Monthly Archives: January 2020

Jan31

small.

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she was in the checkout line just in front of me

something about her looked tired

like her shoes

world weary

her cart filled with simple things

beans, bread, eggs, milk, cans, pasta

and what looked to be a special treat

one small bright orange

maybe for someone little waiting at home

 when it was her turn

she paid

with what was left on her food card

 then tried a credit card

and still

didn’t have quite enough

 she looked back at me

with apologetic eyes

sorry for the trouble

 she fumbled in her purse

looked to see

what she could put back

not sure what to do

I heard the clerk tell her

that she needed

one dollar and seventy cents more

 my heart went out to her

not knowing her life

I said that I had that money

 I was happy to give it to the clerk

 she looked at me with shy eyes

nodded thank you

 carried her bags out

and I thought about

how that one small orange

would make such a difference

for someone special

  maybe

my small act

had made a difference

in her life too

 made it

a bit easier

just for a moment

and at that moment

I knew

there was absolutely

no finer way in the world

for me to have spent

just one dollar and seventy cents.

—

‘remember that the biggest thing you could do today is a small act of kindness.’

-cory booker

Jan27

out of stone.

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“i believe that one defines oneself by reinvention.

to not be like your parents.

to not be like your friends.

to be yourself.

to cut yourself out of stone.’

-henry rollins

 

 

 

—

credits: Chad Knight digital sculpture, right brained, wild child

Jan26

defendant.

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after making the decision

to challenge my traffic ticket

(I’m innocent, for the record)

my scheduled hearing

has been adjourned twice.

 in today’s mail

I received the new date

for my next potential hearing.

I had to laugh

when I picked up the new envelope

(for the third time now)

and it once again clearly read:

Defendant

just above my name

with the court address In the return corner

 I have to wonder

just what major crime

my mr. rogers sweet and friendly mailman

 thinks I may have committed?

‘we find the defendants incredibly guilty.’

– mel brooks

Jan24

beneath.

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Beneath The Sweater And The Skin

How many years of beauty do I have left?

she asks me.

How many more do you want?

Here. Here is 34. Here is 50.

When you are 80 years old

and your beauty rises in ways

your cells cannot even imagine now

and your wild bones grow luminous and ripe,

having carried the weight

of a passionate life.

When your hair is aflame

with winter

and you have decades of

learning and leaving and loving

sewn into 

the corners of your eyes

and your children come home

to find their own history

in your face.

When you know what it feels like to fail

ferociously

and have gained the 

capacity

to rise and rise and rise again.

When you can make your tea

on a quiet and ridiculously lonely afternoon

and still have a song in your heart

Queen owl wings beating

beneath the cotton of your sweater.

Because your beauty began there

beneath the sweater and the skin,

remember?

This is when I will take you 

into my arms and coo

YOU BRAVE AND GLORIOUS THING

you’ve come so far..

I see you.

Your beauty is breathtaking.

 

 

 

 

—

Credits: Author: Jeannette Encinias, Studio Yuki Photography, Thank you Russ Thomas

Jan23

stardust.

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Scanning electron microscope image of one of the clumps of presolar grains, or stardust. Image via Janaína N. Ávila/EurekAlert!

 

Ancient stardust in meteorite is older than Earth

Grains of stardust – particles left behind by star explosions – in an Australian meteorite are now the oldest known material on Earth. A new study suggests this stardust came to be long before our sun ever existed.

As the saying goes, we are all made of stardust. It’s true. The elements in our bodies – oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium and so on – are made in the thermonuclear furnaces of stars. When scientists speak of stardust, or cosmic dust, they’re speaking of the leftover tiny particles from dead stars that exploded as supernovae. This stardust later goes into forming new stars, planets and moons, including those in our own solar system. It goes into the solar system’s debris, the asteroids and comets, and ultimately meteorites, or rocks from space that find their way to Earth’s surface. Now scientists at the Field Museum in Chicago have found the oldest known samples of stardust in a meteorite that landed in Australia. The meteorite is estimated to be 5 to 7 billion years old. The stardust samples are the oldest material ever discovered on Earth. This dust is even older than our solar system.

The new peer-reviewed study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 13, 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

—

credits: SPACE – Paul Scott Anderson, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Earth Sky, Chicago Field Museum, Phillip Heck

Jan22

grandiloquent.

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we all know that person

who uses pretentious words as a means to impress

which generally results in the opposite effect

like when someone uses the word ‘grandiloquent’ in a sentence.

—

GRANDILOQUENT

part of speech: adjective

origin: latin, late 16th century

definition:

speaking or expressed in a lofty style, often to the point of being pompous or bombastic.

related words:

aureate, bombastic, declamatory, fustian, high-flown, histrionic, inflated, magniloquent, oratorical, orotund, overblown, pompous, purple, rhetorical, sonorous, swollen, verbose, windbag, windy

sentence examples:

Even though Rick did not understand the grandiloquent words, he still used them to impress his wealthy friends. 

When I heard the salesman’s grandiloquent speech, I knew he was trying to make the car deal sound better than it actually was.

 

—

“i am trying to impress myself. i have yet to do it.”

-shia labeouf