The Promise by Patrick Dykie

Rising amidst misty dreams of sleep,

The coming dawn a whisper on the wind

 Remembering a promise left to keep,

A promise never to rescind

To one who sits, and thinks and waits,

I must arise not hesitate.

Sad, alone and feeling hunger,

Hope is all he has to hold

As memories of being younger,

Help to push back bitter cold

Everything else seems to fade,

Except the thought of a promise made.

I had seen him in the park,

Sitting beside all he owned

Bundled against the coming dark,

Wishing the night could be postponed

He looked at me so beaten down,

But a smile I saw, and not a frown.

A stranger once had stopped to talk,

A nice young man who held my eyes

He said he came here just to walk,

I looked for truth and saw no lies

He passed a bag of food and turned,

 Then stopped and promised to return.

I rush along and look around,

An empty bench and silence greet me

Ahead I see upon the ground,

The one I promised by a tree. 

Whispered words, a gentle shake,

Is all he needs to come awake.

A familiar face framed by the sun,

I recognize, and soon remember

A promise made, this is the one,

He visited me this past September.

He reaches down to grasp my hand,

He pulls me up I try to stand.

I'm sorry that it took so long,

I was afraid and couldn't sleep

I wish I could've been so strong,

A promise made I need to keep

No more tears, please don't be sad,

It's time to come home now; Dad.

     I wrote this poem to remind us of all the people in this country who are homeless. Many of them are suffering from mental illness, or drug and alcohol abuse. Many of them are beaten down by circumstances and have lost all hope. This poem is about someone I once knew. His father was a veteran who had suffered for years with mental illness. He had left his family to become one of the millions of homeless people. This poem had a happy ending, because his son found him, and made a promise to return. He then returned for his dad, brought him home, and got him the help he needed. Promises are so important. Take care.

Remembering Those We Have Lost

      A few days ago I was organizing my home office, and I had to move a special card I keep tacked on the wall. I smiled and thought back to the past as I moved it to its new place a few feet away. It's a card that I had made to give out to family members at Christmas a few years ago. My Father had passed away unexpectedly ten months prior, and the holidays were a little sad. My Mother and Father had raised ten children and it was the first Christmas we had all spent without him. I call the card pictured above, "A Remember Card." I asked my Mom if I could borrow one of her favorite pictures and I added the words which are exactly how I feel when I think about him.

Miracles Do Happen

Elizabeth Noll of Hamburg with her LASIK surgeon, Dr. Domenic C. Izzo Jr. of Berks Eye Physicians and Surgeons Ltd., Wyomissing. She lost her right arm in March due to necrotizing fascitis and had difficulty since then using her contacts.

    If you read my blog called "Simple Thoughts," you probably saw a post called, "Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?" In the post I tried to make sense of why our world seems so unfair when it comes to the good and the pure among us. It seems that good and decent people always take the brunt of life's trials and tribulations. In my post I talked about my wife's best friend. Her name is Liz, and she is one of those rare and special people, who always have bad things happen to them.Though only in her early thirties Liz has dealt with not only raising her son as a single mother, but has survived breast cancer along with the removal of her left arm  dueto a rare, and life threatening disease. Less than two months after surgery to save her life, she has recovered enough to be a source of love and inspiration to those around her. This morning my wife showed me an article about Liz in our local paper. I'm going to reprint the article word for word. Don't be ashamed to shed a tear or two. I did.