Posted in inspiration, tagged acceptance, anger, Benjamin Franklin quote, choice, encouragement, experience, inspiration, metaphor, misguided goals, nature, pain, perspective, positive attitudes on November 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Wish not so much to live long as to live well. Benjamin Franklin How good it would be to live without pain, to live without anger or foe, to languish in riches, frolic in health, and miss every effort to grow. ***
I look at my blog for this week and want to add more, tell stories. The tales move with rocks, twigs, and drop-offs along the way. Each tale has a slightly different shape and edge. It belongs to the course. Maybe someday I will understand how.
Posted in inspiration, tagged choice, gratitude, J. B. Priestley quote, loss, perspective, travel, Walmart Automotive on September 19, 2021| 1 Comment »
Much of writing might be described as mental pregnancy with successive difficult deliveries. (J.B. Priestley, author)
My keys are missing. The entire ring. It could be smashed on the expressway or recovered by a bird searching for shiny objects. I don’t worry. I panic. The keys could be anywhere in five states. As far away as eight-hundred miles. My husband did all the driving. My car sleeps in front of our house.
In the meantime, I breathe. Slowly in and out. It takes time to lose the difficult moments and embrace both my sense of humor and the many beautiful memories that swim through my mind. The picture taken in the Poconos is one of many examples.
The last load of wash is in the dryer. My older son calls and tells me I don’t need to go to the dealer to get a car key replacement. Walmart automotive has more reasonable prices.
Gratitude. It fits. I hope mama crow uses our house key as a worm plate for her newly hatched chick.
Loss. May it create room for blessings. Room for words that celebrate those blessings.
Posted in inspiration, tagged acceptance, cancer, choice, G.K. Chesterton quote, inspiration, perspective, positive attitudes on August 21, 2021| 2 Comments »
There's a lot of difference between listening and hearing. (G. K. Chesterton)
As I drive, rain splatters on my car windshield. Fresh fat circles followed by long and hard streaks. I remember an old saying from my childhood, Run between the drops. Never a realistic expectation. More a fantasy notion.
I want to dry rain and tears, to change the diagnosis a friend recently heard. Cancer. And not an early stage. I want to run between the drops and take people who need healing with me.
A raincoat is the best tool for now. Live through all that happens. My friend’s laundry is in the spin cycle now. Clean wash soon to be dried. I will do what I can. And wait for the sun to shine again. It always does.
Posted in inspiration, tagged acceptance, choice, experience, inspiration, Jonathan Swift quote, perspective, poem, positive attitudes, sight vs vision on August 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. (Jonathan Swift)
Flashlight
She stirs artificial sweetener into her coffee
as my husband shares one oldie recording after another.
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane,
The Supremes. The 1960’s scene.
Folk artists. One-time hits. I listen.
And watch as my friend moves her head
with the drumbeat. She is blind. She won’t look
for bookshelf dust or carpet lint. We welcome
few guests during pandemic time. She celebrates
learned pathways through my house and moves
between our couch and dining room table.
We share places where disability dissolves.
Or so I imagine until she reaches for coffee
and touches another cylindrical object instead.
“What is this?” I answer, “flashlight,”
as if she knew about the object the way
she understands the feel of our leather couch,
the last Elvis Presley song, or a groaner-pun.
“Oh,” she answers. Yet, I don’t see the un-seeable
until I return the artificial light to a desk drawer.
She would fathom flash-light
the way any sighted person grasps a concept like infinity.
I have a lot to learn about my friend’s life.
I am grateful she is willing to teach me.
published in For A Better World 2021
Posted in inspiration, tagged green thumb, guilt, Jack Kerouac quote, over-commitment, persistence, perspective, plant ignorance, positive attitudes, simplicity on August 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »
One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. (Jack Kerouac)
I hate to admit it. My thumb isn’t green. Gangrene? More like it. I have destroyed succulents. Never on purpose. My everyday world is too crowded. I never finish enough tasks to remember plant care.
Simplicity. My goal on more than one level.
A super-special person gave me this plant. In time it gave up. Too much water one day and then none for weeks. I placed the pot on the front porch. The leaves remained a sad, dull brown despite sun and rain.
I declared it dead, but it missed garbage day. Twice. My best excuse is guilt. I felt as if I had ignored the goodness of the giver. Then, one day I saw a dry, weak green appear on one side. Nah! A fresh sprout would be a miracle. I didn’t deserve one. However, the flower was worthy. I let the green fight through.
Now, bright-pink springs through our old blue railing. Life, one word.
Persistent and beautiful.
Posted in inspiration, tagged choice, humor, Mahatma Ghandi quote, perspective, poem, simplicity on June 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Happiness is when what you say, what you think, and what you do are in harmony. (Mahatma Ghandi)
No, I don’t wear makeup. It doesn’t hide anything that isn’t superficial. During play, my granddaughter acted as my new beautician. Since the mascara was probably bought sometime during the Reagan era, I washed my face as soon as possible and then discarded the contents of the old makeup bag.
However, I saved this poem, written and published in Dream Weaver Magazine in January of 1998.
Sonnet by a Mature Woman New wrinkle creams entice from glossy ads with svelte, young anorexics smiling out at both my chins, at skin too old for fads. Bold claims portrayed in color, dull my doubt. Be young. Be free. Deny the lines of time. The agony of blemish, breasts that sag must never mar a body fit to climb perfection’s route, nor risk cosmetic snag. And yet my husband sees each bulge and flaw with eyes that know the gain and loss of years we’ve shared: the new and old, the fresh and raw of yesterdays with struggles, joys, and fears. We see within each other love held deep. Compared to banal wisdom, beauty’s cheap.
Posted in inspiration, tagged geese behavior, humor, perspective, poem, sarcasm, W.C. Fields quote on June 5, 2021| 1 Comment »
It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to. W.C. Fields
GOOSELY TRANSLATED
Two Canada geese
settle into an angled parking space
in a Wal-Mart lot.
They take turns
sharing shreds of bun
left in a torn red McDonald’s box.
One goose eats.
The other stands and watches.
They protect one another.
A car honks.
The blast interrupts their feast.
Harsh and threatening
human voices call to the birds
as they flee.
The geese answer
from their aerial perspective.
I interpret their comeback
into English.
Excellent volume.
Lacks style.
Illustration created from a clipart drawing, pastels, and colored paper
Posted in inspiration, tagged 1950's parenting, childhood mishaps, George Eliot quote, memories, perspective, positive thinking, strict childhood on February 23, 2021| 2 Comments »
It is never too late to be who you might have been. (George Eliot)
In my little-kid mind, perfect was how everyone started out. Everything fit a neat category called a rule or commandment. Unfortunately, rules declared their boundaries after they were crossed.
“Be back in a minute. I have to pee,” I said one ordinary day after I learned the new word from a friend. We referred to the body function as tinkling. Mom’s screaming sounded as desperate as it had when I built a fire in the basement. I was five on that unfortunate day. My brothers and I had wanted to play campfire. I had found logs and planned to put the fire out. Eventually.
Everyday bathroom trips didn’t seem as awful as burning the house down.
As Mom yelled, I discovered her disdain centered around a crude difference in terminology. Nevertheless, I understood that both tinkle and pee had the same smell. I was wise enough not to argue the point.
Sure. Someday I would become an adult. The way a caterpillar morphs into a butterfly. As a six-or-seven-year-old kid, I suspected a rock could turn into a cloud before my heart and body had the slightest notion about adulthood.
Fortunately, I did grow up. But not in the straight-line, foolproof increments Mom expected. She did her best. I did too. Most of the time.
And I learned that growing up doesn’t need to be completed at a certain age. Finished adulthood sounds both static and boring. In fact, the longer I understand what it is like to be a child, the better I feel about every part of being alive.
Peace and happy growing to everyone, even if you are in the septuagenarian range like I am. Or older.
Posted in inspiration, tagged blindness, memory, perspective, poem, Stevie Wonder quote, vision versus sight on December 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision. (Stevie Wonder)
I close my eyes and imagine
redwoods, orchids, open seas
as another scene sneaks inside
my skull. A friend with a white cane.
****
I recall an afternoon as I ask,
“How do you remember
so many phone numbers?”
She shrugs. Instead, she says,
****
“See, my cane tells me where the
step begins.” Laughing, she grabs my arm.
“Next time. I’ll drive.” Yet, I know
she has never seen clouds, a half or full moon.
****
She knows words like red, yellow, orange.
Does she understand color the way
I comprehend infinity?
“What time should I take you
****
to the store next week?” I ask.
She answers. Gratitude wrinkles
a smile through her mask.
“See you on Tuesday,” I say.
****
See? I think.
I’m working on it.
I open my eyes,
perhaps a tad wider.
Posted in positive thinking, tagged acceptance, choice, experience, G, gratitude, inspiration, K. Chesterton quote, listening, perspective on September 22, 2020| 1 Comment »
acrylic painting I made recently based upon a photo of a birch in Acadia Park in Maine
There’s a lot of difference between listening and hearing. (
The scene is a circle of young women. In the distant past. I am among the women as I admit I am close to despair.
“Look at the beauty of the trees in the yard,” one member advises. She spreads her arms as if she were Mother Nature enjoying her handiwork.
The scene she describes doesn’t lift me. I feel censured for embracing a less-than-perfect place. And the blue rug where I sit opens. Or at least it seems to open. I fall through. Hidden inside.
Later. Much later. I realize I couldn’t accept the glory because it wasn’t mine. It belonged to someone else. I’d been given a simple answer to a complex situation. An accepting nod would have been better.
Strange. I understand this after my ears needed amplification to catch the most uncomplicated conversation.
It is also strange that I am grateful for the depths because now I can recognize a natural gem and celebrate its worth.
The news advertises fear. With or without facts depending upon the source. A friend calls about her confusion. I don’t have answers. I listen…
terrypetersen 