Go-Find-Yourself-While-I-Wait-Around-And Stew

Note: This stew is not intended to help you find yourself, but rather for you to make while someone else is finding his or her self.

Ingredients
Water (8 cups)
Hope
Dreams
Needs/Wants
Things that need to be said
Promise
Trust
Heart
Love
Salt
Pepper

Directions
1. Chop both Hope and Dreams into bite-sized pieces and put them into a medium sized stew pot or (preferably) slow cooker with all 8 cups of water. Cook for 2 months, making sure not to let it boil over.

2. Break Promise (this may already be done) into two or more pieces and add to stew.

3. Finely mince Things that need to be said and set them aside.

4. Set aside Needs/Wants. It is important to remain aware of them but make sure you set them aside anyway. They will be added to the stew just as you are eating it.

5. In a separate pan, heat Things that need to be said. They will inevitably multiply. As they do they will also produce awkward silences. Don’t worry, this is natural and will add to the fullness of the stew.

6. If the preparation is done right, both the trust and the heart will already be broken into the appropriate sized pieces, so just add that to the stew whenever they are.

7. Depending on the quality and quantity of Love, this will give the stew its trademark bitterness over time, so use sparingly (if possible).

8. After the 2 months, you can decide whether or not to add the Things that need to be said to the stew or have them on the side.

9. You can also choose to add Needs/Wants to the stew or have them retain their own individual flavor.

10. Salt and Pepper to taste.

You will know the stew is done if the person you are cooking for seems to remain blissfully ignorant to the fact that you have been cooking at all. You will eventually find yourself eating the stew without even knowing it.

Pairing: best served with a drink called Loneliness

A Haiku on Spring in Minnesota

Seventy degrees
Hey, let’s go out to the lake.
Tomorrow, more snow.

Really, REALLY bad attempt at poetry, take 3: The Ice Skating Kid

Pass me the glue, that stapler, and a band-aid
If you have a clamp or some vice-grips, that might help too
Some sutures, if not, a needle and thread,
A few nails, a hammer, and a couple of screws

Novocaine? Hmm… I never thought to use it.
Maybe.
A local anesthetic might do some good.
But when it wears off, it’ll hurt just the same
So let’s forgo the numbing and just feel the pain

Over and over
Again and again
It’s like the prodigal son
Or a forgotten friend

This’ll just take a second
I’ll be back on the mend
ready to break it again
Because the end is a beginning and the beginning an end.

I’m the ice skating kid
falling down and getting right back up.
going ’round,
falling down
falling

only a few more times, for good measure,
See the phrase thru to the end, because…
Eventually
there’ll just be
a big ol’ lump
of scar tissue where my heart once was.

Really, REALLY bad attempt at poetry, take 2

My Footprints

I tried to brush you off but you held on tight.
That night
under the stars, the moon,
and the glow of the street lights.

You go where the world takes you
without wanting or choosing
You let go. And then you stuck to me.

The last leg of your journey
find peace

You’re a reminder of a moment
a couple of kids at the beginning
the first steps toward
getting whisked away

Poems talk about leaving footprints in the sand
but you have left an impression on me

Really, REALLY bad attempt at poetry, take 1

A simple “no” would have sufficed.

I would have made it back.

Instead you gave me more

than I ever could have hoped for.

Funny thing: expecting to be shot down,

Life becomes pleasantly surprising.