Monday, June 25, 2012

Being Dawns Truth


Photo of Kathryn Nelson Herczeg
Educator, Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Consummate Friend


Character is like a beautiful sunset:
We know when we've seen it; and
It's face fills us with awe. Character
Is what we become as we live out
Our gifts. It's how we treat each other;
A door held open vs slammed shut;
Character is the vast difference
Between being good and seeming
To do good things. Being dawns
Truth as its morning garments
While seeming runs exhausted--
Never quite certain what to wear;
You run into beautiful sunsets when
You're not looking; like the day
I first found you.

                                           1999 Connie Nelson Ahlberg
                                           All Rights Reserved.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Like Luscious Grasses Left

Tall Grass - Lyme Park, England - Wikipedia




Like Luscious Grasses Left

Dad, we are
Like luscious grasses left
To go to seed—
So swaying taller still,
I believe,
We choke out the weeds.

By Connie Nelson Ahlberg






Thursday, June 14, 2012

Luminous Soul - Luminous Heart



The last time I talked to my friend and former hair dresser, Susan Fisher, she was worried about someone else.

She said a great deal has happened in Mary’s family (not her real name); you should call her.  But she didn’t reveal what had been told to her in confidence—Susan Fisher was not that kind of person.

Since her Bible was her best friend, she respected others who may have divulged their private hearts while sitting elevated in her salon chair. For her, secrets went simply from one chest cavity to another.

I enjoyed my time with Susan; her business, called Hidden Cove, was a treasure no matter what the address. Since I was a starving artist, she offered to sell my humble prose in a basket on a stand or table in her beauty shop. She would save the money for me.

We were in a business group together, seeking to give other members tips on possible business contacts. We gave speeches on what we were about, and offered incentives for our respective businesses.

But what Susan did doesn’t tell who she was. She had an open heart and a faith that comforted and consoled. Her spiritual walk was central to her life.  She had vibrant red hair (the latest tint), and a spirit of inclusion. She wasn’t a prude, either, loving to laugh at life which is as good as any hair tonic. That was a truth she carried.

But things were never smooth for long. She battled both breast cancer and kidney disease. And as a proprietor of a small business, it was hard to get and keep good health care if you had a preexisting conditions. (No personal mandate then, nor that much sympathy if you weren’t under a corporate umbrella.)

Inadequate medications, not the better ones that would have worked, had caused her body to reject a kidney she received, resulting in kidney failure. 
I offered to write a letter to her Congressman requesting help with health coverage for her. I believe he came through for her.

Her home was like a doll house, clean, sweet, and dear.  Her beauty shop, her business, was organized and inviting. She was as gracious as The Prince of Peace. 

She had a luminous inner being, and an open door.

Her family relationships weren’t perfect just like the families of the customers she served weren’t perfect. But you became a kin, or certainly a friend, as you shared your walk in life as the latest tint and rinse were poured on your head. She always put a little Jesus in your hair—and you just can’t get that everywhere.

Susan Fisher “flew up” (to heaven) last August.

Heroines' Transcendence

Morning Glory Close-up Wikipedia

Heroines transcend with quiet or loud deliberation;
Some ascend with screams of anguish
For lives taken in a physical struggle
They were too small to win;

Heroines transcend voices that said you
Can't or won't;
That small businesses fail
And you'll never be a CEO;

Which forced many to go and pound signs
Into their own doors where even doubters
Are forced to read them;

Heroines finish years of study
To knock on male doors and say
I'm as qualified as you
To come in;

Heroines can live simple lives--
Or so they seem,
Until you see the sky
Lit up behind them
With love or loss, accomplishment and sacrifice;

They transcend illnesses;
Knowing when they have to give in and rest
And when they can carry on:
"I might miss something," they say;

Heroines see the truth
And own it and laugh at simple joys;
Transcendence has become
A part of them like shining skin
And holiness they prayed
And courage they lived
And love they know. 

Written in 1998 by Connie Nelson Ahlberg

Honoring Susan Fisher - Luminous Heart/Luminous Soul
2/17/1948 - 8/21/2011

Monday, June 4, 2012

As If God Prepared You

                  As If God Prepared You
                              A Tribute to a Young Father

As If God prepared you--
You seem to know
How to hold a baby
Until he's grown;

Our little son has such a sold tree
That barely sways with any breeze!
Stable, calm,
A favorite lap to climb on;

A mother catches secret scenes:
Baby kisses; a father's dreams;
Enduring sweetness for a boy to hold
And give his son when he is old;

A devoted father is a blessing
Way before baby's begun;
Giving the greatest gift to his wife:
The love that grew a son;

 A happy little boy
 Never mysteriously grows,
 And as if God prepared you--
 Darling, You Seem to Know.

 1998 Connie Nelson Ahlberg
  All Rights Reserved.