Category: Posts

  • I BROUGHT ME ALONG, IS THAT OK?

    I BROUGHT ME ALONG, IS THAT OK?

    = = = = =

    = = = = =

  • The Life Dailies

    The Life Dailies

  • Letting & Not Letting

    Letting & Not Letting

    LETTING GO

    There is a lawful order to letting go. Still, that law can be less punishing than the active suffering caused by holding on. It depends upon how much power & influence on us that the subject/object of the exercise may have, in all pluralities.

    There’s a time in experience for many humans when the only key on the ring is the car fob. Things go worldwide when you’re down to that alone.

    We outgrow our lives & our licensing. I’ve re-enrolled among New Mexico drivers. Florida wants the license plate back. I am “surrendering” my Florida license. That was an expensive rental, folks! When I think of the hours, the sweat, the money poured into licensing – now I’d need to be licensed as a food server here if I chose that field. Generally, I like to keep the paper licenses – they’re already nicely framed & scrolly-decorative; they have gold seals on them, or the signatures of others who were in charge in the moment. Important signatures that allowed me to work in that world.

    And I can always donate the frames somewhere in the future. Think of all the photos that were in the hundreds of frames in one thrift alone!

    At ¾ through this self-directed life, I will say if I had to do a Yelp review on myself, I’d recommend the writing talent, some of my better recipes & the yearning to continue to try to live a good life. Then I think it might peter out towards the end. Like this blog does.

    I used to mock seniors in my own mind for their slow responses & even slower reaction time. True understanding occurs when age is a reality & not a perception. If nothing else, seniors have learned to allow for some thinking time & space! All are much-needed in our Microwave Society.

    I am slip-sliding along & the slope slants unexpectedly. Fortunately, there are some handrails – if you qualify & are not so arthritic of digits you can still grab & hold. I know I prefer to watch my feet more than grab, but you won’t find me on a stairway without a hand attached to something, or splayed on the wall to slow gravity’s inexorability.

    People prefer conditional love. They perceive even Love needs a boundary, a containment, a confinement. If it diffuses too far, involving a whole Universe or Galaxy, it seems too spread out to be effective. Which is not actually true, but which is difficult to convey to so many.

    Our largest lessons always incorporate letting go. It should be obvious: we need our hands to live in the now, our feet to be in the present & the rest of us somewhere in between. I always have to put something down to pick up something else! Even to get into the backpack for storage…

    NOT LETTING GO – a/k/a Cowlicks Are Forever.

    I’ve set aside several suits of armor worn in this life. There’s a pile under the coats for the party in the second bedroom, matter of fact. I was a work-warrior except when I was not. I pushed thru closed doors to get somewhere else with lots of impunity. If someone shut a door on me, they’d better know what they’re doing!

    My changes have involved more sarcasm than reality but doing ok for all that. The young have many advantages. The old just have insurance & some of that is pretty much expired.

    There’s room for all of it is what I know. If I take down the diplomas, I just have to put something up in the space & I’m not sure I’ve got much that can go up on a wall anymore.

  • DEVOLUTION

    DEVOLUTION

    At every age are we premium,

    Prime,

    Precious; at some, we are more so

    Of one or the other.

    In an artificial world, not of our own making

    We touch the greenery differently

    Our photos are flower faces & endings

    The poems are Haiku pulsed & poised like spears in a thrower’s hand.

    And we proceed as if we know what is going on!

    Had I been paying closer attention, I might have flicked my hand into the Voice Tree for a quick steal on the way through the pearly gates coming back here. I would have liked to be able to sing. We (us) weren’t allowed to carry much. It had to fit in a pretty small container. The (They) did spot inspections – they had their reasons. We (Us) didn’t ask too many questions.  It was always better that way.

    Few of us (we) understood the reasoning. We (us) were told it was complicated, convoluted, that there are better ways & if we continue to study, these will be made manifest in time. We were intoxicated by that “something shiny” effect & followed faithfully until we didn’t any longer. The button just plumb wore out. That day, we (us) usually marched in linked elbow-to-elbow with common sense. And when they (them) sat down at the table, after helping selves to coffee, we (us) knew everything would change. There wasn’t much left after pulling up a chair to hear what they (them) had to say. Half the time we (us) didn’t even listen,

    We (us) always made it on time. Too many raised voices did lend a lot of dissonance, but mostly we (us) were able to calm them (they) down. In about the time it took to brew a cup of coffee, actually.

    They (them) always had a few promises cooked to the bottom of the pot – tossed in every single time so they burned a signature in the Teflon. We (us) felt we were starting fresh, so we didn’t really look hard. Sometimes we started while it was still dark out. We (us) didn’t really care, young enough to eat anything & not suffer. It was not until later that we learned to Care.

    Somewhere that pass-through that says, “If Mama ain’t happy, nobody is!” got stuck to me & I stuck to that for years. It wore off after awhile. But not before I wore out those who thought they could love me. I flamed them. I got through all the drama, pulled my A’s off the big board to put them in my scrapbooks. Going home, I put them away & ate some potato chips.

    I guess I thought I could make it through unscarred. I have read every mark on the body is the sign of a wound in another life. If that’s the case, I’ve been through enough to understand why the sags & stars vie for attention. I pay no mind to any of them now; I watch for fresh ones curiously. Means I lived long enough in another life to get pick up one more in here/now.

    I can’t imagine what’ll be left at the end. I’ll hook into that energy body & boost right out of all of this. Someone’ll be waving, “Hey, left your purse!”

  • Other Septembers

    Other Septembers

  • Feeling like a cork

    Feeling like a cork

  • Greetings T-or-C

    Greetings T-or-C

  • June 24, 2026

    June 24, 2026

    = = = = =

  • THE CHICKEN WHISPERER

    THE CHICKEN WHISPERER

    My friend Alice (a woman whom I greatly admire & who once mail-ordered a box of bees which arrived with the queen scotch-taped on the box bottom) was out of town at the same time as her husband. She elected me to care for her 9 chickens & 4 cats. (In some momentary lapse of reason, I thought the cats would be of help. What? From what fresh hell did that notion spring? The cats were in it for the Temptation treats alone. I had thought better of cats. but no more!)

    I know chickens like I know the footnotes to Atomic Science, Volume 4, which is to say a vast area of nothing stretches black where that knowledge should be.

    My first a.m. chicken care routine was  a splice of Marx Brothers Meets the Chicken Song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msSc7Mv0QHY) vs. King Kong. I’ll give you one guess as to who got to be King Kong.

    The cute little red & white water container wasn’t properly latched, so when I upended it after filling, the bottom fell off & the water poured out down my legs to soak my Hey, Dudes! (Which have become HeyChicken! shoes, complete with all natural manure trim.) Muttering, I put the hose nozzle into the cylinder a second time, & this is where Atomic Science 1 kicked in, as the water spouted right around the cylinder up onto my glasses. And shirt. And whatever else was dry. So much for the coffee shop visit I had planned for the way home.

    My neighbors are now closing their doors when they see me approaching with egg cartons.

    As all things become, this has been a Learn Lesson for me. E.g.,

    • chickens do not come on command or cajolery;
    • chickens can run very fast despite their shape & the fact they tip pretty far forward at full speed;
    • There really is a “pecking order” & one does not want to be at its bottom; ever.
    • if they don’t know you, it’s harder to get them into the coop for the night as they can dash for the door & angle right past it even as you smile in triumph;
    • if one delays & you attempt to strategically open the door to scoop it in as it passes in front, the other eight will zip outside & you get to start all over again.

    So many fun facts to learn on the fly! So many ways to test the fairly new vow to stop cussing out loud!

    One large orange hen whom I named “Trumpette,” quickly perceived my King Kong persona as she wandered aimlessly away from the coop door each night. With a piercing “squawk,” she ran, dodged, held a side-eye on me, carefully positioning herself behind a spiky green cactus. She believed she could escape Monster-Me by camouflaging her orange self behind a green plant, whilst standing out like a grilled cheese on the barbie. I keep telling her, “you’re orange” but this had no effect. She took being chased quite personally, vocalizing “UMBRAGE!” as I attempt to guide/chaperone/direct/conduct/startle her, into running for the coop door. We had several conversations in chicken & I think she got personal in more than one of them. After ten minutes of this choreography each night, she would slip thru the door while I stood like Paco Pedro, sans red cape, awaiting the moment to usher her in.

    Last night I waited until almost dark to go. The wind had zoomed up to slamming doors, pinning gates & tipping cacti before I went. I pictured feathered beachballs in the hen-pen blown about in gusty slaps & taking refuge in the coop. In the typical way of chickens; however, only Trumpette was on the perch while the others ran right at me on arrival.  

    Don’t tell Alice, but I’ve been using the popcorn treat as a come-on, tossing a handful in the coop to get them inside. By the way, they prefer real movie popcorn to the Dollar Store version of the same name. I hope this fact helps you out one day.

  • Fewer Lies

    Fewer Lies