C.L. Decker

Jun 23, 2020

Summer is upon us with fresh hopes for a continuing recovery from the global virus. Many are still struggling, including many in our International Family. We thought this might be a good time to share a poem that appears in, To Life in the Small Corners, a book of photography, poetry, and prose that Carol published fifteen years ago. It was created to celebrate a journey of our hearts to ten countries and to share the beautiful people we met in those small corners of the world, places we felt most would never get to visit for themselves. These peoples of all ages won our hearts as have so very many in our lives before and since.

 

We have always found people the greatest joy in our travels around the world. We have been so very honored to be allowed to share moments and years of their lives, to find ourselves so welcomed into their lives as we in turn welcomed them into ours. To share family and friends is everything to us. It is to share love! In the end, it is what lasts, what gives life meaning … worth.

The poem below was written to express some of those feelings…beliefs.
 

 

In the Small Corners
≈

When I wake today it is to begin again,

feet planted on the earth … head in our sky.

Is it in the dusty sand that I will leave my track

or the soft mud of the river bank.

 

Do I dip my bowl in the cool waters of the great river

or scoop up the brown water of my sandy well.

Do I herd my goats to feed or spread my sea grasses to bake in the sun.

 

Will my new child feel the chill wind of the mountain steppes

or the baking heat of the soft dunes.

How will you see me here in my small corner.

Will you know that I existed, will you understand me … 

will you care to know who I am…what I believe.

Will you know that I have a faith, a hope, a reason to wake each day,

live each moment not asking for a tomorrow but celebrating this day.

 

Will you know that I will teach my child our beliefs, our stories…

and give her the courage to reach beyond my small corner.

Can you see yourself in my eyes?

Can you see my dreams, my fears, my weariness, my joy.

You see that outside our skin our worlds are so different.

But do you not see that in the smallest corners of our hearts…

we are constructed with the same soft edges.

                                                           ≈ C.A.S.

 

We leave you for now with these thoughts as we all journey into the Summer months. We apologize for not taking you on our adventure to KwaZulu-Natal with our South African sister Eugenie Drakes. We hope to make that happen in our next edition.

 

Until next time … no matter where we are, we are always together. Keep the Faith...
 

Larry and Carol

 

Prev Next