A Key Connection

A Key Connection

“Serious or spontaneous, Mrs. Bodwin. Which do you want me to be?” Joseph P. Sanderton, 16 years old, was frustrated with his favourite teacher. She had read all the papers handed in about what her English student's passions were. There had been quite a pleasing array ~ from dog training to some great social issues of the day. When it came to Joseph’s paper, she frowned. “Well, Joseph, I’m really not certain. You’ve written about being serious about a stage career in concert piano, which is admirable. Then you go on to talk about ‘jazz joints’ and busking on street corners.” She looked up at him, set his paper down and said sternly “You’ll have to rewrite this and tell me how those two things come together. If they come together.” Joseph took the paper from her. He really hadn’t thought about how strange the two concepts looked together. She had asked him to stay after class to discuss this with him. A talented young man, she had heard him play many times, both classical and jazz piano. When she read his paper, it was patently obvious that he had not seen the connecting theme. There was a desire for concert piano and a similar desire for jazz piano. His adolescent musician’s mind had yet to connect the two. Any good jazz musician, or concert pianist, was always both serious and spontaneous. The passion was music. Maybe with a rewrite he would see the connection. Her face relaxed, her voice softened “Just try again, Joseph and look for a connection between the two ~ you may find you don’t need to be serious or spontaneous.”

“Invisible threads are the strongest ties.”

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Narrow Vision ~ PASSION ~ Theme for August 2022

Passion!? Whatever do you mean…

Art and the world…..

Serious or spontaneous…..

Seven days of…..

Idea ~ only the germ….

Over the top belief……..

Nerds? Are they ever……..

“A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm 

themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke.”

~Vincent Van Gogh

Author's note: After a discussion with a friend about the word 'passion', I decided to look up the definition. My definition was really about romance, not about a deep belief in something ~ even though, in August of 2018, I had written that same theme. So this month, my theme is ‘passion’ ~ again. Just maybe I can learn nuances of this word ~ ‘passion’ and maybe more about myself.

Beginning Again

Beginning Again

Spontaneous. That’s what his buddies would think when they found out. Old Mr. Johnson across the street was watering his roses. He waved to him. His neighbour just scowled at him, turned the water off and rolled up the hose. Jack was pretty sure he’d go in, tell his wife he’d seen him and mention how rude he’d been. Jack never could figure him out why his neighbour thought he was rude. He had always tried to be friendly. The old man and his wife would be watching. They watched everyone on the street and if they didn’t know for sure what people were doing, they made it up. Jack put his briefcase down. He squinted up at the sun. It was a lovely warm and calm day. Looking over at his garden, thinking of all the work they had put into their house, he picked it up again. About to go down the steps to his car, he said “No, not this time.” He looked around to see if anyone was in ear shot. Their marriage had started out idyllic and joyful. For six years it had been beautiful. She left him. Just like that. One day she was gone. After that, he just continued going to work, smiling, going out with his friends after work. So many blind dates. Jack shook his head. None of them lasted more than two dates, if at all. Eleanor had been his one and only. None of the others even were even close to her. “Maybe I shouldn’t have put her on a pedestal. No one could ever live up to that glossy image of her." Jack turned back to the front door of his ordinary house on that ordinary street. He locked the door for the last time and put the keys in the mailbox. Taking his gray suit jacket off, he put it and his wallet in the saddle bags of his bicycle, put his black helmet on. 

Jack rode away. He didn’t know where he was going or how long he’d be riding. He only knew that his life had become too rote and secluded from a world of possibility. 

“I could stay, and search for what had been home, or I could go, 

now, before the walls shifted and the ways out was shut.”

~ Tara Westover, Educated

A Good, Solid Feeling

Spontaneous adventures are the best

Action figures prominently

Thought goes into the dance

Ideas pop and sprout

Surprise at the end of the day

Food and family are absolute partners

Accessibility makes life easier

Curiosity breathes inspiration

Top of the mountain

Intention favours vision and determination

Opportunity bounces and bounds

Nothing like it!

“Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want.”

~ Voltaire, Candide

The Reality of Being a Mom

The reality of being a mom
comes when that new life is in your hands

The reality of being a mom
shows up spontaneously when watching your child grow

The reality of being a mom
shows it’s hard edge when letting go is the only solution

The reality of being a mom
comes with gratitude, pride and longing

The reality of being a mom
is forever changing over time.

“nothing in this world was more difficult than love.”

~ Gabriel Garcia Márquez

Author’s note: Edited January 26, 2024

Cocoon

Curling into the cocoon of

safety and rest ~

A spontaneous desire for health.

“Snuggle down in my cocoon, be a butterfly soon.”

~ Dean Koontz

Nap Times

Naps
Spontaneous close of eyes
Merely to lighten heaviness
Time of day irrelevant.

“There’s never enough time for all the naps you want.”

~ Carolyn V. Hamilton

Space and Time

Spaces ~ the pauses that draw breath from the universe
opening the sky and letting wind stir the leaves of trees

Spaces ~ the places where flow is hidden within the noise of words and challenges

Spaces ~ Precious rests and pauses we each create
spontaneously, with or without thought or care.

Spaces ~ Our opportunities every day
to rest in the safety of space and time.

“In the space between chaos and shape there was another chance.”

~ Jeanette Winterson, The  World and Other Places: Stories

Autumn's Joy

Bright soft petals
melting in autumn sunshine
open their seed to the sky ~
Spontaneous joy of nature.

Autumn….the year’s last, loveliest smile.”

~ William Cullen Bryant

Movie Review - Sully directed by Clint Eastwood

When there is an airline tragedy anywhere in the world, there is usually a detailed investigation. ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, played by Tom Hanks, was at the centre of one such investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation targeted Captain Sullenberger, using simulations of two available airports rather than what was an unplanned, but controlled, water landing on the Hudson River. Captain Sullenberger’s self confidence was badly shaken during the hearings. His entire forty year aviation career, and his personal integrity, was called into question based solely on the simulations. Clint Eastwood directed this movie, based on the autobiography, Highest Duty, showing not just the water landing but the hearings and the assault by the press insisting on writing the story of the controlled water landing. 

At an approximate altitude of 2800 feet, Airbus A320 hit a flock of Canada Geese. Both engines were disabled. On January 15, 2009, Captain Sullenberger brought US Airways Flight 1549 down on the Hudson River with 155 people on board, including himself, his co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, played by Aaron Eckhart and two flight attendants. All one hundred and fifty people survived the dramatic water landing. Within 24 minutes, ferries, NYPD and the Coast Guard arrived and removed all passengers and crew to safety. Red Cross was on shore waiting to assist them.  

The general populace believed ‘Sully’ to be a hero. Charles Porter (Mike O’Malley) and his team at the National Transportation Safety Board seemed certain that he was not a hero but had made an error in judgement. Clint Eastwood directed the back and forth dynamic between two courageous men, Captain Sullenberger and Co-Pilot Jeff Skiles, and the National Transportation Safety Board. In this movie, the human factor, requiring spontaneous responses to sudden devastating events, is the turning point that restores some sanity.

“There’s simply no substitute for experience in terms of aviation safety.”

~ Chesley Sullenberger

Partial Cast
Tom Hanks - Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberg
Aaron Eckhart - Jeff Skiles
Valerie Mahafy - Diane Higgins
Delphi Harrington - Lucille Palmer
Laura Linney - Lorraine Sullenberger
Mike O’Malley - Charles Porter
Jamey Sheridan - Ben Edwards
Anna Gunn - Elizabeth Davis
Holt McCallany - Mike Cleary
Katie Couric - Katie Couric
David Letterman - David Letterman

Conditions for Growth

Creating space for growth is not necessary ~
planting seed can be
from above, around or by hand.
Spontaneous sprouting may be
shooting up or cautiously reaching for light, moisture and nourishment ~
unconditional love offers safety.

“Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles

 is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?”

~ John Keats, Letters of John Keats

Happiness

Made by my recent host and sister, Kate Hersberger-Cheers

Apparently happiness is a choice. Chasing happiness is the goal, yet a spontaneous burst of happiness surprises me with no choice and no chase.

Each time I look at this marvellous sunflower, happiness flowers inside my heart and makes me smile
(Usually only babies have that effect on me.)

Sunflower has stayed at Kate’s but I’ve brought a photo with me!

“Our brightest blazes of gladness are 

commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”

~ Samuel Johnson, The Idler; Poem

Into the Sunset

The sun has set on my prairie vacation

Stubby trees stand guard in my absence in the presence of my cherished family and friends.

This longing of mine, spontaneous and deep, is an imprint of my prairie home ~ a part of my DNA.

“Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder 

not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting.”

~ Richard Paul Evans, The Gift

Qu'Appelle Valley Autumn

A prairie walk with Kate
Down a well trodden path through drying bush
Between tall grasses bearded or burnished golden red
softly rumpled hills of faded green
trimmed in orange rusting prairie bush and tree
Tall rushes in a dense marsh stand in deep still waters,
filled with busy lives of beavers, frogs, and birds.
Summer's breath held in azure sky.
In awe of autumn's spontaneous grandeur.

"Fall has always been my favourite season. The time 

when everything bursts with it's last beauty, as if 

nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale."

~ Lauren DeStefano, Wither

A History of Friendship

A history of friendship
Reads of hugs and tears
Laughter and more hugs

A history of friendship
Reads of coffee and cinnamon buns
While reviewing life's joys and sorrows

A history of friendship
Is never boring or dry reading
But a cherished book full of the spontaneity of life.

"Like seeds we start small, grow together and stand tall."

~ Evy Michaels

Prairie Calm

At home

driving through prairies

wide golden wheat fields

trimmed and tidied

bales rolled and wrapped

cutouts of barns and granaries

against the pale blue evening sky.

Curving horizon frayed by infrequent trees.

Sun long set but sky only slowly losing light.

Strips of tattered pink cloud silk

hover over the sun's last rays.

Witnessing the wide open earth and sky ~

a spontaneous balm to my heart.

"I was born upon the prairie, where the wind blew free, 

and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. 

I was born where there were no enclosures, 

and where everything drew a free breath."

~ the Great Comanche war chief, Ten Bears

Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart.

Definitely Not Poetic

Today's line up:
Visiting with a friend, coffee and pj's

Brunch with RGH School of Nursing - 260 nurses - classmates all: career instructors, staff nurses, and administrators. 43rd Annual Alumnae meeting for my school of nursing. In the first years, it was a Saturday evening supper, however a couple of years ago, we voted to change it to a Sunday brunch. (Today, and quite spontaneously, it was decided that the Roughrider fans - dressed in Roughrider green t-shirts  ate first so they wouldn't miss the game). A 75 year class reunion, a 60 year class reunion and a 50 year reunion besides those of us in the in between years spent the brunch hour reminiscing with great fondness.

Our speaker this year was Jacque Tisher of Hope's Home here in Regina. Jacque Tisher is an RN, who began Hope's Home because of her own child with complex special needs. Hope's Home is the only day care in Canada for children with complex medical needs. Any of the family's children in need of day care come to this daycare special needs - whether with or without complex medical needs. An important principal for this organization is that of family.  Hope's Home is a non-profit organization, only four years old, that now has day care sites in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

A brief break for a bit more visiting.

Then out to supper with my grandson - Thanks Jon!  Love you! Love talking philosophical ideas with you..

Now:  visiting with a friend while watching the Emmy's, back in pj's.

hopeshome.org
Can also be found on Facebook
p.s. - The Rider's won!!

"Caring is the essence of nursing."

~ Jean Watson

Flight Line

Clouds raining down,
black asphalt shines
street lights reflect in puddles

Up from the tarmac
soft white fog cushions,
blotting out landscape and sky

Rising above the fog
rumpled grey cloud throws a blanket
to the edges of the horizon

Passing the horizon
a flat white sheet of cloud
meets blue domed sky

Ever shifting cloud becomes
soft foothills and valleys
white, slate blue and grey

Light grey clouds thin and fray
rivers and prairie beneath
disappear spontaneously

Patchwork prairie emerges
clouds suspend themselves
tarmac dried, dusty and rough.

"The sky and the sun are always there. It's the clouds that come and go."

~ Rachel Joyce

Abandoned

A tiny house 

sat under a tree

A-waitin' a leprechaun 
rent definitely not free.

No one came a-callin'
thro' leaves ‘neath the tree

Empty it stood in the quiet.

A potential home spontaneously!

“I think people need housing. And there's empty buildings. 

I think people should live in them. If you want to call 

them squatters, trespassers, hey, I call Wall Street thieves!”

~ Al Lewis (Grandpa Munster)

Tissue Paper Flowers

Spontaneous innocence

flowering gaily as child’s play 

in yards and parks.

“She was fragile, gentle, wide awake in a sleeping world.”

~ Jeanette Winterson, Gut Symmetries