A Gift

Lovely, soft and warm
Touch the fuzzy head
Feel the wonder.

Count the moments,
Savor the whole.
Watch the stretching,
Growing strength.

All the premieres,
All the aches
Mini or major
They are pains for all.

All still tell the tales,
The softness still exists.
Now it emanates from
The heart, the soul

That.is.the.very.best.gift.

Squinchy, Tasty Words

I’m slow in making decisions. I’m not afraid to make them, I simply just like to mull over all ways they might affect life. One of my friends say I tend to over analyze things, and she’s probably right, but I love the let them roll around like a lovely word to feel the way it moves and feels in my mouth. Yup, I word crazy too.

If you can taste food, you can taste a word. It can taste sweet or sour…or feel prickly, or smooth. Let me give an example. Take a word that sounds good to you – for me that might be a word that tantalizes the mind and the tongue. It might be a word like bamboozle or extraordinary. It’s not only that they can have a rhythm, but my tongue actually tingles with an excitement to find ways to use them. New words I’ve learned have a grand way of exciting my mind and take me to a place where those words stand alone like buildings in some huge elongated city.

Words can sometimes have faces, and smiles - and even personalities too! They can take you on imaginary journeys that roll down a huge chain and rail hill, or deep within a faeirie’s mind. They can stand alone simply by saying them out loud or slowly, or with different kind of cadence that marches around the room. The most wonderful way words creates a specific flavor for me is through poetry. There the words can create an image and a taste.

One such poem that really makes my mouth water is an easy one to taste by Galway Kinnell called

Blackberry Eating.

I love the squinch and picture of those icy, black blackberries that he invokes with each line. If you listen, and close your eyes you can begin to almost taste those magnificent berries.

What words can create memories for us, or can vividly take us to a place both real and imaginary? Some come in the form of a well told story, when words fall off the page and become cities and houses and people. A good writer can take us somewhere we’ve never been, and create a village or home that we can experience to the point of reaching through that created reality to touch the cheek of an elf or mediaeval farmer in the warmth of a newly plowed spring field.

That is why words – or a simple turn of a phrase can create worlds, and all manner of creatures to haunt my thoughts daily. Tomorrow I may be off to ancient Britain or into the unknown future. I may find myself standing next to Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street as the mists of a London evening cloak the world and I must be bundled against that damp, cold story.

You know, I really love the journeys that words can create, and the paths they can take me down. They are my flying ships of dreams and imaginings that can give a scrumptious and quite satisfying meal for my imagination when life needs a little push to make it enjoyable.

Memories of Winter Days

Winter for kids means excitement, sledding and sometimes snow days. I can remember when my boys were young and the screaming excitement that always came with that first snowfall. Down the stairs they tumble yelling at each other and me. “Where are my snow pants?” or, “Is breakfast ready? We need to get to the hill!” Like a bunch of excited puppies falling over everything in their path they exploded through the halls and kitchen of our small house hitting every wall and always pushing, shoving, and knocking over anything in their path to the back door.

I remember those days when ever we get snow and over my morning coffee rerun those days each year with a smile. Their hill was a snow pile in the parking lot of the senior housing next door and they wore it down quickly – until the next snow fall.

Memories pile up these days. My youngest always said that snow was his favorite toy in winter. Today it makes for my favorite thoughts of winter.

Come Let Us Reason - Together?

What does it mean to reason together?
In this age of angry politicians and angry religionist
There is only argument and division.
Have we lost the sense of reasoning?
Reasoning is discussing
With no resolution
And creating and using power filled ideas -
But coming away as brothers and sisters still.
Instead of simply right,
And wrong.

A Sad Goodbye

Today, was an extremely difficult day to celebrate. But celebrate we all did..those of us who knew my good friend who died last week Thursday. She died with no warning signs and quickly. She simply sat down on her couch, and was gone. We'd all known she had physical problems, so we probably should have expected something, but we did not.

So today, her family and friends gathered and shared memories, many of them fun ones. It was good to smile, laugh and yes, even cry. So I am saying goodbye to Dora, my friend.

Winter is a Thoughtful Season

Winter has returned after days of 50 degree weather here in the North country. We have about 2 inches of a slushy snow and temps are dropping. Isn't it funny how the weather affects people? For me winter means a time of solitude and thought, and enjoying the total change it brings in my yard.

I love watching the foot prints in the snow of our area critters because it gives an idea of what we have in the area. I see the plodding tracks of a large racoon, bunnies, squirrels and the occasional cat. This time of the year I see the leftovers of our local hawks as well. They are also wonderful to watch in the sky circling their territorial areas. We even have a small flying squirrel nesting in one of our trees that if I stay up late enough I can enjoy at one of the many bird feeders in our yard.

This off season for me is also a time to order seeds and prepare for spring in my garden. I have new flowers every year with the many annuals I plant, but also look forward to those that push through the earth every spring.

The garden is a place I enjoy all year long because even in winter I have birds using my trellis' and bushes around the garden as hidding places. My dogs love to jump in the middle of the holly bushes to send the birds exploding in every direct every time they are in the yard. They sniff through the lilacs and butterfly bushes in search of fun since neither are hunters.

I enjoy the winter because it is a time for thoughts with out the hurry to get out and weed or care for the garden. It's where I meditate and find peace even in this the coldest time of year.

Who Are You?

Anyone here watch "Monk?" Monk is a phobia riddled character who brilliantly solves murders on TV. Well, the ideas of phobias probably seem silly to many... until or unless you're experienced a panic attack. Some have only experienced a few attacks, but if you know the fear, you know it isn't faked. Now the medical society say it is a brain dysfunction, something that is a diagnosable problem. For me it is terrible the way a person who is the least bit different is put outside of life and social interaction and sometimes the subject of ridicule. It comes from fear, a fear of someone who is different and might make us look badly in front of others.

Being different is often something people hide instead of celebrate because many have been teased or ridiculed and feel so different that they’re frightened to be who they are. So who are you when no one is looking?

I am
Me.
Allow me to celebrate
The gifts I’ve been given,
Even if you might
Not understand all
Of who
I
Am.