Friday, December 24, 2021

Merry Christmas!

 

My beautiful Christmas Orchid.  Wishing you all a happy, peaceful, joy-filled Christmas.  I’m still fighting severe pain in my arms, back, hips, knee, etc., but I’m blessed to be alive. 💆🏼‍♀️ Chop wood; carry water.

Peace on earth. 🙏🏼

Happy Birthday, Jesus! 🦋✝️🦋

My precious granddaughter, Mary Mace, turned 18 today! 🥰 They’re in Hawaii for Christmas. 🏄‍♀️

Friday, November 19, 2021

Annunciation by Denise Levertov


.
🌞 God is light. In Him is no darkness at all. 🌺

ANNUNCIATION by Denise Levertov

Hail, space for the uncontained God’
From the Agathistos Hymn, Greece,


We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,
almost always a lectern, a book; always
the tall lily.
Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whom she acknowledges, a guest.
But we are told of meek obedience. 

No one mentions
courage.
The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent.
God waited.
She was free
to accept or to refuse, choice
integral to humanness.

Aren’t there annunciations
of one sort or another
in most lives?
Some unwillingly
undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.
More often
those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.
        

She had been a child who played, ate, slept
like any other child – but unlike others,
wept only for pity, laughed
in joy not triumph.
Compassion and intelligence fused in her, indivisible.

Called to a destiny more momentous
than any in all of Time,
she did not quail,
only asked
a simple, ‘How can this be?’
and gravely, courteously,
took to heart the angel’s reply,
perceiving instantly
the astounding ministry she was offered:  
to bear in her womb
Infinite weight and lightness; to carry
in hidden, finite inwardness,
nine months of Eternity; to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power –
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.
Then bring to birth,
push out into air, a Man-child
needing, like any other,
milk and love –
but who was God. 

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

I'm back.  I missed everyone!!! 🌻 My Ipad & computer died a few weeks ago & my kindle is slowly biting the dust, too.  I ordered new ones, but they're backordered. 😕 I love you all! xo

My breast biopsy was negative, thankfully, but both of my arms (biceps/deltoids) were severely strained from being overstretched during surgery.  I'd been going to physical therapy twice a week for months now which drains me and is horrifyingly hard/painful.  My hip pain was mostly resolved, but both of my arms are in severe pain.  😂 I laugh because I'm jinxed when it comes to pain...it's been never-ending and always severe.  No medication for it, either. I can't even take Advil because it kills my stomach. I'm mortally depressed most days and struggle to even get up and dressed. But, as He promised, God holds me up and covers me with his wings (Psalm 91) and I am comforted, comforted and safe. 🙏 🎈📚  God bless you all.

That's my story today.  


Friday, May 28, 2021

Volcanoes - Mother Nature’s Power

 


🔥 Magnificent, glorious views of the currently erupting Icelandic Volcano by ‘Drone Zone’ on YouTube.

€€€€€€€€€€

🙏🏼 Pray for the people of the Goma, Congo area where Mount Nyiragongo recently erupted, displacing hundreds of thousands of people who lived along side the volcano. 🙏🏼



601
A still—Volcano—Life— 
That flickered in the night— 
When it was dark enough to do 
Without erasing sight— 

A quiet—Earthquake Style— 
Too subtle to suspect 
By natures this side Naples— 
The North cannot detect 

The Solemn—Torrid—Symbol— 
The lips that never lie— 
Whose hissing Corals part—and shut— 
And Cities—ooze away— 




Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Here Comes Hurricane Season 😎

Thank you, Kelly, for this awesome “CATegory” hurricane chart!! 😝

Oh, the Roses!  This Spring is in love with Roses! ☀️


Weather Channel song


Garfield, my mouser & snake killer.  He turns 20 this year. 🥳😻

Kitty Paws

My peach Roses in the setting sun...

^^^^^^^^^^









 

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Ah, Emily Dickinson 📚 Spring Has Sprung! 🌸

My Hummingbirds and Dragonflies are back!  My Bluebirds have babies!  Springtime! 🌹🐇🦋🧚🏽‍♀️

Garfield, pretending to be a plant. 🐚🌻🌱

Trust me... 🤣

Garfield in my backyard jungle on the deck...


“It was a cold bright day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”. “1984”, George Orwell

* * * * * * * *

If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking
By Emily Dickinson 

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.



 

Friday, April 2, 2021

When I Die by Rumi - Happy Easter ✝️

 “Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.” – Charles M. Crowe 🌸🧚🏽‍♀️🌺


My Mint came roaring back! 💚🥰

My first Iris this year. 💜


WHEN I DIE by Rumi

When I die
when my coffin
is being taken out
you must never think
i am missing this world

don’t shed any tears
don’t lament or
feel sorry
i’m not falling
into a monster’s abyss

when you see
my corpse is being carried
don’t cry for my leaving
i’m not leaving
i’m arriving at eternal Love

when you leave me
in the grave
don’t say goodbye
remember a grave is
only a curtain
for the paradise behind

you’ll only see me
descending into a grave
now watch me rise
how can there be an end
when the sun sets or
the moon goes down

it looks like the end
it seems like a sunset
but in reality it is a dawn
when the grave locks you up
that is when your soul is freed

have you ever seen
a seed fallen to earth
not rise with a new life
why should you doubt the rise
of a seed named human

have you ever seen
a bucket lowered into a well
coming back empty
why lament for a soul
when it can come back
like Joseph from the well

when for the last time
you close your mouth
your words and soul
will belong to the world of
no place no time


My new Water Oak tree in front has tripled in size. 🙏🏼

Friday, March 26, 2021

I Miss President Trump and Common Sense...

Dance like nobody’s watching... 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Dancing Compilation 🧚🏽‍♀️💃🏽🕺🏼

I tell them dance begins when a moment of hurt combines with a moment of boredom. I tell them it's the body's reaching, bringing air to itself. I tell them that it's the heart's triumph, the victory speech of the feet, the refinement of animal lunge and flight, the purest metaphor of tribe and self. It's life flipping death the bird. I make this stuff up.” 

― Lorrie Moore, “Birds of America

**********






 


Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Sick of covid Bullshit, so Cats!


This is a joke...but a fact. 😼😂😼

My old Garfield, always on my lap.

Little Debbie, always in a box or basket...

 

Saturday, March 6, 2021

God Bless the South! 1970s Music is the Best!

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything”.  ~PLATO


The music of my youth, back when freedom & free speech reigned.  Good times & great memories.  Youth is, indeed, wasted on the young.  Weekend mood:



FREE BIRD - Lynyrd Skynyrd - 7/2/1977
So many gorgeous Southern girls, rocking down...
We were so young & beautiful...


SWEET HOME ALABAMA 7/2/1977
Southern music is the best...







Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! Sorry about the Democrats!

Okay, I’m royally and officially pissed off now.  BookBurnerBiden (or whatever Pelosi cabal is pulling his raggedy puppet strings since he’s OBVIOUSLY in the early stages of Dementia) has decided that Dr. Seuss’s books are racist.  Apparently, with our country fighting COVID-19, massive job losses due to COVID-19, school children having mental health crises, Cuomo killing grannies & sexually harassing young women, a monopoly on leftist Internet companies, massive election fraud, HAARP and general Democrat insanity at the southern border, BookBurnerBiden decides to 1.  Bomb Syria, then 2.  Ban Dr. Seuss books. Every morning I wake up and feel like I’m in a badly written YA Dystopian novel.  

I rest my case.  I miss President Trump. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 The Grinch is waving at Biden.





Sunday, February 28, 2021

Movie & Music Recommendations


‘Dance, Rascal Dance’ by The Bleachers
from the soundtrack of “Hello, My Name is Doris”.


This is a hilarious and touching movie (on Amazon Prime) that made me laugh and feel good.  Age is only a number as Doris so admirably exemplifies.



DANCE, RASCAL DANCE 
By The Bleachers

Dance like you’re on fire
Roll down the window to your love
I got a strange desire
To move with you, move with you
Give you a piece of my love

Hold on, take me higher
Make me bolder oh
C'mon through this fire
Yeah we don’t get older oh
Dance rascal dance

Like you’re on fire
Roll down the window to your love
Gimme all your strange desires
C'mon move with me, move with me
Give me a piece of your love

Hold on, take me higher
Make me bolder oh
C'mon through this fire
Yeah we don’t get older oh
Dance rascal dance

I move my feet
I grab your heart
I take your hand
We play apart
Our bad desires
Our restless souls
Take my heart
Take control
2x

Hold on, take me higher
Make me bolder oh
C'mon through this fire
Yeah we don’t get older oh
Dance rascal dance

~ Jack Antonoff

Saturday, January 16, 2021

Starlings in Winter by Mary Oliver

 


Starlings in Winter


Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers, 
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly

they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,

dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,

then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can't imagine

how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,

this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.
Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,

even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;

I feel my boots 
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard, I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings. 

"Starlings in Winter" by Mary Oliver, from Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays.

**********

My current opinion on today’s political climate:



Sunday, January 10, 2021

Dystopian America, Coming Soon...






^^^^^^^^^^

“The greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion, which is war against the child. The mother doesn't learn to love, but kills to solve her own problems. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.“

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^