God's Parking Lot

[DinghyDog]

-

[pandora]

I am enjoying these poems. Are they really all just observations from a parking lot?

yes they are ... glad you like them DinghyDog

I have been in reflection lately, observing and connecting the dots

they seem to be spelling out GOD a lot lately


Hugs to you ...

What you're doing reminds me of an experience I had in my early twenties. I was living in Melbourne and it was COLD and I was walking into the wind, so I had my head down, the bottom half of my face was tucked into my jacket and my hands were in my pocket. While I was walking I heard the distinctive sound of a camera taking a photo. I looked up in time to see a lady in the passenger seat of a parked car quickly lowering her camera out of view and pretending she didn't just take a picture of me. She had a little boy in the back seat. She must have just been sitting there waiting for her husband to come out of some store and decided this ordinary scene was something worth taking a photo of. Just like you are taking photos with your words.

you were art in the making!

I learn a lot interpreting others.
Spiritual creativity tells me it is not random this coming together and choosing
to learn... it is as fixed as a fast forward video of a street filled with people...
their paths intersecting.

[pandora]

A young black girl skips from the the gas station store,
trying to catch up to her big brother.
Pretty pink bows carefully placed in her hair match her pink high top tennies.

I think ...
pretty in pink head to toe.

She stops in front of my car to unwrap her candy.
Her pure white sweater contrasts her beautiful brown skin,
small hands delicately remove the candy which she quickly pops in her mouth!

Her dark eyes raise to meet my green,
I smile ...
she smiles ...
then adds an instinctive shy wave for me and skips on.

Alone, quiet in the car, I replay what I've seen ...

knowing how precious it is.

[BhagavadGita]

If this is God's parking lot..you my love have 'rock star parking.'

This was nice. Flowing...especially the vision of Eddie's voice floating into the blue.

Thanks. Your thoughts are always so soft and compassionate.

[pandora]

If this is God's parking lot..you my love have 'rock star parking.'

This was nice. Flowing...especially the vision of Eddie's voice floating into the blue.

Thanks. Your thoughts are always so soft and compassionate.

Oh thank you for your kind words, BhagavadGita
they mean much to me ... you are someone I greatly admire ...
I enjoy your thoughts, look forward to reading and can really feel your heart!
Thank you for that!

[pandora]

And in the music

do I want to stay mad at you?
can I face the truth?

to have someone in your arms
in your soul
so apart of you

then lose them to this morbidity
unable to stop the inevitable

the shocking reality of what is
of what was always
of what was never enough or always too much

a talented beautiful young life touched us
then selfishly left us
leaving us wanting more or not at all

leaving us painfully without

painfully wondering
what if

painfully knowing their regret

as our love plays eternally for them
in our aching hearts


and in the music

[pandora]

Just little,
the back seat swallows you up,
I think of my own.

Strawberry Shortcake hat hides a shy smile,
whisper of words, a giggle or two,
I think of my own.

News of death not yet understood,
happy in your world,
I think of my own.

What you don't know
can't hurt you ...

for now.

I think of my own.

[USARAY]

I saw God in a parking lot
he was driving a 62 cadillac sedan de ville white with black bucket seats shining like it was brand new
like time stopped
motown 60's cranked long white hair blowing in the breeze and when he smiled
the sun came out

[pandora]

If God were a child
I saw him skipping stones
on an asphalt puddle, size of a small lake.
Each pebble cast, a ripple to the edge,
a reflection of tomorrow and a mirror to the past.

If God were a child
I saw him swinging high, feet dipped towards the sky,
his golden hair streaming down.
Perpetual the motion, keeps each day and time.

Perpetual the joy that only children know.

[hedonist]

I just swung by the market to pick up lunch.

On my way out, passed by two men and got a whiff of their conversation - discussing god.

It was quiet, and intimate in a way,
like I shouldn't be overhearing,
but there they were!

It was OK that I heard them - their tones of voice, their vibe, felt OK that I should be eavesdropping via serendipity (I love that word - serendipity).

My agnosticism is open to both - all - sides of that topic (god, not serendipity).

Got in my car and navigated my way out through the lot among several self-absorbed assholes...of both the driving and pedestrian kind.

(almost hit one of them - poor thing thought texting was more important than being plowed down by a car)

And then another whiff, in my mind this time, of a phrase - god's parking lot.

I like it! ...heard it somewhere before.

And,

there it is.

[Godfather.]

I saw God in a parking lot
he was driving a 62 cadillac sedan de ville white with black bucket seats shining like it was brand new
like time stopped
motown 60's cranked long white hair blowing in the breeze and when he smiled
the sun came out

this is awesome ! I really like it !

Godfather.

[pandora]

The reflection of the caddy fills the glass windows of our new leased space.

I sit behind the wheel, watching a dragonfly cover the pink and yellow cannas,
dart over the freshly mowed grass then move on across the parking lots
in the early summer's sun.

It's going to be a hot one, I thought, hot asphalt,
just what suits a dragonfly, it's like his own huge black pond.

I do like a dragonfly.
I ponder planting some knockout roses outside the windows of my new office,
that will attract more and the occasional butterfly too.
Yes, I think, this is a good new place to be.

My thoughts trace back over the last 20 years of business to all the parking lots,
the now four locations, filled with people from my past,
those who have walked through and left some of themselves for me to keep.

I am waiting on the security system lady...
she arrives pulling into the space next to mine.

We inspect our new IL home chatting glass breakage, motion detector,
all that good stuff to protect against bad stuff.
We end up in the large warehouse area that will house the equipment.

As we speak there is an echo, quite an echo....
one doesn't hear an echo often, I thought. The phenomenon is almost heavenly.

I mention this space was a ministry. She smiles, her deep brown eyes, white teeth,
gleam against her lovely dark skin. We agree what a great place for gospel.
I like her. I am comfortable, as we share a moment of imagined voices in harmony,
echoing praises to God above.

When business is done we move to the cool air outside for our goodbyes,
standing in front of our cars parked side by side.

I tell her I am returning to work after being absent for over three years.
That my position now, along with my regular duties, is that of encouraging morale,
enforcing positive goals. She reads through my words, sees my apprehension,
that I must be, play the bad guy. She tells me she sees I am a sweet person,
this understanding not unexpected though very much welcomed.
She adds a but after the word sweet, letting me know who I must be.

The most remarkable thing is this woman managed as many as 135 employees at a time,
having to be the bad guy. Her words of advice, spoken in strong personal quotes,
she says, ones I can borrow if the need arises, gives me the feeling that this encounter
we are sharing is one of those walk through moments in life
where we leave a bit of ourself with another. She does this for me.
She tells me to call upon her if I teeter, she will help. She already has.

As we walk across the parking lot, she waves to me...
the breeze moves our hair simultaneously...

I get that feeling, the not alone one. I whisper thanks for that, it's just what I needed,
just what I needed to keep.

God... I love this place.

[hedonist]

Lovely capture.

[pandora]

Lovely capture.

'capture' that is lovely ... thank you hedonist

[pandora]

My new office, two walls of glass, one faces the IL parking lot,
the other a lovely cool green woods. Both inspiring.

My office ... I like the sound of that!
The other two walls have a glass window in each,
JB had windows put in all the work spaces.
It's nice for the flow and the eyes can wander beyond the walls,
walls we painted bold fall tones, each different, yet in theme.

JB sits on the other side of the window in the main lobby office.
He says all he can see of me is an inch of blonde hair on the top of my head ...
that gives him a funny feeling.

I tell him... if I'm having a bad hair day he might not know I'm there ...
he laughs and says ... "uh oh! more funny feeling."

I haven't been there for three and a half years. February 18, 2009,
when my injury changed me forever.

Now JB's voice, his whistling, his drumming fingers will fill my days.

My children's faces brighten my office, no matter the mood,
they are comforting, more than they may ever know.

Daughter comes in smiling, she quickly steals some mixed nuts and says ...
"oh! I knew you'd have a good snack around."
Son thanks me for the last night's dinner wrap hidden in Dad's cooler,
munching it he adds "I love you Mom" and strolls to the back warehouse.

So here I am,
in some ways it feels like I was never gone,
other ways ...
like I was never there at all.

I just know my car sits in the parking lot next to JB's,
this is where I am supposed to be.

A new chapter is being written ...
the old closed but never forgotten.

God ...
I am a lucky one!