Random Sticker Mobs

People’s affinity for affixing stickers for public consumption fascinates me. I linger far too long in front of mass gatherings like these, possibly making the folks behind the window wonder if I’m a little daft. Anyone else here actually read through displays like these? A few other recent discoveries in towns or on roadsides I’ve…

Relation-ships

At the same time I am embarking on poking my writing muse, I am also doing an art journal…finally. I follow an artist whose books I own, and I’ve been watching little clips for probably close to a year now, contemplating doing one. What held me back? I sketch like a kindergartener, lol. Plus, you…

Nature’s Insights

In order to reinvigorate my writing activities, I thought I’d once again attempt a post a day. I did this once, several years ago and it led to both good and bad. Good, because I was thinking like a writer again, and bad, because I got burned out. This time I start with a 30…

On turning 6-0

Ah, I can remember when sixty was a distant thing, and how wise and patient I’d grow to be by that age – if indeed I’d live that long. Now that it’s here, what is it really like? Am I wiser? A life of ashes and rebuilding teaches one a great deal. Things like: Nothing…

The Blossom of Benevolence

In my last post I explained the new direction that my life is taking, and the on-boarding of a little one. What has come to light is the beautiful outpouring of sisterly support for the situation. No, not my sisters, as I don’t have any.  But the Aunts of my grandson, my other daughters. One…

It’s Raining Frogs

“Plop.” The sound came soft and clear from somewhere in the fading dusk. I looked around for what it might be and there, unmoving in the dark, was the shape of a frog. As I approached for a better look it shook off the fall and hopped away. It made me smile. Back to reading.…

Blither and blather about little things that matter

Did you know that online RV shopping is a LOT like online dating? No? I did it for you, so you don’t have to. In all seriousness, it is somewhat similar. Nice photos. Catchy list of amenities. Make appointment. Show up. Think you must be at wrong place as nothing looks like the photos. Then…

Rose Seep Visionary – a poem

**************************** Did I feel a tug at the corner of the dream Which I must have ignored, glossed over Darted at through rose-colored glasses Via an edgewise glance And kept on dreaming, looking forward Did I hear ambivalence whisper, or Was it dissonance maybe? They can be so hard to differentiate, tease apart No matter…

10.1.14 Wordless Wednesday – Can you find nature’s photobomber :)

Hint: Click to full-size. “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” — John Muir ~SE

The Third Garment – Scent

I don’t write often on the more feminine aspects of life that tend to lift and enrobe us in comfort and pleasure, like the tactile feel of certain fabrics,the weather; things combined with scent.  Scent is one of my all time favorite mood drivers. In this arena I am always torn between the natural and…

Music, Moving and Mayhem

Briefly dipping my pinkie toe in the blogging world for a moment as the mayhem in my life mounts! First, on moving: I was |this| close to securing a tiny rental house; well, tiny for most standards.  It is more than 4x the size of where I live now.  But, you have to be poised…

“Dreams for Sale”

Ivory towers are difficult to maintain Too much melancholy seeps into the cracks Jostling the dust for position of primacy Longing for an out; escape is a feather duster ride She hovers among the secreted garden of words Slender stalks of them over here, ground-hugging clumps over there Flinging some violently against the canvas of…

Collage of the Mind

Quoting Berry from Word and Flesh: “The religion and the environmentalism of the highly industrialized countries are at bottom a sham, because they make it their business to fight against something that they do not really want to destroy. We all live by robbing nature, but our standard of living demands that the robbery shall…

8.18.14 Monday Music Mention – Idan Raichel Project

The Idan Raichel Project will probably be someone most of you’ve not heard of unless you’ve a penchant for Israeli music.  The project attempted to gather  the voices in Israel together in music – cross cultural and cross linguistic, it focuses on working together in a place where such an idea is often only a…

A Birth in Gaza

Originally posted on countingducks:
To those unknowing of my childhood my enigmatic and disconnected behaviour must have seemed odd and possibly uncivilised. In youth I could not see beyond getting by and surviving day by day; ‘learning’ was another country where less damaged people lived. I was busy trying to fly that alien craft I…

The Map Makers

Prose, poem or parable – your choice; but for your reading and thinking pleasure 🙂 The Map Makers (For K) She once met a mapmaker Ordered from the back of a matchbook She checked the mail impatiently for her buck-fifty worth When he arrived she was astonished As he told her it was all lies…

8.1.14 Friday Frivolous Foolishness (with a side of Philosophy)

Another week has flown by in our lives.  What did you do differently this week than last week? What did you see, smell, hear, or say – that made a difference?  I know, it’s annoying these questions. It’s Friday and you just want the damn week over, and some entertainment to help with that. I…

A Measure of Self-Worth (Is it like a Pig in a Poke?)

Welcome to Time Travel Tuesday, where I go back to something somewhere on my blog. A reader’s comment on a post from last week sent my brain into overdrive mode.  Sometimes I pick at things like they are a new bone; gnawing at them, burying it, walking away, going and digging it up to gnaw…

7.25.14 Friday Frivolous Foolishness

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit’s Friday 🙂  You get only a small ‘wooT’ out of me because I am plum tuckered out.  International clients were in house for the last four days, so the office was all atwitter and off schedule due to excess meeting-itis, kow-tow-itis and general executive angst. It all ended well, so, you know “All’s well…

7.24.14 Thursday Tale-Tellers Tattle – Books of Import

I have been an avid reader since I was small, thanks to encouragement from my mother when little, and an uncommon introduction to education and learning. I am not certain why my mother thought reading was so important for me to learn, because she isn’t a reader.  In fact, she finished her first full-length book…

Passion, Pleasure and Friendship

…no, no, not that kind. (But you clicked, hah!)   Hey, even *I* know what sells 😉 Last night I actually got off work before dark! While it was a baking, sticky, humid day, the evening turned nicely. I was able to spend time outside, doing a bit of weeding, some sweeping and some soaking…

7.21.14 Monday Music Mention – O-Shen

Everyone should start their Monday with a little Reggae mon 🙂  This week’s artist is a personal favorite of mine primarily because it is one of his songs that became my personal theme song a few years back.  I enjoy this genre very much, finding the music uplifting, catchy and very easily stuck in your…

The rest of the story…

The other day I published a quote of my own.  But in part, it was a lie.  This was the quote: “Sexual abuse in the young creates the neediest people, who will tell you we need nothing; we live that way too.  We are taught by actions that there is no real love; there is no trust,…

Life Snapshot

Today is Shabbat.  A time free of work world constraints.  Time to absorb beauty, reflect beauty and warmth, radiate that back to others.  A time for thinking, for being. A time for giving thanks.  I smell like the woods, having finally finished my sun-steeping of a new body oil I created, scented with vetiver, peru…

7.17.14 Thursday Tale Tellers Tattle – K. A. Brace

I had not purchased a book of poetry in decades, until I stumbled across this writer here on WordPress. Poetry is a fickle companion, requiring time to pause, to let the words marinate, to speak the words out loud. It cannot be rushed.  Sometimes life is just too busy for that. KB’s book “To Travel…

Today (a vignette)

Today Today I visited Shanghai in the rain, circumnavigated the mass of people and the vibrant colors of parasols sheltering the dreams dreamt only perhaps in Mandarin, beyond my comprehension, but their beauty I can interpret without a translator. I then traipsed from there to Lebanon, where wearied field workers rested against stacks of wheat…

7.10.14 Thursday Tale Tellers Tattle – Wendell Berry

Remember how just a few days ago I mentioned that I was divesting myself of 50% of what I own, except of course, in the realm of books.  I also mentioned that my bookcases had a bit of room in them. Ahem.  Wellll, I went to the library on lunch break this week, and lo…

Mid Week Musings – Reader Thank You

I normally don’t post on Wednesdays, because it’s the most hectic work day of my week. But in a conversation with another blogger, a thought hit me today about all of you, my readers. Many of you are new; in fact, more than half of you, within the last six weeks. You don’t really know…

Buy less, have less, worry less?

I continue my march (shuffle?) on towards a return to living closer to the natural world, with a lighter footprint, more mindful consumption, growing more of my own food (leaf and limb) and trying to reduce what I already own. Egads, you simply don’t know the cycle, the pressure of it on those around you,…

7.3.14 Thursday Tale-Tellers Tattle – Paul Theroux

Like my musical tastes, my reading tastes are eclectic as well.  My baby brother often shares writers of interest with me, and he introduced me to Theroux several years ago.  Certain writers incite a desire in me to travel, something I’ve had little opportunity to do.  I appreciate their depictions of places most likely I’ll…

Dating at past the half-century mark

Today I am imitating a sage, so, bear with me. Since I have removed myself from the dating world (not that I was ever really in it since widowhood), I find it is easier to think about.  It is akin to trying to think about grocery shopping while eating I suppose. It has come to…

The Birthday Hike – Finale

Can you tell I’m stringing this along just have another excuse to take these memories  out and immerse in them again 🙂  I hope you don’t mind humoring me in it. It is difficult to tear myself away from the old homestead and all of its treasures and imaginings. But I hear the wild turkeys…

The Birthday Hike – Part 2

The pace and intensity of work lately has left me primed more than usual for pulling out the memories of this year’s earlier camping trip.  It isn’t that I mind working (although independent wealth would be cool too, lol!).  It is just that often it seems that there is nothing really productive about my days…

Skin Tight – a train of thought activity

Sometimes, I just sit down and write what pops into my head.  This is what flowed out today.   Skin Tight There come seasons in your life that are so powerfully emotional that they overwrite every bad dream, every negative thought and your eyes water with tears over the smallest things, because you feel so…

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming…

Most of what I write about is seeking a simpler life, as that is where my heart is.  I have worked on identifying what drives my desires and wants, how culture and advertising ‘sell’ me on things that I don’t really need, tried to eliminate faddish or gimmicky things, reduced the amount of ‘stuff’ I…

Moseying the property alone and absorbing, first trip

My weekend is hectic for a change, with social stuff.  Plans made with my daughters and their children yesterday, plus a gardening supply activity and then a trip to a Speed show with my oldest for her birthday.  These kinds of events don’t really pique my interest, but it is important to her so I’m giving…

“I went into the woods…”

It is almost time.  My apartment looks worse than usual (tiny thing that it is) because of all of the camping gear staged around.  Tarps. Sleeping bag. Sleeping mat. Food bags. Hiking boots.  Portable generators.  Chargers. And so it goes.  Looking at all of the ‘stuff’, I thought that possibly ‘primitive camping trip’ might perhaps…

T minus eight and counting…

Anticipation.  It is a delightful thing that in our instant gratification society one rarely experiences anymore.  But I am in full on anticipation mode, let me tell you!  Since I’ve been working at this company, I have never been able to take a full week of vacation, nearly always choosing a Friday-Monday combo to eke…

Much ado about nothing, or letting fear go

As I round out hell week here at work, I have been reflecting on lessons learned, and the impact of fear upon actions in my own life.  I was totally in a bad frame of mind about the impending social networking activity earlier in the week.  It was raining when I left the office, after…

Amore, amour, ahava – yes, let us talk on love

Today in North America, lots of people will be thrilled, lots of people will be crushed and the florists, gift shops and card shops will score beaucoup bucks from this celebration of ‘love’ foisted upon our public consciousness.  I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day due to religious reasons (no, I’m not Muslim either), but I’ve always…

Trip prepping, ‘net surfing and still not talking

While I await the final timeline on my outing in March due to work issues, my mind has turned to prep for the trip.  Since this most likely will be my only vacation this year, I want to squeeze all of the good things that I can from it.  So far I’ve contacted an online…

The Sound of Silence (or, how much DO you talk?)

After wrasslin’ my way through the first real illness I’ve had in about eight years, I found myself, well – losing my voice.   Mind you, right after I finally started feeling like a  human being again, instead of a rattling, sneezing, coughing personal hazmat unit.  I worked from home for two weeks, making only…

What is a ‘hard life’?

As we await the arrival of yet another new life into the family, I have been watching my grandson.  His constant chatter, his unwavering trust, his energy, his enthusiasm – ah, youth.  That empty canvas awaiting life to make its strokes – long, short, jagged, sweeping- onto the frame that will become our life-long perspective.…

Finally feeling better, yay!

I don’t really need fussing over when I’m sick.  In fact, I prefer to be left alone for the most part.  But it would be nice to have a flower, or some soup made, or something.  I worked all week even though I was sick.  At least in my job, I can work from home…

“The Nominees Are…” and other random flocculate

I have no idea where some words come from and enter my stream of consciousness, thereby leaping from cellular thought point into usage.  Actually, the word that came to mind as I was standing at the kitchen sink making a cuppa joe was ‘floccula’ – about which I mused if that would be flocculae (nope,…

Reviewing the year and looking forward

As I have matured (don’t laugh, just…dont!), I try to reflect on a regular basis, examining events and thoughts, trying to gain more insight into things and to make wiser choices when new ones come along. Since 2009 when my husband died, I’ve had some rough times – but also some good times.  Friendships have…

Trust.

It is a small word, trust.  Unobtrusive, rather plain.   But it is so important, so vital, to all relationships, be they family, friend or partner. Due to some childhood traumas, by all intents and purposes I should be distrustful.  Instead, I trust with wild abandon.  I give everyone the option to prove me wrong.…

It’s Complicated

Have you noticed lately how complicated life has become?   I’ve been giving this a lot of thought recently.  From my perspective, it is a confluence of multiple factors that is sucking the life out of people and complicating their thoughts,  leading to a pervasive malaise which hangs like a gossamer  curtain over our  consciousness.…