Taking Time to Smell the Roses

...something we should all do more of!

Disneyland!

Confessions

(And, check out Ren.Kat at sidestepping real, who has confessed that she....)

The rules come first:

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.

2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their 8 things and post these rules.

3. List 8 people you choose to tag.

4. Leave them a comment telling them they're tagged and to read your blog.



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1. Like ren.kat, every time I go to a live performance the old thespian in me wants to leap up on the stage and join them. And when the show is over, I always go away with this ache in the pit of my stomach, a hole, a void. But it's not as bad as it used to be.

2. I have been, among other things, a nun (twice) and a stripper. :D

3. I need glasses to read.

4. I eat when I am bored. Or sad. Or happy. It doesn't even have to taste good. Old soda crackers. Cold spaghetti. That sort of thing.

5. Let's see....I have almost as many shoes as Imelda. At least half of them I have not worn for a year or more. Some of them have no mate. (I went through them yesterday and I will get rid of many of them. I will.)

6. My closet is full of things I have not worn since 1979, that no longer fit. (I have a real phobia about keeping things I might need someday.)

7. I am not a willing housekeeper, and I am not a good cook (although I do enjoy eating!)

8. Ummm, I absolutely LOVE quantum physics (even tho' I can't understand most of what I read, I LOVE speculating about 16 dimensions and alternate universes and things existing in two (or more) places at once!)


And the 8 of y'all, with love:
Pris at Songs To A Midnight Sky
Maureen at Raven's Nest
Liz at be present, be here
Dana at sublimation
Chiefbiscuit at As It Happens
Turquoise Cro at Cro Stuff
Pam at Mind Trips
Rose at Live Laugh

(And Ren.Kat, people at the University of Wisconsin-MAdison have found a speck of a zircon crystal believed to be older than dirt, in fact, it is the oldest known piece of earth, at about 4.4 billion years old. So, to answer your question, this is it--the oldest thing ever. Besides me.)

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Wedding Anniversary!

So, it was 43 years ago yesterday, at this very place, where we said our "I will's." And I still will!

There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
...

--Leonard Cohen

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The Happiest Place on Earth

We're off to Disneyland tomorrow and will be gone for a week! See ya later, alligators!

Funny Little Bunyan!

...is wearing his pants on his head, and his shirt upside down! Do you think this is going to catch on here? A new fad???

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Baby Update

Please click it!

Labels People Have Given Me over the Years

I borrowed this idea from January, Choir-girl, Up and Comer, Democrat, Good-cooker, and Poet-Mom, and had fun doing it!

* * * *


Newborn*Girl*Baby*Daughter*Granddaughter*Sister*Niece*Cousin*
Mugwump*Blondie*Dice*Dicey*Joyce*
Joycie*Child*Skinny*Fat*Bashful*Shy*Quiet*Baby-Crazy*Student*Smart*
Latter-Day Saint*Mormon*Child of God*Desert Rat*Californian*Brownie* Girl Scout*Girlfriend*Loner*
*President of Art Club*Artist*Grand Prize Winner*Sweepstakes Winner*President of Drama Club*Graduate*Best Friend*Joycie-My-Joycie*Juice*Beatnik*Bohemian*Flower Child*Single*Passive*Agressive*Actress*New Girl*Not A Bulldog*Married*Newlywed*Mrs.*That Girl*That Lady*That Woman*Wife*Sister-in-Law*Daughter-in-Law*Joy*Poet*Author*Writer
*Cancer Victim*Patient*Survivor*Neighbor*Book Award Winner*American*Democrat*Protester*Activist*Pacifist*Telephone Operator
*Lens Polisher*Waitress*Usher*Telemarketer*Teacher*Poet of the Year*Renter*Homeowner*Pet Owner*Animal Lover*Credit Card Holder*Sis*Aunt Joyce *Editor*Moviegoer*Right-Brained*Reader*Utahn*Mother*Mama*Soccer Mom*Pedestrian*Pianist*Mother-in-Law*Grandmother*Gramma*Big Apple*Gram Cracker*Librarian*Retired*Vacationer*Senior Citizen*Spacey*
*Blogger*Contributer*Pepek the Assassin.

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PT: Rivers

This poem is an old one, the first in a seven-poem series I was commissioned by BYU to write for an International Horn Festival. The fellow commissioned to write the music never finished, so it was never performed. But I got paid, just the same!

The Dreamers


The Great Bear slumbers
In a cave of stars,
The Little Bear, Aries the Ram.

The wind is a still sea.
The horned owl hangs
In chill air, feathers scarcely stirring.
He floats like a swimmer
Above the white bones of jackrabbits,
Over the winter burrows of field mice.

The mountains breathe
In the dark--a sleeping breath
Of hawk and fox,
Of wildcat and beaver.
The river is bleak, the shallows are ice.

Under the hill,
In a cave of granite and quartz-crystal
The black bear sleeps,
Keeps sleeping,
Patiently entombed in his deep
Burial vault.

Let him sleep. Let them all sleep.
Let them savor the brown earth-smell
Of their dreams.
Let them cling to the dim runes
Of dreams.
Let them range far, light-years distant.
Let them dream of spring,
Of moving water, of light,
Of the beautiful sons and daughters
Of air-dwellers and river-drifters
And cave-slumberers.
Let them dream.

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It's All in the Tongue....

Isaac's trying out for the Gene Simmons spot in a KISS Tribute band! (Click it!)



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PT: A Conversation Overheard

OVERHEARD ON A SALT MARSH


Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?

Green glass, goblin. Why do you stare at them?

Give them me.

No.

Give them me. Give them me.

No.

Then I will howl all night in the reeds. Lie in the mud and howl for them.

Goblin, why do you love them so?

They are better than stars or water,
Better than voices of winds that sing,
Better than any man's fair daughter,
Your green glass beads on a silver string.

Hush, I stole them out of the moon.

Give me your beads. I desire them.

No.

I will howl in a deep lagoon for your green glass beads. I love them so. Give them me. Give them me.

No.


--Harold Monro

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Day of Grace

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

--Cecil Frances Alexander



This beautiful image was made by our friend Maureen at Raven's Nest, the most talented, inspired and insightful artist and photographer I've seen.

Click to better see it in wonderful detail.
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Halfwing

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

--Matthew 10:29,30

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WOO HOO!

My little STARFISH is having his first piano recital this afternoon! Congratulations, KI, good work!

(Update: He did a great job, playing Fuzzy Baby Bird. I was happily surprised to find BOOKWORM was also performing in this recital, with a piece called Ancient Lantern. She did well, and I whistled and shouted and clapped loudly for both of them, as a grandma should.

Strangely, when I got home, there was a real fuzzy baby bird on my back doorstep--something (cat?) had torn off half of his little wing. I put antibiotic on his wounds and made him a nest, and tried to get him to eat a little hamburger worm (but he refused. Tried a little bread and milk, also refused.) So I'll just let him rest. I held him keeping him warm for 2 or 3 hours, then put him in his nest. He probably won't make it through the night, but I tried. He is still pretty fuzzy, with some new feathers...if he lives, I'll call him Halfwing. If he dies, I'll still call him Halfwing).

PT: Another Kind of Remourse ;D

Last week I said my own regrets. This week I'll tell you Edna St. Vincent Millay's: hers is way better!


The Penitent

I had a little Sorrow,
Born of a little Sin,
I found a room all damp with gloom
And shut us all within;
And, "Little Sorrow, weep." said I,
"And Little Sin, pray God to die,
And I upon the floor will lie
And think how bad I've been!"

Alas for pious planning--
It mattered not a whit!
As far as gloom went in that room,
The lamp might have been lit!
My little Sorrow would not weep,
My little Sin would go to sleep--
To save my soul I could not keep
My graceless mind on it!

So up I got in anger,
And took a book I had,
And put a ribbon in my hair
To please a passing lad,
And, "One thing there's no getting by--
I've been a wicked girl," said I;
"But if I can't be sorry, why,
I might as well be glad!"



"Poet. Playwright. Actress. Lover. Pulitzer Winner. Breadwinner. Jazz Age Heroine. Sexual Revolutionary. Wife. Daughter. Drinker. Pacifist. Activist. Celebrated. Villified. Beloved. Notorious. Remembered. Forgotten? Not if she has anything to say about it!" (From the THEATERMANIA show at Collective:Unconscious, First Fig Productions "Edna St, Vincent Millay Speaks to the Committee on Immortality.")

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

...and many more.... :D

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

PT: Kick-Start

THE PENITENT

"Sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within."

--Galway Kinnell, "St. Francis and the Sow"


You bring your problems down upon yourself
free in their error, full of
your own hot air
raising the great gas balloon of you
upward, every time you open your mouth

unstopped by any loving hand
that would tether you to ground
to earth, the greatest good, to sorrow

you don't understand this: things
are not always as they seem
you have to get out of your own way
suddenly you forget yourself you're grateful
for their affection

for keeping you
with all your strings, grounded
infinitely loved, forgiven

then, like a child, innocent
you let it go, because
these are the very hands you trust
you know you can trust, the hands
consecrated to the work
of keeping you safe
and bringing you home


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Thinking Bloggers!

I was recently nominated (WooHoo! First time!) for a Thinking Blogger Award, by Desert Rat, my good NaNo buddy and poet friend at celticharper.com ...Thankyouthankyouthankyou, DR. Now, here are five blogs that make me think:

newdharmabums.blogspot.com -- to roger and robin andrea for caring about the earth and its creatures, for their sharing of wildlife, and receipes, and their knowledge of the Good Life.

Maureen, at ravengrrl.blogspot.com --for both of her blogs: her photo blog, Land of Little Rain, and for RAVEN'S NEST. Both are terrific. She wins the #1 Photographer blog in my book!

parisparfait.typepad.com -- gives wonderful and informative European tours of places I will never get to see in real time. I love traveling! Thanks for taking me along!

knownunknowns.blogspot.com keeps me current with his insightful and informative political and newsy posts. He's very smart and opinionated. Has a wealth of good links to offer!

jefflindsay.com --an "eclectic little site" of satire and spoof and serious writings on many topics. Contains some religious material, so may not be for everyone. This is called Cracked Planet on my sidebar. Has a great quote from William James on his sidebar: "A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices."


(So sorry I don't know how to link directly to these sites. Please check them out anyway! You'll be glad you did!)

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Congratulations Pixletwin, BFA!

Hugs and Kisses, we are proud of you!
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