If I could learn to
just be wherever I am
that would change everything
“Just be” – a Haiku
Category / Authenticity
My Goal for this Moment
My goal for this moment: Stop thinking, planning, and obsessing so much. Instead… just be and do. #SimplySHINE
The End of the Chase
In this season, I find myself exhausted by the chase that so many of us have turned our lives into. But the beauty that comes by simply being still is often indescribable.
Blue Days
It’s ok to have some blue days
Sad songs just fit the mood days
When strong face is a game
you just can’t play
It’s ok to just be human
Skip the shower and the perfume
And maybe not put
make up on today
You’ve been tryin’ to be perfect
Workin’ so hard not to hurt them
That you lost yourself
somewhere along the way
Stop paintin’ that smile on
It’s ok to admit you’ve been treated wrong
Others may not understand your pain
But it’s not theirs to claim
We gaze through screens at lives curated
Truth - it seems so overrated
But you’ll never heal
By painting smiles over your pain
So when your heart is in a blue haze
Drop the happy role play
Put your umbrella down
And just cry in the rain
-Tracy C
Please click here for a spoken word version of this poem.
Peace (a poem by Tracy C.)
I don’t think
There’s such a thing as peace
In these days of
So many promises
Of instant satisfaction
That only bring dis- ease
But even still
This peace I seek
Getting up at 5
Gazing at stars
As I await sunrise
Is it a glimpse of God I seek
Or more elusive yet
A glimpse of me
The me that I’m
Not even sure I can define
Because too long I’ve drawn
My own reflection
With someone else’s lines
At what point did I trade
Thrive for survive
Perhaps this frustration
With the way I’m living
Is what will help me
Finally
Come alive
(click video below for a spoken word version of this poem)
Lessons from the Lawn
It’s almost-but-not-quite the day Allen comes to mow our lawn. So it’s a bit of a jungle out there with clovers and other weeds vying for their place in our front yard along with the grass.
But, upon looking out the front windows, I was treated to a sight I may have missed had our lawn been perfectly manicured….
I looked out to see a whole menagerie of urban wildlife, from a mother and baby bunny to a whole variety of birds, happily playing our front yard.
It reminded me of that scene from Disney’s old Snow White film where all the furry forest creatures are keeping Snow White company as she happily sings in the woods.
I realized…. all of the weeds and tall grass were actually attracting the amazing wildlife I was enjoying. I couldn’t help but wondering if in all of our striving for perfection, we miss – or even destroy – the beauty around us.
That is one reason I’ve titled this blog (and future book), Ragamuffin Oasis. Perhaps the true places of oasis (rest, refreshing, and thriving) are not the well manicured facades that consumerism and even religion tell us we need.
Perhaps only in admitting we are human and embracing are scruffier, imperfect, ragamuffin selves can we every be truly free.
Paradox
For today’s blog post: some photography from 5 years ago paired with a little lunchtime poetry….
PARADOX
in the breaking
lies the becoming
in the standing still
the strength for running
out of deepest anguish
lies great healing
ugliness exposed is
beauty’s revealing
unending paradox
lies in this mystery
what we’re avoiding
may just set us free
©2021 Tracy Mauro
Our Real Journey
One of my current reads is Small Victories by Anne Lamott.
In her opening chapter, she quotes this poem…
And it had captured me.
Perhaps true beginnings can only happen when we are at the end of ourselves.
Our Real Work
-by Wendell Berry
It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.
A Simple Reminder
Remember…. you simply can’t be strong enough to handle everything you’re going through… everything your community and world is going through.
There is only One who can redeem even the darkest places in us. And, we don’t have to grapple, fight, and wrestle to reach Him. He is constantly and compassionately reaching out for us….
Just be held.
PS: I’m redesigning my blog a bit to hopefully help it be a birthplace for my future book: Ragamuffin Oasis: Finding our places you Just Be.
You can help me fulfill my lifelong dream of becoming a writer by clicking that little subscribe button in the corner of your screen so future posts can drop in your email inbox. I have a much better chance of being taken seriously by agents/publishers if my “subscribership” proves that what I write is already being read.
Plus, you can use the comment space on the blog posts to add your thoughts and feedback and join in this ragamuffin journey. We’re all a little raggedy – but have amazing stories to tell.
Hopefully, together we can leave all of our vain striving for perfection in the past and create a safe space for each other to just be.
Thank you so much, Friends!
Reflections on Reflections
When the water is still, it better reflects all that surrounds it: the good, the bad, the ugly.
Maker God, as we continue to move through a season where circumstances have forced a surreal stillness of our whole world, may we not look away from what the reflections reveal.
Rather, may we gaze, learn, and change… for Your glory and for the good of each other.
Ragamuffin Oasis: Finding Our Places to Just Be 