gators trippin' balls

Paper Cranes For James (a haibun)

            Death. In my family, it has come in a wide range of ages. My son was only 25 years old when he died, my father was only 58. But my mother was 85, and my father-in-law was well over 100 years old. And me? I'm 60 as I write this, and if I died today I would be too young to die old and too old to die young. 

For my funeral
fold one thousand paper cranes --
that will keep you busy!

James Lee Jobe

            The personal experience of suffering unites us with other people: it is the dynamo that generates compassion, which, by its nature, is transpersonal.

Dean Rolston, “Memento Mori”

Traveler's Illusion (a haibun)

            I hitch-hiked from Texas to Maine once when I was young. Along the way, riding in the cars and trucks of strangers, I was often struck by the beauty of the landscape. I would go around a bend or top a hill and there the world would be spread out before me in an inviting vista, as if to say, "Stop here. Live here in this place. This could be home." 

A new life can be

as tempting as new love;

but all lives are the same.

James Lee Jobe

            You can support this blogger through the Buy Me A Coffee link below. Not all the time. Just every now and then would be nice. And appreciated. 

Thanks. 

-James