Ten beings, oriented to a different reality, roamed the recreation area of a Mental Health center I visited years ago. It is impossible to forget one of them.

   He sat at a piano playing the same note repeatedly. After an hour touring & meeting staff I returned to the main area. Yes, the same man was playing the same note.

   "How long does he do that?" I asked John, a caregiver. 

   "All day ever day," he said with a compassionate smile.

   "Do you ever want to give up?" I asked.

   "Yes. My hope rises & falls," he answered, "but every day is hard for my piano man. Helping him & others helps me."

   Without Hope's waters the human soul (& caregivers that nurture it) dies of thirst. 

   For one whose spirit soars & dives every day Wordsworth's words (learned in high school) often haunt me:

"The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away…

…might I…
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn…[?]"

   When "the world is too much for us" John's kindness shines. 

-Erie Chapman

Photoart – "Melancholy Rests By Hope's Stream" – Erie Chapman 2017,2019