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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Shifting Plans


Morning at home started as usual with poetry and news
No rain, wind or frost to slow my drive to work
Joggers in the early dark, head lights bobbing, a mere distraction.

Eight hours at Detox went well, a couple of errands on my way home ~ mail a letter, find a recommended novel for book club.
That last looping search for a book led me to this grand scene

I was on my way home from an expedition through 
one library, and three book stores.
Now I would be later getting home than I wanted.
Coming down Quadra St. towards the water
masses of clouds over snow covered mountains
called out to me through the barren trees tops of Beacon Hill Park.
Dark branches like gnarled, laced fingers prevented me from clearly seeing the snow capped mountains rising through low lying shredded rolls and strips of cloud in the early evening pink-gray sky.

I’ll admit, it was a struggle to shift gears ~
answer the call of the clouds
move out of my work mode
change my planned days end.

My only disappointment?
I wasn’t fast enough to snap photos of the two or three gulls that rode the wind.

“Our thoughts create our reality ~ where we
put our focus is the direction we tend to go.”
~ Peter McWilliams

Friday, January 4, 2013

Creative Transformation


Mr. Cookie Jar

I had a story to write. The topic? Cookie Jar. And as in many fanciful stories, this cookie jar was no ordinary cookie jar. He was quite special so was only taken out of the china cabinet once each year. He was round and had a very smart coat of glossy pumpkin orange with big brown buttons painted down the front, and a lid that was no ordinary lid. The lid was a second glossy round pumpkin with a dark green stem on top.  

His favorite time was Hallowe’en when he was filled with all kinds of cookies - Oatmeal with raisins, shortbread, thumbprint sugar cookies and snicker-doodles with cinnamon sugar. He loved the attention when, after the cookies were all gone, he was put in the middle of the dining room table as part of the Thanksgiving centerpiece. After all of the merry making was over, he was carefully put away until the next year.  

****

Francis was stumped. She wanted to make another centrepiece, but for the Christmas table. Hmmm. Her Christmas budget had been maxed out so she couldn’t just go buy a centrepiece. Clearing the dining room table for the umpteenth time of all the holiday mess, she was about to put away the Hallowe’en cookie jar that she always used for the fall centrepiece.  

‘Why don’t I just leave this centerpiece as it is?  I wouldn’t have to make another one......No, I can’t do that. Orange just wouldn’t be the right colour. I could dress him up. But fall colours aren’t a good match for Christmas colours. How can I make this work? Well, I’ll put the cookie jar away last so I don’t break him.' Addressing the cookie jar as though he could hear her and talk back she said: “What do you think, Mr. Cookie Jar? Can you give me any ideas?”

If Mr. Cookie Jar could have answered or even shaken his head, he wouldn’t have had any idea but just to leave him where he sat.

Francis had her sewing machine out as usual when she made the Hallowe’en costumes, and kept it at the ready. She had planned to sew some red, green and gold plaid place mats for her Christmas dinner table setting. Only her husband, their two children and one cousin would be together this year. Francis had finished cutting out all the pieces for the place mats.There was a long strip of the red, green and gold plaid material left. She was about to throw it in the trash she had collected but stopped, looked at Mr. Cookie Jar, looked at the long scrap of cloth, looked at Mr. Cookie Jar again and then wrapped the strip of cloth around his neck. Then she picked up a candy cane and propped it against him. Putting the scraps and candy canes down, Francis went to her children’s toy trunk and after rummaging around, came out with her prize. A tiny black top hat with a wide gold band!  

“Well, Mr. Cookie Jar, you’re not getting put away just yet. Hope you don’t mind. I have plans for you.” Francis moved him to a clear space on the sewing table and measured around his tummy and from the top of his green curved stem to his flat bottom that sat securely on the table. She sewed and trimmed and measured and finally put the quickly fashioned scarf around his neck.  His neck was only a thin space between his round head and his little round belly.  It still didn’t look quite right.  

“Mr. Cookie Jar, what am I going to do with all that orange!” Gazing outside, where there was absolutely no snow, she had to look past the sprayed on snow flakes she and the children had put on the windows, while she munched on a gingerbread man decorated like a snow man.

“Come on with me, Mr. Cookie Jar.  We’re going outside.” Francis carefully sat the cookie jar on the wide ledge of the balcony and, after shaking the noisy can of false snow she sprayed the white stuff all over him. The transformation was miraculous.  

Francis gave a satisfied sigh but was not quite finished. Carefully carrying the now white cookie jar into the house, she placed him back on his silver tray, removed the dried maple leaves and branches from the fall centerpiece and replaced them with Christmas greenery and holly berries.  

The top hat was next.  It just fit over his stem, and had to sit at quite a jaunty angle because of the curve of the stem.  Mr. Cookie Jar had been transformed from a cookie jar that looked like he's just stepped out of a pumpkin patch to a sparkly snow man with a beautiful new Christmas scarf wrapped around him. His eyes, nose and mouth and buttons clean from ‘snow’. Candy canes were placed among the holly, with one leaned up against him.

*****

After all of the Christmas and New Year festivities were over it was time to clean off the dining room table again. Mr. Cookie Jar was taken to the kitchen sink and given a  bath. All of the white was washed off of him and his glossy orange coat was polished to a bright shine. As Francis placed the cookie jar back in the china cabinet behind china plates, cups and crystal, she said “Thank you Mr. Cookie Jar. Maybe we’ll do this again next year.”

“Transformation literally means
going beyond your form.”
~ Wayne Dyer

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Word of the Day - 'Marginalization'


Marginalization - Just a muse on a frequently heard and often used word.
In a very quick review of several dictionaries, I found no clear etymology, however it can’t help but have developed from the word margin.

Margins: Edges and lines that define spaces and places.

Edges: gently shape and nurture them so they don’t fray.

Lines: define borders and boundaries
on a page or a map.

Circumference:  one such circular edge and line that defines a space or a place - a hale and hearty human cell or maybe a bright and bouncy beach ball.
In counter point - when we do shuffle folks out to the frayed edges of society, we effectively surround our own special spaces blocking entries or exits.
We disconnect from each other, missing out on each other’s knowledge and wisdom gained from 'The School of Life' that we all attend.

Borders:
Could it be that our marginalized folk, 
pushed to the borders and edges of our societies 
grow and flourish despite our rejection?
Could it also be that they 
ultimately become protectors and defenders 
against real or perceived intruders for us all?

“All experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untravelled
world whose margin fades for ever and for ever when I move.”
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

No One is Watching


No one is watching
no one but me

I can do what I want because
no one can see.....

My eyes are wide open
and always will be.

I can sneak in a cookie, a candy or treat.
I don't even dot i’s, cross t’s, or my feet

Really....no one is watching,
no one but me.

But what of a good deed....should I not get the praise?
I want every one watching to give great accolades!

Oft no one is watching
no one but me.

But my heart and my mind will glow with content,
when a smile, a hug and a ‘thank you’ is sent.

To know someone was watching 
for someone like me.

“Memories of our lives, of our works
and our deeds will continue in others.”
~ Rosa Parks

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Alone in the Kitchen


The New Year started with a lovely sunny morning.
Alone in the kitchen and preparing to bake bread,
Mom and Grandma Garratt dropped in.

Grandma brought broom and dustpan, sweeping up flour and crumbs that dropped as I baked
Mom brought the bread pans and measuring cups for the well kneaded bread dough I prepared.

While I worked,
I was certain I heard them 
as they chatted and had coffee ~
making sure I washed up when I was done.

It has been many years since their earthly forms were with us,
comforting to see and hear them when I pick up a 
broom and dustpan
dented bread pan and measuring cups.

I was alone in the kitchen this morning
with comforting, wholesome memories.

“Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.”
~ Marcus Tulius Cicero

Monday, December 31, 2012

The Chapter's Last Page






2012’s story has all but been told.
In a few short hours, 
last page and chapter will close.

2013’s story is about to begin.
Sit up. Pay attention. 
Let the New Year fly in!

Happy New Year!




"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on,
with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us,"
~ Hal Borland

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Timelines and Butterflies


Yesterday ~ one goal completed
Today ~ another envisioned
Twining together across timelines of 
day to night to day

In the midst of it all
random thoughts gather
jumble in with 
laundry, 
breakfast, 
an errand or two
or a good book.

Random thoughts do not
ask to be written anywhere
nor even remembered.

They are just like 
butterflies
pretty flowers
thunderstorms
trees bent in the wind
horizons at land or sea’s end

If I do catch one in flight
try to set it down in black and white
what is in my mind can easily
morph and shift as
the ethereal curtain of aurora borealis
waving prettily in a cold night sky.

“So you see, imagination needs moodling ~ long,
inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering.”
~ Brenda Ueland