When the unexpected occurs, we don’t want to appear too anxious. Then what should we do?

 

Should we wait for a cue that might not come? What if we don’t act fast enough, on . . .

 

 

A Bright Summer Day

 

I couldn’t believe it when she appeared before me,

as I sat relaxing under the garden tree.

She looked at me in a bashful way,

on this beautiful, bright summer day.

 

My eyes met hers, shining and blue,

and she smiled at me and I didn’t know what to do.

A friendship might be possible, I’d say,

on this beautiful, bright summer day.

 

Was this a relationship meant to be—

one where we’d blend our hearts and souls perfectly?

She acted in a manner that took my breath away,

on this beautiful, bright summer day.

 

White, puffy clouds floated overhead in the sky,

moving in circles, but I didn’t know why.

Then the marvelous being just wandered away,

on this beautiful, bright summer day.

 

 

Copyright © 2022 Alan Lowe. All rights reserved.

We select a profession that will help others. We focus on helping them travel down life’s sometimes-bumpy highway.

 

However, we may find that this isn’t always easy, because

 

 

People Are . . .

 

As a psychologist, my focus is on people—who they are, what they do,       

     and how they navigate through life.

Sometimes what I observe makes perfect sense, but at other times

     it causes me considerable strife.

 

One of my patients didn’t take anything I said seriously and turned 

     everything into a joke.

She quipped, “As a therapist, you must understand ‘people are funny’ 

     and, from you, a laugh I’m trying to provoke.”

 

Another patient attempted to impress me with how extraordinary he was      

     and there was nothing he couldn’t do.

He was so arrogant, he frustrated me beyond belief and I said, “Yes,

     some ‘people are amazing,’ but one of them isn’t you.”

 

Well, as you can see, my job isn’t easy, because people aren’t always willing 

     to work with me, as they should.

In another situation, the husband, during a Couples Therapy session, yelled 

     at his wife, “You know, ‘people are world changers,’ and if you’d let me be 

     the boss, our world would be very good.”

 

While these sessions didn’t go as planned, the most disturbing ones occur 

     when “people are unreasonable” and resist the chance to get their life back 

     on track, as was the case in the following tale.

A woman entered my office, looked at me with a menacing glare in her eyes, 

     and said, “This is the last place I ever wanted to be and I don’t need your 

     help, but my probation officer told me if I didn’t come, I’d have to go to jail.”

 

Under these circumstances, I thought it might be time to stop being a

     therapist, but I didn’t feel I had the fortitude to do so.

But “people are unpredictable,” and when a client came into my office late

     one afternoon, to my surprise he viewed my credentials hanging

     on the wall, and said, “Do you know your license to practice expired

     a month ago?”

 

Shocked, I thought he was either being funny or possessed amazing ability 

     to see what was not apparent to me.

He changed my world that day in an unpredictable way and made me think it

     wouldn’t be unreasonable to become a retiree.

 

 

Copyright © 2022 Alan Lowe. All rights reserved.

Life can be crazy. Things happen that can’t be explained.

 

You try to make sense out of what you’ve experienced, but are left with the question, could it be . . .

 

  

Unbelievable But True?

 

“Oh, my God!” I screamed from my den, loud enough to rock my wife

     out of bed.

“What are you yelling about?” she asked. “You’re going to wake

     the dead.”

 

“Maybe they need to be awakened to help me resolve the problem

     I’ve discovered.”

“Problem? Couldn’t it wait until I woke up?” she sputtered.

 

“Is it so important that you have to act like a fool?”

“All right, if you listen to me, I’ll try to keep my cool.”

 

“That’ll be a first. You always overreact about small things.”

“Oh, come on! What’s small to you is important to me—like helping

     that injured little bird I found in our yard use its wings.”

 

“Well, I’m awake now, so explain your dire situation to me.”

“Okay, but you’ve got to keep an open mind and listen carefully.

 

“You know those twenty books of my poems I got printed for the family        

     the other day?”

“When you brought them home, you said they looked great

     and were done in the appropriate way.”

 

“Yes, they seemed to be perfect, but then I noticed something freaky.”

“What? You saw ghosts jumping off the page and they made you feel creepy.”

 

I ignored her response and said, “I picked up this one and everything        

     was as it should be.

However, the next one felt peculiar, like something strange was happening inside, 

     but I didn’t have the courage to look and see.”

 

“Get to the point already,” she stated, in a way that made me quake.

“Can’t you just pay attention without interrupting me?” I asked. She

     didn’t answer, but gave me the weirdest headshake.

 

Then a piercing look in her eyes made me cringe and I wanted to run

     from the house.

But before I could do so, standing before me was a six-foot mouse.

 

She’d transformed into a creature I couldn’t believe and I just stood there 

     frozen in place.

“Those are my books, for my family, and I can do anything I want with them,” 

     she exclaimed, as she stared straight in my face.

 

“The pages are all crinkled and wrinkled inside and I’ll tell you why.

If you gotta go, you gotta go, and doing it in the book was the right place

     to try.”

 

“You peed in the book, but that’s a God awful thing to do.”

“Did you want me to do it in bed and let it flow all over you?”

 

“But you’re my wife, not a mouse, and a weird one at that.”

“Well, would you rather I was something else, like maybe a twelve-foot cat?”

 

No, this can’t be happening, I thought. A huge cat stood before me in what                  

     must be my ridiculous dream.

“Life can be a mystery,” she said. “Things are not always what they seem.

 

But if you put your nose in the book, you’ll see what I’m telling you isn’t

     a lie.

So do as I say, and give it a try.”

 

“No way will I do that and you can’t force me to.”

I couldn’t believe what happened next and I had no idea what to do.

 

A shower poured from the heavens above and bathed me in stink.

The cat, now a mouse again, smiled and gave me a wink.

 

The next morning I awoke and slowly opened my eyes.

There on my wife’s pillow sat my poetry book, now titled—

     “A Cat And A Mouse In Our House: The Great Surprise.”

 

 

Copyright © 2022 Alan Lowe. All rights reserved.