Chilly today, hot tamale....

Not really. I mean it's cold outside right now at 9:10PM. The weather-o-meter says 7 degrees above zero, but who's counting...This is the kind of weather that freezes pipes, exposed skin, and leaves the homeless and destitute with few alternatives. Jails and shelters are filling up with the lucky ones. The unlucky...Tragic and senseless.

I know these facts only because I served time in the county lockup. Jail populations increase as the weather changes to winter. Many folks will gladly take a drunk-and-disorderly charge if only to serve 6 months inside where they are guaranteed 3 hots and a cot, cable TV, medical attention, and all the hands of Pitch you can play. I was there. This is the truth.

I am eternally grateful for not having to make this choice today. It is purely by chance that I do not have these decisions to make. There but for the grace of God go I...

I heard a great thing last night at a meeting...

"Today I work on the effort, not worry about the outcome."

Simple, profound, and true. I find myself working the same program, sometimes. It shows when I work this philosophy to its fullest. When I don't my serenity quickly leaves me, like a cold wind.


Here are the haiku...


#34.
The yip of foxes
in the darkened, snowy, wood,
all bare oak and birch.

#42.
Crisp winter night air
an owl flies across the moon,
wings silhouetted.

#59.
These are old witches
swaying 'round and cackling:
icy, windy, trees.




Johnnyboy