Traveling Home Spontaneously

I turned a closer corner

only because I had been to the bank

decided in the moment to take 

a lane travelled before 

a long time past

still of the city 

filled with cars and bicycles

evening dusk gathering ~

settling into stately old trees 

leaves edged with brown and gold

sentinels lining this curving city street

and just behind darkening trees, 

gauzy clouds infused with peach-pink and gold hover quietly 

a tantalizing hint of the setting sun’s rays

all because I turned a closer corner.

“I never reach those far-off places. New trails tempt me at every turn.”

~ Marty Rubin

Author's note: Edited January 24, 2024

Ruined Routine

Spontaneity ruins routine
Spoils order
Shucks off shoulds and shouldn’ts

Breaks through clouds of doubt
Snaps chain link schedules like twigs
Scrambles over buttresses of political correctness

Spontaneity steps outside in the cold rain
To sit at the table under the shelter of upstairs
To write about ruined routines of reading stacks of books

Spontaneity ruins routines but
When stuffed into any routine finds corners
To ponder ways to bring colour to rules and regulations

Colouring inside black outlines of visions
Sketched and drawn by the powers that be
Finding a light switch hidden under dusty habits

Spontaneity ruins routine and
Blows away dust bunnies gathering quietly
In little pillows of graying softness.

Rounding out each day with a new dance
Designed by spirit from the inside knowing
spontaneity sees little from the outside world.

Spontaneity ruins routines and 
Shapes choices and learning
Giving passion and belief to the life that we live.

“The human spirit lives on creativity and dies in conformity and routine.”

~ Vilayat Inayat Khan

An Impulsive Definition ~ SPONTANEITY ~ Theme for September 2016

Surprising
Purposeful
Opportunity
Now
Tempting
Artful
Natural
Effervescent
Imagination
Tiptoing
Yummy

“Spontaneity is a meticulously prepared art.”

~ Oscar Wilde

Fall Funk Blues

Fall Funk greeted me morosely 
    when I opened my eyes. 
Fall Funk trailed me to the bathroom, 
    to the kitchen , 
      watched me closely while 
I filled the kettle with water, 
    made my coffee. 
With each step 
although I didn’t notice at first that 
   Fall funk’s fist loosened it’s grip. 
Not whining 
  or crying 
    just backing away from
dishes on the cupboard, 
    dishwasher to empty, 
      clothes to put away
         my movements kept on  
Some would call it puttering, 
    multitasking 
       before coffee even crossed my lips.
I called it sleepy-walking. 
Order restored and movement 
    stirring the air my eyes found brightness 
       not cheer 
          but brightness. 
Until in that light bulb moment 
    I knew that the fall funk gremlin had slunk
       back to it’s corner only to go to sleep until next time. 
Movement - not fast, not slow
    a pace that fits each orderly movement 
      kept up the pace until around me order out of chaos 
not even that chaotic 
     evolved before my very eyes. 
Gathering, putting away, rearranging 
     until I can sit here in the sun with my pen - no computer
just pen and paper, sunshine and stillness
   self respect restored and renewed

“If life throws you a few bad notes or vibrations, 

don’t let them interrupt or alter your song.”

~ Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: 

The Writings of Suzy Kassem

For the Love of a Turkey

I’ve been reading old journals this summer to see what my writing life has been like over the years. I’ve written a lot of boring stuff, some really crazy stuff and once in awhile some interesting writing. One suggested writing exercise has been to write, in as much detail as possible, personal surroundings. This entry, from September 14, 2016, was a rather interesting memory and one of the suggested writing exercises.  

I worked at Hazeldell Orchards in the fall each year for almost ten years. Staying in a motorhome on the edge of the apple orchard, I would go outside to do my morning yoga routine. No room in the motorhome. Anyway, this sets up the following entry….

Sept. 14, 2016 7:29 am

‘Truly amazing. Miss Turkey (I just had to name her) joined me for yoga this morning. Not just scratching and clucking but came to the head of the groundsheet only inches away - totally respecting my space. She pulled a fat worm out of the ground and ate it in my presence! After a few minutes, she settled herself, tucking her leathery sharp claws beneath her, folding her speckled black and white wings back and resting her thin neck, relaxing it from its long morning search for food and watching for predators. She sat thusly (pardon the weird wording) while I completed my full yoga/exercise routine only flinching when I stood up and once when my pose had me move in her direction. She did not move from her space until I was back inside the motor home.’

This visit from Miss Turkey continued each morning until I was getting a little nervous. I don't remember how this morning routine stopped - I may find out in a few days as I keep reading my journals. Never had a real turkey fall in love with me! An assumptiom, I know, but she was just getting a bit too friendly.  Still a warm fuzzy memory - if a turkey could be considered warm and fuzzy.

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

~ William Shakespeare,  All’s Well That Ends Well

Book Review - Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

I finished reading this highly acclaimed book a couple of weeks ago, but the information will stay with me for the rest of my life. I’ll not remember each detail, but will remember the all encompassing lesson in it’s text. Three words summarize this marvellous reading: Respect our environment. And we humans are at the end of the food chain. Keeping our food sources healthy, beginning with the land is our responsibility. These are the messages that Rachel Carson penned in Silent Spring

Published in 1962, much of the information is dated for that time, but the deep concerns about our environment remain the same, and now include the issues of genetic modification. 

I’m not suggesting that only the trees and grass, birds and bees, or even ants and spiders are at stake. Our very lives are at stake. However, not today or even tomorrow but with a gradual untraceable demise. Sound frightening?  Sound impossible?  Sci-fi?

As I read this small but very dense volume I had all of these wonderings.  From chemical sprays on lawns and fields into the food that we eat, the food that the worms and birds eat, into our bodies, we create our own vulnerabilities. In minute amounts that become concentrated with time, our vulnerabilities grow. Although much progress has been made to reverse the effects of the chemicals used, to stop the use of many chemicals, to develop organic farming there is still much change needed. The change is required at individual, scientific and in the field of research.

To wake up in the morning without the birdsong of robins or wrens, the cry of the gulls and crows, the buzz of hummingbird wing seems impossible. To go through one day without seeing spider webs in the sun and wind, bees in sunflowers and roses seems outlandish. To step outside at night and not hear any night birds in the deep quiet, seems far too lonely. And without our insects and birds there will also be no sunflowers and roses. These are the warnings that Rachel Carson presented in a very interesting, yet research based manner.

Will I read this book again? Maybe. Silent Spring will definitely stay on my bookshelf as a piece of history and a reminder that my small patch of earth, the plants I grow and the tiny community of life within, deserve my care and attention.

“This is an era of specialists, each of whom sees his own problem 

and is unaware of or intolerant of the larger frame into which it fits.”

~ Rachel Carson

Title: Silent Spring
Author:  Rachel Carson
Publisher: Fawcett World Library
Publication Date: 1962 (no ISBN on my issue)
Format:  Paperback
From Amazon books (newer reprints):
ISBN-13: 004-6442249065
ISBN-10: 0618249060
Type:  Fiction

Movie Review - Hell or High Water ~ Directed by David MacKenzie

Hell or High Water opens in West Texas - a landscape I recognized from the years I lived in Lubbock, Texas. I seemed even to guess the location of the opening scene. The movie was actually filmed in Clovis, New Mexico beginning in May of 2015. It premiered at the 69^th annual Cannes Film Festival in May 2016.

Midland, Texas, about two hours from Lubbock is the scene of an early morning bank robbery. Two brothers, Toby Howard  (played by Chris Pine) and his brother Tanner Howard (played by Ben Foster) rob the Texas Midland Bank of small bills only. This first bank robbery was simple and quick, with some violence. Toby and Tanner race through back alleys and dusty West Texas plains to their family ranch. The family ranch, poorly cared for, and sandblasted by the Texas wind was all that was left for these brothers.  Their mother had passed away several weeks before, Tanner had shortly been released from jail.  The brothers continued on their bank robbery spree of Texas Midland Banks, escalating as the story progressed.

Texas Rangers were called in after the first bank robbery. Ranger Marcus Hamilton (played by Jeff Bridges) and Ranger Alberto Parker (played by Gil Birmingham) grate on each other but manage to work together while they follow the trail of bank robberies and escalating violence. Stationed in Lubbock, Texas the two Rangers get in their pickup and begin the chase that county sherrifs have already begun. After the final bank robbery and a chase into the West Texas plains, the spree ends tragically. 

Final scenes are after Ranger Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) has retired. He was still puzzling and trying to work out, as only a West Texan can, why the robberies had taken place. Tanner (Ben Foster) did have a rap sheet of violence and bank robberies for which he had served time.  Toby (Chris Pine) did not, but he did have a family and owed his wife much money in back child payments. Ranger Hamilton’s final conversations are with Toby and just when they are beginning to talk about what happened, Toby’s exwife and children arrive at the home that is now their own.

Dialogue, rich and colourful, included racial slurs towards Native Americans characters, which I found rather jarring, however individuals suffering the brunt of these slurs either returned it in kind or turned a very cold shoulder. The issue of gun violence was addressed in an interesting manner. Initially it seemed as though having the ability to defend in the bank robbery situation was being praised. However later in the movie, the impotence of several handguns in the face of one assault rifle, was demonstrated very effectively. Was that on purpose? I don’t know, that was my perception.

Written by: Taylor Sheridan
Directed by:  David MacKenzie
Starring Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine and Ben Foster

Rated R for some strong violence, language throughout and brief sexuality

“No amount of fire or freshness can challenge 

what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.”

~ F.Scott Fitzgerald, from The Great Gatsby

A True Celebrity Tomato

I ate it.
I ate it like it was an apple.
The first tomato I have successfully grown in many years.
I am always grateful for the abundance of our grocery stores
The respect I feel is for all of the people that fill the stores with produce, meat and that stock the shelves ~
The respect I feel is for the life within the tiny seeds that shoot up from the soil,
the blossoms that bear the beautiful fruit so that I can grow and eat my own tomatoes.
Red, delicious and fresh.

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap

 but by the seeds that you plant.”

~ Robert Louis Stevenson 

(1850-1894), Scottish author