Farewell

Cold Fist in Mine

One Last Kiss

Farewell Old Man

We wished our grandfather farewell this weekend. He passed away Sunday. This picture was taken on one of our many trips together through the southwest. We were in Mount Zion National Park. That was the happiest moment we ever shared together.

Farewell, Old Man.

First Snow...

It's soppy outside. It's floppy outside. It's wet and snowy and melty outside.

There was snow this morning, but it hasn't even stuck around long enough to enjoy. You probably missed it if you got up later than 7o'clock. I was up long before that and if it wasn't so freezin' cold out there, I'd be out in it for a glorious winter's walk.

Instead, the first snow completely disappointed me. It was similar to this:

Only, worse. It was looking forward eagerly to REAL WINTER. No... just this.

Oh, I'm seeing the sun trying to come out of the gray! Maybe I'll see the sun today after all:)

Sing To Me

The lovely Andre reminded me of this poem I should share with you all! I had totally forgotten about it....

Sing to me. Once again

I love to hear your voice

Rise gently through

The ceiling rafts

The richest evening noise.

I’ll love you for a moment

The next I’ll turn aside

To fancy this

Or wish on that

And leave my faithful guide.

But you won’t ever change

Your heart I’ve memorized

You wedded me

Befriended me

Unwanted and despised

Now I have come to trust you

I’ve given you my heart

Yet something dark

A secret thought

Is driving us apart.

If you are always faithful

And I am always wanting

Then how can we

So distant seem

Like two paths never crossing?

When I accepted you

I took your humble vow

But greater is

This struggle, for

I must accept me now.

With all of my shortcomings

And failure at perfection

I’ve loathed myself,

Unworthy of

Your unreserved attention.

I love the things that you love

And you have loved me true

So now must I

Kiss pride goodbye

And learn to love me too.

Sing to me, once again

Teach me to love myself

Make me look

Inside my soul

And value all its wealth.

The night grows deep around us

Your voice still rich and deep

You catch my head

Before it falls

And tuck me in to sleep.

Where You Treasure Is...

It came up in Sunday School:


"How do we respond when we look around in life and see the world is so successful while we, as Christians, are struggling so hard?" 


Psalm 73:2-11
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, 
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant 
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death; 
t h e i r  b o d i e s  a r e  f a t  a n d  s l e e k.
They are not in trouble as others are; 
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace; 
violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness; 
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice; 
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens, 
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them, 
and find no fault in them.
And they say, "How can God know? 
Is there knowledge in the Most High?"


Allen gave us a great answer: "Everything they have can be taken away."
Thank you, Allen. I thought that was an excellent answer.


That's the truth about life. The big question is, where is your treasure? Where your treasure is there will your heart be also. 


I seems that everything I have has been or is being taken away in my life right now. This year, I've lost everything it seems like. 


Two siblings fly the coupe. I've had no one to talk to it seems like... so one to look up to.
Close family member go through divorces and break-ups.
Friends move on.
My church goes through major reorganization.
Good friends flee the patriarchal movement. 
M y  l i f e  i s  c h a n g i n g  e v e r y  d a y.... so fast I can't keep up with it.
Everyone I love and everything I dreamed of is being squashed like a grape on the cement. 


My world, as I know it, is being turned upside down!!!

No. 1

My quick report
Your gentle rebuke
Three wise men

You may have noticed this haiku in the comments section. I hope it puzzled and perplexed you. It's a riddle.

The question is, who's the third man? It begins with only two people. Myself and the one who comments on my blog post. Your comments test my work, checking for holes and weak spots. Through this process of commenting and refining my writing, I come up with an argument or statement that is founded on truth and tested for accuracy.

I think that a pretty good definition of wisdom. Founded on truth and tested for accuracy. So, where's the third wise man? The third wise man is whoever comes along later and reads that piece of wisdom, adopting it for himself.

Three wise men- the one who writes, the one of critiques, and the one who reads it later on.

Haiku Love

Oh, I've been wanting to write this one since I started my blog.

I love haiku. I. Love. It. 


The humorous, delicate, multi-layered Japanese art form tickles my literary fancy like nothing else ever has.

If you're like most average Americans, you probably find it awkward and unbalanced. That's the way I felt about it before I read the following article:

 http://www.ahapoetry.com/haiartjr.htm

My eyes were opened. I suddenly entered a whole new world of riddles and unlikely comparisons.

Haiku is a literary form. You need to get that in your head. If you are turned off by them, it's most likely because you aren't recognizing their format, which is everything to a haiku. A haiku is rather very strict. Yes, there is room for artistic interpretation, but for the most part they follow very specific patterns.

It's all about patterns. If you've never studied haiku patterns before it will be difficult for you to pick up on the context.

It's true- one can, and often does, spend four paragraphs discussion and interpreting something like:

      Long hard rain
      Hanging in the willows
      Tender new leaves.

(from   http://www.ahapoetry.com/haiartjr.htm)

Isn't that beautiful? That's a wonderful technique called contrast. That is easy stuff. It's gets harder with other forms like double entendre and leap linkage. But I won't go into those things yet.

What I would like to do is have more conversations about haiku using the above article as a reference, taking each technique one at a time and discussing them in detail. I'll try my hand out at haiku's of my own.

For now, I'll leave you with my all-time, favorite haiku:

      Moving into the sun
      The pony takes with him
      Some of the mountain

(http://www.ahapoetry.com/haiartjr.htm)

Beautiful, beautiful image.

I Lost the Moon

I'm taking this astronomy class.... incredible mind-blowing class. The only science class worth taking at Arapahoe Community College. Bar none. Real science happens in that class.

I wish I could boast of being a real scientist myself. After all, I'm taking this super brainy class. I've got these really high tech binoculars and I downloaded the latest moon app on my Mom's smart phone. So, now I can keep up to date with the movements of the moon.

This is all so cool. I pull out Mom's phone and check the stats. Moonrise, 1:45. It must mean 1:45 a.m. I assume. I'm a seasoned astronomer, so staying awake all night to gaze into the heavens is no big deal. I can handle this.

I set my alarm for 0200 hours, just to give the moon a chance to catch up to me and fall fast asleep. The alarm jolts me awake on time. I'm feeling so smart. I mean sooo on top of things. I don't even worry about my shoes. I just grab the binocs and head out side for some hard core moon observations.

The crisp morning is perfect- cool, quiet, rested. Billions of stars light up the sky. I'm standing out back, head craned to the sky. The scene is memorizing, but not what I expected. I can't find it- I can't find the moon. Blast. It's gotta be somewhere! I run out front.

Nothing.

Around the west and east sides of the house. Still nothing. No moon.

I was crushed. How could it fail me????

So, you real astronomers out there. You can start laughing right now. This happened last night and the night before last night.

I've been waking up at two in the morning for the last three days looking for the moon!!!


I've learned two very important lessons:

1. Don't trust a phone app. That stupid phone app made such a fool out of me. Turns out the GPS isn't actually turned on so who knows what location it's set on!


2. Astronomy 101: The moon is currently in its six day crescent. It rises sometime in the early morning- mid day and sets in the late evening. It won't rise again until the following morning. You can't see the moon when your side of the earth is pointed away from it, thus a moonrise and moonset.