POEMS ON WORK AND LIFE
Leadership Musings
I enter as a learner
Eager to begin the journey
I wonder who my learning community is?
How will I measure up?
Who am I to be here?
What if?
Will they understand me?
Am I really a leader or am I a follower?
Does it matter- I am here to learn.
Will my leadership be enough
Can I help others understand
how hard it is and how simple it is?
Where will it all lead?
I will remember to be the leader I am.
I will remember we all know and don’t know.
I will remember that what happens is right.
The class began, it ended and I was ok.
Many classes began and ended, and we were ok.
We seemed to learn, people seemed to be leading.
It seemed to work. I learned much.
I learned that my presence made a difference.
I learned that my leadership is who I am.
I learned that I love to help others learn.
I learned that planning prepares me to make spontaneous adjustments.
I learned leadership continues to be my passion.
I learned that I like being with others learning about leadership.
I mostly learned that my first time facilitating a leadership course leaves me with great wonder, with continued curiosity, and with the utmost respect for leadership learners.
Lover of Life
Reaching out to the world with breath
Tentacles waving to connect
With humanity.
You glisten and glow with vivid excitement
Challenging, humble, radiant with
Your amazing smile.
Your words inspire
Leading us to think and act
With compassion.
Youthfulness emerging into a woman
Emotions on your sleeve yet
Deep inside they reside.
The giggly young girl
Delighting in all that she sees
Is a lover of life.
Journeys
Inspiration and joy
Stems from our journey
Both inside and out.
Born years ago
Lifted to the heights of where you live today
Circles roll you forward.
May your journeys continue
Guiding you
Challenging you
Loving you in family.
Life Lessons
Love, true pure love
is the giver of life
believe in the power of love
to heal, to guide, to be life’s purpose.
Learn from the deep woods of nature
tiny seedlings sprouting to majesty
awe in the natural cycle
of living life.
Keep wisdom of thoughtful words
spoken gently in the wind
shared between souls
close to your heart.
Rejoice in life,
Hardships teach us appreciation
Pain teaches us courage
Love teaches us giving.
Tell the stories
over and over again.
Stories remind us and teach us
To live, to laugh, and to love.
Walk up a hill with hands behind your back,
nurture gifts in babies and let them grow to be,
hope always for a better world,
seek love and love unconditionally.
Living Alive
I sit, I lie, I stand, I move
I am alive.
I think, I do, I speak, I listen
I am alive.
I question, I ponder, I wonder, I unlearn
I am alive.
I create, I organize, I plan, I innovate
I am alive.
I grow, I learn, I drink, I eat
I am alive.
I shout, I sing, I climb, I kneel
I am alive.
I hug, I smile, I pray, I laugh
I am alive.
I sleep, I garden, I bathe, I write
I am alive.
I travel, I play, I dance, I cry
I am alive.
What do you do to live alive?
Joy
Just in time
We heart-see within
Gentle breezes waft musical notes
Deeply inhaled.
Flames lighten the shadows
That play upon our hearts
Creating beacons of joy
Hope for beginning newness.
Each tiny flicker swells peace
One heartbeat at a time
Majestically conducted
Binding me and you as we.
Longing for Single-Tasking
Butter the toast, answer the phone
Pick up the socks, talk to me!
Bring me the paper, stir the soup
Read the newspaper, answer a question.
Do things, breathe, remember
Think, listen, notice
Understand, learn and create,
Exercise; all at the same time.
Email, junk mail, snail mail
Blackberry, cell phone, pager
Wireless, digital, ADSL, HDTV
Internet, intranet, input information.
The world celebrates our ability
To multi-task.
Completing many things at once
Accomplishments faster, more
Produce everything
To focus on the beauty of a rosebud
Glistening in the dew.
To focus on a child splashing in a puddle.
To breathe air deeply
To notice your breath.
To listen to your single thought
To hear another’s heartbeat
To see the smile on a gentle woman’s face
To hear the rain upon the roof.
We treasure rare moments
Where we notice the tiny beauty
When time seems to stand still
When we hold a single focus.
Longing for single-tasking
When our energy is raised on one
Longing for rare moments
When our love extends to all.
Aging with Grace
A quick glance
hair smooth
lips moist
and off we go.
Reflecting….
Bringing the outside in and the inside out
Bouncing light into the darkness.
Our eyes gaze back at us
Slowly, intensely we pause
The lines expand around the lids
Laughing lines
Crinkles, not wrinkles.
We see our souls stare back through the windows
Challenging us to reflect
On our lives
To stir the memories.
We ponder the moment in the mirror
When we see more of who we are
When we notice our wisdom
When we see beyond.
We see the child within
The young innocent girl
The cute teen
The lover
The mother.
We smile deeply into the mirror
Rejoicing that we love life
With its ups, downs and sideways
We age with grace.
Organizational Leadership
Reflection provides us eyes
To see the whole
To see the patterns
To see us.
Go forward we say
Change
Be bold
Be new
Be different.
Seeking success
Yet seeking relationship
with our world.
Paradoxes abound
Talent leaving
Talent arriving
Keeping the best.
Get it right
We try so hard.
Just get it done!
Shift happens,
Continuous cycles
Movement is.
Reflect on this.
Hold still and listen
Listen to yourself
Listen for the meaning
Listen in silence
Listen to each other
Listen for the answer.
Canoe Rhythm
Stretch, dip, drop, pull, lift and repeat.
Muscle cells know the gentle paddle rhythm
Gliding on the still mirror of the lake.
Reflections of mountains draw the eye
Down deep to the dashing fish
Crystal water sparkling as the sun rises to greet the day.
Hair senses the gusts as the water reacts
Swirling, rippling, alive
Our paddle rhythm responds.
White water, white water, rushing and gurgling
Focused, seeking the way, we trust
Paddle hard is the cry as we meet the eddies.
Warm sun dries our glistening faces
Aglow, we are the canoe rhythm
Alert and mesmerized, drinking in the fierce beauty.
Alone and together, the six journey
Knowing to belong we tread lightly
In this wildness, this place.
This is stunning.
We are in-spirit.
We are reconnected.
Power, Choice, Beginnings
The power of our voice
Leads us to choice.
Power to be
Power in me
Choice to decide or not to decide.
We begin where we are, not where we were
We begin now with choice.
Our power comes from choice of beginning on a new path
Power to move, to dance, to choose
Choice in the moment suspended in time.
When we realize we have choice
When we know power of choice
We see the light of the new beginning
We lead ourselves.
Begin now, notice the moment of choice
Choose now to hold your power in your own personal leadership.
Learning How
Friends known and unknown
Linked with a click, no touch
Pics snapped shared beyond
A hug or smile.
We use. We play. We focus in.
Are we present with who we are?
Are we more connected to those we cannot touch and see?
Instant Message or I am?
Joy of learning to create
Paper airplanes and playdough
Marble games and kites
Tag around the tree.
Deep abiding conversation
Philosophical exploration
Learning stimulating innovation
Deep listening; dialogue engaged.
Engrossed and curled up by the fire
Rustling turning of a page
Or a flashing screen
Flickering past our eyes.
Gaining and losing
Our learning ability;
Craving human connection
Deep? broad?
Close? far?
Present ? absent?
Learning changes us
Learning changes our world
Learning changes learning.
How do we learn?
Little Tree
To once there was a tree planter
Lovingly placing her trees
Willing them to grow
In the sparsest rock and hole.
She made sure they were tucked in carefully
With just the right density
To capture the sun and nutrients
And reach high to the sky.
The tree planter girl
Was smiling all the while
As other friendly planters
Saw her nurturing spirit grow.
Strum a song for the wilderness
Laugh and sing each day
Oxygen to the universe
With every little tree.
To Be Like a Fir
The wild fir expands in all directions
Reaching deep and wide to dig in its roots.
The fir stands in a stand of firs
The same but not the same as the others.
Born from a tiny seed, a baby sapling
Anchors to a rocky cliffside.
Adapting to its environment
Ever growing taller, wider, stronger.
Living, changing, reaching
Cycling through the seasons.
Never moving from its roots
Staying where it was born.
Branches sway in the wind
Trunk holds steady.
I stand in awe
Of the mighty fir.
So trusting of its neighbours
Mixing roots.
Branches touching
In support of one another.
Rooted to its place
On the land.
Just growing and growing.
Creating more fir.
To be so sure and steady
To be so confident.
To house birds and squirrels
And let them play.
To bask in the rain and sun
To weather the storm.
To just be. To share the nutrients.
To know there is enough for all.
To stretch and reach high and wide.
To be content in who you are.
To see change around you
And embrace that change.
To give of yourself
Providing for others.
One must wonder what it is like to be fir?
To be, like the fir.
Winter Harmony
Winter brings us closer to our roots
Cocooning and huddled
We hibernate and rejoice
In winter harmony.
There is a quietness about winter
As we slosh our way
Dashing outside between the drops
Or relishing the silence.
We seem to reflect more in winter
There is time to think
To notice our relationships
To bring warmth and caring
To strangers as we give.
April 1st
When Do You Know
When do you know?
Is it the light in her eyes or
The smile reflected in yours?
Perhaps the lilt in her voice?
Maybe a word hushed in love
Or a moist eye like yours
She presses a tiny travel
Pebble in your palm.
When do you know she is you?
What crosses from you to her in the time spent together
That crashes so deep in your heart
It can never escape.
Trodding on muddy earth we fly with wings our separate ways
Experiencing each other in the rhythm of life force
Carried in the wind, shivering in the snow
Touched in the saplings.
When do we know?
We know, always we know
Nature reminds us,
We know.
© 2020 by Debbie Payne