This week’s #Mindfulness Monday’s poem is Lynn Ungar’s “The Way It Is.” Its message rang so true, forgiving and embracing where we find ourselves to be, that I found myself reading it over and over again. I guess it’s the poem I needed today!

Ungar’s line “patched like a pothole, not quite / the same as it was, but good enough” made me think of the movement to plant flowers in potholes.  While this version of the patched pothole becomes more than “good enough,” I think Ungar would appreciate the move to make something beautiful out of the less than perfect, as she encourages us to do with the “not the way you planned it” twists and turns of our life.

Poetry of Presence-book-cover-beautiful-egret-photo by David Moynahan.Poetry of Presence

“The Way It Is” is the fourth poem in Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems – a wonderful collection of poems, each one a gift to yourself, your day, your week.  I urge you to buy yourself a copy – and one for a friend.  In fact, I think it would be a terrific gift for Mother’s Day!

Here’s the link to buy your copies and to learn more about the book.

Once you have your copy, I hope you’ll join us here for #Mindfulness Mondays featuring poems from Poetry of Presence and Teaching with Heart.  Cover of Teaching with Heart, lit lanterns falling from a black sky

Teaching with Heart written by and for teachers is the ideal gift. In time for Teacher Appreciation Week and gifts for the end of the school year, the book is now being offered at 30% off. Order at Wiley.com. Use discount code TWH30.

 

In search of a photo, a discovery of so much more.

When I started looking for a picture of a “pothole flower,” I found the picture I used above. While researching how to credit the photographer, it took me to Andrea Bellamy’s Heavy Petal website (where I learned about her book, Sugar Snaps and Strawberries: Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Garden). On Andrea’s website, I found this reference to the picture:  “A sweet little pothole garden by Steve Wheen at ThePotholeGardener.com. Photo by Allison Moore.” And then clicked on The Pothole Gardener and learned about Steve Wheen, one of the people who creates these lovely pothole gardens. While this might not have been how I planned to spend this bit of time, I enjoyed the journey and looking back think it fits in quite well with Ungar’s poem, “The Way It Is.”  Check out all the sites – and see if you too can add some beauty in unexpected places!