Reflections of My Heart: Snapshot of Long Ago

Karen Lynn at Venice Beach in Late 1950s

One day in 1979, as feelings from my past reminded me of who and what I was, I wrote this poem. The day I wrote it was not ordinary, not like every other day. That day, for some reason, memory took me back to when I was eight years old, back to a troubling point in my life when I was more than uncomfortable.

Even now, after almost seven decades, I remember it as if today were sixty-six years ago. The thoughts and feelings of that day marked the juncture when I began to think seriously about myself. And the memory of it was so painful that I had to take breaks while putting my feelings into poetry.

I will always remember that day in the late 1950s. I was eight years old, a child old enough to be aware of my body, yet young enough for such an experience to leave a permanent imprint on my mind.

The school bus had picked up my mother and me, along with all the other children from my class, as well as some from other grades. Everyone wanted to go swimming, and the school did this for us only twice each summer, so it was a big treat. The school took us to Venice Beach because it had an Olympic-sized pool.

We all got off the bus and walked down the boardwalk. It was a glorious day, and at the pool, we swam to reach the other end. A few of the kids could go three-fourths of the way, but many could not do more than wade in the shallow end. I made it halfway, then turned back and stayed there playing, where the water was not too deep, and I felt safe.

Of course, there were teachers with us to make sure everyone had fun and stayed safe, but they were all busy, so I was on my own, and I did what I knew, practicing the techniques I had learned. And I didn’t have a care in the world until Mama got me out of the pool and helped me dress. That was when, out of nowhere, I became aware of a sound I had heard before, a sound I had barely noticed.

At first, I wondered what focused my interest on the sound, so I sharpened my concentration and honed in on what I heard, trying to both recall and gather information.

I stood there, dressed, leg brace on. Ready to go. Then I heard it again as I took a step forward—a CLINKING, a vibration.

It was me. It was the way I walked. I zoomed into that sound—my brace buckle. With each step, my left foot took, the buckle tapped the metal of the brace.

My limp was clear, pronounced. When walking without the brace, my left foot slapped down on the cement with every step. You would know it was me coming. Without the brace—the rattle.

Numb, flustered, I stared down at my foot and asked myself, “Why can’t I be normal?”

Keeping silent, not trying to answer, for the first time in my young life, I took mental notes about myself.

With my brace on, my foot did not slap. My steps made a completely different sound, the clang of my brace strap’s buckle, plus the dull thud of my hushed limp.

This realization shook me to my core. I didn’t want to be this way. Still, I knew I was. And I knew I had to give special regard to who I was.

This feeling made me uncomfortable, vulnerable, and unsteady emotionally. When I hear this sound today, I relive those moments and am immersed in them, and they show up spontaneously.

Throughout the years, even today, when I go for a walk, it’s with me. My constant companion, it’s by my side. The remembrance of those sounds is always with me, even though I have not worn a brace since childhood.

This makes me feel inferior, and brings back the doubts I used to suffer, even though I worked through those emotions years ago. I reel in the feelings and nurture my being, knowing I must come to terms with myself.

I say, “Accept honey, accept.”

Every time I hear that sound, it triggers this experience, but I immediately recognize what’s happening. I acknowledge my thoughts, redirect and change my thinking, and move forward with positive affirmations.

There is no hiding from my thoughts or feelings, or how I’d like to be. But I can rein them in. I make myself think only good thoughts—love, acceptance, and telling myself that I am beautiful just the way I am, affirming it over and over again until the hurtful thoughts disappear and I believe what I’m saying to myself.

During these moments, I gaze into the blue sky and visualize the ocean. I send peace and love to the disabled parts of my body and think about taking action, about giving myself whatever I need to heal. I have to be honest and accept my imperfections and my disabilities. I must give myself my own approval and recognition because I have to validate myself. No one else can. Only I can give this to myself, and complete healing will come when I have done all the work.

Not only do I need to nurture and care for myself unconditionally, but to surround myself with people who love me and tell me the truth. While turning to the power of love and forgiveness, I think about all the years of my life and all the letting go. I know, even more now, that I must dig deeper. I must gently recognize, release, grasp, and understand so I can let go more completely.

Thinking back, I gaze at that picture from a day long past.

Snapshot Of Long Ago

On that day,
That glorious day
Where I
Had not a care

I reminisce
And I remember
The warm water
Rinsing through my hair,
As I tried splashing and swimming
To reach the other side.

I remember
Dressing and
Looking down
At my heavy bars
That buckled my
Paralyzed left leg

And, I remember
Sitting near mother dear,
Singing songs
With a childish flair

On that summer’s day,
I remember
My syncopated rhythm
As I began prancing at play,

Those snapshots
Have come and gone,
As they ring through my soul,

Only now,
They drift back
My way,
As I gaze
Into that same
Peaceful pond
Upon where I stood,
Long time past,
Remembering the picture
That fills my memories
Of my life’s past!

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.


Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image from Karen Lynn-Chlup’s personal collection and not to be reproduced without permission.

Reflections of My Heart: Smile

I wrote this poem back in 2004. I remember it being summer. My husband, Chris, wanted to go windsurfing, so we prepared. We packed food, his windsurfing board with its sail, and clothes to layer in the sun. I also put together some things I could enjoy my time alone time with as I don’t windsurf. 

The next morning, six-thirty came. We dressed, ate, and drove down to San Diego. 

What a beautiful day with a clear blue sky and a sparkling beach! On the sand, Chris and I set up our area for his gear, and a little while later, he waded into the surf. I sat watching from one of my cozy quilts and took home videos of my man having a blast. 

I love watching people, and one little girl was having a joyful time running back and forth with her blue bucket and tiny shovel. 

As I observed her from the shade of a tall tree, my mind drifted back to my own childhood and memories of my dance teacher, Al Gilbert. 

Al had said to me, “I saw you dance and smile.” 

Deep in my thoughts, I sighed. He was the one. He was the one who gave me his love, his all, and his confidence, the confidence I grew up to have, and comfort in being myself around everyone and anyone. 

Al did what he loved the most, and how he loved me while understanding the essence of my soul. You can find out more about Al and how he helped me here.

Smile

Under the heavens’ green canopy,
I see you smile
And dance
As the sun filters
Through the gentle wistfulness
Of a summer’s breeze.

I look from a distance upon
Your gentle glow,
Watching the smile in your eyes,
The singing of the soul in your face,
The happiness in your heart

Capturing life’s simple pleasures,
The fulfillment of your happy heart!

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.


Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image from Karen Lynn-Chlup’s personal collection. This is her with Al Gilbert performing in her first dance recital.

Reflections of My Heart: Silent Voice

Photo of menacing cumulus cloud

This poem was written in 2020, about a friend who disappeared from my life. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I had fallen. Broke my wrist. The doctor could not set it in a cast. It was that serious a break. So, seven days later, I saw an orthopedist for surgery.

Weeks went by. I recovered. And within three months, I was pretty much back to myself. I got one phone call from my friend. He told me he was sorry. Days went by. Nothing. Not one word. So, in the fullness of time, I went on with my life. Five years have passed. Once a carefree friendship. Now, silence. An absence of sound. Muffled.

Your voice stayed with me through turbulent times. Presently, your voice has stilled. It’s in a state of being alone. Staying away from me. Yet, I hear you. I hear you with my sixth sense. I listen. Carefully. I hear all the sweet nothings. All the words that didn’t hold up. Then you told me you didn’t want to be part of my life.

Even after this, I bless you. I hold you up to the light, and I forgive. I know I’ll never hear from you again. Still, it would be nice to hear that you are all right. It would be nice to hear my friend’s kind voice—the way you used to be.

Silent Voice

As the days go by,
Your silent voice grows thicker,
Thick like a cumulus cloud
Ready to erupt.

Your once carefree soul
Now stands in the mist
Of turbulent thoughts,
Seeking silent stillness.

Day by day you retreat
Further into solitude.

Your muted murmur
Says not a word.
It has no sound.
It speaks without a voice.

Yet, I hear you anyway
With my subtle sixth sense.

I listen carefully and clearly.
You tell me with your own
Sweet sealed lips

That you are leaving my life.

You tell me
That you love me,
That you care about me,
And that you are concerned
About my happiness and me.

However, you urge me to go.
You urge me to move on with my life.
You urge me to be happy in my journey ahead.
And urge me to remember always,
Never to forget!

Yet, all I want
Is to hear your sweet, loving voice.

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.

Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by GerritR via Wikimedia.

Reflections of My Heart: Sipping Your Sweetness

Karen Lynn-Chlup at the Self Realization Fellowship Shrine

Karen Lynn-Chlup at the Self-Realization Fellowship Shrine

I wrote this poem in mid-May 1977 as I sat on a stone bench at the Self Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades. Fortunately, it survived the fires of January 2025, but back to my story…

Sitting on the shore, I looked into the water of the lake. Closing my eyes, I turned inward. Peace flowed. The quieter I got, the more it flowed. It flowed through my veins, and through my entire body. I felt its natural beauty surrounding me. I asked. And I received. I encompassed my wholeness as a person with a disability. I felt a calmness and a cleansing, as if I were sipping sweetness. The Southern California breeze cleansed and calmed me. I didn’t want to leave, not wanting my time there to end. But I knew it would. And I knew I could come back whenever I wanted.

That day, I had a whole new way of looking at myself, my life, and my disabilities.

Sipping Your Sweetness

I sit
Amongst your glorious garden,
Turning towards
Your natural beauties
For peace and quiet.

I ask you to soothe my wounded soul,
And as I sip the sweetness
From your nectar,
I feel your soothing, gentle breeze
Calming and cleansing my tattered heart.

At once, I feel
A delicate delight
And a whispering touch of wisdom
That sings out to my soul!

I gain comfort and
An abundant bounty,
Which mends
My clipped wing.

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.
Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image is from Karen Lynn-Chlup’s personal collection. 

Reflections of My Heart: Silver Birch

Photo of dropping silver birch tree with sunset in background

In 1983, after years of walking with a sound imprinted on my mind, a sound that only I heard, I wrote this poem.

Again, the clanking of the steel clasp against its brace, beating on it, over and over. With every step my left leg took, my brace buckle banging against the steel rang in my mind. I wished the sound would disappear. But it wouldn’t. With each step, it went off, loud as a siren, triggering this signal in my mind, an imprint.

Every time I took a step with my left foot, a syncopated beat went off, and I wished it weren’t mine. I wished it would cease or fade into the distance. But it was mine, even after all the years of hard work, therapy, and dance.

In my mind, I hid, running for cover, behind the birch tree. But its branches were unable to support me. Delicate, like me, it desperately needed its own special care to breathe and grow.

On a cul-de-sac, where I used to live in L.A., in a beautiful location on a street that is now exclusively for the rich, stood a brick home built in the 1950s. I stood in awe before it. Above the flowering bushes, a silver birch towered. I couldn’t keep my eyes off it, but one of its limbs drooped, wilted and weak. How could the owners not care for it? Something connected within me.

I listened—closely. Again, I heard my own syncopated rhythm—my leg and the way I was. Almost falling to the ground, the birch needed its own support. It didn’t get enough water or care to stand in the hot California sun. But it helped me recognize that I needed to love and care for myself as well as nature’s plants, even more than I already did. It taught me to stay strong in adversity and keep my smile, no matter what. Because if I smiled, my heart would stay strong and keep smiling, too.

So I yielded to my heart and accepted—loving my leg and myself unconditionally.

Silver Birch

As I walked down the winding path,
I limped like a cat with a wounded paw.
I listened,
And the only sound I heard
Was a didactic hand clap, clapping
In a syncopated rhythm.

Noticing this,
I ran to hide under a silver birch,
But it was thin and its leaves
Unstable as my imperfect paw.

Wanting and waiting to cover its bare trunk,
I took another step.
I saw a trembling branch
Unable to accept its own problem,

Its leaves fallen to the ground,
Powerless to raise itself up again;
Desiring only
The lessons, which were never learned.

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.
Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by Roman Eisele, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Reflections of My Heart: Showers

Painting of a red sunset

In 1985, at the end of a long day, I wrote this poem as that long day settled into dusk.

I had been searching for calm and balance my whole life, and in the hours before me, I prayed and searched for balance. Something to remain upright and steady within me, where the elements are equal or in the correct proportions. A oneness. A harmony. A truth I could lean on, its stillness to quiet my hurt, to take away my emotional pain. I wanted to make peace with my anguish. I wanted to understand balance that cannot be forced.

The red rainfall keeps pouring, pounding down upon me. Yet, I keep my mind ajar. Patience. Looking for the light. Why? I ask with an open heart. Because I know I’m not on the other side yet.

I keep mindful, exploring, with a mindful attention. It hurts though. It hurts to be still and quiet and face all my unhealthy behaviors. But maybe, just maybe, I can do it a little at a time. Maybe I can do it gradually and piecemeal. Maybe I can breathe through it with a consciousness or an awareness while looking and moving forward toward the answer. Together, with the light. With a balance clearly from the divine.

Tonight, maybe I can dig deeper to accept more and let go of my haunting issues about the way my body responds to the foods I eat and its allergies.

I give myself the permission to heal with love and care.

Showers

In the hours before me,
I see no balance.
No sense of oneness.
No acceptance.
No stillness.

I see only extremes
In the afternoon’s
Crimson showers

They encompass my every thought
Its cerise rainfall fails to bring bright
Light even when I look that way
I keep looking for that lit sky,
Which others often find!

But I,
I keep searching and waiting
For that one special day
When balance will become mine!

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.
Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by Arkhip Kuindzhi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Reflections of My Heart: Shimmering Solitude

Photo of a starry sky

I wrote this poem in the summer of 1983.

A few miles’ drive from my house, I sat down on a bench, alone. I needed time for myself.

Looking and wondering, I waited for a bit, surrounded by swings and grass for sweet children’s play, but near a barbecue pit where I could burn my writing. Not my poems. Other writing.

After a while, I walked back to my car and picked up my bag of personal writing, then returned to the park.

Standing outside the circle of stones, I said a prayer for myself and for all who ever suffered a broken heart. Then, bit by bit, I watched my hurt, my pain, burn as I stirred the flaming paper into dry ashes. All I needed was to stand there and let it all go.

My eyes followed the smoke up into the sky, moving about from star to star, from constellation to constellation. I don’t know what I was searching for, but there was a quiet seclusion all around me. It felt kind and gentle, tranquil.

I sat back on the bench and allowed myself to feel the power. A translucent light glowed, kindling something within me. It ignited a flame, a flame so bright it has never left. So bright, I could remove myself from the presence of negativity. So bright, I could stand alone in any storm. So bright, I could let the light of self-acceptance fill my being in sweet solitude.

No one could see me glowing, but I did.

Shimmering Solitude

The sapphire sky
Did not shine
Until I saw
Translucent lights
Glistening a silent glow.

It was dark.
Silently, staring into
The star’s night,
I found myself far
Removed from reality,
Looking at the light
Of sweet solitude.

 

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.
Original text ©2024 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Reflections of My Heart: Seasons

Image of a misty blue sky.

It was the winter of 1983—the coldest one ever. Then spring and summer came and went. And through the seasons, extreme sadness gripped me. Life would not give me a break. It kept throwing curve balls. One after another, they never stopped.

Yet, once more, I knew that if I stayed the course, remained positive, and did what I had to do, I would see the blue skies in a new light.

Those sad months saddened me, moved me, and made me become a better human. I had no choice but to better myself. Through it all, I found ways to rebound, to recover, and to develop the resilience I needed to thrive. I had the willingness to face whatever I had to, and I am thankful I was blessed with the capacity to recover quickly.

Seasons

The ice melted in the depths of winter.
The flowers bloomed in the cool spring air.
And as the summer air crept along,
So did the gray azure mist.

It was thick with sorrow and despair
And the hopes that maybe, just maybe, the sky
Would soon clear!

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.
Original text ©2024 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image by Pink Sherbet Photography from Utah, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. 

Reflections of My Heart: Richly Woven

Photo of two gold bracelets

I wrote this poem in 1982. I had flashbacks, then. Flashbacks of times past. Flashbacks of my first love. What it meant to me. Moments spent together. Moments that could never be forgotten. As I look back through time, I think of my first boyfriend. His love. My naivete. The sweetness. And then, the sorrow, because I had to let him go so he could live his life with love and forgiveness. I had to let go of the hurt and bitter feelings I had within.

Richly Woven

In the dawn,
And
In the dusk
I feel your gentle caress
Upon my sweet lips.

I feel the blistering heat
Of your tantalizing touch.
I feel the twinkling of your visions
Through the vividness of your sweet smile.

Your chestnut glow gazes
Into my emerald eyes.

I feel the warm blanket
Of your heart protecting me
From the darkness of our shadows.

Together, we weave an invisible quilt
Abundant in rich colors,
Shielding us from the harm that is to come.

With this richness,
Comes durability
Bestowed upon us

It will resist
The soulless of souls,
And is
As resilient as the tempest
That burns aglow!

No one,
No one,
Can ever tear the twine
Of our interlocking
Lace of love!

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.
Original text ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved. Image ©2025 Karen Lynn-Chlup.

Reflections of My Heart: Remembering When

Photo of a section of a white lace Cashmere blanket

 

I wrote this poem in 1984. It was a chilly day with rain on the way. That Saturday, I wrapped myself in a soft blanket, filled with love and care. And I filled myself with a firm resolve to strengthen my being and take action where needed.

 

Remembering When

In the quiet solitude
Of my home,
I settle myself
In a cozy chair,
As I recollect
My distant past.

I remember many
Thoughts and memories
Of my life.

I remember my
Triumphant moments
As well as my
Terrifying dismays
Of many a lit past.

The days,
The weeks,
The years gone by,

All lined up like
A bittersweet bouquet
Arranged as a
Beautiful vine.

You can order my poetry collection, including this poem, here: Reflections of My Heart.

Original text and image ©2025 by Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved.