In the Wildness

Milk Thistle
Royal Saskatchewan Museum

Roaming the gardens 

sets my prairie heart 

beside bees and butterflies

gathering nectar and pollen 

from native wild flowers,

while bugs and beetles 

hide their busyness 

in the wildness.

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”

~ Mary Oliver, Yes!No!

Some Cats Are Like That

Late 1980's

Cats need more attention. 

No cats that I have known agree.

Miss Kitty, using my son as a pillow,

would not have found attention necessary. 

Welcome, but unnecessary.

Some cat’s are like that ~ stand offish and aloof

until it’s time for them to insist on attention.

My cat, Jet, just walks across my laptop 

leaving a row of unrelated letters in my work.

I’m to figure out what he was spelling and.

can usually figure it out. I respond; he settles.

While not as emotionally demonstrative 

as dogs, cats do have a quiet way of 

inserting themselves into our lives.

So I bow to all the feline companions 

I’ve had over the years. Quiet companions, 

until it’s time to be pragmatic and eat.

“If animals could speak the dog would be 

a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat 

would have the rare grace of 

never saying a word too much.”

~ Mark Twain

Berry Red

Once again, I was walking to an appointment, not paying much attention to anything but where my feet were going, 

to avoid any stray and threatening pebbles; the cars parked along the street snugged up against the curb; 

a saw horse with a sheet of plywood planning to be part of a wall, or maybe a dog house. It was the bright red that reached 

out and pulled at my eyes. The 

berries that had previously been 

green and ready to go, on another day 

were blushing at being caught out in 

the sun, and on this day were brilliant 

whispers of the ripening season that slips 

us slowly into the turn of the seasons. 

But not just yet.

“You notice. And noticing you live.”

~ John Graves, writer

(August 1920 - July 2013)

Time Slips By

In body and soul, 

time slips by as

the wants and needs

of life and limb

wait for our attention.

“You may delay, but time will not.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

The Little Nutcracker

Demoted from his position 

as a Christmas tree ornament,

the little Nutcracker stood

to attention between the candle glow.

“This is, indeed, a place where magic happens.”

~ Amanda V. Shane, Snow Maiden

Attention to Detail - 2

Attention to Detail - 2 

“Really? You want me to clean my room? On a Saturday? Again? Come on, Mom, I cleaned it last Saturday and it’s hardly even messed up at all.”

Thirteen year old, Luke Jamieson pushed himself back from his desk chair, sighing heavily. “That’s all I can think of to write? About arguing with mom about cleaning my room. How boring is that?” He got up, shoved his chair back under the desk, and began stripping his bed. His mom had left clean sheets for him before she went out for groceries, kissed him on the cheek and rushed off on what she called her ‘runabouts’.  His English assignment was to write a short story about a personal problem. It was to be 300 words or less. All he had so far was 28 words. He supposed that was less that 300, but knew he would flunk badly and his parents would hear about it.

He finished making up his bed and stood back to look at his work. If he didn’t have the pillows just so, and quilt edges absolutely perfect, his mom always freaked out and make him do it all again. He adjusted what he considered really minor details. He really didn’t want to listen to the ‘attention to detail’ lecture again. Luke stumbled backwards over clothes and shoes that he’d kicked out of the way so he could make his bed. Landing on his carpeted floor with a thump, at first he was really ticked off. He started to laugh. “I’ve got it! This is perfect” He jumped up, grabbed everything off the floor and shoved it in his laundry basket, shoes and all. 

Grabbing the back of his chair, he pulled it out and spun it around. Throwing himself into his spinning chair, he put his feet under his desk and pulled himself to the computer. A little dizzy, he pulled his keyboard to him and started typing. “I hope this is good enough for Mrs. C. I’ll show it to Daphne tonight and she can correct my lousy grammar.”

~~~~~

“When I fell on the floor, because I was such a slob, all I could think of was one of my mom’s lectures. ‘Attention to detail’ are her three favourite words. Mom’s details are how the neat the pillows are. My details are whether I trip over my own details.”

Luke handed in his short story - 245 words - on Monday afternoon after he read it aloud to the class. Luke grinned when he got his grade: C+. He had never gotten A+ before!

“The truth of the story lies in the details.”

~ Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies

A Long Overdue Letter to Santa Claus - 2nd Edition

I've received so many gifts this past year, one more beautiful than any material wish ~ my great granddaughter, Rylie Rose'Marie. She's five months old now! Finding this letter, still unmailed from last year, I was quite humbled. (I did take the opportunity to add a bit to my Santa letter for Rylie Rose.) Found this letter this morning! No envelope. No stamp. Maybe I’ll mail it next year? Anyway ~ it still holds true. My belief in Santa Claus, my knowledge that Christmas comes at any time and my Christmas wishes for each of you….Merry Christmas everyone!!

Dear Santa, 

I’m not sure I should be writing you this letter. It’s been over 60 years since the last time I wrote, but I’ve been thinking a lot about you lately. Partly because it’s Christmas and your namesakes are all over the place. But partly because I miss Christmas morning and the brown stockings filled with nuts, candy and an orange in the toe. Did you really eat all the cookies and milk at everyone’s house? 

But that’s not what I wanted to ask about. I have everything I need and most things I want. But there is one thing that I have always wanted. It’s been a secret. I want a kitchen ~ a big kitchen. My own kitchen with all the gadgets I want. If I told you the truth, besides gadgets, I would like it to be a big kitchen. Two refrigerators - or one really big one. Two ovens, one at eye level and one an ordinary one. And a gas range. I want room for a table in the middle of my big kitchen. With big windows facing west on one side and east on the other side.

By the way, I have a great granddaughter now so when she's little bigger we'll be baking cookies and bread and lots of good things, so I'll also need a good sturdy stool for her to stand on, please and her own 'cooking corner'.

Well that’s all I want and really I don’t expect it. Not because I don’t think you couldn’t get it here in time, but I really don’t know what I’d do with all that space. I guess I just wanted to write  one more letter to you.

Your friend, Susan

P.s. Of course, there would need to be a corner for a window seat with book shelves lined with cookbooks and storybooks

P.P.S. And if it’s not too much to ask, I’d need just a little cottage complete with a writing room with a roll top desk and a child's table and chair.

P.P.P.S. Would it be lacking wisdom if I asked for a weekly maid service…..and a garden for vegetables and flowers? (Complete with a set of child's garden tools)

“Only now have you lived long enough 

to know the child that you shall always remain.”

~ Martin I. Green, Santa: My Life and Times

All the Things

December, 2007  - Journal

If all the things I count as baggage had not happened when they did ~

if they had not happened with

such force and terror 

would I have paid attention to

my life? Would I have learned

the things I’ve learned, 

the ways I erred ~

to lose myself 

and to find myself ~ 

A journey interesting and long.

May, 2019 - Perspective

If all the things I count as blessings

had not happened when they did

if they had not happened with

such surprise, gratitude and joy

would I have paid attention to

My life? Would I have learned

the things I’ve learned, 

to change the ways I’ve lived

to find parts of myself that

I thought were lost or never there?

Short or long ~ that journey is fascinating!

“You can add up your blessings or add up your troubles. 

Either way, you’ll find you have an abundance.”

~ Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway

Rushed

Yesterday’s muse did not 

follow my own parameters

for it was not begun with

the Y that should have been.

So this evening to offer

repair for my lapse 

in attention to detail, 

I use said Y in humble apology.

“I’m sorry if this all seems a little rushed and desperate. It is.”

~ Chuck Palahniuk, Stranger than Fiction

Attention, Please

From the Christmas Truck Convoy
last Saturday, December 1, 2018

Maximizing time means ~ what?

hurrying to fill in as much 

time that ticks on with

  each stroke of the pen,

    stir of the pot or 

      step that we take.

Maximizing time ~ not done

when rushed and flushed through

with little wisdom, attention or meaning

so our hearts and souls can keep up.

Maximizing time takes the hours of the day

and make each day ours so that 

we revolve through our days 

as the sun revolves around the earth.

Maximizing time today means 

cutting writing time short because

I off to gather ideas, food and fun at

 ~ a Tuba Christmas in Market Square and

   ~ The Gingerbread Showcase at the Plaza Hotel.

“Time is what we want most. But what we use the worst.”

~ William Penn