Chasing Sunsets

I remember
getting up late
in the winter one year
and going out to chase
the last bit
of sun
and running into you.

We went to Fire and Water
and sat there for a minute
before inspiration struck
and we decided
to go climb Bare Mountain.

Even though
it was pretty late,
we thought if we rushed,
we could make it to
the top for the sunset.

Of course, it was January
and there was slick
ice-covered snow
all over that steep trail
and we had to drive
a half hour to start,
but we went
and ran up that trail,
and fell over and
slid back a lot,
and missed the sunset
but reached the top
and then falteringly
made our way down
in the dark.


And it turned into
a thing we did
that winter.

Not planned,
always at the last minute
when we bumped into
each other in town,
we'd say "I bet
we can make it up
______ mountain
and see the sunset
if we rush!
Let's go!"

And we'd get
partway up
and notice the sun
going down,
and head off-trail,
straight up the hillside,
punching holes in the
ice crust to keep
our hold,
and rushing, and slipping
and sending ice-chunks
zipping down behind us
and never make the top
in time
and laughing at each other
when we fell over
and over
on the way down.

We never, never
saw the sunset
from a peak,
but it was
such a good winter.


-Jim DuBois
Dec 22, 2014

Why "Return of the Slacker"?

I wrote a paragraph about why I called this blog Return of the Slacker, and put it on a permanent page of this blog, here.

Still Beautiful

Sometimes
it is
still beautiful
despite everything


-Jim DuBois
Oct 29, 2014

That Patio

That patio
outside the hospital
where you
were born
- no better place
exists.


-Jim DuBois
Oct 29, 2014

Sacred Places

I listened
to this Lakota guy
in Amhersst
one time,
and he said,

"Spirituality is not something mystical.
The fact that the world exists is spiritual.
You want to do something spiritual?
Go plant a tree."

And that stuck with me
when I went
to the dentist
a while later.

There they were taking care of
the actual existing world
and helping people
live better lives
by taking care of their teeth
and it was suddenly
the most spiritual place
I could imagine.

Later times,
at the doctor
and the hospital,
I saw them
in a similar light,
as sacred places,
where humans helped
other humans
with the most spiritual
thing of all:
their actual physical being.


-Jim DuBois
Oct 29, 2014

How to be a Hero

It's those moments
where you make
the right choice,
and do the hard work,
whether anyone
but yourself
knows it or not.

There might be no fanfare,
no reward,
no recognition
and maybe the majority
of the battle
takes place
inside your head
where your courage
is fighting with
your fears.

The world
will probably
never know of you
and your moments
of goodness
but you should
live like a hero anyway
because that is
the nature of
your spirit.


-Jim DuBois
Oct 15, 2014

Unexpected consequences from talking to you on the phone yesterday afternoon

At that particular time of day
I could see the dust
that had built up
below the radiator
I'd missed it for years, I guess

So the next day
I broke out
the big sponge
I'd been saving
for no particular reason
and I cleaned up
all that dust

and then I realized
that cleaning my toilet,
which I'd been meaning to do
for a while,
would go much faster and easier
with the big sponge

so I cleaned the toilet too
and afterwards realized
that this whole
chain of events
was a perfect thing
to write about

and that sometimes
we don't see the chains
so clearly,
but they are always there.


-Jim DuBois
Sep 22, 2014
(composed in blog)