Still Here...

I can't believe that my last post was May 11th!! A lot of things have happened while I've been away - trips to NC, church stuff (Pentecost!), work, flowers, rereading the J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) Eve Dallas series. Frankly, it's that last one that's kept me away from blogging (and reading your blogs - so sorry!). I'm up to book 16 in the series.

When I dive deeply into reading books that usually means that something is going on that I want to avoid. Books are such fabulous travel agents! And therapists, and old friends... As comforting as a bite of my mother's banana sandwich, and as effective as a tranquilizer dart.

I'm not exactly sure what this binge is about - because that's the point, right? Read read read - no thinking allowed! And I've been afraid to write here because, yes, now I am having to think. But not too much. I'm not ready to address my disquiet just yet.

So, here are a few random pictures from our yard. I'll bombard you with crochet later. And I promise to read all of your posts, even if I don't manage to comment.

Eight

Figure Eight, 1952, by Franz Kline

Eight

You do the one foot drill

(in front of the other)

Keep your eyes wide open

until you turn the switch

Do the things the things

again and more again

Smile for the camera

Reach for what

glues you together

until you just

can’t

move

And every day is a

figure eight

which is a damn

good thing.

You don’t even

have to watch

your feet.

This is a Magpie Tale. Please go here to read other responses to the prompt.

Chill

Yes, this is the ceiling of our bedroom. The other night while I was waiting on Dr. M to finish playing Farmville, I was lying in bed staring up at it thinking about all of our problems. I can't really talk about all of them, and I don't want this post to be a list of "issues" (but if you must know I am about tired of my arthritis, shoulder & tail bone hurting, among other things).

I just wanted to point out that, looking up at the ceiling, thinking about all my many concerns big and small, the spackled ridges appeared to recede so that instead of seeing all these random mountain ranges I was now looking at oddly shaped plateaus. It's a trick of the eyes similar to those 3-D pictures that were all the rage about 20 years ago. And no, there were no "medications" involved (unless you count Kroger Big K Diet Citrus Drop).

The eye trick doesn't happen when I'm staring fixedly at the ceiling. I have to relax my eyes and let them cross & wander a bit. I started thinking about perspective and how these plateaus seemed a little gentler than all those ridges.

And here is my big takeaway from the incident: I should just relax and stop staring so fixedly at my problems. Some of them won't go away if I ignore them, but I don't need to keep my laser focus on them at all times. Just chill every now & then & enjoy the plateau before tackling the mountain again.

Grief and Great Joy

The rooms are almost empty.
It was a good place
to forge a career.
Time to move on.

Within these walls
I bottled a variety
of elixirs…

Grief and joy,
depression and apathy –
all stoppered and racked.

Sometimes the cork would fly
drenching us with some vintage
or other.

Today we leave the bottles behind.