Category Archives: Life

the moment

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The moment when,

after many years 
of hard work

and a long voyage

you stand in the centre of your room,


house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,

knowing at last how you got there,

and say,

I own this,



is the same moment

when the trees unloose 
their soft arms from around you,


the birds take back their language,

the cliffs fissure and collapse,

the air moves back from you like a wave

and you can’t breathe.

No, they whisper.

You own nothing.

You were a visitor,

time after time

climbing the hill,

planting the flag,

proclaiming.

We never belonged to you.


You never found us.

It was always the other way round.

image credit:  along the kerry way – ireland  http://leiraenkai.deviantart.com

poetry credit: margaret atwood

 

the aussies are coming! the aussies are coming!

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and i couldn’t be happier.

part of my family lives down under.

and soon

they will be up top with us for a while.

and i will have my dream

of all of the daughters

and all of the sons in law

and all of the grand babies

in one place at one time.

and it is sure to be an adventure.

Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future.
Gail Lumet Buckley

relax. and celebrate national donut day. at the same time.

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josh atlas

“Between an optimist and pessimist, the difference is droll.
The optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist the hole!”
~ Oscar Wilde

image credit: josh atlas

 

Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do. ~Jean de la Bruyere

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it is our last day today as a class.

and as we look back –

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and look ahead –

we find

that a part of each of us

is still right here.

always has been.

and always will be.

Always jump in the puddles! Always skip alongside the flowers.

The only fights worth fighting are the pillow and food varieties. 

Terri Guillemets

What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.  – Titus Lucretius Carus

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back in my catering days,

we hosted a party in a very small, yet charming victorian house.

it was for a women’s group,

a lovely luncheon that began with tray-passed appetizers.

as i made my rounds through the rooms,

squeezing past people engaged in little groups,

i offered up tray after tray of beautiful bite-sized food.

and one woman ignored me the entire time

and continued her conversation,

she wouldn’t even look at me or make eye contact at all.

and never took one thing from me.

until finally –

she reached down and popped one into her mouth.

and i was sure she did it just to appease me

and hoped i would go away.

but –

she had grabbed the flower on the tray instead of the appetizer.

and it was not an edible flower.

and she put it in her mouth and chewed it.

and got a strange look on her face.

and delicately deposited it into her napkin.

and went back to her conversation.

and i hurried to the kitchen to let the chef know.

who asked if it was the woman in the pink sweater.

and i said yes and wondered how she knew.

and that was when she told me

that the woman in the pink sweater was blind.

—-

The food here is terrible, and the portions are too small.
 Woody Allen  

that thing you do

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image credit: ziggityzoom

It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was. – Anne Sexton

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to all who:

have had one, have been one, , are one now, or will be one someday,

happy father’s day to you –

Heres-looking-at-you

When an old man dies, it is a whole library which burns. – 
African proverb

 

 

 

I do not seek. I find. – Pablo Picasso


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and so we went to find art.

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and after we ran so far,

and climbed so many stairs,

we could see the sky.

and there we found

a beautiful stone lion waiting for us.

we must have climbed to the top of the world.

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and we were in the clouds.

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Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.  ~Twyla Tharp

Wisdom begins in wonder. – Socrates

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it was camping day.

we went outside

and hiked

and looked at lots of stuff

and touched it

and found all sorts of things.

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we tried to catch a frog to see him up close.

and if we did we promised we would put him back in his home after.

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and we got in the mud.

even those of us who usually don’t like to get dirty.

and we learned so much stuff.

Must we always teach our children with books? Let them look at the stars and the mountains above. Let them look at the waters and the trees and flowers on Earth. Then they will begin to think, and to think is the beginning of a real education.  – David Polis

 

 

I’m sure when they partied when Rome was burning, that was a really great party. – Adam McKay

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here’s hoping that you all had a safe long weekend.