Sunday, November 23, 2025

 

A person in a suit and tie

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                           HOW MARK MET JOSIE   

As told to Peggie by Mark (Papaw)

© C. S. Roberts 2025

     One day I was headed for school, I chanced to go a different way than I usually did, I was feeling particularly jaunty that day, so I guess it was on account of my new shoes.

     It hadn’t started to really warm up to summertime yet, but the spring thaw was definitely on the way. The thaw was causing the ordinarily small little stream across the road to become larger and more rambunctious. I got to it just before it had gotten out of hand.

I looked for the highest point of land still visible in the flowing water and used that as a landing spot so I could jump again to reach the other side without getting my new shoes too wet.

     About the time I landed on the school side of what was fast becoming a torrent, I heard the unmistakable sounds of giggling girls behind me. I spun around to see Josie Graham and her friends standing on the other side laughing at my antics to cross the now impassable over wash.

     By this point I was embarrassed but I couldn’t let them know. I was holding a big secret, I was sweet on Josie and hadn’t let on to anyone, least of all her. In my pique, I hollered the first thing that came to mind. I said, “Come to the river, couldn’t get a cross! Give five dollars for an old grey horse!” Laughing at my own cleverness, I turned and ran all the way to school.

     The girls didn’t get there that day because of the flooding, but the teacher knew that was a problem and no one got in trouble for missing class.

                    PEGGIE’S NOTES ON THIS TALE

     In my lifetime with Papaw, I must have heard this story ten thousand times and, each time it was just a little bit different. In some versions, he wasn’t embarrassed at all and in others, he somehow rescued the girls and was the hero of the day. At other tellings the world knew about his crush on the one who was to become my most beloved Memaw, but the part I noticed the most as a child was the poem.

     The other version of it went like this: “Come to the river, couldn’t get across. Jumped on an alligator, thought it was a horse.” Then he would guffaw at his cleverness and bravado. Memaw, aka Josie, if she was in earshot, would just smile and shake her head. We were never certain which version was the most accurate and, truth be told, I don’t think Papaw did either.

     We were never bored listening to him, the fact of the matter is, I wish he was still here to tell it again,

 

A group of people posing for a photo

AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Josie’s school picture. She is in the second row, second in from the left.

Thursday, November 13, 2025

 

                                                    



TIME

© Chessie Roberts 2011 All rights reserved

In a rare moment with nothing pressing to do, I was "visiting" friends' timelines a few weeks ago causing me to write this.


The children that played with me are now gray haired and have children of their own.
My little ones are grown with littles of their own.
My body is sagging and flapping in undignified ways, and I wonder who the stranger is that lives in my mirror.
Sometimes she looks remarkably like my mother and other times, I'm not sure exactly who she resembles.
I don't care for stairs anymore and climb trees only in my memory.
The children call out strange words like “Watch me Grammy” and “Grandpa see how fast I can run!” Some of them are bringing others to me saying, “This is my boy/girlfriend.”
The little ones that I used to baby sit are sending their children off to college or the military.
My own Grands are married and/or leaving for collage, all of them with dreams I know little about.
I was stunned to recently meet my first great grandchild.
I am wondering where the time has gone...do others miss it?
Do they see it streaming by in the people around them? DO they understand? Do they know?
Do they feel it yet? Do they wonder yet who lives in their mirror? Time is an awesome equalizer.

Thursday, November 6, 2025

 





THE TELL

                             An Evolution Through Time
                        
               © C. S. Roberts 2010


When it's you who does the Tell,
Speak of those who made the way;

of all the ones who watched and taught

the ones by whom all things were wrought.
When it’s your turn to do the Tell-
explain it all, explain it well.
When you make the stories live,
Remember those with much to give;
Who gave all and then gave more,
The ones for whom the Tell is for.


Go way back to memories dim
When she was She and he was Him,
Back to when the world was new
When volcanoes roared and  wind did too
Before the animals before the grass
before these things had come to pass…
a cell now forms in waters blue
divides and grows till it’s something new
something not seen here before,

something which the earth is for.

 

Center yourself and connect to earth

breath the air which from your birth

with all before you shared and grew

Come with me now to when all was new.

Open your mind, set it free

to become you with them and them with thee

All complete, now join with me.

Go back through your memories

Ancient, arcane

Into yourself before remembering.

 

Back to your Ancestors,

Now go back some more

to find out the truth of what the Tell is for.

Cellular memories call us back deep

Back to the “Power Mind” which now wakes from  sleep.

We blend with the Old Ones

we go back to “The Void” to find how we left it

to find to see what is stored.

A profound sense of reverence your past holds for you

who come back to visit when all was quite new.

 

Allow this communion of understanding to pass

through you and to inform you of your human-ness.

A reunion of humanity with its heritage, its past

calls you to remember and reconnect at last.

Remember, remember, the taste and the feel

of primordial forest make it once again real.

'Dawning of Life' now call to your mind

from the salty sea waters that nurtured mankind.

Remember your cells division and growth

we carry this in us, you and me both.

 

These cells from within, now form in waters blue
they divide and grow till they become something new.
This motion has purpose, pulsing with life

We are moving and changing, our potential is rife!

These soft pulses convert both form and shape

define them and strengthen them a design to remake.

This divergence has meaning, direction and line

their purpose is creation, their creation sublime.

Again the division, the divergence and now pain

as with your new lungs you have changed once again.

 

You are now a new creature in a new living space,

you burrow for safety to escape the foot race.

You smell the rich loam, verdant plants are your fare

you hide from the others down deep in your lair.

Because you're evolving and changing again

know now the security of strong supple limbs

That carry you safely over chasm and gorge

you are a new life form

straight from the earth's forge.

The climate is changing; it’s time to move on

 

Divergence is calling as something feels wrong.

The world's heat is fiercer; drought makes you decide

to search high and low for a place to abide

and in your search, you find that the sea

holds riches of food for all of your needs.

To rejoin your beginning from some missing link,

Long lost to the sea, as fast as a blink, your quintessence

Changes, becomes longer and sleek.

You glide through the water as quick as a wink.

As genetics take action, change fur into scales

 

and breath comes from gills that allow you to sail

below the surface, under the sea

You no longer walk, you swim and are free.

You say goodbye to cousins that stay on the land

You live again in the water and not on the sand.

The water world keeps you for only a while

then some force calls you go that next mile.

Divergence now pulls you back to the land

and once more you change though you don’t understand

Just where you’re going nor how far you’ve been but


evolving’s a must from without and within.

Your lungs are back to give life to your form

You now walk upright and wear skins to keep warm.

You give milk from your body to nourish your child

You hunt others for food much like when you were wild.

Your fore legs now hold and carry your things,

Tools that you’ve made, arrows and slings.

You now marvel at sights from your new point of view

Places to travel, things to charm you.

You recognize beauty, you recognize food,

 

you know that cool water can make you feel good.

You now can spot places to lie down and rest

Places of safety that seem to be best.

Your brain is now changing from memories that guide

You now can solve problems, find places to hide.

You learn and create, you build and connect

And soon you’ve a family with love and respect.

There’s safety in numbers and work now is shared.

The tribe is now growing with the children it bears.

You now look to leaders to guide and correct

 

You follow the Shaman and give him respect

As he draws symbols with smoke in the air

To call in the spirits ask them to come there.

You scarcely now breath as the ages are joined

And Ancestors secure you from battles that harm.

Things that cause illness, disaster and death

Things from the Spirits that strike quick as breath.  

Your fear and amazement are sated again

when the Medicine Woman joins force with him.

She’s an agent of Spirit and knows what to do

 

To save all from illness and your animals too.

Those two know the Spirits and what they demand

The rituals and prayers, they keep close to hand.

The Holy Ones guide you and teach you the way

To placate the Spirits so you have a good day.

The gift of fire has been given to Man

you’ll soon learn to use what you can’t understand

You find that it warms the places you stay

And the light from the flames keeps the darkness away.

It cleans the unwanted, it purges the land

 

To make way and make room for the essence of man.

you are learning the names of all around you

As you learn what to call them, you learn what to do

To use them to help and nourish the clan

To uplift the people and all understand

That respect for the Spirits and Holy Ones too

Will guide and uphold you

And help you get through

The hardest to things that may happen to you.

We have seen quite enough it’s time to move on

 

The weather is fickle; the warmth now is gone.

Watch for the changes as we move through the years

We See bigger oceans, we feel different fears

We may notice caves that the ancestors knew

We look ‘cross the chasm that separates you

From those Ancient Ones from whence you came

You live a new existence, you live a new game

You see the kaleidoscope of change in the land

As you move through transition you now understand

 

That the lights in the heavens are the fires in the night

Of the Ancients who guide you and keep everything right

They shine down each evening from up in the sky

To show the way to the unborn  who hover nearby.

As you grow and evolve you learn so much more,

these are stars that you see, not campfires from before

You learn about villages that now shelter the folk

The people build houses from cedar and oak.

You buy and trade but still live off the land

And all of the people give each other a hand.

 

Each one has a talent, their own set of chores

to keep the town working as the clans did before.

We stop for a moment at the village Withae (say with-ay)

The medicine woman who has much to say.

She is connected to knowledge arcane

She speaks with the Gods and then she explains

She tells the village the plants that will heal

she makes sure the animals that will make a good meal

are there when they’re needed because she can feel

energies of Nature that to her are so real


She who helps with birth and death

And remembers the prayers that serve the folk best

She who’s all knowing, all seeing most feared

She helps honor the Old Ones, those most revered

A new cult is coming, taking over the land

It wants you to change and you don’t understand

Their piety is choaking life from all things

All you revered is crushed now by kings

All that was Sacred, Free, Holy and Wild

is now taken from you like you were a child.

 

Everything that you worshiped is now wrong and corrupt

Your faith is so shaken; the change is abrupt.

You go to the Withae to ask what to do

You all are bereft by this dogma, this thing they call new

Relax says the Withae, there’s nothing to dread.

We shall worship in darkness, whilst they’re all in bed

The Groves are all hidden and we’ll hold to our truth

The Goddess will guide us just as in our youth.

And true to Her word you find what you need

And in your exile, you plant a strong seed.

 

Now you worship in secret, hidden by night

She leads the Rituals that must stay out of sight.

For the new religion wants to stamp out the Old

Malign and destroy make their new ideas bold

They do it by stealth, they do it with lies

They tear down, destroy, and criticize

They threaten, they scare, they promise long life

If the Old Way just  back off and give them no strife

The new build their churches where Sacred groves stood

They force us to worship as they think we should

 

On certain days and at certain hours,

They hide sacred knowledge away inside of their towers

These are places of greed and control

Places the usurpers grow roots and take hold

These are the ones who want our Sacred sites gone

The ones who want all, our submission, our songs.

At the behest of the leaders, the ones that we trust

We bend the knee because it’s a must

We have lost too many who stood up to fight

The time will arrive when we can stand in the light

 

What they do not know, and must never learn

Is that deep in the darkness our fires still burn

Here is the thing that they’ll never know,

we can adapt and so we all go

to new Sacred Groves, we visit at night

We keep them a secret so we don’t have to fight

With this new God of theirs they say is kind

But then he will kill you if you step out of line.

So we do what we must to look “Good” to them

Our Faith is alive so there’s  no requiem   

 

 

 

 

 

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From THE COLLECTION

Poetry and Prose from Chessie Roberts

AKA C.S. Roberts

 

 

                                         TODAY
                            Musings of Chessie on a very odd sensation of my life

                                                      © October 1, 2010

Today feels odd and strange to me
as I wander aimlessly…not so, but it feels, I'm detached.
Like a wraith I float through
the daily things I need to do,
not without connection, nor
without purpose, but,
seemingly without anchor of body to hold me;
to keep me here, to enclose my mind.
Should I drift off I’m not sure anyone would notice that I’m not here.
At this point I myself cannot tell if I am really here. 




                                          ALONE 

                                                           ©Chessie Roberts, October 10, 2010

The deeper the feelings go
the fewer people there are,
understanding runs shallow or
just skitters over the surface.
“It’s time you found out.”

“Yea I knew that”

“Are you just figuring that out?”
They don’t help.
They just make it more…painful, empty, hollow, lonely.

Thursday, October 16, 2025

RED FLAGS AND WHY WE OFTIMES DON’T SEE THEM OR WISDOM AND TRUE SIGHT

 

RED FLAGS AND WHY WE OFTIMES DON’T SEE THEM

OR

WISDOM AND TRUE SIGHT

© C.S. Roberts 2025

A group of colorful hearts

AI-generated content may be incorrect.

A few weeks ago, I was on an online radio show where we were discussing the programming in which we, as children (specifically female children) were raised. It seems, sadly, that this particular form of manipulating, brainwashing programing is still alive and well. Something that one of us said (I don’t remember who or exactly what was said) lived in my head as an echo for several hours.

I finally gave in and went into a meditation to  find out what was nagging me to look at it deeper. It came to me like a dash of cold water “With wisdom comes true sight” I was thrilled and all goose-bumpy for a few minutes. I reveled in my new knowledge until it dawned on me to wonder what THAT meant and where it would lead?

What came to me is the undeniable fact that we all are programed from birth. Now, don’t get upset here, I’m not pointing fingers or blaming anyone for anything, I am attempting to explain so stay with me.

When we come into this incarnation, we immediately become the concentrated concern of everyone around us. They want us to both understand this new thing called life and our place in it. We need to know how to become self-sufficient with all that entails, how to become good decent people  as befits the mores and standards of the family, the community, the village, town, or city in which we reside. This teaching also comes from the traditions of our culture, faith and, quite frankly, the county, state and country where we are raised. We are a very manipulated and shaped animal, we humans. No wonder most of our growing up is so confusing BUT, that’s not all of it.

On top of all those other things we have advertising, input from friends and extended family. If that isn’t enough, we now have social media that is anything but social as well as the types of music and television you plug into. All of this leads us to having to figure out how to use our own thought process, discernment and intelligence to begin to think for ourselves and to overcome our deep-seated programing.

I have told you the above to take you to my next point. As we are raised, so we grow, think, understand and feel about issues that crop up in our everyday lives. If we are raised in an environment of abuse, that is our idea of what normal looks and feels like. Conversely, if we’re raised in a loving and nurturing environment, that is how we see and feel the ‘normal’ in life. Now, here’s the kicker, the two ‘normals’ I have just described are on a very slippery sliding scale. When we feel comfortable in a situation, we stay there even if the conditions aren’t to our best interest. We will stubbornly hang on until we realize letting go and leaving would serve us better. Even then, our reactions to this unsettling situation are determined by our programing until such a time that we learn better coping mechanisms. This step takes a lot of inner work which some do and some don’t.

In the case of those who don’t learn new, better ways to cope, they stay in the same patterns that keep them in the loop of being manipulated. The difference here is that they are now doing it to themselves based on old, learned behavers. They cling to the demons they know, the ones that feel and look ‘normal’.

Those of us who do the deep inner work learn better so old patterns are broken. Old habits are changed to better ones. Red flags are identified and avoided. Life is better all the way around. How do we get caught up in these things in the first place you ask?

We, as humans, have a tendency to make the decision that we think we ‘know’ about something, whether we really understand it or not. We decide it’s the way it’s supposed to be and, more often than not, that’s the end of it. The truth is that, when we firmly  decide and are convinced that we know anything, we shut down and stop looking for anything more to learn about it. (The Dunning-Kruger effect is one example of this, there are others.)

Why is this important? It’s important because those audio files running in your mind, as well as the things you have observed and have reinforced by your actions and what you tell yourself, continue to enforce your programmed ideas, actions and reactions in relationship to yourself and others. Let that sink in for a minute.

Here’s an example of what I’m referring to. In The Blakemore and Cooper1) experiment they took two litters of kittens that were kept in the dark for several weeks and were then exposed to environments with either vertical or horizontal planes for a specified amount of time. These lines, either vertical or horizontal, were projected into the space so that they were the only things the kittens could see, therefore they became familiar with their assigned lines. When the kittens were placed in the opposing areas with things they had never seen before, they weren’t readily able to recognize what was new to them. The ones from the vertical room could not recognize horizontal lines and the kittens raised in the horizontal space were unable to see the vertical planes. The result was that visual (and for this article behavioral) perception is not purely innate but heavily shaped by our environmental input as well.

And here we are back at the original question. Why do most of us have difficulty recognizing the red flags in our lives until they hit us in the face and/or stab us in the back?

The simple answer is they are what we see and believe is normal (whatever that means to those involved in any given situation.) A lot of us have not seen them for what they are because they look, feel and sound like what we’re used to. Until we don’t. Here’s the good news, “Once we become aware, we cannot become unaware.” ( Evolution of Self Program, C. S. Roberts) 

The insidious establishment of this process takes years, however, as you wake up to it and learn how to rewrite your own, personal programming, it becomes easier. As we raise ourselves out of the miasma of our old programing and begin to see things from a higher perspective, we start to see the holes, the red flags and the traps from a clearer vantage point. From our new, aware, elevated frame of reference, we get better at avoiding those things. It’s the hole in the sidewalk example. Until you start looking ahead, remembering your past mistakes and learning from them, you will continue to fall into the hole.

We, as people do, stubbornly continue to stick to what we think we know whether it gets us the desired effect or not. Until we learn better, know better and do better, we will keep making the same mistakes and wondering why. So, look up, look ahead and see those flags! Learn from them, avoid them, change your mind set about them and stand in your own power because with wisdom comes true sight.

C. S. Roberts

A person with arms out and a yin yang symbol

AI-generated content may be incorrect.

 

1(Blakemore and Cooper (1970) | Reference Library | Psychology | tutor2u)