All at Once

Wine and bread

To break a fast

Turkey and fixin’s

To share our thanks

Short and sweet

Stuffed, replete

“To do the impossible, you need to ignore the popular.”

~ Tim Ferriss

Speed Limits

How many crossroads are there in a day? Being a prairie farm girl where gravel roads are straight and long, I completely missed all the twenty four hour crossroads I keep tripping over. The twists and turns that feel like city streets of stop and go and one way only. 

In the previous world of uniforms and stethoscopes, 

it was as it should be. Get your roller skates on and 

watch for pedestrians whether a patient or doctor. 

Just keep moving with an eight hour momentum, 

and keep one eye on the clock. When you put 

your feet up at home, pick up what is supposed 

to be slowed down, but every nerve and muscle 

in your body is still racing to get some work done.

In a retirement world, momentum is yours to play 

with. Just wake up in the morning and look at your

calendar with all its little boxes. Now is the hard part. 

Make your own decisions. It might be to keep your 

slippers and robe on, read a book or work on a project 

of your own choosing. Decide which road to take, 

no limit on speed. With the comforts of home at the 

setting of the sun, the only decision is how to greet them.

“Momentum? Momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher.”

~ Earl Weaver, Baseball Player

(August 1930 - January 2013)

October Gold

I am not sad when I feel 

the crunch of crisped leaves 

beneath my feet, when I 

know that in the not too 

distant future, it will be the 

icy crunch of snow. 

There is a touch of, I think, 

nostalgia somewhere between 

my heart and my mid section. 

It’s an odd feeling. A gentle tug that eases when I kick through the crumbling leaves. 

I don’t even throw sidelong 

glances to see if anyone’s 

watching. By chance, I took a 

different route home. I walked 

under arching elm trees bursting 

with gold, aglow in the afternoon sun. 

“I have been younger in October than in all the months of spring.”

~ W.S.Merwin, poet

(Sept 1927 ~ March 2019)

Not Today

Today is for walking 

    under the sun

Today is for wind 

    tousling my hair

Today is for 

    being independent 

Today is for 

    chocolate ice cream

Today is for 

    growing and learning

Today is for joy.

Today is for more

”Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.”

~ Will Rogers, actor

(Nov 04,1879 ~Aug 15, 1935)

It’s a Stretch

It's a stretch to believe that roots brought this scraggly plant to life and with blossoms! Solid rock 

does not exactly suggest a quaint garden space.

I suppose the world feels like that solid rock to any age. I was going to say ‘a little one’ or ‘a toddler’, but then my grownup world does feels a bit rocky some days. 

Yet, we keep forcing a life, good 

or not so good, from all the rocks 

strewn about the world. For me, 

I’m pretty stubborn. I just keep 

putting down roots with belief 

and hope that they will grow.

“The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.”

~ Tennessee Williams

Soap Bubbles ~ 2

Happiness made easy is 

never really happiness. 

Happiness always comes 

as a surprise, at least for 

me. Like bubbles that 

sprout from those little 

plastic toys dipped in 

soapy water. To be very 

cynical, when happiness 

lands on your nose or an 

autumn leaf, it bursts. But the 

best thing? Dipping the toy 

in soapy water again blowing

a breath of life gently at the 

iridescent film to make more.

“Happiness is not something ready-made.  

It comes from your own actions.”

~ Dalai Lama

Attractions

Temptation to take a taxi instead of the bus was pushed 

aside. The sun was shining and the wind, today at least, 

was calm. It turned out to be 

a good thing, except that I 

was tempted once more at the bus stop where I sat on

a bench painted dark green. I shared a ‘good morning’ to passersby. Then I 

wondered. Do I take a photo of the clouds 

that were called horse tails when I was a kid. 

Was that only yesterday? Or will my bus slide 

by me while I have my head tilted up and 

my eye on the clouds instead being 

vigilant for the #10 bus. But then I saw 

a fish’s mouth, open wide, at the tip of one

of the horse tails. No matter how hard I tried, 

I could not see any bus even 4 blocks away. 

Temptation won out. Such relief to have these 

little temptations call me to account. The #10 

came, I stepped aboard leaving the clouds to themselves.

“Temptation to behave is terrible.”

~ Bertolt Brecht, German poet