Whether or not you want to, you’re going to change. Own the process. Embrace the change.
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Change is inevitable—it’s a byproduct of being alive.
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How you change is manageable—it’s within your power to control.
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Senryu is a three-line unrhymed Japanese poetic form structurally similar to haiku (5-7-5 syllabic form). Whereas haiku focuses on nature, senryu is concerned with human nature.
She recalled her dead mamma’s words: “Child, if you run from something you’ll run from everything. There are some things you gotta fight for. Some battles God fight for you and others He fights through you”. Her mamma’s words—palpable and empowering—stayed on replay till she found her fighting strength. Emboldened.
Bags packed in waiting Drunken footsteps approaching Today is goodbye
Today is pay day. The ritual has been the same. This started in May. May 15th to be exact. She remembers it, and each episode thereafter, as vivid as it was yesterday though it’s been three years, two months, one week, 14 days. Yes, she’s been keeping track of pay day ‘cause that’s when it happens. Today she stood. Today she fought. Today she left. Today the ritual ended.
A stealthy idyllic season of changes, Transforming trees to colors like rainbow. Leaves evolve to variegated ranges, Set tops of mountain and valleys aglow. Picturesque landscapes of vivid splendor, Fields transforming into orange-red hues. A bridge between summer and winter, Nature’s cure to evaporate the blues, If only the joys of autumn we choose.
The Novelinee poetic form (a 9 line stanza poem overlaid with rhyme sequence: a,b,a,b,c,d,c,d,d) written for dVerse where Laura was the host. Not sure if I got the stresses right but I challenged myself to write a new poetic form which I enjoyed. I’m also new to dVerse and hope to be back here again.
I’m not a patient person. No judgment. Just saying. Knowing, however, that patience is indeed a virtue I’ve been praying specifically for patience. And this prayer has truly been an object lesson in “careful what you pray for, you just may get it”.
I don’t know if I thought God would have waved a “magic wand” and voila, I’d be patient; or if He’d make it happen through osmosis. After all, He’s God—He does big things like keeping planets from colliding and seas from rolling beyond shores—surely He can drop a wee bit of ‘patience dust’ and I’d be His most virtuously patient daughter.
Nah! He didn’t.
What He’s been doing instead is creating opportunities for me to exercise patience. At first I didn’t get it. And being the Master Teacher that He is, when I botch an opportunity—you know, like whining my way through a situation or hurriedly trying to fix what is not in my power or authority to fix—He’d simply repeat. Finally I caught on. Yes, not only must we be careful what we ask for ‘cause we just may get it. We also must be discerning to know when the “it” is being gotten.
One core and critical element to developing patience—which actually is intrinsic to the nature of God (called “fruit of the Spirit”)—is waiting. But the virtue of patience is not only gained through mastering the art of waiting, it’s also mastering how you wait. To wait in peace.
Peace. To be still. To be still and know. To be still and know that God is. To be still and know that God is God. To be still and wait. To be still and wait patiently for God. To be still and wait patiently for God while not fretting (Psalm 46:10 & 37:7).
He’s God in every situation, every circumstance, and everything I will face. Being still is not stand-still-do -nothing. It’s instead a stop-trying-to-control-things-and-people//stop-worrying//find-contentment//getting-to-know process while you wait.
Finding peace in the moments of waiting—which can be seconds, months or years depending on the situation you’re facing—is the key in order for The Most High God to build patience into our core/into the essence of who we are. It’s a process of recreating. And that takes time.
A collection of writing by Dominic Riccitello — intimate conversations, personal essays, and poetic reflections on relationships, loss, and self-discovery.
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