Banyan Tree Poem

Banyan: Ever-expanding Sacred Tree of Eternal life
Chorus: Where have you reached today?
(sung after each stanza)

Sweet Strangler Figs of Banyan Trees
Swaying stories in the sun
Upward roots the nurtured ground expose
In trees of years to come

Bring me shade Oh sacred Banyan Tree
While others walk the road
Shield my face
From blinding dust over-powering me
Along a friendless path alone

Let blossoms swell, my Banyan Tree resolve
Stir thoughts of peace and kin
I’ll listen to your quiet rustling leaves
Under life’s sweet rain amend

While cycles branch, comfort me my Banyan Tree
Struggling change advances fall
Reveal course leaves soft underside
Waking insight in the place I carve

With every new day, sweet figs my Banyan Tree
Ever-expand your branches grow
From within your giant base
Eternal life through knowledge heard
Amidst the nurturing dew drop blow

Written April, 2008
Therese Leone-Unger

Bubble Dwellers

I work with someone who lives in an invisible bubble. She’s not the only one who I have met that lives in one, but every time I meet one of these people, it still shocks me. Even though it drives me absolutely bonkers to know that these “bubble-dwellers” live in a naïve, protected and spoiled world, I still feel slightly jealous of their lack of education. This education being different than school education – it is the education of life. Books, movies, words, art, music, poetry, PAINFUL LOVE – I am talking about the unfiltered education of the meaning of life, not just the history of it learned in school. I see these people, I see the bubble and in between I see fear, but I also see a not so stupid game plan.
Having the drive and tenacity to educate myself and others around me is such a double edge sword. On one hand, I want to learn and experience as much as I can. In doing so, I hope that my children will be inspired to be even better than me and so forth and so forth. Of course, after my most recent Doctor's appointment, I don't know that it is ever going to be possible to have children. My doctor said it looks like someone poured glue down my insides and over the next 6 months, I will be undergoing shots to try and dissolve all of my issues. HMMMMMM...all of my issues dissolved with a shot. Sounds like the new American Anthem. Give me something - make it all go away!! Maybe I am just being punished for wanting to learn more and more and more...
Extending knowledge beyond my physical days on this planet is one of the reasons I believe I’m here. But with all this knowledge and drive there are penalties. I’ve seen things that I really didn’t want to see, heard things I didn’t want to hear, lived in places not really that nice…not to mention the dark places of myself I’ve seen both mentally, physically and emotionally or those of others who I have chosen to involve myself with. I see myself struggle and writhe in my own dissatisfaction of unattained goals – pushing, pushing. Yes, I get more knowledgeable, but at what cost? My friend says that people like him and me just struggle. Things are not and will not ever be easy because we just aren’t made up that way - which leads me back to the bubble dwellers.
My mom calls me frosted mini-wheat. The frosted side is a driven fighter, fun, spontaneous, crazy, forceful – choleric. The plain side is timid, quiet, reserved, unsure, and questioning – melancholy. These two sides – the frosted and the plain – play games in my mind all day long. It’s unsettling. I hate ignorance but long for it’s protection.
I fight with myself constantly.
I fight my inner bubble.

Seasonal Appreciation

It’s that time of year during the semester when what I term, the “check-out” starts. The warm sunshine has finally poked its head around and the tiresome winter blahs begin to dissipate. Overworked and overtired, the last month of the semester advances quickly with project and paper due dates, grades, assignments, finals…and I’ve reached the point when the mental vacation begins. My brain hurts. It’s this way every semester, regardless if I am a student, teacher, or both. I’m over it. My body is over it. I KNOW my husband is over it. He deserves an award and I deserve a long vacation.
This past weekend, my husband and I cleaned out our vehicles, put out the lawn furniture and shook out the welcome mats. I had just come inside after running around the yard with our dogs to find one of our cats, Maggie, rolling around the kitchen floor in the sunlight. She was laying on her orange back - head bent to the side. Her green eyes narrowed and I asked her if she was happy while I pet the warm, white fur on her stomach. She made some comical noise and I laughed. Stretching, she reached her front paws towards me and then curled them back up, rolling over to lie on her side. It’s amazing what sunshine and warm air can do. It’s interesting how light can turn bewilderment into perspective.
It made me think of my mood over the past couple of months. A relatively happy-see-the positive-hope-for-the-best person, I’ve been as cold and nasty as the weather. This has definitely been one of the longest and hardest winters that I could remember. Then, I thought, would I appreciate these warm days as much if it were not for the cold? Do the bulky socks make me appreciate my sandals? Does my heavy coat make me appreciate my summer skirts? Are the snowflakes a reminder of sparkling, warm sand? Is winter an inside reality balancing out outside optimism of summer? Maybe it’s about accepting change and finding contentment. Maybe I just sniffed too much Windex.
It’s easy to get bogged down with the “realities” of life. Every time I turn on the radio, look at the news, read the newspaper, walk the college hallways, talk to my friends…there are reminders of the state of America and the world, today. Slanted viewpoints, misconstrued concepts, opinions, rights, hot buttons…call them what you want, but they are there and the majority of information is negative. Recession this, politics that. It’s inundating. It’s election year.
These hyped up affairs of the state rev up voters and get people agitated. I wonder, is this our winter before the summer? I keep thinking back to the time around my 8th grade year. Environmental awareness and Greenpeace were huge, Russia deconstructed, The Gulf War, Oil, Iraq…all of these historical moments that mirror current events. Of course, this was also the time of The Little Mermaid. Now that I think of it…this is the time of “Enchanted.” The story of a fairy tale princess thrust into a world she does not recognize. Strange ironies. I guess what I am trying to say is that in every winter there is a bit of history. What goes around, comes around again. Especially, when history repeats itself. People get tired, overworked and overextended. It is the prospect of restoration, reinvention and rest that we find renewal and hope. Winter always comes, but so does our opportunity to bask in the sunlight. Well…as long as we appreciate it.