Today was my first day back at TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensible) https://www.tops.org/ since March 11th.
When this pandemic hit, we were not allowed to meet in our usual spot at the Madison Valley Medical Center. We were encouraged to stay home, socially distance, and sequester if needed to stop the spread of this disease. So we did.
Usually a person who sees the glass full, not just half-full, and seldom empty, this COVID-19 is getting to me. A friend wrote a poem called a QUADRILL. I decided to use its format to vent.
Quadrille – 44 words –
“Blue”
All the world seems blue Sadly holding its breath Some behind masks Some behind fear Some behind doors All afraid to breathe Lest virus droplets lurk Hanging in the air Waiting to land And infect Particularly blue Are the young Socialization matters Sooo Much
It’s a lonely path we’re on.
Reach out across the blue. Connect. We need one another.
(When you click on that link and hear the story creatively told in delightful, child-like cartoon format, be sure to click the back arrow and return here!)
Find Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10
Pretend you are short (I don’t have to pretend). Pretend your name is Zacchaeus and you are hated. You are hated because you are a lying, cheating tax collector. You are lonely.
Then you learn that Jesus is coming to your town. You’ve heard about Him – and you want to see Him. But, to do so, to see above the crowd, you have to climb a tree. Pretend you are up in that tree … looking down at Jesus.
Get in the mood for today’s message!
Be Ready!
There is a growing epidemic Of loneliness in society today. Surprisingly, the loneliest are young adults. Next are empty-nesters, they say.
A third group are the elderly Who are often seen sitting alone. Checking an empty mailbox, They nurse their ailments and groan.
People out there in our world are lonely. Often it’s for a reason they can’t control. Other times, it seems to be choices they make – Like Zacchaeus, who chose his greedy, tax-collecting role.
Loneliness affects all kinds of folks, good and bad. We cannot overcome loneliness by ourselves. It takes the love and compassion of someone else Who notices our empty emotional shelves.
If you are struggling with loneliness, And you have come to church to heal it, Look around and know the love of Christ Is in the hearts of those around you. Can you feel it?
Zacchaeus climbed a tree so he could see Jesus. This lonely, short, little man wanted a view Of the man he had heard so much about. Would you climb a tree to see Christ? In faith, will you?
Be ready – if you are lonely and you look For God and love by goin’ somewhere strange. Be ready – because God will find you there. He’ll find you where you are; and you will change!
Be ready!
I’m lookin’ up to find you!
Reach out to the lonely. Reach out in prayer, in hugs, in compassion.
No, this “old coot” (who may have a wonderful sense of humor locked inside, by the way) is not sixty-four. He’s much older… and he reminds me of the subject of the poem below.
It’s a seven-syllable poem. I read somewhere, “Seven-syllable lines in English verse can have several different names.” I call mine heptameter. I heard that somewhere. I didn’t make it up.
Seven syllables on each line… a true story here… first published in our
Madison County Writers Anthology for the year. The subject was a 96-year-old for whom I was a senior companion. He was a hoot of an old coot!
a heptameter
The poem rings a loneliness bell, doesn’t it? Ah, but he loved company and he had a million stories locked inside, aching to be told.
Do you know a senior who lives alone? Why not decide to visit today – or give him/her a call.
By the way, doing a little research with Siri, I learned that in English poetry, you only count syllables in Haiku (a form borrowed from another language, of course)… not usually in other poetry forms. Other languages, like French, count syllables in most forms of poetry. The reason English poems don’t was explained this way: English is a stress-timed language, and French is a syllable-timed language. This means that in English, the number of stressed syllables in a line is generally more important than the total number of syllables … (and besides, depending upon what part of the country you’re from, the syllables differ … y’all relate, raught?)
Nevertheless, it was fun to write my Heptameter. You should try it. It’s fun!
