Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT October 11th 2024

15 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem “From Blossoms” by Li-Young Lee, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about finding joy from day to day to day.”

More details will be posted on this session, so check back again!

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

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Please join us for our next session Monday October 14th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

From Blossoms by Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward   
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into   
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

Credit: Li-Young Lee, “From Blossoms” from Rose.

15 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT October 11th 2024”

  1. Jennifer Lee's avatar Jennifer Lee

    From the center of the crimson bloom of the classroom floor instead of a text home I think of the brown paper bag in my backpack.

    The windows are blacked out and all signs point to the end of the world. But the world can’t end yet because mom packed me the peaches we got on Saturday, it was 5 minutes to the bell. I was already done the assignment. I’m breathing too fast because my friend has started to breathe too slow. I feel the dull thud of her fuzzy head before I see the juice spill over my lap.

    In court you read my friendship letter first scrawled in our kitchen with a yellow crayon. Emma won’t be able to read that, honey, how about we try this. The pencil smudges gun metal grey. You wish I’d used the crayon.

    And in the days coming you will shove your fingers past your skull and ripple them over the lobes like the edges of files at the lawyers office. Because the covers have dusted over from the yesses and nos from people you can’t hear and the news reports. Because she said she didn’t want to go that day why did I make her

    go.

    I’m here for my daughter and her best friend. They both loved the colour pink. They loved going to Costco for hot dogs and blowing bubbles in our backyard.

    For the first week their tears will be sickly sweet, their hands poised behind pamphlets. The fruit will grow and blossom and shrivel and die like all the others. When you see a little girl smile you’ll feel an urge to twist that joy into something that was once yours.

    Pull the trigger. Take the bite. Clutch the brown paper bag like you need to pull it over your eyes and crinkle it over your ears. Like you need it to live without the pit piercing you from the inside.

    Because we tend to forget that there are pits in every peach, not just the rotten ones.

    Because I don’t remember the slick and the sirens but the sweetness of all our springs.  

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  2. Mary Lisa Penilla's avatar Mary Lisa Penilla

    Over and over and over

    the sun comes up above

    the black and indecipherable horizon

    to puncture with a burning point that

    does not sting, does not harm but rather

    dispels in a single instant what had prevailed just

    the moment before: inky dreamtime, shapeless and dark.

    Now in the bath of light that washes over me

    my skin shines my hair renders highlights my

    eyes twinkling for the glint of light

    my senses all a-tingle at

    the day this day every single day

    I am here and awake to see the sun

    come over the horizon again.

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    • michele348's avatar michele348

      Such a beautiful depiction of the dawning of a new day. Slowly the Earth is awakened by the flooding of light and we, if we are lucky enough to be bystanders of this miracle, reap the rewards!

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  3. michele348's avatar michele348

    About finding joy from day to day to day~~~

    I wake up to the distant blasts of rocket fireand the cries of childrenin distant lands.

    My mind is crowded with these shadowsthat dim the light of life.

    As I open the door ofmy home and heart,I step out into Nature.

    Fall leaves of multi-colors,just like Joseph’s coat,cover the earthin a kaleidoscope of hues.

    Gray squirrels are dashing back and forth,building their stockpile of acornsfor the cold winter ahead.They do not take notice of mebut go about their task.

    A pair of bluebirds dart acrossthe azure blue skieson this chilly October day,reminding me of the new generationthey parented this past spring.

    I am mindful to enjoy these giftsas they pass over mewith their blessings.Like mild breezes of summer,they refresh my soul.

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  4. Elizabeth's avatar Elizabeth

    These days I find

    that we we cannot easily find

    joy.

    We have to hunt it down

    like on a safari.

    We have to search for it,

    like buried treasure.

    We have to find it

    or we can lose it,

    and when it is found

    we have to savor it.

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  5. rehavia6's avatar rehavia6

    Finding Joy from Day to Day

    Amidst the rubble of daily news

    I mine for nuggets of joy.

    Amid hatred, war, crime, illness and evil I seek out 

    The sparkles of delight

    A friend ’s kind gesture,

    A rainbow, a sunset

    A ripened peach

    A stranger’s smile 

    All remind me that  there is happiness to be found and 

    Moments of joy to be savored.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Elizabeth's avatar Elizabeth

      Glad you enjoyed the hunting down of joy. I enjoyed your mining for joy. I see that our pieces parallel each other in someways —how do you like that we both ended them with savoring!

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    • Elizabeth's avatar Elizabeth

      I like that you enjoyed my hunting down of joy. I enjoyed your mining of joy. Interesting how we have parallels in both of our pieces. How do you like that we both end with savoring!

      Like

      Reply

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