Writers Corner for November 4, 2011

EXTREMES AND OPPOSITES

I was born in the nuns' mission hospital out in the boonies of India. I worked with plastic surgery patients in a beautiful luxurious private clinic in California.

I have slept on the floor behind the sofa in a small apartment for a year in California. I lived in my grandmother's huge country mansion in England.

I have swum at 5 a.m. in a freezing outdoor pool and sunbathed on a warm sandy beach at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.

I have skied in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Canada and England and learned to ride a horse in Ireland.

I have played golf in Idaho, and tennis, lacrosse and cricket at boarding school in England.

I have climbed up to the Acropolis in Greece, seen the ruins of Baalbeck in Lebanon and been up to the top of the Empire State Building in New York.

I have sailed in a Devon Yawl dinghy with Dad in England and traveled on The Queen Elizabeth ocean liner from New York to Southampton, UK.

I have washed dishes in the back pantry of Granny's mansion and tried to clean dishes with sand beside our caravan home on the beach in Northern Ireland.

I've been on TV in England demonstrating to new mothers how to dress a baby. I gave a presentation with slides, yoga and health hints to audiences of people with Multiple Sclerosis across America.

As a guest speaker I was met at the Denver international airport by a chauffeur-driven, white, stretch limousine. I had no car when it was stolen from our apartment building.

At age 24, I was the only student in a London language school learning Armenian, and one of 200 taking a nursing exam in California at the age of 50.

I slept in the basement on cardboard boxes in war-torn Beirut. I slept in the honeymoon suite at the top of the beautiful Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco.

I went to a one-room school in the forest in Penang, Malaya, and a private boarding school for girls in Bexhill-on-Sea in England.

I ate chocolate sprinkles on buttered crunchy bread in Holland, and crunched up a special delicacy of tiny cooked birds in the mountains of Lebanon.

I have enjoyed the Tyrolean wood-choppers folk music, yodeling and dance in Austria, and listening to The San Francisco Symphony orchestra in San Francisco.

I was a nun in a local stage production of the Sound of Music. I attended the Phantom of the Opera musical in San Francisco.

I was given a free station wagon as a Tupperware sales manager. I took care of brain and back surgery patients in a hospital neurosurgical unit.

I learned to skate on our frozen driveway in Canada wearing my beautiful white velvet skating skirt and second-hand white skating boots. I earned my bronze medal for skiing at breakneck speed down the gold medalist slope in Austria.

I wore long black gloves and a long gown to an elegant ball at Oxford University in England. I got down on my hands and knees with preschool children to create hands-on messy art work with oil, liquid soap, powdered paint, used tea leaves, and coffee grounds.

I have seen two of the Queen of England's residences: Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. On the outskirts of the city of Beirut, Lebanon, I have seen families in tragic slums of huts made of cardboard and garbage.

Every Sunday at boarding school we had to write a news letter to our parents using our ink-filled fountain pens. Now I send typewritten emails worldwide from my laptop computer.

At six years old, playing in the ocean, a jellyfish wrapped itself around my leg and stung me, leaving painful burning red streaks. In my mid-fifties I slipped on a wet leaf and broke my right wrist half an hour before my daughter's wedding in England. I broke my left wrist almost exactly a year later when I fell on the ice in a Colorado blizzard.

I went shopping in the Souk/open market place in Morocco. I shopped in the deluxe retail store of Nordstrom in San Francisco.

I have ridden on London's underground trains ("the tube") and flown across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

At age 30 I practiced a 28-day course of yoga in the Middle East. I took aerobics classes and Zumba dancing in Idaho at age 67.

I feel incredibly blessed to have an EXTRA-ORDINARY life!

- Valerie Podesta, Hayden

•••

DEAR LITTLE LEAVES

I watch out my window as you began as tiny little

buds on a new tree.

You give me great pleasure as you slowly change

over the months into strong, green fingers

on the branches. You anchor yourself firmly

for the tiny roving insect families and birds

to take shelter and to feed.

You have survived wind storms, heavy rain, a cool spring,

hot summer days and the deer nibbling on you in

the early hours of sunrise.

Now the time is coming when your fragile existence

is nearing its end. You are changing colors

like the beautiful butterflies that once enjoyed

sharing this life-giving tree with you.

Again, as I watch, the wind slowly separates you from

your Mother Tree and you silently but gracefully

flutter to the ground. I too, feel my life ebbing

away with yours.

My time to leave Mother Earth is also rapidly

approaching and many people will be sad and cry.

But like you, I am not afraid for the new adventures

ahead - especially the wonderful reunions with

loved ones waiting for my arrival.

- Laura Lynn, Hayden

•••

WARMING LOVE

This dead feeling inside chills me to the bone

Walking through this wilderness, my trek is made alone.

There seems to be no one to stand by my side

The voices in my head, do nothing but chide.

Where are my friends who used to be

All around, when my life had no responsibility?

I relished that loose and carefree life

But now circumstances, cut close bonds like a knife.

People who were once counted on

Are nowhere to be found, they are all gone.

My soul is weary of these burdensome days

Why does life so often seem like a maze?

I wish I could find my way out

Instead, so many days are filled with great doubt.

But deep down in my soul I know

That a peace from God will grow.

Trusting in His perfect sovereignty

I know He hears this sinner's plea.

He has pursued me when all others fail,

His grace, it is violent, His love tears the veil.

So when it seems that I walk all alone

I can know He has cared, for my sins has atoned.

I really deserve the separation I fear

Yet instead of leaving, He wipes away tears.

Indeed He has placed me, in His family

And I know I'm secure for all eternity.

So this dying inside, this abandonment felt

Is not nearly as great as the grace He has dealt.

Surely I am safe in His perfect arms

Even this bone-chilling cold, will do me no harm.

- Will Dole, Plummer

•••

The Press Writers Corner features original, creative writing submitted by our readers.

Send your Writers Corner submissions to Maureen Dolan, mdolan@cdapress.com.

We prefer e-mail submissions, and we ask that you limit the length of your stories and poems. Please include your hometown with your submission.

You can send hard-copies by mail to Maureen Dolan at The Press, 201 Second St., Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814.