River Run

The title may be a tad misleading… There is a river, but no one’s running 🤣I do ride my bike beside the Colorado, though. As our camping group breaks apart bit by bit, the pace slows considerably. As folks move on, more arrive. Sometimes we have visitors for a few hours and then they mosey…

Sleeping Under the Stars

I finally fulfilled one of my dreams out here, to sleep in the open, under the stars. It’s something I’d only do in a safe place. Last night I visited my original camp for a potluck, but I was packed to the gills for a camp move. Seemed like the perfect place to try it…

Impressions of Life

I came out to the PAR TR for a weekend of fun, to shuck off a couple of difficult weeks and to just relax. What I’ve experienced turned out to be much more. In a world that grows more expansive each day via the Internet, people seem to be growing more isolated and lost feeling;…

Pack and Play

After almost two weeks of talking mainly to myself, plants, and inanimate objects, I need some socialization. Yes, an introvert just wrote that sentence. I too, am surprised. I’ve figured out that introversion is how I process the information I take in over time, but it doesn’t really define my personality type, now that my…

Life is hard

The wonderful thing about Google photos is that it sends you reminders of where you were x years ago and what you were doing. Well, sometimes it’s wonderful; other times, painful. Today it reminded me of where I was five years ago. I was camping, alone, down in Florida, under another full moon. I hiked…

“I’m all alone, with no one beside me..”(Donkey in Shrek)

And so it goes! After traversing Arizona moving south and westward, I finally arrived at the RVing Nirvana known as Quartzsite, or “Q”, as one mountainside proclaims visually. I had seen a video or three on this place. Seemed cool enough. However, after having the freedom of truly boondocking, this is just a leetle different…

Looking back over my shoulder with one eye ahead 2016 – 2017

“They” say this is the time of the year to reflect on your yearly posts.  Ach. Hit and/or miss. So many left in drafts because they were written late at night after work ended and there didn’t seem to be much ‘me’ in them; or maybe, too much of me in them. I look at…

I.C.U.

I need to see her face. She is pale and breathing fast. Darkness colors the hollows under her eyes; not purple, not brown, but some muddy, delicate mix of the two, not unlike some smudged color you would see touted in a new fall palette on sale at Ulta. On the forty minute drive north…

HeartWalkin’ With the Little Guy

So me and the little guy are going to do the HeartWalk this year.   I’d appreciate it if you’d take a peek at the link and donate if you’re inclined.  Small amounts are welcomed just as much as big ones 🙂 Donation Link I’ve never been good at this kind of thing, unless there…

Last Grasping of Solitude

For almost seven years of widowhood, I have lived in solitude, with the exception of a one year stint with a co-worker roommate. She opened her home to me for a pittance while I was struggling to get back on my feet upon returning to work and I will always be grateful. I am comfortable…

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…

Sacrifice?

What does that word really mean?  The technical meaning is to slaughter an animal, or to offer a person or possession to the Almighty.  Yet I have heard that word related to what I am about to embark upon; the taking on of a six-year-old boy to raise for a while, to help untangle a…

Memorabilicus – or The Umbilicus of Memory Found in Objects

Catchy and academic-sounding title eh? My brain works weirdly in sleep deprivation mode. I also love to make up words that have meaning probably only to me. Last night was a late night (morning) working as the next in line is out for medical assistance for his partner. That left me in charge of herding…

Grandsons, tumbles and trail names

Yesterday was a rare treat, a double-header with two of my daughters and my four grandsons, plus helping the third daughter watch shop by text 🙂  It was also a two restaurant meal day for me, which is exceedingly unusual. In the midst of my ‘fake hiking & camping’ fun I had a birthday luncheon…

Floundering for Words

I always have words.  Words to write, words to say when given a chance.  And I am full of them now too – well, thoughts actually would be more accurate. What does one write on a death anniversary, when writing is simply what one does? Does it make others uncomfortable? I don’t know too many…

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…

Cloudburst

Some days you have retrograde reflections, instead of retrograde amnesia.  Small insights of what things were back some other time.  We always think of what it is like to live with another, knowing their thoughts, their faults, habits good and bad.  Rarely do we look at what it is like to live with us; how it…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Dear Laptop, let me count the ways…

Writing has been a part of me for a very long time, but for most of my life it was a private thing. It is how I deal with things, process them, make sense of them.  It is also the place where I am most vulnerable, for there is nothing to hide under in words,…

Stone Cold?

In the not too distant past, a male friend remarked that I am ‘emotionally cold.’  Another said “You are a self-contained package, needing nothing, from all appearances.”  Am I, I wondered? It isn’t the first time that I’ve heard those words; they echo a sentiment my late husband once struck me with during a heartfelt…

Discovery

There is nothing quite so heady and energizing as the time of discovering a new person, learning what makes them the unique individual that they are.  Some people are torrents, filling in all of the rich details in an open, exciting rush – emotional Instagrams if you will.  Others let themselves develop their  emotional shading…

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…

Beauty and the beast

  This has been a tough week for me.  Thankfully, although I live in the city for now, I still have places that I can feast my eyes on woods, water, wildlife and other things that bring me peace.  I miss the quiet of the woodlands, the really dark nights, the opportunity to have a…

Vulnerability, or staying soft in a hardened world

Vulnerability – Susceptible to emotional or physical injury or harm. Hm. Since the world thought pattern really centers around defense, this seems counter-intuitive, doesn’t it, to practice or embrace vulnerability?  Emotional vulnerability is required though, for deep intimate relationships to form. This thought has been on my mind since someone posted about not realizing how…

The inner workings of the psyche (or how I while away my time)

I adore studying how the mind, body and personality work. Especially when there is so much information these days online. Today after chores were done I spent some time futzing around on the MBTI-type forums and found a very interesting place to read stuff. Have I mentioned how much I like to read? I also…

Relationships and the Cultural Hobbling of the Concept of Love

Someone brought up the term relationship this weekend, ferreting around for a definition in this new day and age where there are no real rules or roles like there used to be.  I’ve qualified my own ‘thing’ as a relationship, and then wondered if that was truly an accurate representation.  As I often do with…