My favorite grandma, Marcella, made her transition last month (for those of you who don’t speak metaphysics, “made her transition” means “died”). She was ninety-four, it’s not like it wasn’t expected, except it totally caught me by surprise. There is something so final about death that even when you know it’s coming, somehow it still blindsides you.
My sorrow temporarily silenced my voice. Not only did my writing stop but, I actually got laryngitis. While my voice heals, I thought I might share some of my grandma’s writing with you. She was a wonderful writer and artist with great sense of humor, and I have found a lot of comfort in her poetry and short stories. The first poem is:
Distraction
The antics of a fly
On the window pane
Made me miss the sunset.
The antics of a fly
On the window pane
Made me miss the sunset.
- Marcella Krisel
I love that! First of all, it’s a true story. She really was watching the sunset when she noticed a fly cleaning itself. She couldn’t take her eyes of this fly flicking its legs and wings, and when it flew away she realized she’d missed the sunset.
This funny little poem has such a profound spiritual lesson. Often in life we are so focused on the little annoyances that we miss the bigger more important things. Then we blame those annoyances for “making” us miss out on something wonderful. But it’s our choice. We choose what will get our focus. That is a bit of wisdom for which I can thank my grandmother. I would have said, “That’s a bit of wisdom that I can thank my grandma for,” but Grandma would’ve come back and haunted me with proper grammar. I tried to come up with the scariest font. Can you hear the mad laughter in the background? Mwuuhuhaaa Haaa Haaaaa!
Let me leave you with this…
I am invited to play
With a Ouija Board.
My partner and I
Place our hands lightly
On the little skate
And we get it started
By gently pushing it
In a circular motion.
We continue to help it
In this manner
Until it begins to write
By itself, it seems.
Suddenly it will take off
And spell out a long sentence
Very quickly, as if it is afraid
That one of us might
Try to interfere.
When I sit down to write,
Something very similar happens.
I have a feeling I want to express
And I begin cautiously
Trying to put into words,
When, right in the middle
Or perhaps toward the end,
The pen takes over
And completes the poem
In a totally unexpected way,
But always in a better one
Than I had envisioned.
With a Ouija Board.
My partner and I
Place our hands lightly
On the little skate
And we get it started
By gently pushing it
In a circular motion.
We continue to help it
In this manner
Until it begins to write
By itself, it seems.
Suddenly it will take off
And spell out a long sentence
Very quickly, as if it is afraid
That one of us might
Try to interfere.
When I sit down to write,
Something very similar happens.
I have a feeling I want to express
And I begin cautiously
Trying to put into words,
When, right in the middle
Or perhaps toward the end,
The pen takes over
And completes the poem
In a totally unexpected way,
But always in a better one
Than I had envisioned.
- Marcella Krisel
I love and miss you, Grandma. Let’s stay in touch, okay?
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