All Tucked In

Hearts desires

all tucked in

until we know

“….let’s only say what our hearts desire.”

~ Rumi

A Cat Tale ~ Finally!!

My home is a comfortable one. Until the human that feeds me decides to upset everything, Cleaning she calls it, muttering about my cat hair. The little carpets that really are mine, get tossed outdoors, but I’m not allowed to follow. All my toys were hidden. And that wasn’t all. Just when I thought she was done with all her carrying on, she made delicious smelling food. I was drooling, sure I’d get some good scraps. But no. She took my blanket off of my bed where we sat together! Someone banged on our door and horror of horror’s two tiny humans came in! And two more big ones! That set my ears and tail twitching and sent me diving under a chair where I could watch them. On any ordinary day, I’d sleep all evening until she stopped the noisy flashing pictures to feed me. So I did not get any sleep at all. Well, I was awake at night to prowl and play. But today, I have been exhausted. A blanket back in place for me. No little humans to try to pet me, be nice to me, talk to me in a language that makes no sense at all. The littlest one just would not leave me alone unless I hid under the bed but I had come out to watch them. I just never know where they will be or what they will do. 

“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings for 

one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”

~ Ernest Hemingway

Well Spent

Toys, stickers, puzzles

   giggles and joy

a meal around the table

   watching Elmo

hand shadows under the lampshade

   toys strewn all ‘round

an evening well spent

“Grandchildren are the dots that connect

 the lines from generation to generation.”

~ Lois Wyse, Funny, You Don’t Look Like a Grandmother  (1988)

Long Distance Calls

September 2014 Qu’Appelle Valley

Fixed to the wall beside the coral painted cupboards, a wooden cabinet sported a black speaker above a dial with numbers and letters, to one side a receiver hung on a silver cradle. 

This odd instrument’s only use: to await the ring of the phone on a party line ~ any of the farmers on the same line could pick up and interrupt important adolescent calls going on too long or the operator could call in an emergency call to one of the homes ~ voices travelled along wires strung across the country where birds could rest. Did they feel the vibration of our voices?

Party lines vanished

Single use phones held sway until

multiple use technology bundled everything into 

colourful cell phones, tablets, laptops and computers

buttons and icons locate a myriad of uses

stubby digits or manicured nails send 

emojis bouncing from here to there

voices and images fly about with the birds 

to vibrate and wave to sun and wind, rain and snow.

“Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit 

the voice over wires. Even if it were, it would be of no practical value.”

~ Boston Post, 1865

strowger-net.telefoniemusem.nl

Virtue

April 2009 Victoria, B.C.

Spring arrives in another land 

in a froth of pink and white

while in other lands 

patience is a virtue.

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Book Review - LESS by Andrew Sean Greer (re-post)

This is a third read of Andrew Sean Greer’s novel LESS. I only realized this when I re-read my review from 2018, (my second read). My recall of this story was quite good! 

December 12, 2018

In a most unusual fashion, I read Pulitzer Prize winner LESS by Andrew Greer twice, and before our book club met yesterday. Initially, I played mind games with myself despite being intrigued by the concept of this novel. My second read, having ushered myself out of my mind, I enjoyed the humour and satire in the story following Arthur Less, a failed (according to Arthur) writer. While I was tempted to feel sorry for Arthur Less because his apparent inability to function in life, I found that was doing a disservice to himself. More than self-pity, he really seemed not to have accepted himself as a worthy human being. From the time he was a boy, when his father tried to ‘make a man’ of his son until, years later, his lover of nine years leaves him for another man, Arthur has seen himself in a rather shallow light. To avoid the pending marriage of his lover, he gathers any invitation he’s ever received to speak or teach, packs his bags and travels from New York across Europe in an effort to escape his life and ends back at home. The narrator of this humorous, but very real story, was obvious to many in my book group and in online reviews. Like Arthur, I just didn’t get it and it was revealed towards the end of the book. Another issue that occupied Arthur’s thoughts, besides the loss of his lover and his belief that he was failure as an author, was the fear of aging. Arthur's story is a love story and a coming of age story, pardon the pun. Laugh out loud scenes sparkle throughout this story. Humour so sly that I would almost miss it. Could it be because I don’t always get sly humour until I turn the page?

Always needing to see a philosophical point to a story, I was rewarded by Andrew Greer’s gentle, and humorous, description of the life of one gay man, living on the edge of the gay culture while at the same time being part of it. 

“But what I am trying to tell you (and I only have a moment), 

what I have been trying to tell you this whole time, 

is that from where I sit, the story of Arthur Less 

is not so bad. Because it is also mine.”

~ Andrew Sean Greer, LESS

Title: LESS

Author: Andrew Sean Greer

Copyright: 2017

Hardcover - 2017;

Paperback edition May 2018

Type: Novel 

Publisher: Hatchett Book Group, Inc.

ISBN: 978-0-316-31612-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-0-316-31613-2 (pb)

Book design:  Sean Ford

Printed in the United States of America

The Question of Quality

My theme for the month is quality. What do I mean by quality? Is it goodness, image, presentation? When I think of quality I think of something long lasting, almost perfect - no flaws. But when related to a human being how can that be? We, as a species, seem the most flawed and yet there is a shared belief that, not only are we at the top of the food chain, we deserve to be there. Then we have the audacity to believe we can do anything to the very world that supplies us with everything for our very lives. Where is the quality in that? All our characteristics and qualities are not fully formed at the time of our birth. They are fed to us, honed and developed over the years. From parents, role models, mentors, colleagues, friends and experiences; not to mention this era of social media, truth and disinformation. Children are to develop into quality human beings. They are to make decisions that fit in with their family and community at home and abroad - no black sheep allowed. No wonder our world is so confused. What I do know for sure is that quality feels good, works well and is satisfying. As all who have travelled our path with us through life crumble away, we are alone but never lonely depending on the qualities we have taken into our lives.

“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.