We human beings thrive better as part of a family by nature and nowadays a family can consist of just one person, a couple (regardless the gender), with or without children. Blood is thicker than water is said, when it comes down to family. Is it?
The statistics regarding divorces, incest, domestic abuse, child abuse is shocking…No wonder more people are longing for solitude, there seem to be an increase of depression and sadly, even suicide crosses many minds.
Family doesn’t necessarily have to be blood-related, within a small family one can be just as happy as in a large one. Through energy we are all connected and I like to think of my neighbors on this planet as one big family. Did we forget how to be kind, compassionate, tolerant to each other?
For this compilation Manuel, Stephen and Ahmed expressed their thoughts about family via poetry and digital paint.
Family is about being able to stay the unique beautiful soul you are, at the same time feel connected and thus not alone. Daring to be vulnerable and share your story about loss, pain, despair. Grief together, laugh together, moving towards the top together…
As Stephen rightly so wrote, to do just one thing: LOVE
We all can make our own choices, choose between right and wrong, no longer take one and another for granted.
~ Patty W.
~ from Dreampack
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Family
Through thick and thin,
Together we stand.
Through thick and thin,
Holding each other’s hand:
For we are not just a family,
We are a unity.
The journey of one,
Turns into the journey of the many.
Through thick and thin,
By choice and by design.
Through thick and thin,
Helping each other to align:
By listening and seeing a different picture,
By planning for a brand new future.
The strength of one is in the family,
And not in the agony of one’s own apathy.
~ M. O.
~ from EmotionsOfLife
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~ ALOZADE
~ from PaintDigi
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One Rainbow
There is only one rainbow
Father said to daughter.
How could that be, Daddy?
She wisely asked in return.
Because God gave it to me
For safe keeping. In my pocket
It stays until I see a lost soul
On the horizon in need of it.
This cannot be, she said. But why?
Father asked, foolish to her wisdom.
Because God gave me one
To give to you on the horizon.
~~~
For My Angel
Saw Van Morrison
In a dream last night
While in the garden
My Angel sang.
He had climbed a tree
To fly his toy plane
Like a kite trying
To catch the wind.
When he slipped
And began to fall
I caught him
All wet with rain.
Saw Van Morrison
In a dream last night
He held her hand
In the garden.
I climbed a tree
To see just how far
I could see her
As she flew away.
When I slipped
And began to fall
She caught me
All wet with rain.
~~~
Father, Son, Stars, Loss
I start to count them and stop
Not because there are too many
But because I cannot hold them
Accountable; the code sparkled
From their eternal glow calls
Me to be accountable to my life:
Precious. Let us look, son,
Out the window in quiet
Prayer for the loss, inexplicable,
That weighs down our hearts
Until sleep pardons us this day.
Tomorrow we can wake and run.
~~~
He Rebuilds a Lost Sister
I am all lost in the supermarket
While I look for my special Lego
Creation lost somewhere between
The gummies and the hot dogs.
Mommy looked all over the supermarket
She can’t find it but that is okay,
I can build another one, I know.
I know I can build another one.
I’ll need two shoulders and arm pieces
A chest shield, two legs and feet
One hand will wield the best sword
In the bin. This new creation will be cooler –
It will be the coolest. I am
Almost done building my new
My best! creation yet. But I cannot
Find the right mask.
I must have the right mask.
I cannot find the mask.
Daddy help me find a mask
Daddy I just want my creation to sit up.
Daddy I just want my creation to take its first step.
Daddy I just want my creation to say its first word.
Daddy I just want my creation to live.
Daddy, please, help me find the right mask.
Please help me, Daddy,
I need my mask.
~~~
The Final Question He Asked Me (An Answer in Verse)
Dad, I have something to tell you, says the boy
Quiet as a mouse, sitting on the couch, waiting,
The room, finally still enough for him to be heard
His heart, finally hard enough for him to open.
I watch as Mom delivers your shake, you try, but
Cannot swallow, you smile, though its corners dip
A little bit too soon. Your nightingale measures O 2,
Listens to your heart, and reviews the day’s events.
The gentle man from Brazil bathes you as gently
As I imagine you bathed me, if I could remember.
I see in your eyes the flickering flame of fight
And know I must hold your hand one more time.
The grip, still strong like your hug, provides a final
Lesson: while we can still breathe, we must live,
And now I shall be as subtle as Bly or Aesop:
To live, to truly live, we must do one thing: Love.
~ S. Francis
~ from SailorPoet
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Expression Crossing Continents