Open response (7) to Mr. Khizr Khan

Posted on August 1, 2016 by bakrawiec

I am grateful to Mr. Khan for asking the question that has become a wonderful reconciliation point for me.

A year into retirement, his question has struck an important nerve in me.

Has the sacrificial everyday work I have done for our country over these last decades been termed inconsequential? Has it been in vain?

Did I foolishly waste my time, energy, and money, as Mr. Trump is being derided for the sacrifices he now is making?

No. I reject the condemnation that Mr. Trump has never sacrificed for our country; in doing so, I affirm that my work, like his, has, indeed, been sacrificial.

In closing, I would like to suggest that in memory of our courageous soldiers and law enforcement officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice, we resolve to use common sense in recognizing the real and legitimate enemies who seek to destroy our American way of life, whether those individuals are within or without our country.

Let us sacrifice the temptation to vilify each other who want to work for and to live the American dream in peace.

God bless our country.

Barbara Krawiec

Posted in Retiremint | Leave a comment

All is/not well: What I believe and want to hear this election

Posted on July 27, 2016 by bakrawiec

As a woman of faith, there is integrated into my thinking through Sacred Scripture, Church teaching, and tradition–including lyrics of sacred music and the writings of Saints–an abiding sense that with God in control of my life, no matter what, “all is well.”

As a student and teacher of political science and U.S. History/Government, I well know and understand that in times of adversity, government leaders must communicate a message of calm and secular “all is well,” lest a society collapse in anarchy brought about by a chain reaction of out-of-control unlawful behavior generated from an extreme fear that the end is near.

As a United States  citizen, even knowing and acknowledging the President’s obligation to call for surety and optimism, I still found unsettling and frankly disrespectful to my intelligence President Obama’s mocking jabs at the Republican Convention/Presidential Nominee’s way of addressing the threat of Radical Islamic Terrorism. The President’s mocking assertion that the “sun was still shining and the birds were still chirping” the morning after the Convention concluded was ironic, in fact, given that in about one hour’s time after his remark, the people of Munich experienced terror.

As a Christian, no matter what evil confronts me, I know that in the depths of my soul, I am called to remain deeply peaceful, believing that as a faithful and faith-filled child of God, “all is well,” not because a politician tells me so, in contradiction to my common sense reasoning, but because I have God’s Word, as long as I live in accordance to His Holy Will, loving Him, others and myself, that it is so: “all is well.”

That being said, maintaining inner peace does not equate with being ignorant of or inactive toward evil. No. I have a moral obligation to overcome evil with good actions–with prayers (even the hard-to-willfully-say prayers of forgiveness toward evildoers) and the exertion of my rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. I am not called to be a Christian ostrich; I am not called to be ignorant of and inactive toward overcoming evil. Quite the contrary. I am called to fight against evil with every moral means at my disposal.

As a Christian U.S. citizen, then, I want a strong President who fulfills his God-given responsibilities to protect his citizens, authorized through the voice of the people who elected him. And since, as Scripture assures, truth is freeing, I want a President who tells me the truth about the extent and degree of whatever evil threatens our country. And then, once that truth is exposed, and the President assures me that he appreciates the severity of the threat, then and only then am I happy to hear the President say that on a human level, every possible step is being taken to defeat the evil we face, and that on a spiritual level, that everything we do and especially whatever we cannot do, we entrust to Divine Providence, knowing that in the end, when we do our best out of love for God, others, and self, “all is well.”

Today, after learning that an eighty-six year old French priest was beheaded when he was forced to interrupt the Mass he was praying and to kneel before his Radical Islamic terrorist-executioners, I think of integrating various Scripture passages. On the one hand, I think of the advice of St. Paul’s in Philippians 4:8 that we must focus on things that are uplifting (like the sun shining and the birds chirping), and at the same time, we must adhere to Jesus’ admonition in Matthew 10:16 that we be wise in the face of evil, because as St. Peter tells us in 1Peter 5:8, our evil adversaries roam about, seeking victims to destroy. Finally, besides remembering as we are told in Romans 12:21 that instead of being overcome by evil, we  must overcome evil with good, I think that we must heed the words of Nehemiah 8:9, realizing that the joy of the Lord must be our strength.

At this time in U.S. and human history, I appreciate the honesty and determination shown by the Republican Party, led by Mr. Donald J. Trump and Gov. Mike Pence, to tell us that in a secular sense, all is not well in terms of national security. I applaud their uprightness to name and to commit to overcoming the Radical Islamic evil that threatens to destroy us.

Best of all, I know that the Republicans are not embarrassed or afraid to name not only Radical Islam, but to name and to call on the God referenced in our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, our Pledge of Allegiance, and on our currency etc. The battle against evil is too great for mere, limited wo/men and machines to win. No. The battle against the forces of evil–the forces of hate and violence–Scripture tells us in 2 Chronicles 20:15, ultimately is the Lord’s.

God bless our Republican Party and their strong leaders, and God bless the United States of America to serve as one Nation under Him as a force for good in the world. Let us pray for the election of Mr. Trump, Mr. Pence, and all other Republicans who are unafraid to name and to defeat evil in this world.

 

Posted in Retiremint | Leave a comment

The thinking behind Mr. Trump’s “meandering,” “rambling” style

Posted on July 26, 2016 by bakrawiec

As a twenty-eight year veteran teacher (PreK through undergraduate and adult school levels), I needed to understand, to recognize, and to address different thinking and speaking–learning–styles, including my own. Now, as a teacher in retirement, I can apply those same skills to commenting on the thinking/ speaking styles of the Republican President and Vice-President nominees in this 2016 election.

In particular, I’d like to share my psychology-training insights with respect to the ad nauseum media criticism that Mr. Trump’s speaking style “meanders” and “rambles,” often illogically, and that often he doesn’t know ahead of time what he is going to say.

Might I suggest that those criticisms come from Convergent–Linear–Thinkers? Reporter types who cut to the chase in pursuit of identifying and articulating a truth (even if it’s sometimes their rather loose self-serving version of the truth).  Convergent Thinkers tend to be more single-track, and so, not surprisingly, their speech (the articulation of their thoughts) strikes the listener as razor sharp, crisp and clear. (Consider, too, the print space and air-time constraints these reporter types face. No wonder their messages are so carefully crafted and funneled.)

Consider, on the other hand, Divergent Thinkers–the entrepreneurial, innovative, creative types, often the subjects of the stories or interviews given by the Convergent Thinkers.  Inasmuch as their thinking is out-of-the-box, their speech, when it reflects their real-time thinking, reflects the complexities, interrelationships, and interconnectednesses they perceive.

My appraisal is that Mr. Trump is a Divergent Thinker. What helped to crystallize that appraisal for me was hearing a comment made by his daughter Ivanka during her introduction of him on the last night of the Convention. As I recall, she recounted how her father taught her that as long as she was going to think, she might as well think BIG!

Thinking expansively–thinking BIG–is the purview of builders, of visionaries–of Divergent Thinkers.

In light of what it means to be a Divergent Thinker, then, what sounds to some (Convergent Thinkers) as Mr. Trump’s meandering, rambling, and nonsensical thinking is actually a revelation of a mind that is making new associations, that is exploring new possibilities–brainstorming, if you will.

Even further, criticisms and derisions that Mr. Trump doesn’t always know what he is going to say–what is going to come out of his mouth–is actually another hallmark of Divergent Thinking.  For sure,  Divergent Thinkers characteristically, purposely don’t know everything that they are going to say, because their thinking is formulated in the very process of thinking aloud–of hearing themselves expressing different possibilities, whether or not those thoughts are given immediate verbal and non-verbal feedback.

In Mr. Trump’s case, I suspect that what endears him to his supporters–that he honors and entrusts them with entering into his real-time thinking, giving them a sense of a personal relationship with him–is both an asset and a liability. As an asset, supporters feel that he shares his thinking with them as one would share behind closed doors with family or trusted friends. As a liability, the media pounces (as well it should) on some stream of consciousness that should not reflect a Presidents’ final (Convergent) thoughts on an issue. (Going forward, Mr. Trump might do his Divergent Thinking outside the earshot of the public, presenting only his Convergent Thinking for public consumption. This change, I think, will have the effect of making Mr. Trump seem “more Presidential.”)

Criticisms of the amount of talking that Mr. Trump does as a sign of his arrogance and self-importance can be explained by his thinking style, as well.  Divergent Thinkers typically have more to say because they think more expansively, and they like to put what they think into a deep and broad context. Rather than necessarily being a sign of pride and self-importance, one could argue that Divergent Thinkers need to be humble enough to reveal their unedited thoughts, leaving themselves vulnerable to criticism. Divergent thinkers are generous with thoughts willing to share–to self-disclose. To the definite dismay of Convergent Thinkers, they tend to say more than their opposite style thinkers want to hear or think that the Divergents need to say.

Personally,  I feel simultaneously comfortable with Mr. Trump’s so-called “meandering, rambling” style, as well as offended by its stylistic criticism, because I confess that I, too, am a Divergent (“big picture”/contextual) Thinker. And I, too, talk too  much. A lawyer recently summarized–he said that I was the kind of person who, when asked the time, would first tell the  story of who gave me the watch and how the watch was made. Yes! I “get” the reasons for the criticism from those who have no patience for listening to the back story when all they want is to know the time. I, on the other hand, believe I am gifting the listener with more than the factual time by acknowledging and celebrating the clock maker who makes time-telling possible.

Unlike those who mocked Mr. Trump for predominately talking about himself rather than talking about Mr. Pence at the VP roll-out, I heard him talk about himself, yes!, but I also heard him talk about Mrs. Clinton/Democrats, putting Mr. Pence’s strengths into a comparative context. Everything I heard was relevant to me in his introducing Mr. Pence. Yes, it is fair to say that Mr. Trump spoke longer than Mr. Pence, but his remarks were definitely not all about himself. Likewise in the post RNC Convention thank you speech to volunteers, concerning the criticism that the VP got to speak for just 2 minutes: I suspect that Mr. Pence was free to speak as long as he wished. I suspect that Mr. Pence is a Convergent Thinker.

As an oversimplification, Convergent Thinkers typically have less to say because they think more specifically in an analytical, problem-solving way, and they keep their thoughts to themselves until they have come to a conclusion that they are willing to verbalize. Thus their thinking appears more disciplined.

Admittedly, between the two styles, there is an ideal time and place for each. Although each of us has a preferred style, there are occasions when each of us needs to use our less-preferred style. Both styles have advantages and disadvantages. strengths and limitations.

Presidencies have been marred when Cabinet and Advisory members pursue just one Convergent style; that is when “group think” takes over. The country benefits from having leaders whose preferred styles include both problem-solving , change-and-opportunities oriented Divergent Thinkers and solutions-oriented Convergent Thinkers.

From the point of view of thinking/speaking styles, the Trump-Pence ticket is balanced, indeed! And Praise God for their complementary preferred thinking/speaking styles.

 

 

 

Posted in Retiremint | Leave a comment

A Tale of 2 Women: Why one is #NeverHillary (Part 2)

Posted on July 25, 2016 by bakrawiec

Born in the same year, Mrs. Clinton and I have lived through the 1960’s/70’s women’s liberation movement, with its reciprocal impact on artificial birth control/abortion. And it is our divergence on the abortion issue that provides the second reason why I cannot in good conscience vote for Hillary.

Without a doubt the abortion issue is simultaneously very complex (from the adult perspective) and very simple (from the child’s perspective). It is the latter aspect of the paradox that this blog focuses on. Simply put, abortion kills an innocent life. The simple reality for the child is that the child’s life is brutally ended.

To be totally honest, as a determined “women’s  libber,” for many years after abortion became legal, I believed–of course!–that every woman had the absolute right to choose life or death for her enwombed offspring. …And then something happened that changed my mind.

Quite unexpectedly, I saw a pro-life video that showed infants in the womb moving to escape the scalpels that invaded their enclosed world–scalpels–in abortion settings– meant to dismember them. And I saw the hideously scarred remains of babies, retrieved from garbage pails, that had been burned alive in their mothers’ wombs by saline solution. And I was literally sickened.

Wait! When I initially believed in the mother’s right to choose an abortion, didn’t I do so because it was just blobs of tissue being sucked out of a woman’s womb–not a baby in development?

In subsequent years before seeing the video, how did I miss the scientific developments? The sonograms? The in utero videos?…The irrefutable neurological “proofs” that fairly early on preborn babies feel pain? How did I miss new information that from the nanosecond that egg unites with sperm, a person is a person, and everything that person ever will be that is DNA-determined is encoded in one cell.

In retrospect, I think about how my “adult” thirst and satisfaction for “women’s rights” had clouded my better adolescent judgment. When I studied ancient history in high school, I remember feeling mortified that some ancient peoples left their  unwanted babies on a mountaintop to die. Surely those people were not civilized, I thought, no matter what kinds of classical arts they created.

Then, too, how nauseated I was when I learned about “uncivilized” peoples sacrificing babies to their gods. How did I get off thinking that killing unwanted babies–sacrificial victims to a woman’s right–before they were born was any less civilized? While we have never indulged in sacrificial infanticide in the ancient sense of offering children to gods, when it comes to using abortion as a means of birth control, I would think that we have made into gods our selfish, self-centered preoccupations and our needs, and we have used abortion to create our infanticide victims.

Surely, even today!, if there were a dictatorial regime anywhere on Earth which caused breach deliveries so that a full term baby’s spinal cord could be cut and its brains sucked out before its head was fully delivered (which would constitute a live birth) I daresay Americans would be indignant–would decry such brutal barbarism. Please learn about partial birth abortions, for that is what I have just described.

Perchance, do you remember, as I do, seeing the iconic photo of the firefighter lovingly carrying in his arms a burned toddler, victim of the domestic terrorism in Oklahoma City? As expected, Americans were heart broken to see that child’s burned body. No surprise! We Americans are sensitive; we are protective of our children; we recoil when an innocent child is hurt.We have zero tolerance for those who would abuse our children. And well we should….Why, oh why, do we not feel that same protectiveness toward babies in the womb? …Truly, if we saw abortion-in-action videos, I have no doubt that we would!

Admittedly, there are many democratic justifications for a woman’s freedom of choice regarding abortion; there are many reasons why and circumstances when women understandably feel compelled to terminate a pregnancy. But the simple truth is that terminating a pregnancy is brought about by murdering the most innocent of our American brothers and sisters. Although it is beyond the purview of this blog to substantiate all the documented, proven ways that abortion harms the mother and really is not in her best health interests, the bottomline focus in this reflection solely is on the preborn child.

In that regard, then, I challenge Mrs. Clinton to stand on her strong advocacy for women by protecting the lives of the absolute youngest women–the preborn women whose birth gender is established from their one-cell existence. Let us assume that one-half of all the abortions kill baby-women. Should we permit the abortion of the other half of the babies–of the male babies? Of course not! equal rights and equal protection under the law demand that men-babies’ lives be protected, too.

Simply put: ALL LIVES MATTER. That means that male and female, alike, ALL PREBORN LIVES MATTER!

As long as Mrs. Clinton and the political party she represents take a cavalier attitude toward the killing of children in the womb, as long as they speak and act as if the adult woman’s rights were the only rights, I will not and cannot in conscience vote for her or any members of her party.

I pray for all the women who feel pressured in any and all ways to go against themselves, against their own offspring to become their children’s executioners. I rejoice that there are many programs that offer mercy and assistance to women recovering from the emotional and spiritual devastation of having taken their children’s lives, and I applaud all those programs that offer every type of crisis pregnancy support, including abortion alternatives.We must support women who feel abortion is their only choice.

For mothers to love their initially unwanted babies, the mothers themselves must feel loved–a tough love that says, “Please don’t harm your child. Please let us love you; let us help you love your baby into the fullness of birth.

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”–let us offer to mothers and babies, alike, those democratic inalienable rights that come from God; from God Whose children include both the mother, as well as the child who comes from Him through the mother. God loves them both.

Abortion kills more than the life of a male or female baby. It kills the life-loving sensibilities of the Nation. Mrs. Clinton, please lead a 21C. Women’s Liberation Movement. Please lead women into realizing that true liberation is the freedom to love and to be loved by the children who grow and develop within their very bodies.

Surely, Mrs. Clinton, as a mother and grandmother, you can wish to extend to other women the blessings of motherhood you have known for yourself. Thank you, Mrs. Clinton, and God bless you!

Meanwhile, thank you, Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence, for committing to protecting all life, especially the lives of the preborn American children, who are counting on you and the pro-life party you represent. Praise God for you!

 

 

 

Posted in 2016 Election | Leave a comment

A Tale of 2 Women: Why one is #NeverHillary (Part 1)

Posted on July 25, 2016 by bakrawiec

Having been born the same year (ok; I admit it–my birth preceded hers), Hillary and I share one overarching commonality: we’ve lived through many women’s rights inequalities, fights, and victories. (Oh, the deplorable personally experienced discrimination stories I could tell!) Historically, then, the implications of electing the first female President is very personal to both of us.

Although one of us (me) has never aspired to become the first (or subsequent) female President of the United States, I definitely get why Hillary has such aspirations. And, under different circumstances—even though I am a registered Republican–I would wholeheartedly support and applaud them.

Even though one of us (me) has never aspired to become the first (or subsequent) female President of the United States, I unequivocally have aspired to witness the election of a female President. In fact, that aspiration sits in a top spot on my bucket list.

Aspiring to see a woman President before I die is a deep-seated hope I have openly shared over the years with my students. First as a US History teacher, and later as an elementary library media specialist, I have pointed out–to the shock of most incredulous students, especially female students, that thus far, all US Presidents have one thing in common: their masculine gender.

In that connection, I have expressed my incredulity that throughout all the decades since women have been able to vote, not one woman in a population in which women generally comprise a little more than half the population has served as President of the United States. A reality made all the more seemingly incomprehensible, given that women have served as presidents, prime ministers etc.–heads of state–for many other countries around the world.

After openly admitting my desire to see a woman in the White House, sitting in the Oval Office at the desk of the US President, that is, I have challenged the female students to consider making a commitment to public service–to consider taking the necessary educational and political experiential steps to become President. Likewise, I’ve challenged the male students to support the females in their lives to reach such a patriotic goal.

Admittedly, then, just at the point when feminine pride and a sense of equality has led male and female students, alike, to the conclusion that, surely, at some point, America “has” to elect a woman President, I would always add my caveat:

As much as I want to see a woman President, it’s not just any woman I want to see elected to serve as the first female President, and it’s not simply because a Presidential candidate is a woman that I want to see her elected….which brings me to back to this tale of two women: me and Mrs. Clinton…

Face it: neither one of us is getting any younger. Chances are if Hillary doesn’t become President, I very well might die without fulfilling the woman President dream on my bucket list. And as someone who lived through the women’s rights era and who studied and taught US History that would be a great disappointment.

…And yet! one of us (me!) in all good conscience simply cannot vote for Hillary Clinton, no matter how badly I want (and have wanted for many decades) to see a female President in the White House. Here is one–professional–reason. (A followup post will detail another.)

You see, the educator in me–the US History teacher and the library media specialist– knows that (inside and outside Women’s History Month every year) students will be required to research and to report on women of distinction, women whose lives are worth holding up for emulation: women who serve as positive role models; women whose lives serve as solid lessons in character education. Among those distinctive women whose lives will be studied, who is more distinctive than the first woman President?

My professional conscience–my years as an elementary library media specialist (a.k.a. school librarian)–tells me that I would not want impressionable intermediate level students reading online and print biographies that reference  many different kinds of scandals in the life of the first woman President. (Trust me! Students will read about them!)

Having waited for nearly a century for America to elect our FIRST woman President, I think that the country deserves its first woman President to be as exemplary of character–as much of a role model for impressionable youth–as possible. Having the distinction of being first (of anything worth students’ studying) carries a heavier responsibility, I would argue–fair or not, to be truly exemplary. Thus, the personal and professional integrity bar for the first female President in our country’s history justifiably, I think, needs to be higher than for subsequent female Presidents (or honestly,  for that matter,  for current or future male Presidents).

And so it is, regrettably, that I will not be voting for Hillary Clinton to become the first female US President…even if that means that I will never see a woman US President. As tempting as it is to put aside all other considerations and to pull the lever for Mrs. Clinton as a matter of feminine coming-of-age pride—for personal bucket list fulfillment–in professional conscience, I simply cannot do it. Not this election… Not even if it means never in any election…

While Hillary lives her political career aspirations, culminating in the Presidency, I live my educator career commitments, culminating in an integral retirement as an educator, specifically as an elementary library media specialist. That is one reason why, in good conscience, I will never be a Hillary Clinton for President supporter.

Posted in 2016 Election | Leave a comment

Enough!

Posted on July 24, 2016 by bakrawiec

Like so many others, my patience with the liberal media, Dems, and GOP #NeverTrumpers has reached its threshold. Here’s why, and here’s why I am speaking out–starting today.

I am neither a bigoted nor an ignorant woman, and I am fed up with being broadstroked that way because I choose to support Mr. Trump’s candidacy for U.S. President.

Although the only (pseudo) political office I ever was elected to was as city mayor during a Girls’ State weekend when I was a junior in high school, that is not to say that I am ignorant of U.S. government and politics.

On the contrary, with a concentration in US history within a Master’s social science program, and as a high school US history teacher, I have been a student and teacher of political science and our Constitution.

Admittedly, while I do not endorse Mr. Trump’s adversarial namecalling, I absolutely do endorse the tenets of his campaign. I absolutely am grateful for his willingness to go to work for America–for me–at a time when a real change in direction and discourse is needed in this country, and at a most critical time when Conservative Justices need to be appointed.

As a Christian woman, I put my faith in God. I pray for His guidance and protection for the country I love that is moving farther away from Him–from values upon which our Constitution was written and our Nation was founded.

Republican or Democratic paths to living American at its finest? NO CONTEST for me. For LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of responsible happiness, exercising God-given rights protected by the Constitution, there is only one choice: the one offered by the GOP.

God Willing, if I am still alive in November, I proudly will be voting for Trump-Pence. And I’ll be praying that the requisite numbers of fellow citizens will being doing likewise, earning Mr. Trump the privilege and responsibility of being our 45th President.

May God bless and protect our Nation and our public servants.

 

Posted in 2016 Election | Leave a comment

Guest post: 90-day look-back

Posted on October 8, 2015 by bakrawiec

Today I have the great grace of being a guest poster on Maddy’s amazing site. Please check out everything she offers, and if you will, please enjoy the beautiful way she has posted my 90-day look back on my retirement decision. God bless you and thank you!

http://www.maddyathome.com/seniors-blog/

Posted in Decisions, Retirement, Transitions | Leave a comment

Promises to keep

Posted on October 7, 2015 by bakrawiec

Here, in celebration of Random Acts of Poetry Day today, is a poem by Robert Frost. You might be familiar with the last lines. (Now, in retirement, these ending words take on even greater meaning, I think!)

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

——————-Robert Frost———————–

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

——————————————————————————————

What promises to self or others do you wish to fulfill before the final sleep?

Posted in Death, Poems, Poetry, Promises, Random Acts of Poetry, Retirement | Leave a comment

Reach out w/a poem to soothe the grieving heart

Posted on October 6, 2015 by bakrawiec

This world can be a lonely place, it’s true. And while a poem will not put food in a hungry stomach or clothing on a cold back, it will warm and feed a desolate soul and heart.

Tomorrow is Random Acts of Poetry Day–an invitation to share the joy and consolation of an uplifting poem. And while sharing a poem uplifts the recipient, it might very well uplift the giver, too! And as a result, the giver might just feel compelled out of gratitude and compassion of heart and spirit to perform random acts of material kindness, too.

One of my favorite poems was first recited to me by my husband-to-be during a cold pre-Spring day, as the highlight of a pre-planned picnic, complicated by my having a swollen face and jaw due to the emergency surgical removal of a (seriously infected) impacted wisdom tooth.

First (half-)heard on that day, then, that was no picnic, this comforting favorite poem is one that I often share in reaching out to the grieving. And now, I offer this poem, too, as a random act of poetic kindness to myself, as this poem speaks clearly to me in my newly retired state–as I knowingly, willingly, necessarily leave behind colleagues that–despite my most sincere intentions to the contrary, I will likely never see again–at the least–surely, not in the same way; not on the same daily basis.

If your heart is grieving the loss of someone removed by distance on this side or that of Paradise, I pray these words console you, too:

“When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.”

For the rest of the words of wisdom expressed in this poem On Friendship  from the poet Kahlil Gibran, please click here.

What poem gives you comfort?

Please share it here in comments, or in a Tweet  @bakrawiec  or #RetiredLadyBoomerChat or #BlendedAgingChat

God bless you! Thanks!

Posted in Grief, Grieving, Poems, Poetry, Random Acts of Poetry, Retirement | 2 Comments

Let’s RAP!

Posted on October 5, 2015 by bakrawiec

Ready to RAP? …Random Acts of Poetry Day is this Wed., Oct. 7th.

Surely there is someone who would appreciate your poetic kindness…a verse recited to a neighbor or stranger, a poem copied and mailed to a grandchild…

The possibilities are endless!

Let’s get poetic!

Need inspiration? Check out this link: https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/random-acts-of-poetry-day/

Posted in Poems, Poetry, Random Acts of Poetry Day | Leave a comment