“When travelling, rest,
bring a good book,” said my good
Doc. “You’re not cured yet,
it takes weeks. Kick back sometimes
in your motel room, sleep, dream.”
Lord Pneumonia has
a strong touch. So I brought two
good books, sketchpads to
watercolor, a diary
to write, herbal teas to drink
A nice sitting room
at the motel. Never used
but a couple hours.
“Stay at the motel?!” friends said
aghast. “Oh, sit in the car.”
“We’ll drive! You’ll see cute
sights.” I did, when the car stopped,
and I got out, walked
up and down and around and
back again. Yes, I saw sights.
Back at the motel,
for an hour til dinner,
drank three cups coffee
so I could keep going. Oh,
what price, this foolishness here!
The best of intents
didn’t take me far, not far at
all! I’d forgotten
the universal laws. The
laws that say, “If you forget,“
“We remember!” So
I went to bed late, got up
early, climbed down steep
steps to see caverns, gasped for
breath as I huffed back up them.
Sat in the hot sun
surrounded by tourists, sat
in casinos steeped
in cigars and cigarettes,
sat in the car breathing by
A friend with a cold.
Didn’t rest at all, ran like a
wild, wild horse in a
stampede of horses…. back roads,
hot sun, clapboard towns, hills, trees.
But never rested,
not once, just kept going and
going and going
as if racing the wind and
the sun, galloping onward.
Sometimes it’s hard to
stand alone, say, “No, not now,
I’m resting, napping
dreaming awhile now. Later.”
The best of intents except
Free time, mates coax and
suggest… Ahhh… the stickiness
of friends. I didn’t rest!
Even at meals, two plus
days running, ate casino
Buffet food so the
finicky eaters would be
happy with choices.
It didn’t matter. I could have
jumped off a cliff and declared
I had wings, I could
have stepped out onto a lake,
if there had been one,
and declared I would walk on
water….didn’t matter what I
Thought or what I said,
only mattered what I did,
what I didn’t do. There
are laws, invisible laws,
silent, lying in wait here
All the same….. Perhaps
these laws have Lords, as well. Do
these Lords of Karma
laugh? Do they frown? Do they care?
Probably not. So acting
Like a fool, thinking
I wasn’t one, I returned
home. Put balm on my
stiffening legs so I could
work next day, thought I was fine.
Two days later, I
coughed, sucked homeopathic
pills to send the bad
cough away. Three days later,
I wheezed. I swallowed herbal
Tinctures with garlic
onion and goldenseal, to
send dread plague away.
Then it began to get hard
to breathe….. Count two inhalers,
A lung xray, vick’s
vapor, antibiotics,
three doctor’s visits
later and a fourth to come,
not to mention doses of
Guaifenesin and
BT syrup, prednisone.
I with the word ‘FOOL’
blinking on my head like an
advertisement, cough cough cough
Think I might survive
without contaminating
the rest of the race.
Dream of air, air so clean, fresh,
a joy taken for granted!
To breathe in…. To breathe
out….To fill one’s lungs with air….
sweet, nourishing cold
air….Luckily, I am still
alive. So I can try to
Apply the lessons
I have learned—as I am, of
course, not yet healed. Lord
Pneumonia reigns. All hail the
Lord, and the Lords of Karma
For they are strong and
I am weak. I will see how
well this lesson lasts.
Soul’s awareness I have learned
Ebbs and flows, like the sea tides.
