From the Top

I have been called a ‘watch cat’ by many, but truth be told, I like to sleep during the day. Most of the day. Whenever I want to. However, today, was one of those cleaning days. When she washes all her clothes that’s normal. I still am confounded by that unnecessary task. I just lick myself clean and never have to change my fur. I just let it fly away and she picks it up. She spent a very long time, taking my beautiful fur out of my blankets. But I digress. The thing she calls a vacuum ~ noisy and rude. Pushes me out of the way. She at least changed the blanket in my new carrier. I know that’s what it is, so I’ve been steering clear of it. I finally got up here on this high perch so I could keep an eye on her. By the way, my human speech has really improved, don’t you think?

“As anyone well knows who has ever been around a cat 

for any length of time, cats have enormous patience 

with the limitations of the human mind.”

~ Cleveland Amory, 1917 - 1998

 American author, reporter, television critic, 

commentator and animal rights activist

The Importance of Daring

Tucked beneath an old tree, protected by a fence, beautiful green caught my eye - the blessing of the rains. The old tree's leafy top was waving frantically like the old Whomping Willow of Harry Potter fame. Its compatriots lining the streets were as frantic. Timing my short walk home between potential buckets of ice water dumped on the city, I was lucky. Only a fine mist flung from dripping leaves made me pull my hood up; the chill wind forced me to zip my jacket to my chin. I had not been so silly as to bring an umbrella that would have been a mere a toy for the wind. But I was willing to brave the weather for a pedicure, a cup of coffee, and a read of my next book ~ outings not to be blown away or dampened by such ill- mannered weather.

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life - 

to be happy - it’s all that matters.”

~ Audrey Hepburn

Book Review: Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

What a read! Karen Russell takes us to the Florida swamp to Swamplandia! A theme park featuring Hilola Bigtree, a champion alligator wrestler from the Bigtree tribe. That was definitely odd, but even moreso, they were not even indiginous. Maybe to the swamp but not to any tribe. Sam Bigtree, Hilola’s husband ran the park with his father, Sawtooth - who established the park - and their three children: Ava, Osceola, and their older brother Kiwi. Ava, the youngest Bigtree, is the narrator of their story from her memories of that time. For a period of time, they were just surviving. Sam Bigtree had big ideas for the park, for expanding it, for his kids becoming alligator wrestlers. Kiwi, more erudite than just about anyone, wasn’t really enthused about that. Osceola, a teenage dreamer, was also not into it and was more that a little mixed up. She believed she was possessed by ghosts and as the story progresses, ‘falls in love with a ghost and runs off to marry him’. Ava, the youngest, watches it all as everything falls apart. 

When her mother dies after a relatively short illness, the family is devastated. This becomes a theme running through the rest of the story. No one talks about their feelings, but memories surface from time to time. Then a rival theme park opened on the mainland -The first person to leave Swamplandia! is their father. Bills have piled up and he takes ‘one of his trips’ to talk with investors. The children are left on their own. Because he has made such ‘trips’ before, they expected him back soon. Then Kiwi, recognizing how deeply in debt they were, left for the mainland and a job at the World of Darkness, the rival theme park. His plan? To make enough money to save Swamplandia! He was sadly mistaken. It was after this, that Osceola left to follow her ‘ghost’, leaving Ava alone.

The second part of the story is very different. Ava introduces us to The Birdman, a man who travels the swamps moving unwanted flocks of birds. He was apparently known throughout the swamps for this service. Ava is desperate to find her sister, who she believes has gone to the Underworld. The Birdman is kind to her and he travels the swamp. Wearing a cloak of black feathers, he takes her far from her home. For a long time she feels safe with him, helping to paddle and to portage. The farther away they get, with no sign of this Underworld, she begins to feel afraid. 

I’ll leave my review there. Can’t give away the tragedies that follow and the rescues that follow! My second read of this book was as difficult as the first! It’s not a happy, feel good read but did I put it down? No, I continued reading each day.

“But if you kept thinking about a fight you’d lost, Mom said, 

you’re programming yourself to lose again.”

~ Karen Russell, Swamplandia!

Title: Swamplandia!

Author: Karen Russell

Copyright: 2011

Publisher: Vintage Books 

Type: Fiction

Format: Soft cover

ISBN - 978-0307-27668-1

Back and Forth

This branch, drooping over the fence 

unsure of whether to grow and flourish 

or to fade and dry up in the summer sun,

still is graceful in its uncertainty. Insistent lilacs made their own decision while deadness and the greenness were making up their minds ~ not unlike my writing practice that is still deciding whether to steady on or to toss it all over ~ so I continue to write until I have no more words, which has never been a failing of mine.

“If you aren’t in the moment, you are either looking 

forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.”

~ Jim Carrey

Textured Life

It is very simple ~ this tree that is younger than ancient elms gracing our streets, years older than saplings planted 

in the spring. Scars and bumps show the 

life of a tree on a city street. Not unlike our own scars and bumps from life’s 

scratches, tears and bruises; yet we each still stand and keep living at a pace we have chosen or has been chosen for us.

“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience.”

~ Hal Borland, Countryman: A Summer of Relief

Renewed

"Silence is the entrance to the deepest me." I read that in a poem by Sylvia Frances Chan. I understood but had never known it before 

When the deepest me is blanketed by tiredness ~ 

    maybe physical, 

        maybe melancholy, 

            maybe both ~ 

I can only rest ’til step by step I shed, like dust, what has settled in me until I feel alert

    but already I have been awake all day, slowly busy, healing parts of my soul that seemed bruised, but only needed rest.

“I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and 

learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.”

~ Chaim Potok, The Chosen

Prairie Views

The prairie sky is grander than our puny schedules, plans, goals, directions ~ when clouds gather and become the dome above us, magic happens. Today clouds gathered  behind my clear view. They swirled and flexed their muscles, becoming gray and grayer, with patches and wisps of white ~ that clear sky had no choice but to let them come, 

bringing thunder, winds and rain and 

when finished with their tantrums

leaving us with clear skies at sunset.

“After sunset on the prairie, there are only stars.”

~ Carl Sandburg