Author: Jeff Shapiro

If you can write or type, tell your story…
You may wonder how to begin…
Use your ears to listen…
And then follow that voice inside you.

Let beauty be your guide…
Look in the mirror and see it’s reflection…
Do you now understand?
You are both the beauty, and the mirror.

Why are you clutching your fists so tightly?
Discarding one page after another…
Warbling about…
It is time to let the master teach you how to weave.

She is leaning over the earth watching you…
Needle and thread in hand…
Whispering in your ear…
“Come closer, I’ve got something to show you.”

Your story begins here…
A story of miracles, love, and friendships…
A garden forever in bloom…
Flowing like a fountain.

Now with pen or keyboard, write yourself into being

I love you,

Annie

Cats seem to have a very fun life…
Mid-night raids on dog’s dishes…
Prowling and attacking anything…
Connoisseurs of comfort.

Squelching a grin…
Lollying like a turtle on its back…
A big ball of fur like plush…
With souls enchanted or demonic (I am not sure which.)

Maybe you can answer this?
Why are all the wild males called Tom?
Am I the first one to notice this peculiarity?
But they seem to know this too…
Because I tried to call one Jack and he looked at me funny and then wandered away.

I’m not sure if there is any content in a cat, just movement…
I wonder if there is a little pup inside them…
Wrinkled up like a tissue…
Knocking with heart-stopping knocks…
Let me out of here!

But you can’t talk to a cat…
They understand, but don’t listen…
They will look and take considerable time before walking away…
Come on, who does that?

I’m so happy my butler prefers pups!

I love you,

Annie

What color costume would you like to wear today?
Perhaps a festive yellow…
Or maybe a darker green…
Oh, you want to blend them together into a rich warm brown.

What will you be?
Ok, that’s a good one, a saint spending the day giving to others in need…
With love sewn invisibly into the weave of the cloth…
And a mask that will ease the kinks from your past.

In that case your costume needs to be delicate and have a watercolor wash…
With white trim as pure as a snowflake…
With yellows in curious circles…
And yes, you need a song, a freedom song.

Now you look absolutely brilliant!
As happy as a bee gathering nectar…
Someone who is ready to give comfort…
Ready to explain the mysteries of the universe.

I have a question?
Why do you need a costume?
You are already all these things…
Can’t you see?

I love you,

Annie

Of course I pray!
But I pray differently than humans…
In my prayers I do not ask for anything…
I simply let myself expand into the heavens.

I meet others inside that invisible Temple…
As their prayers rise to meet mine…
Everything is a buzz with colors…
Rising from the bars of black and white.

The leaves of my life begin to unfold…
As my heart moves from winter to spring…
I leave below those angry emotional scars…
As I am lifted by the songs of the mountains and seas.

If I hear their music, I follow it…
Flying with borrowed wings…
This is why I do not covet what other pups have…
Because their prayers are so like mine.

I still cannot get over the astonishment…
I am changed from head to toe…
Tears of joy, tears of happiness…
All from a simple prayer…

And that dear friends, is why I always carry a Kleenex.

I love you,

Annie

My best friend…

Carries the secrets of the hillsides…
Is a speck of pure white…
A dream that has been realized…
A perpetual glory pointing to the heavens.

She lives in the charming wild gardens…
Laying this way and that…
Among the sumptuous clusters of bloom…
Springing from the rich, cool, soil.

She is who makes you so lovely…
Tells you to stop juggling so many pointy balls…
She knows the brave display you put on each day…
And asks if She can guide you through the angles and the bends.

The power of Her love is boundless…
Always ripe and full…
She says yes, now and forever…
And is always on your side.

Yes, She is the one who makes you radiant…
So colorful and so fragrant…
She is my mother and yours…
Always ready to meet us in Her glorious wild.

I love you,

Annie

Have you ever had the feeling that you are dodging biting ants…
Dotting every sidewalk, nook, and cranny…
Moving in rhythmic silence…
Licking their chops, waiting for the signal to attack.

They move so unpredictably…
Awaiting their next meal…
I wonder if they are thinking that their next meal is me
Their code of existence is not nice.

I heard they got Goldie…
A beautiful golden three times my size…
I will spare you the details, but it wasn’t pretty…
You can imagine the rest by yourself.

You may wonder why your world is full of so many ants…
You hold the key to their farm…
When you open it, they keep coming and coming…
Bringing so many worries, so much biting pain.

Have you ever thought to put that key away in a drawer?
That instead practice actions of love…
Like magic your worries will disappear…
And your day will be free of ants.

I’m kind of tired of dodging ants…
How about you?

I love you,

Annie

Did you know?

You are the rhythm for everything around you…
There is no end to the amount of original you can be…
With such beautiful feathers…
You can let others borrow your wings.

You are such a smooth, warm, blue…
A living bridge for those in need…
Sowing seeds of love…
Reaping a harvest of fulfillment.

Your heart is always listening to other hearts…
Full of joy and inspiration…
Always listening to the pause…
You know, “Dream like.”

You are a single perfect diamond…
Sparkly and translucent…
Sometimes light as air…
Others hard as wood.

If a pup can see all this, why can’t you?
It will not exist unless you believe…
Come into my doghouse of wisdom…
And I will teach you how to be.

I love you,

Annie

Maybe you could answer this for me…

Why do humans love feeling guilty?
Guilt is a terrible friend; boundless and measureless…
You really shouldn’t hang out with it…
It will lead you to remote and scattered places.

I know a truth about guilt…
Stop trying to fight it…
With no resistance it will disappear all on its own…
Because guilt is a coward, both fleet and fleeting.

The wind is a much better friend…
And so is the golden sunshine…
Try looking a butterfly directly in the face…
I’m certain you will find music there.

Your heart is like a flower with countless pedals…
Your life painted upon each one…
There is no pedal called guilt.
That color does not exist on the master’s pallet.

I met you along time ago walking on this same path…
We, together, being the precise flavor…
We have come all this way together…
Guilt is an unwelcome stranger.

I love you,

Annie

Sometimes I am only pretending to be asleep…
I call it squinting with the “glassy eye…”
Resting under the tender hand of the unseen…
I scan for any threats.

I rest in reason…
Like a dank, chubby, snake…
Keeping your memory fresh and sweet…
And ready to strike at anything that would interrupt it.

Relaxing in the empty quiet…
Listening to the rattle of the wind…
Accepting the seasons of my heart…
Remembering your sacred tears.

Always alert for something goofy…
Entertainment comes unannounced…
Maybe my butler will start dancing with his own shadow…
Or try to sing a song.

It is all sublime…
A part of who I will always be…
Placed on this earth to comfort and protect…
Always making sure that you are warm and safe.

I love you,

Annie

I’m looking for the clockmaker…
The person that makes us rush about…
I’m looking up, down and across the air…
Through the clouds of sun caught dust…
Into oneness and melody.

Maybe he lives in the east…
The place of the mellowed, sweet and kind…
I seem to be wandering further and further from the “definite…”
The difference between domestic and the wild.

Wow, I’m somewhere else…
Visibility zero…
Somewhere between air and air…
Into a place of perfect unison.

I see that there is no clockmaker…
That is a law written by our own hands…
Written because our sails and rudders are broken…
Hours, minutes, schedules are needed to give us direction.

I am blessed, I can’t tell time…
My clock is in my head and has four alarms…
Food, nap, play and walk…
It’s all the time I need to know.

I love you,

Annie