Author Archives: beth

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About beth

Ann Arbor-ite writes about enjoying life with all of its ironies and surprises.

water.

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water

Everything on the earth bristled, the bramble
pricked and the green thread
nibbled away, the petal fell, falling
until the only flower was the falling itself.
water is another matter,
has no direction but its own bright grace,
runs through all imaginable colors,
takes limpid lessons
from stone,
and in those functionings plays out
the unrealized ambitions of the foam.

 

– pablo neruda


					

chicken or the egg?

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today, mr. roger, our snowplow driver

came back to our room

and brought some of his favorite birds to meet us

these two are chickens named marco polo and maranella

and they are married.

his granddaughter has a chicken for a pet and reads with it

and he really loves birds

even more than snowplowing.

mr. roger even showed us some of maranella’s treasures – her eggs

and we had the chance to gently touch everything and ask all kinds of questions.

it was amazing because he knew all of the answers.

he sure knows a lot about a lot.

“if I hadn’t started painting, i would have raised chickens.”

-grandma moses

cinco.

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el gato hopes that you each enjoy the holiday in your own way.

=
“i will eat anything mexican – a sombrero, hacienda… anything.

they’ve perfected the combo of bread items and the grill. “

-tom delonge

image credit: google images

 

morel.

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they searched in all the secret places
hinted at
whispered
looking carefully
for the elusive morel
only to return home
empty handed
and took a walk
into their own backyard
where they found them
by the fence
under the trees
waiting quietly
for their return
and discovery.
“life is too short to stuff a mushroom.”
-shirley conran

spin cycle.

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*news about the cycle of life

saparmurat niyazov, president of turkmenistan, made a decree that divides life into 12-year cycles.

the decree says that childhood lasts until age 12, adolescence to 25, and youthfulness until 37.

the next 12-year cycles are divided into periods labeled – mature, prophetic, inspirational and wise.

old age begins at age 85.

hit 97 and enter a period named for oguzkhan, considered the founder of the turkmen nation, who died at 109.

* this cycle only applies to people in turkmenistan. 

(apparently the rest of us are on our own to spin through life’s cycles as best we can.)

“mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom.”

-phyllis theroux

credits: cbslocal.com, edogawa natural zoo – tokyo

honey-sweet may.

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“at last came the golden month of the wild folk–

honey-sweet May, when the birds come back,

and the flowers come out,

and the air is full of the sunrise scents and songs of the dawning year.”

― samuel scoville jr.

image credit: proteus, ‘the elfin maypole float, 1887

spill simmer falter wither.

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 ‘spill simmer falter wither,’ the debut novel by irish author, sara baume

is a devastating, and at the same time, beautiful, ode to empathy, to humanity and to the outliers of the world.

this is not your usual story of a man and his dog.  

instead, it’s a 200+ page lyrical poem, with a lot of dark moments, and a few glimpses of light.

as it moves through the seasons, you will come to understand what led them to become who they are.

this is the story of a person and an animal

who most people would pass by without giving them a second thought.

after reading this book, i cannot stop thinking about them. 

“i realise that you were not born with a predetermined capacity for wonder, as i’d believed.

i realise that you fed it up yourself from tiny pieces of the world.

i realise it’s up to me to follow your example and nurture my own wonder, morsel by morsel by morsel.”

― sara baume

image credit: marinerbooks.com, sara baume,spill simmer falter wither

high spirits and devilment.

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it goes in the show.

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so, i actually cried while watching “the smurfs”

luckily there was some magic involved

that turned things around

as the universe tends to do

in its own strange way

unexpectedly 

with no explanation

and all at once

everything was right with world again.

“if it makes you cry, it goes in the show.”

-annie leibovitz

image credit: sony pictures

another one.

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were we looking at the frog or was the frog looking at us?

“it’s useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.”

-terry pratchett