Category Archives: Week in Review

April 16, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse -16 April 2017

By Kat Myrman


It’s Easter for some of us. A day of hope, new life and rebirth after a season of darkness, denial of self and comfort. I remember when my greatest sacrifice during Lent was chocolate; only to be rewarded with a basket full of the stuff on Easter morning.

But these days I realize that some of the things I have let go of may never be restored. They cannot be found nested in fluorescent green faux grass in a brightly colored ribboned basket like chocolate eggs. and that is okay. With maturity comes reality.

I have given up more than chocolate on this, my 60th dark night of the soul. Most of it centers around my expectations and my optimistic view of the the world. It’s true. I generally believe that truth comes to light in the face of lies, that good overcomes evil, that love is more powerful than hate, that family is family, that all people are good and will do the right thing if given the opportunity.

This season I didn’t wrestle with cravings for sweets or any number of “things” that I vainly considered sacrifice in the past. This season I wrestled with truth and darkness and my belief that the world is a beautiful place. It’s not. Always. 

So I gave up my expectations. They’re a hard thing to let go of. They are so sweet on the tongue but they are bitter in the belly. Expectations contain a certain element of privilege…a quid pro quo for being honest and good and decent. This world, this life, don’t owe me anything.

I didn’t expect any sort of Easter morning basket of blessing this year. But surprisingly that is exactly what I received; just not in the places I normally expect to find them. Giving up my expectations allowed me to see things in a new light, to find blessings in the things I have spent a lifetime not noticing.

I rise today with new found hope surprised by grace. That’s better than chocolate. Really it is. You can trust me on that. Happy Easter.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse -16 April 2017

I can’t bring myself to close it, not yet
is it any wonder that we bleed
if they only knew how many dives, we played to get here.
pale full moon lunacy
with hearts black as coal
it’s all perception
unless you’re a rock
savor each moment’s bliss
shock and awfulness
the door was padlocked
no one ever suspected
people don’t really want to know
sympaths say “poor you”
noshing on beautiful chocolate cake,
i die a bit each day to pass the time,
a hint of summer in the air, raindrops
sweetness

~kat

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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, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Spirituality, Week in Review

April 2, 2017

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

By Kat Myrman


It’s a beautiful Sunday here in the Blue Ridge valley. The horizon is wispy white fading upward into a crystaline cerulean cloudless dome. The air is crisp and cool.

I forget to breathe most days, gulping in pitiful bursts only when my lungs complain that the stale air I’m hoarding needs to go. And so it goes, burdened with survival, I dig my 9-5 rut deeper and wider.

I know it’s not healthy. Living for sleep to be savored in that elusive omega-alpha 48-hour threshold called weekends. I sleep in the daylight while others play between brief bursts of energy as I try to make up for everything didn’t have time to do during the week.

It’s exhausting, but I suspect even more exhausting because I forget to breathe. It’s such a simple thing. A mindless, instinctual reflex that when coupled with mindfulness makes all the difference. Breathe. 😊

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

if only I could rid myself of them
know every rock by name
hidden in the footnotes of history
seeds from muddy crypts
reality, a pity
presence, just a breath away
like a skipped heartbeat
the salty air, the fishy smells and slimy ooze
moments slip away
long past their demise
smile, but remember
the gloaming lingers on

~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. 😊

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

March 26, 2017

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

By Kat Myrman


Another week, another Sunday. It was an emotionally exhausting week. I realized late on Friday that I have been holding my breath since November. Well, not literally of course. That’s not something I would recommend. But I have been holding my breath, figuratively, watching the world crumble with each executive order, congressional bill and lie that has gone unquestioned and unchallenged.

Some of us dodged a bullet this week. We, as in 24 million people still have healthcare; we, as in senior citizens, immigrants, the mentally ill, refugees, women, mothers, and those who hope to be. It was a tiny victory, but the battle rages on. While I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, the world lost innocent souls to terror from radicals as well as from coalition forces. “Bombing the hell out of them…” as our fake president likes to boast, is not a sustainable nor advisable foreign policy, especially when innocent victims are part of the collateral damage of such actions. It only makes things worse.

I breathed on Friday. For the first time in months I didn’t feel helpless or hopeless. Resistance to this speeding runaway train is not futile. Still, those wielding power in the name of privilege, greed, hate and yes, even religion, will not let go of the reigns willingly. But they mustn’t win. It’s personal. It’s important that those who are suffering know that they matter. It’s important that they feel loved and that they know there is a seat at the table for them, for all of us. Because we’re in this together; because…Love is all. ❤

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

what are your intentions?
it is the sweet things
heaven’s awaitin’
selling love over death
death disguised herself in fleeting sweetness
sometimes what you search most for
(is) first to root in frosted earth
breeze by, nose upturned,
they whisper in soft kisses
sleeping with me, then leaving,
what was it with these people
proving they are fools
especially one whose gentle nature informed her conscience early in life
Love is all

~kat

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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. 😊

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

March 19, 2017

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

By Kat Myrman


Happy Sunday. Though I try to spin goodness and hope into my day to day I must acknowledge the fact that I am also a creature of my environment. I imagine that I am given a clean slate to write upon each morning, new in its graces, but it is not long before I realize how daunting that is. It is a balancing act on a fragile tight rope. It is exhausting. It’s impossible to blot out the never-ending stream of lunacy that bombards me even on the sunniest of mornings. Even if I try avoid all media and the cacophony of negative spin, lies and negative vibes, it is always there. Reality.

How does one rise above? How do I continue to press toward the light when I know that darkness is an inevitable end of each day. This week we turned our clocks forward to save the daylight, but the night still comes, cold, dark, sometimes scary, haunted by shadows that block streams of artificial light. Even the moon is a reflection. Try as I may I cannot hide from the darkness of the night any more than I can hide from the dark elements of reality.

But I’m still an optimist at heart. It’s there. The ugly. It will always be there. At the risk of appearing totally bonkers I still greet the blank slate I am given every morning with hope because beauty, goodness, love and truth are also realities in this crazy world of ours. They may be harder to find in the harsh light of day or hidden in the shadows of the night, but they’re there too. Today, every day, has great potential.

I leave you with this week’s Shi Sai and the paraphrased words of the Wizard of Oz, “Pay no attention to the frantic little man behind the curtain.”

Have a great week. Spring is almost here! 🌱🌸🌻🌸🌱
Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 19 March 2017

like breathy kisses
the old house was a writer
ever chasing the light
those who twist the truth
impossible to hear
it’s better this way
a fading memory
set in rock and sand
blossoms of love
from heaven’s vantage
stones etched mysteriously
eden softly dawning

~kat

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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. 😊

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

March 12, 2017

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

By Kat Myrman


Happy Sunday! During the wee hours of this morning we lost an hour here in the US. Sixty minutes made up of sixty seconds made up of nano-seconds…moments lost in our quest for more daylight…moments.

It makes me think about how I use the moments that I have. I like to complain about that lost hour of sleep. I like to argue that it makes little sense to add an hour of daylight in the Spring when the days are gradually lengthening on their own. Any mother of young children will tell you that daylight savings time is a nightmare when it comes to convincing their children, whose circadian rhythms know something is amiss, that it really is bedtime when it is still light outside. They have a point. There is even a recent article at Reuters that suggests even the slightest change to our sleep pattern is bad for us.

As if we believe can control time by shifting the clocks forward…who do we think we are? And yet…

We are each in control of how we spend those nanoseconds…those seconds and hours. We can fritter away time fretting or we can take control and seize the day. We decide who we are and how we react to each moment we are given.

It’s true, we live in troubling times. But we are not victims or innocent bystanders. None of us can afford the luxury of wasting daylight or even the dark night by giving up on our dreams.

I have always believed that the best way to respond to adversity is by pushing back. It’s messy. It’s hard and exhausting. But we are not the first generation to face challenges. We owe it to our ancestors as well as to future generations to make the most of time. We owe it to ourselves to seek the treasure to be found, even amidst the ashes.

It’s not about saving daylight. It’s about shining the light on what is right and just and good, and recognizing the light to be found in ourselves and others that matters most. Clocks are just disks with sweeping hands and numbers. Let YOUR light shine. Time’s a-wastin’!

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

they forget who we are
she wasn’t crying about a broken glass
bring us days of blissful peace
days of wine and blooms
bellowing bursts of cold breath
on that day she will play and play, and the people will dance once again
tell me what happened
you know it’s true
I saw a different side

Oh

destruction’s embrace
it helps to be an odd bird
some may think you’re a lost fool
whisper, lovely in pink

~kat

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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, Week in Review