Month: June 2024

It’s Now and Never

~ Mormon Mouse ~ Leave a comment

It’s Now and Never

The one not satisfied now,
Is the one not satisfied ever,
For the time that is not now
Is the time that will be never.

Everything happens now,
Nothing happens later,
And the difference between those times
Is as real as the equator.

So you can make your future plans,
But to bring them to fruition,
Now and never later
Is when you press ignition.

Now is when you do all the things you do—
There is no later time to say
“I should have done that then,”
For every time that time arrives,
It is always now again.

—Saint Andrew of Snohomish

The Weather Today

~ Mormon Mouse ~ Leave a comment

The Weather Today
What’s the weather like today? 
From where I am I’d have to say,
That I couldn’t say if I wasn’t me, 
So if I couldn’t say, I couldn’t be, 
And if I couldn’t be and couldn’t say,
The weather couldn’t be some way— 
It might still be some way to you, 
But that would be a way you do, 
And if I’m not here I couldn’t say 
A thing about the weather today. 

Perhaps the weather’s cold and damp, 
Or perhaps the sun is like a lamp— 
A heat lamp that’s turned up too hot— 
But whatever weather is or not, 
Another’s presence makes it be. 
Any other thing will do—you or me,
A fish or bird, a rock or tree— 
For weather never is a thing 
Which alone remains a certain way, 
But an ever-changing process 
That is never not at play. 

What else is there in this world, 
But never-ending process 
Into shapely patterns swirled? 
When it’s us we say, “that’s me,” 
When it’s outside it’s the weather— 
They may seem different as can be, 
And we may not see their tether, 
But different things can be the same 
If they always go together. 

—Saint Andrew of Snohomish

The You-ing of Doing

~ Mormon Mouse ~ Leave a comment

The You-ing of Doing
Do you precede do,
Or does do precede you?
Or are they just sides of the same?
The answer depends on your own point of view
In your doing of life’s living game.

I think if you’re first 
You’d do less of your worst
And more of your best without fail,
And remember just how you started your trip
On your personal consciousness trail. 

But if you come after the doing,
You have what you need for a you-ing—
To get self-aware there must be something there, 
For a self-sense to begin accruing.

Do you really do,
Or does doing do you?
Or is that the same by two names?
Are there nouns without verbs or verbs without nouns
In the doing of life’s living games?

—Saint Andrew of Snohomish