If I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat.

~Lyle Lovett

I love that song...

I tried to go back, as if I could
All spec house and plywood
Tore up and tore up good
Down on copperline
It doesn’t come as a surprise to me
It doesn’t touch my memory
Man I’m lifting up and rising free
Down on over copperline
~James Taylor

Tao Te Ching~ on Tools

Thirty spokes meet at a nave;
Because of the hole we may use the wheel.
Clay is moulded into a vessel;
Because of the hollow we may use the cup.
Walls are built around a hearth;
Because of the doors we may use the house.
Thus tools come from what exists,
But use from what does not.

winter sky with birds

winter sky with birds, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

Well, not today's sky, which is dim & grey. Stupidly cold here today. I have to go out. Need to deliver some food for Journey of Hope dinner. Amazingly, I am NOT out of gas! Seems the worse the weather the lower my gas gauge.
Lovely to scan the paper today and see the news of all the international stock markets tanking... and the promise of ours following. Hmmm... what shall I, suburban dweller, do about that today??

At least the war is over! Right? It must be because there's barely a whisper of it in the Dallas Morning News today.

Off to bundle up... yuck. I hate coats!

"Hello, creature of the forest."

"Hello, creature of the forest.", originally uploaded by mi - a name i call myself.

I stumbled upon this amazing photo on Flickr this morning. Imagine seeing this on your patio! Look closely... the deer has brought a friend along.
Very cold here today... well, for Dallas... high in the mid 40s and gloomy so far. Kids are out of school for MLK Day and all stil asleep.
I have a special order tiarra and wand to make, so if you're looking for me follow the trail of sequins and glitter.
Stay warm...

well, indeed...

DSCF1394, originally uploaded by ollyj.

Wise words, I think. Less glass banging... more quiet watching...

tranquility~ from the Tao te Ching

The Way takes no action, but leaves nothing undone.
When you accept this
The world will flourish,
In harmony with nature.

Nature does not possess desire;
Without desire, the heart becomes quiet;
In this manner the whole world is made tranquil.

that being said

I speak into the walls, the dirt, the wind
that rises off the prairie, small noises
distorted by the earth’s arc. What reaches you
bears no likeness to the benevolence

I cradle like a fallen star. Never are my words
the alar emissaries they might be.
Instead they take the air as taloned things,
look to light upon the softest place.

Silence suits me best. In its white dome
my voice is snowfall on the water.
And you are there, cupped hands lifted,
the taste of sweetness on your lips.

the eigth

He will not let go her circumstance
even when she offers silky throat,
thin wrists, a knobby spine.
Still he sees her as a novitiate,
face pressed to the marble floor,
the willing bride, the petitioner.

There is no forgiveness in his touch.
The slap of prayer against truth
builds, stone upon slick stone,
ever higher. She does not kneel,
not anymore. Instead she stands
near the window slit, eyes

the bone-shard moon that tilts westward.
If understanding were a knotted rope
that she could climb, then climb she would,
but there are only the vaporous remains
of elegant words, fragile strands

that will not hold together or bear the weight
of daylight. No it is not the Angelus
that waits behind her lips. She trembles
with fear at what he places on his altar,
despairs how easily he lights the fire..

to infinity... and beyond...

Last week the world bade farwell to a true man of adventure... Sir Edmund Hillary, who summited Mt. Everest before it was littered with spent oxygen bottles and had a bar at base camp. In 1953 it was still unsure if it was even possible to reach the top of the world. In May of that year Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (a native of Nepal) did indeed accomplish what no human being had ever done before. Hillary died last week at the age of 88 in his native New Zealand. He left behind a legacy of adventure, but also a love for the enviroment and a passion for humanitarian work on behalf of the people of his beloved Nepal. Godspeed, Sir Edmund. I hope you are on your greatest expedition somewhere amid the stars.

Norgay and Hillary at base camp after the 1953 summit. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/hil0bio-1

And for a look at the thriving business and ego trip climbing Mount Everest has become at present, check out... http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/everestbeyond/everestbeyond.html

winter morning

winter morning, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

I hate to harp on this, but I love the sky in Texas. I snapped this out my car window (while driving, I'm ashamed to confess) this morning. I was taking Will to school. There is a huge farm that borders the school on 3 sides. There are cows, a pond, old barns... very pastoral. Today it will be near 70. This is a winter I can survive!!!

Coquina Beach, NC

Coquina Beach, NC, originally uploaded by Luke S..

Always the sea calls me. My heart's true home.

Russian heart

Happy Saint Valentine day, originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/martovskiy/.

Outside Moscow the snow was clean,
a pressed white sheet spread and tucked
into the edges of the day. Your kiss faded
faster than the winter sun. Its pale memory
held no warmth or shadows where a dreamer
might find refuge. Night brushed the treetops
with grey smudges and crept across the sky
as swift and canny as foxes in a thicket.

Solitude was not enough for me, the losses
grown stale and distant. I came to Russia
so that I might shiver at her pallid dusks,
might feel my heart's wounds like broken glass
pressed hard against my bare palms.

At Suzdal I dipped my hands into the snowbank
past my wrists until the cold bit so deep
I could remember everything the world
had taken like a petty thief. There I drank
the twilght's rimed wind, an aperitif as sweet
as summer's lush and long forgotten bower.

~this poem was inspired by this lovely photo taken by Andrey and posted on Flickr. As he says in his post... "There we founded this heart."

brrrrr... not!

Oh, joy! It is so WARM here!!! 75 marvelous degrees on Jan. 7th!!! Yessss!!! This is what I call winter!!! If this is global warming (forgive me) I love it!!!

Thank you weather gods!!

... the guest of honor at my imaginary dinner party.

Venice by Turner

Venice by Turner, originally uploaded by pijus.

Ah, I love JMW Turner... How magnificent it must have been to see the world through his eyes... sigh... His way with light... what a gift...

How did I miss this?

Library Parking Garage, originally uploaded by jonathan_moreau.

Rats! I wish I'd seen this on my trip to KC in October. Is this the coolest parking garage, or what?

snagged moon

snagged moon, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

An enchanting sunrise like this makes me forget that it is 26 degrees here this morning.
Kids are back to school, except Kate. Her classes resume on the 14th (lucky girl). I am savoring some silence and making mermaid art. And staying warm...

done

Wizard of Oz Monkey, originally uploaded by Jenyca.

No more of these in 2008!!

tutu

tutu, originally uploaded by heyjupiter21.

I would so wear this.

Russian Winter

Russian Winter, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

Now, this is a winter you can sink your teeth into...

You can run...

but you can't hide.

Tao te Ching on words

Nature says only a few words:
High wind does not last long,
Nor does heavy rain.
If nature's words do not last
Why should those of man?

Who accepts harmony, becomes harmonious.
Who accepts loss, becomes lost.
For who accepts harmony, the Way harmonizes with him,
And who accepts loss, the Way cannot find.

Childhood trauma No. 12

Childhood trauma No. 12, originally uploaded by Uh … Bob.

Holy sh*t! Just when I think they're not real I see this! EGADS! I pray these devils do not follow me into 2008!! I have seen quite enough of them in the past 12 months!!!

Jake~ the graduate!

Jake~ the graduate!, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

My oldest son Jake just graduated! Here he is celebrating at Joe's Crab Shack. This is our gift to him... toy Craftsman tools... but look at the handles. They are wrapped in real $10s and $20s and there are more in the bottom of the toolbox.

Shawshank revisited

Jailbreak sparks N.J. manhunt
Men placed dummies in beds; magazine photos over holes in walls
The Associated Press
updated 5:52 p.m. CT, Mon., Dec. 17, 2007
ELIZABETH, N.J. - Two inmates escaped from a county jail, hiding the holes they made in the walls by putting up photos of bikini-clad women, officials said.

Authorities searched over the weekend for Jose Espinosa, who was awaiting sentencing for manslaughter, and Otis Blunt, who was facing robbery and other charges. They also launched a review of jail security.

The two got out of the Union County jail Saturday evening. The county prosecutor's office said the two apparently removed cement blocks from two walls, squeezed through the openings, jumped to a rooftop below and then made it over a 25-foot-high fence. The section they escaped from was supposed to be the most secure area of the facility.

"I'm extremely disturbed that a jail with the capability of security it has would foster a breach of this nature," County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Monday's editions.

Espinosa, 20, an alleged gang member, was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to manslaughter in a 2005 drive-by shooting in Elizabeth. Blunt, 32, was awaiting trial on charges of robbery and weapons offenses.

The men helped cover up the break by placing dummies under their bed blankets, and hiding the wall holes with magazine photos of women in bikinis, authorities said.

Authorities launched a review of security measures and barred inmates from pinning up pictures from magazines on their cell walls.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22300706/

Still dreaming of a Russian winter... Kiev, perhaps.

first derivative

Then came a season of treaties.
The water froze and thawed,
settled to near clarity, clean enough
to wash wounds and dilute indigo ink
to sapphire, so that when you made
your cursive tallies they cut
like winding rivers

through the first snow. I could read
your choler in their steep banks.
Felted flakes the size of demitasse
dashed against our northern windows.
Winter was weeks away and I saw
what was required of me.
The refractory oak held on

to her dead leaves even as her roots
became fists beneath the soil.
I could snap your wrist, you said,
like a twig. The world was hushed
and brittle. I placed my hand in yours.
It was marrow, in the end,
that tasted most like justice.

winter

So maybe it is not winter I hate, but the half-assed winters we have here in north Texas. I think I could use a white, purging Russian winter... a long season of snow and silence. I do appreciate the beauty of a true winter landscape, the starkness, the sharp contrasts of bare trees against a low, grey sky.

Over the weekend it was in the upper 80s here, following by a swift plunge into the 30s. Such a tease...

Off to mail Christmas packages today with my sis. I confess a bit of the holiday spirit has come over me. Could it be all the sequins? The box from Hickory Farms? Hell, I don't know, but I glad for it.

Maybe it will snow...

So I'm thinking...

Yes, the world harbors some bad stuff... lots of it. BUT NOT THESE! They aren't real, so I should sleep better at night just knowing they were a Hollywood concoction, right?
Well, there's that war and Darfur and well... maybe the monkeys aren't so bad. Perhaps a trade...

facing my fears

... hmmm, I'd rather not.

the year in review...

No, just kidding. Why would I tempt fate by acting like 2007 is done when there's a month of it left to endure? But when it is done, it will be none too soon. When you start the year with major, emergency surgery followed by months of convalescence, for some silly-assed reason you think things have got to get better. That, it appears, was a mistaken assumption. What followed was and is only slightly more pleasant.
Shackleton survived some rough times. His doomed ship was named the Endurance. I have no ship, but if I did I would name her More Mountains. I'd prefer her to sink in warm waters off the windward coast of Tortola when her time came. The Endurance was crushed by ice near Antartica in November of 1915. Shackleton died at age 48 while on another polar expedition.
I've just had a rough year. Still afloat though... not iced-in or buried on Elephant Island. I remain hopeful.

Tao Te Ching~ on Control

The Way flows and ebbs, creating and destroying,
Implementing all the world, attending to the tiniest details,
Claiming nothing in return.

It nurtures all things,
Though it does not control them;
It has no intention,
So it seems inconsequential.

It is the substance of all things;
Though it does not control them;
It has no exception,
So it seems all-important.
The sage would not control the world;
He is in harmony with the world.

the molehill chronicles

In my predictable way I look up
the steep incline that was harder
going down than on the sheer ascent.
Imagine the apex as just another step,
the inanity of even one quick breath
of jubilation. What I failed to fathom
has scarred my palms, taught me
that a stone-bruise heals

with unbearable leisure, insists
on the homage of a wary tread.
After the summit, in the long exhale,
silence brings a sighing coda,
infers a false relief… almost done.
What waits is the scrabble, pebbles
that offer no purchase. Crags
and scrubby growth conspire

to give no ease, but send me
plummeting like broken sod
into a ready grave. Threats
of weather are always at my back,
clouds scheming like statesmen.
And after my descent, sherpas scatter
like dulcet dreams at dawn and life
tenders the cheap embrace

of one who has found a new
and truer love. I was always the one
who hoped for foolish things,
thought I might find new softness
carried on an old wind,
a door propped open
even as the storm
caught up with me
once more.

autumn

autumn, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

Today was in the 70s, but the cold is headed our way. The temperature will drop 30 degrees tomorrow morning. I'm shivering just thinking of it. Try as I might, I cannot seem to find much joy in this season.

Maybe I need a lightbox.

Or perhaps I could hibernate.

wrong love

I am so over love right now. All I can see is misguided, rejected, burnt-out, stupid, lousy, rotten love... wrong love. The world teems with it.
ugh. yuck. blah.
And this season is dreadful... I'm sorry, but it is.
I am sad, but I'll get over it. I am just weary from this ass-kicking year. 2007 has been a whipping. I am counting the days until it ends and hoping so hard that the new year will have some better mojo.
please...
Ah, but I must amend this post a bit. It is my son and his wife's first anniversary and they practically glow with happiness. So I suppose not all love is bad afterall... Their sweet tenderness for each other warms my craggy, cold heart.

I hate autumn...

John Atkinson Grimshow (1836-1893), Autumn, Leeds

not now

I am not entranced with topaz
and amber leaves, nor thrilled
with gusts that reek of swift decline.
You would argue it is me, proclaim
the power of my influence

as if it were season unto itself.
You urge me to translate the world
creaking on its axis as a song,
but what I hear is the lumbering of days
carving deep ruts that will not heal.

Time after time I tilt my face
to the distant sun only to tread
on prickled husks, the brittle
ruins of spent desire. Still I stoop
to prod the awful crush,

taint my palms with tomb’s dust.
Winter paces on the ridge, spreads
frosty fingers against a washrag sky,
eager, as always, to slip them under
my summer skirt. Your old sweater

is speckled with beggar’s lice,
woven with the bleached threads
of every mislaid betrayal.
No, I am not devoted to your bonfires,
your wheels of wheat, the promise

of snow that hovers near your lips.
I pull curtains shut, brace the doors,
lean hard against the smudged hours
that blow like smoke and ash
beneath the splintered threshold .

Mombassa

You come to me with the moon
in your arms, cradled like a son, proud
as if you had brought forth this miracle
from the sky with your own hands.
The hem of your mythology sweeps
my threshold. Me, I sit on a stool
by the western window, concentrate
on the savannah’s fluent, topaz dance.

I thought Africa was beyond you
that your wings would tire somewhere
over the beguiling Caribbean, but no,
you have come with stars in a rough sack,
a wild river caught in a green jar,
a rain of snowy petals in your wake.
I breathe the wildness of your journey.
There are tigers here, I tell you, hungry

things crouch in every shadow. Beauty
is a ripple beneath a pelt, the sinew
that trembles before the leap.
Oh yes, I welcome your treasures,
but for now please come empty
your hands and watch with me.
Let me show you a marvel.
This is Kenya and I have found something

true. There beneath the acacia tree
where sunlight plays on slender blades
she watches with her golden eyes.
I feel her strength, her inborn grace
as it flows in every measured step.
When you kiss me you will know
it too. Africa blooms in me, verdant.
untamed. I am the grassy plain below the lioness.

VIRGIN GORDA, B.V.I, CARIBBEAN

VIRGIN GORDA, B.V.I, CARIBBEAN

It is comforting to recall being at this stunning place. I know it is there waiting for me. I recall the long twisting pathway down to The Baths, the massive boulders, the impossible blue of the Caribbean. Christopher Columbus named this place. It's not going anywhere. Today the water is warm and calm there and it it will be the same when I return.
On this day I am island dreaming and making art...

a Flickr treasure!

Deserto del Tar. look at these stunning colors., originally uploaded by tempoandato.

colors

colors, originally uploaded by subhasish.

I love this gorgeous photograph of a little girl at the Festival of Colors.

Island of Tortola

Today autumn arrived in a chilly gust! The high temp was 54. Brrr. I'm an island girl. Tortola is where I belong. It was 84 there today. I'll be back, sweet island. Wait for me.

the purposeful life...

So, I admit it is still warm here (hot, actually) and the leaves are barely turning, but I have determined that I will not be ass-kicked by fall OR winter this year. How absurd is it to hate half of the year (well, a tad less here in Texas)? Nope, no more. I will f'ing embrace the bleak months ahead. Last winter's brush with the grim reaper did indeed open my eyes. Every day is a gift... cliche? Yep... but truer than true. Not to mention I have some very adorable winter clothes... and boots. Boots are good. So, bring it!

Lantern Festival 2007

Lantern Festival 2007 (14), originally uploaded by Chocolate Caroline.

Who the hell is Will Shortz anyway?

NOT my puzzle!

INDEPENDENT LENS
Wordplay
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 10 - 11:30 pm
Fifty million Americans work crossword puzzles each week, many
in the venerable New York Times, where Will Shortz has been
editor for 12 years. "Wordplay" presents an entertaining and
informative look at Shortz' work and that of the puzzle
constructors with whom he collaborates. This portrait features
interviews with celebrity crossword solvers, including Bill
Clinton, Bob Dole, Jon Stewart, Ken Burns, the Indigo Girls and
others. (CC, Stereo)
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/wordplay

Snow White & Seven Dwarfs

25K-6 - Snow White & Seven Dwarfs, originally uploaded by cagedheat3.

That Snow White is one lucky dame!

Sunday sunrise in the 'burbs

Sunday sunrise in the 'burbs, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

Oh, this Texas sky is such a wonder!

Flickr Frida

Flickr Frida, originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

Flickr is chock-full-o-Frida!

And what is life and living?

And what is life and living?, originally uploaded by Paula Wirth.

So now I know.

fountain on the Plaza Kansas City, Mo.

fountain on the Plaza Kansas City, Mo., originally uploaded by Sea Dream Studio.

KC was really wonderful. It is a very art-y city. There are endless galleries. We visited the Kemper and Nelson Museums. It fed my soul to have a weekend of art!!!

http://margaritaville.com/index.php?page=anguilla_dvd