With Love & Intention

Spending New Year's Eve Alone

After hours of dithering
and feeling uncomfortable in my skin,

A message to myself to let go
of my sense of misery about what I have
or haven’t done,

What I’ve said that might have hurt someone I love.
But I spoke too quickly, too unthinkingly,
with too little empathy.

And words can’t be deleted, once they’re spoken,
no matter how long ago. They don’t belong to us,
once we say them to someone else.

Why should anyone else be burdened
with my dirty laundry, especially someone I love
and esteem? Someone whose love I depend on.

Let me fill up the washer with my dirty clothes,
and add detergent, and choose the correct cycle
for getting them clean.

When my laundered clothes have dried on the line
in a fresh, sweet breeze, I’ll be able to say
what I should have said,

With love and intention this time.

Copyright ©️ 2025 by Barbara Quick

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

If We Look

Here we are, in the middle of what’s not supposed to be happening right now: History is hatching, poking through its eggshell with hairy claws, right before our eyes. Stinking of sulphur and dripping vitriol. Snapping its jaws and slavering over every single value we’ve held dear.

We don’t have the luxury of looking back and thinking, I’m so relieved it’s over.

We’ve read about these moments in other times and other places, but temporal boundaries have disappeared. The ship of state has been hijacked by Evil incarnate, glowing orange from bonfires fueled by greed and hate.

Come closer, my dear ones, and help me understand what we can do to band together, to look at the monsters full on, to go underground, if need be: to form a barricade.

We need to enlist our greatest minds and machines to create a strategy, right now, to act collectively and effectively to resist. Ukrainians have been showing us how it’s done. 🇺🇦

We’ve had the luxury so far, a lot of us, of looking away. But we have to step up if there’s to be any hope that we and the planet can survive.

Photo by Surface on Unsplash

Could we possibly just laugh them out of office?

The Best Christmas Present I Ever Got

My favorite decoration in this place where I’m cat-sitting:

This works best if you go to the SubStack app. But I’ll get your comments in any case.

Thank you so much for dropping by to cheer me on! Writers are nothing without their readers.

I’ll see you next year, everyone! Be well, be brave, be strong! ❤️