POartRY and PROSE - an excerpt
PAGE 19 - 20
I know very little about these elephants. While visiting Thailand many years ago, I was given the chance to ride upon an elephant's back. Today I regret that I did not accept the opportunity.
But there is one elephant I do know a little about and that is 'the elephant in the living room'. I did not spend years working as a psychospiritual practitioner without raising my awareness of this creature. I knew that it most often carried the obvious major issue that clients avoided discussing, or even acknowledging.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE LIVING ROOM
He is sitting on the coffee table
Of that, we're all aware.
Still, we will talk around him
As though he isn't there.
We may discuss his tail,
A small and minor detail.
While obvious major issues
Escape admission without fail.
"We can't get beyond what we've never been in."
PAGE 134
Canadian seniors are the quiet majority. At this time of writing members of the C.U.P.E. union are on strike. They state that $38,000.00 annual income is just not enough to cover the high cost of living. What wouldn't a senior waiting for his pension cheque do to receive such an income? If he is fortunate, he may be receiving half that amount. Many seniors are receiving less than half that amount.
Why aren't seniors more vocal? Why aren't seniors out there on a picket line, signs raised in frustration? Why are they quiet about their ever-growing financial concerns?
I don't have the answers to these questions.
I do know that for too many senior citizens the wait for the mail carrier, or the bank deposit, is a long one and, for some, a hungry one. This is something that is in need of change.
"Positive identity is crucial to human existence. Each of us needs to have a sense of who we are and a sense of what makes us valuable." Having to scrounge enough money to get through and cover expenses each and every month rips away at a senior's self-worth. We all need both self-knowledge and self-regard.
Financial insecurity is not only frightening. It is also demeaning. Our Canadian seniors deserve better. ......................
Page 28
Weary woman worries when
the door is shut
on hope that drowns
in white envelopes
piling up on table
demanding payment, satisfaction,
threatening to kill
the little faith
that barely floats above the stack.
POartRY and PROSE is available in both Kindle and Paperback formats on all Amazon sites. You will find it in my Amazon Author's page at https:amazon.com/author/audreyaustin
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