STRANGER DANGER INVADES MY SAFE SPACE—A PASSOVER STORY

Wait till you hear what happened, next ...

Soooo—It’s nearing
Erev Passover, and I’m missing
My family, minding my business in
A waiting room at Mayo, which
Thankfully is empty of
People except for me when suddenly
Out of the blue, I spy
The menacing presence of
Danger arise right before
My eyes, which open
wide in surprise to see
A stranger’s frown making a beeline
Straight for me, and here’s the corker—
Stranger Danger, ignoring
All safety guidelines
Has the unmitigated gall to claim
The seat right next to mine!
Are my turban, face mask,
Disposable gloves and
Wheelchair not enough to
Clue this person into the fact that
If graphed, my vulnerability factor
Spikes sky high!
Apparently not.  Or—is it
Possible that pandemic or
No pandemic this person’s
heart, having experienced
Reason to harden—doth not
Care about anything other than
Gaining and maintaining
A sense of personal power over
Another person’s
Naked vulnerability, which proves too
Weakened to run for cover ...

Soooo—what am I to do?
Well, whenever circumstances are
Uncertain, such as this one proves to be
Here’s what I’d unwittingly trained my
My think tank to do (during
My child raising years so as to
Role model self assertive, yet
Mutually respectful attitudes that
I’d wanted each of my young sons to
Mimic, knowing that
Young monkey’s brain is innately
Programmed to absorb
Social interactions by
Seeing, hearing and repeating whatever
Mom and Dad monkeys say and do and
Believe to be true until, eventually
Mini monkey, having unwittingly watched
Thing One or Thing Two more closely than
Anyone in the family had thought to
Comprehend, grow up to absorb more
Attitudinal character traits from
One parent or the other until
Your adult child’s spouse feels
Reason to yell, during
Angst ridden moments, which
Classically test the bonds of
Harmonious matrimony, universally:
You’re acting just like whatever
Pisses you off most about
Your mother [or father])!

Whoops!
As happens all too frequently
Intuitive trains of thought tend to
Run away with my mind, and
I got off track ...

Soooo, where were we—oh yes ...
I’m in one of Mayo’s many
Waiting rooms feeling several
Emotional reactions colliding inside
My head like pairs of
Dissident cymbals, all of which
Prove in need of the soothing voice of
Leadership to calm down
Each emotion-driven reaction, right
Now so that one emotion-driven
Attitude can rise above the fray to
Guide the rest to relax enough to
Stand behind my line of self control like
Ducklings all in a row, not
A feather to be seen ruffled amongst them
As though awaiting
The green light to flash GO so that
All can cross a busy intersection feeling
Self assured of leadership’s ability to inspire
The whole Kitandkabootle to safely reach
The other side of the road whenever
Life’s unexpected element of strife
Requires every mature adult in sight to
Pull it together in hopes of creating
An aura of emotional safety that
Welcomes all comers into—
Geez—My brain is incorrigible—off
On a tandem, again!  Where did I put
Its collar and leash? Now—sit!  And Stay!
Good girl!  I’m in need of a treat after
So much time spent cooped up
Quarantining at home—in my case
It’s already been months since
Chemo, having attacked my blood, saw
My white cells bottom out, necessitating
Several hospitalizations for lengthy stays
In need of multiple transfusions
Suggesting why my fear of catching
Even a common cold, which can
Overtax my lung attacked by
The 7cm sized tumor, which, having
Compromised my capacity to
Breathe, naturally, has already
Hosted pneumonia more than once, and
With need of relieving a pain ridden
Tightening of chest pressure
A tube was intubated to
Drain the build up of fluid, twice
While any number of infections wrecked
Havoc within my body after
The aggressive protocol of
My chemo infusions had
Knocked out my immune system
The exceptionally weakened state of
My physical strengths peaked
Leaving me feeling battered, bedridden
Down for the count until—
You know what ‘they’ say—
What doesn’t kill me makes
The resilience of my spirit stronger than ever ...

Soooo—though I’ve had need, for
Quite some time, to go to
The brain park to let loose, run
Around and frolic with
Family and friends to
My heart’s content
The emotion that I’ve consciously
Chosen to place in
The role of leadership over
All others, whose feathers would surely
Ruffle far too naturally if
Left on their own, is
My wearied brain’s capacity to
Refortify its attitude of gratitude for
Countless blessings, one of which is
The fact that my think tank’s God given
Well practiced super power of
Intuitive thought is more than likely to
Arm my processor with
Silver bullets than blanks whenever
I need to think smart on my feet and ...

Sooo—here I sit in wheel chair
Calmly choosing to holster frustration
In favor of pulling the trigger on
My masked smile, which, cunningly
Gunning for mental clarity, aims
My brain’s intuitive double barreled
Shotgun (stoked with self confident
Logic) straight between
Stranger Danger’s eyes, which
Remain locked aggressively into mine
However, rather than countering
This stranger’s aggressive demeanor with
‘Stick’em up!’, I consciously
Keep my cool, cut to the chase and
Plug her—ever so kindly with—
The facts, Mam—Nothing but the facts:
‘You and I are supposed to
Sit at least six feet apart for safety sake.’
At this, does my seatmate respond with chagrin?
Not by a long shot!
Instead, her brazen retort comes gunn’in for
Me, loaded for bear—
‘They let us in here, right?
That means we’re not sick, so I can sit
Wherever I want!  And I want to sit right here!’

Soooo—upon recognizing a power hungry rant
Spitting so many “I’s” that the concept of
‘We’ will never take center stage, I choose to
PASSOVER the asinine element of
Challenge, which Stranger Danger has flung at
My feet, and FREEING MYSELF to stand up to
My full height of 5’2”, my
Processor, turning away from
The prospect of dueling, unholsters
Its power of God-given intuitive wisdom, which
Guides my think tank to
Leave my wheelchair behind in
Favor of purposefully, wordlessly
Making my way, calmly, yet
Cautiously, across the expanse of
The OK Corral where
Having no fear of being shot in
The back, the possibility of
Stranger Danger stubbornly
Making a beeline for the chair
Next to mine, yet again, crosses my mind

Soooo—knowing myself to have become
A plan-maker extraordinaire
Here is what clarity, after choosing to
Keep my cool, clues me in to do:
If necessary, I’ll end this power struggle
Once and for all, by rising, again, to
My feet, which will take turns walking
(Unless I get light headed) with
Confidence intact as did my landsmen under
The courageous leadership of
Moses, who, during biblical times, planned
His people’s exodus from slavery by
The seat of his pants as they wandered
Most likely, in circles through
Desert wasteland for forty years until
They entered The Promised Land where
The strength of leadership’s
Heartfelt convictions had been
Passed down to me from
One generation’s Herculean struggles to
The next suggesting that
A member of the nursing staff at Mayo is
Certain to respond to my knuckles rapping
Against the door so as to open her/his heart to

Listen attentively to the clarity of my need to
Gain safe haven from danger closing in, unnecessarily
And having been hospitalized at Mayo, several
Times, recently, experience leads me to
Believe that the nursing staff will
Choose to comply when the voice of
Reason requests admittance into
The inner sanctum whether
The cardiologist (whose specialty is
Cancer) is ready to
Meet, greet and examine me or not
In the end, Plan B is tabled when
Stranger Danger, staying put, chooses to
Keep her audacious butt on her side of
The waiting room, which, for
Pete’s sake is big enough for
Both of us to wisely practice
Social distancing while
I, having freely chosen to be
Proactive rather than reactive, have
Decidedly kept my cool, knowing
That maintaining an attitude of
Alpha calm is necessary most
Especially when a power struggle has
Been flung in my face for
No good reason by
A person whose think tank is
Obviously devoid of loving kindness
Compassion and common sense ...

Soooo—the moral to this true Passover story
Suggests that the wisest way for us to
Keep our cool whenever
A power struggle arises with
A person, whose deficiency of
Self awareness is obvious, is to
Take a time out on the spot so as to
Conscientiously double up on
Self control and common sense, both of
Which prove to be attitudes, highlighting
This fact of a life lived well:
It’s a matter of choice to lose your
Temper or to clearly and
Mindfully drop your
End of the rope, peaceably, while
Keeping your cool so as to guide your
Think tank toward designing
A sure fire exit plan, knowing
Full well that attitude is everything
And all’s well that ends well ...

What lies behind us and
What lies before us are

Tiny matters compared to 

What lies within us.

                         — Ralph Waldo Emerson

As we work in tandem with self control and
Common sense, most especially until we
‘Pass over’ this global crises of Covid-19, which
Plagues us world wide, I’ll end this true
Passover story with one last intuitive thought:
Whenever an individual appears intent upon
Power struggling with you
May the force of clear-headed inner peace
Be within you, knowing that just as with
Yesteryear’s times fraught with angst
This too shall ‘pass over’ the bridge of
Troubled waters where change for the better, leaving
Power struggles behind, awaits our arrival, at last

🙋🏻‍♀️❤️🌈🌻Annie