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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Muse of the Slush Pile

How could I write about slush 
on this beautiful sun hazy day!?

Dark wet soil
hosting flowers and vegetables
hands full with dirt, stones and heavy foliage.
Scraping plunge of hand fork
against distant voices turned up in song.
An occasional car passing.
A baby's cry echoing from an open window.

Slush.
Cold, wet 
half melted snow dirty, laden with the mud of streets and roads freezing into gray sheets of ice on the prairies

On the west coast, ice cold sloppy slush builds
even as snow falls in sparkling flakes. 
From gray skies onto gray asphalt,
melting into one amorphous gurgling mass
sieving through sodden leaves layered on sewer drains.

Soil, softens and warms to spring thaw
drinks up cold silty moisture that nourishes 
daffodils, crocus and tender sprigs shooting from young branches.
My fork loosens stray opportunistic weeds,
shuffles bulbs wandering beneath the soil and
my mind wanders to my own slush pile 
kept hidden in a gray laptop memory.

My fingers work the soil
My fingers tap out the words
My mind has been in both places
Intertwining green ideas and green growth.

“My ideas usually come not at my desk
writing, but in the midst of living.”
 ~ Anais Nin

Friday, July 6, 2012

Alterations in Time Travel

AA, Al Anon and all Twelve Step programs introduced us to 
the concept of One Day at a Time.
One day at a time, familiar throughout society, 
has been normalized as a good idea.

A few alterations to this ‘one day at a time’ concept:
One second at a time
Fifteen minutes  - or any minutes - at a time
One hour at a time.

A beat
A rhythm.

Body awareness of
the sweep of the sun

Time for a next step
Forward 
Sidestep
Back step
Turn and dip
Swing and step.

With each step
I see, feel and touch life 
keeping my feet on the floor, 
my toes in the grass.
Dancing with a gentle, changing rhythm 
to the tune of time and touch.

“Lose not yourself in a far off time,
seize the moment that is thine.”
~ Friedrich Schiller

Thursday, July 5, 2012

A Very, Very Busy Day



Sorry folks,
I'm late tonight!
I had a busy day!

Dental hygiene topped my list
The hygienist is quite good
and with a cheery smile
She cleaned my pearly whites.

Two hours until my next ‘to do’
I sat in the sun and read.

Then next on the list:
a weekly visit for massage to my back
my scoliosis was gently eased.

Home once more
an email message from friend Margaret
suggested a visit over coffee for mid afternoon.

So while waiting for that time to pass
I ate a little lunch
then resumed my seat - now hot from the sun -
and read more of Stephen King's latest novel.

A break now and then to clear soil around my
potatoes
peppers and
tomatoes
kept my thumbs more black than green.

At the end of the coffee break and chat with a friend
a plan of great import was made at the till
Supper at a restaurant was the plan that we made ~
Chinese food at Rosie's fit this very next bill.

Then my last errand before beginning this page:
another appointment to keep way downtown.
with the hairdresser who dyed, cut and styled my hair
I finished my rounds.

Whew!  What a day! 
It really was a very, very busy day.

“Here, on the river's verge, I could be busy 
for months without changing my place, 
simply leaning a little more to right or left.”
~ Paul Cezanne

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Independence Day Muse

Taken from the General Jubal A. Early ferry
crossing the Potomac River, Maryland, U.S.A..
All politics aside
What do I think about the United States?
And do I like this neighbour to the south?

My activities today were the same as on Canada Day.
No celebrations, no flag waving.
I worked at Detox today,
gardened this afternoon, straightening brick work 
and clearing more garden space.

I did both because I enjoy them and 
did them both with personal integrity.

Throughout today,
I thought about all of my family in the U.S.
My grandmother was born in California,
she and my granddad lived in Maryland for most of their lives.
My father went to school in Maryland, later working in Baltimore.
Uncles on both sides of the Canadian-U.S. border fought in WWII.
Mom's sister, husband and their family visited in summer from Colorado.
My dad’s brothers with their wives visited from Maryland and Tennessee.
My family in the U.S. is still spread all across that great land 
and in many states from east to west, north and south.

My nursing career began and was established in Saskatchewan, Canada where my interest was roused in Addictions Nursing.
Expanding these nursing horizons and to further my education I moved to Texas, the Lone Star State, where I spent eleven years working in a treatment center and a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, 
learning my craft at the hospital and at Texas Tech University.
The addicted population that I cared for, Americans all, and a marginalized group in many ways, to my knowledge, have the same rights as any other American.

I feel very much at home in the United States of America 
where I lived and worked, enjoying the freedoms to
live
work
develop my life in the manner that I chose.

And in the U.S., as in Canada,
at least one tiny complaint escaped my lips about some part of the mechanics of things,
but I at least had the right to complain if I chose.
Just complaining about something was rather 
unproductive there as well.

And then, we all also had the right, 
and many times the responsibility to
work for change within our own circles of
community and
employment,
which continues to be true.

It is how any nation is operated 
and by whom that makes the difference.
The myriad of political party members working at 
the White House since July 4, 1776, of whatever political stripe,
have built the infrastructure of the United States of America. 
Lots of tinkering there as well.

As I said in my Canada Day Muse:  
I suppose putting politics aside is not necessarily wise.
This is true in the United States as well.
And yes, I do like Canada’s neighbour to the south.
You have given me, and my family, much.

“Our ancestors...possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, 
of departing from the country in which chance, not choice has placed them.”
~ Thomas Jefferson

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Today's Greatest Question..

Brassieres
In childhood, we teasingly called them ‘brass ears’
In the ‘80’s, Bette Midler sang about ‘over the shoulder boulder holders’
Combining these definitions, the maiden's form becomes a stone sculpture decorated in brass.

Are we made only of stone!?
I say No!

Are we warriors that we should wear brass cups against our gently elastic softness!?
Again I say No!

Our fruits of the eternal loom have banded us together
In groups
In regiments 
And in great legions

No more falseness of padding,
No more pointed statements of femininity
No more cleavages created from great or little endowments

No hooks to be caught on sweaters 
while swirling aimlessly in washing machines
No hooks to be fondled by men 
searching for second base

Only broad bands
Good and serviceable
Colours of white, grey or black
Material only cotton/polyester with just a smidgen of Lycra!
And now we join ranks against the Battle of Elasticity.
Will these great bands give us the needed support?
Will our elastic skin continue to spread to the sides 
whilst we continue to fight the good fight?

Only time will tell.

“If you have yet to be called an 
incorrigible, defiant woman,
don't worry, there's still time.”
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes