That was Then — This is Now by Judy Kukuruza Committee meetings—boring. “Wanna meet for coffee later?” Stopping to rush into the store--harried. Never enough hours in the day—then. Excitedly looking forward to a Zoom meeting! Drinking coffee on the porch alone. “Do I really need to go to the store?” So many hours in a day—now. Poetry, novels, music now. Things there was no time for then. Literally watching the grass grow, Seeing the hills that remain a constant now. A text message—phone call. Truly listening, participating. Crows cawing, sprinklers popping on, And now they are noticed and appreciated. The worries from then carry into now— Money, work, bills due. But that phone call, that text Are the important things now. Real friends. Real caring. Real nature. Real priorities that matter. That was then— A whizzing blur. This is now— And there is hope in NOW.
Judy Kukuruza ~ Retired college instructor from CSUB and Bakersfield College. She published her memoir One Body/Many Souls in 2018, and later Poems to Ponder, Little Stories to Play with in Your Mind, and Letters. She publishes her blog, “Our Spiritual Journey” through Word Press, participates in the WOK blog challenge and is published in both the WOK Anthology 2018 Reaching for the Sky and the CSUB poetry antholology, Writing Sound.
