Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Dish Me

Dishes, Dishes, oh what wonderful dishes!
The suds, the foam, oh no mom's home
We're just starting, the kitchen a complete mess
But with 4 hungry children who would expect less

She calls each name, "Jared, Faith, Maya, Joel!"
"Dried corn flakes are caked upon the cereal bowls!"
"And will you look at the stove, all nice and greasy!"
"My goodness children, "The floor needs a squeegee"

So the twenty year olds all point their fingers
At 16 year old Faith, in the bathroom she lingers
"We've been waiting for her." older brother Joel says
Maya adds "Yeah that's right, we though she was dead."

"And Jared, what's your dang excuse?"
"Please tell me you wise little goose."
"Well, Joel's never here and maybe Maya sometimes"
"And I've been in the Dominican Republic lovin' sunshine"

"Okay that's nice. What more can be said."
All the twenty year olds begin to scratch their heads.
"We need a miracle, oh what shall we do?"
"Faith's in the bathroom takin' the longest pooh."

"That's not true!" screams a voice through the wall."
All them twenty year olds are straight off the ball."
I been sitting here with a sponge in me hand
While you geezers out there been acting like hams."

And with the snap her fingers and a blink of an eye
She dashed to the kitchen and cleaned them dishes dry
The twenty year olds and mama stood shocked
"She's a dish witch." their voices carried down the block

Papa Oubre woke up and put in his teeth
Upon reaching the scene they had dropped to his feet.
"Enough of this dishes and witches, I been trying to sleep
Like my papa told me, talk is cheap."

Dishes, Dishes, oh what wonderful dishes! He says with a clatter
You stubborn fools, here's the truth of the matter
"They always say the youngest learn from the rest"
"But in the end, they do the dishes best"


(A taste of my recovery life back home in Pleasant Hill, CA)

Friday, July 10, 2009

Bless the Lord!

They say LIFESTRONG. Lance is pumping the petals through Western Europe and I'm strutting with my yellow slippers down the white halls of Jackson Memorial Hospital. So I'm here about to bust out of all this medical attention and finish resting up at Cousin Dee Dee's house in Miami. I've met gracious doctors and nurses who have served me at 3:30am with the sweetest smiles plastered on their faces. I know it's not easy being trapped inside these concrete walls for 12 hour shifts, but these people have the patience and the vision for the job. God has blessed me with peace and a strong recovery from who knows what. My mom sat by my side with bags of nuts and m&ms as well as a library of the richest spiritual writings Mary Baker Eddy has to offer. There's a healing that comes from every challenge in life. This healing for me has involved Dominicans and Americans, moms and dads, pilots and social workers, good people and buena gente. I have so much to be grateful for so I spend much of my day reading and reflecting upon "the good already recieved." To be healed I have to step outside myself and recognize my true identity as a healthy, capable, and humble child of God. No one really knows what happened to me beside me feeling really fatigued one day after cutting some weeds and prunning some trees in Ojo de Agua. It's easy to talk about how my body struggled, but I'd rather report on finding my harmonica again as a friendly companion, or chillin' with "Lazy Richard" the nurse who actually drove my mom home to my cousin's house after a late night visit. Or what about walking outside for the first time in a week in the fresh air and acutely observing the diversity of colors and ages cruise, skip, roll, or crutch across the Jackson Memorial Hospital Plaza. I'm in a new and unfamiliar location, but none the less surrounded by smiles and people getting healthy. Home is where you are, so room #509 to bed #1, and now room #519.... each of you know my sweat and my thoughts and my Bible flopped open to Mark. Bless the Lord! The brother is healing up and 'bout to see his family again. Amen and Amen!