you inspired. May there not be too many unfortunate events or unsettling plot twists. l hope to see you at the end of this chapter next week. Until then, here’s a glimpse at this week’s look back…

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 25 June 2017

blue to bitter, raining
his blind date never showed
the truth comes to light
may appear larger than life
even if the time is short
when did the rock-a-bye bough break
he just didn’t know it yet.
There, there. Don’t resist.
language is an art
cannot be trusted
ice on my lips
a thousand lies
if only’s
bright to dark
dreams that come to life
fate didn’t agree

~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.

5 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Week in Review

June 18, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 18 June 2017

By Kat Myrman


What do you cling to? Or put another way, what clings to you? Either way you’re pretty clung-up. At least that’s my take on it. Whether I’m a clinger or a cling-ee, chances are I’m carrying around a heavier load than I need to.

It reminds me of the first time I went skinny dipping in a crystal clear, frigid Canadian lake under the golden glow of the full moon. It was several decades ago but I still remember how I felt. How the unabashed freedom of that moment made every cell in my body come aliv.

These many years later I realize I have layers upon layers of stuff that I’ve collected over time. Whether it’s clinging to me or I’m clinging to it doesn’t matter. What matters is that once I finally release those things, I’ll find that I get along swimmingly without them. Like clothes and skinny dipping. That stuff just weighs you down.

Come on in! The water’s fine! 😉

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 18 June 2017

o, how i could linger
but it’s brilliant…
it’s for the best
sucked into oblivion
no one can steal a soul
expostulators may rant
this game is over
the bloom undulating just below the surface
devouring me slowly
though you are crushed
a bit of chocolate
in stone
retrospect gleans the good from not

~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.

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

June 11, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 11 June 2017

By Kat Myrman


These days reality is a subjective…uh, reality. Based on our own personal perspectives and tinged by our beliefs, socio-economic statuses, cultures, and personal demons, is it possible to really know what is true and real? How do we navigate our way through the spin and lies so prevalent in this alt-reality world? And what is more disturbing; how did we get here? Have we always been here?

If not, what was the tipping point? When did we lose our common sense of humanity, our faith, our minds? By splintering off into polarized hoards to feel safe, we have never been so alone. The truth, or at least our growing collective impression of truth, is that we can’t trust anyone. We can’t even trust ourselves. Especially when the powerful tell us that what we’re seeing and hearing is not what we’re seeing and hearing. We’re all a bit mad.

This week we witnessed an epic battle. It. Was broadcast globally for our entertainment. Truth was on trial. On one side, an honorable gladiator and career lawman, albeit a showboater, who likes to write memos that read like noir novellas, gave his sworn testimony. On the other side, another showboater, but a rich, powerful one (as in leader of the free world, powerful), an undisputed serial liar with no respect for the rule of law, tweeted an opposing recollection, as well as sending his bumbling henchman, who doesn’t know how to use spellcheck, to the national stage to hold court.

The drama is being aired 24/7 and each showboater is given the same consideration. Democracy demands that we are fair and balanced. That we give each view equal time and value. But it doesn’t feel right. It feels a bit insane. Surely both sides aren’t the speaking the truth. There is only one truth, right?

Sadly we may never know. It’s probaly best to turn off the telly and mobile news prompts and avoid print altogether, but I admit, I’m hooked. I can’t bring myself to look away. I have to see how this ends. I’m terrified to see how this ends.

At any rate, I hope you have a great week. May our personal realities make us feel safe and happy. Right now, that’s all we’ve got.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 11 June 2017

tears for all
settle down
dust on air, drifting
wild, wet blossom bursting
blushing innocence, giggles
never looked back
ashes to dust
rude bursts of hot air
grumbling optional
bellyaching nitpickers
your lattice is fading
in the blackest of times
everyone knew his name…Chuckles

~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.

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