Poem for a cold, gloomy Thursday

Reluctance

Out through the fields and the woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
And lo, it is ended.

The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
When others are sleeping.

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch-hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question 'Whither?'

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?
Robert Frost

Yolo Wildlife Area

We visited the Yolo Wildlife Area today. I've wanted to go there for a long time because I keep passing the sign on the freeway. I looked it up and I hadn't gotten around to going. Anyway it was pretty cool. We saw lots of birds, including an egret (first picture). As we were walking around my daughter informed me there could be snakes. I wasn't happy but fortunately I didn't encounter one!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We just got back from visiting the tree & menorah at the State Capitol. Then we drove around for awhile and looked at Christmas lights!

Sunday Thoughts

I was thinking about what to post today when I read this article. Terminally ill woman to stay in foreclosed home until she dies. It's a bit trite to say it made me realize how lucky I am but it did. It made me cry also. I feel so sorry for these people. I don't have anything else to say today, so I guess I'll get on with my fairly comfortable, healthy life. It did make me think of this poem.


Love Does That

All day long a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.

And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.

Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,

he looks into the burro's eyes and touches her ears

and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh,

because love does
that.

Love Frees.

~ Meister Eckhart ~

My Christmas Tree!

For the first time in my entire life I bought and decorated a Christmas tree by myself! I was going to do it last weekend but kept putting it off. I guess it's silly but I didn't want to pick one out by myself. Finally this afternoon I went out, found one, drug it into my apartment and decorated! And I only cried a little. Not really from sadness just because it's something new and feels a little scary. Putting on ornaments that bring back memories was hard too. I can sometimes get sentimental over Christmas ornaments. Anyway I had a nice evening decorating and listening to Christmas music. I'm trying to figure out why I know all the words to the 12 Days of Christmas and it's one of my least favorite songs!

One of my cats keeps circling the tree looking for something to pull off. The other is totally ignoring it. She managed to get some tissue paper from me and ripped it up. I think that exhausted her for the day. This whole tree thing exhausted me! My neck aches and I'm tired. I think it's time to curl up like a cat and rest!

Still wrapped up and recovering from my attempts to pull it out of my car and inside the apt.

Wrapping removed and ready for decorations! I was afraid it would be hard to get it into the stand by myself but I didn't have a problem. The guy at the tree lot told me to leave the wrapping on until I got it situated in the stand. It was good advice and worked perfectly!

Decorated! I don't have a top yet though. The top I brought with me to use is too small. Ignore the mess in the background!

I have a bunch of these little bells. I bought them last year at Target and I really like them. They are pink, purple and silver. My mother collected bells so they remind me of her.

Shoot I forget what these are called. Anyway my daughter embroidered this one year. I tried to get a good close-up because it's so pretty.

This is a bird I embroidered for my daughter when she was two years old.

Every year my daughter has had a new ornament for the tree. This is the first one when she was only 6 months old. It's my favorite.

Last but not least, and now I'll probably cry again, this is one of the crocheted ornaments that my Mom made one year. I have six of them and they are special to me.

Sunday Thoughts

Well I'll try Sunday Thoughts for a couple more weeks and see how I like it. Another tree picture! I liked the way this looked. I was, as you can tell, looking up at it. This poem that I found the other day seemed to go with the tree picture.

THE TREE

Because of the morning bird singing,

song will persist inside me.

Because of the sound of traffic,

I shall always wonder,

and I shall be troubled at what remains

unknown. But I shall hope. And because of the mailbox,

and the road, and the tree. It is hard to despair

because of the tree. Slowly, we turn toward love.

~ Tryfon Tolides, An Almost Pure Empty Walking

Sidewalk Art, Leaves and Laundry

There are piles of leaves all over my neighborhood. Unfortunately I've noticed some are disappearing. Fortunately I've taken pictures of them! I have no idea why I'm so entranced by them but I am. Also I got some interesting sidewalk art on my walk yesterday. The other day when I did laundry I took pictures of the windows - I thought they looked nice!
 

The next two pictures go together. The first is easy to read, the second isn't quite as clear but if you enlarge it, you should be able to read it. Apparently the feeling was mutual. I thought it was kind of cute.

Do you have a secret life?

A Secret Life

Why you need to have one
is not much more mysterious than
why you don't say what you think
at the birth of an ugly baby.
Or, you've just made love
and feel you'd rather have been
in a dark booth where your partner
was nodding, whispering yes, yes,
you're brilliant. The secret life
begins early, is kept alive
by all that's unpopular
in you, all that you know
a Baptist, say, or some other
accountant would object to.
It becomes what you'd most protect
if the government said you can protect
one thing, all else is ours.
When you write late at night
it's like a small fire
in a clearing, it's what
radiates and what can hurt
if you get too close to it.
It's why your silence is a kind of truth.
Even when you speak to your best friend,
the one who'll never betray you,
you always leave out one thing;
a secret life is that important.

by Stephen Dunn

Ah well

Monday again. . . I had such a nice weekend. I don't know why weekends always have to end the same way - going back to work. I did a lot of stitching, went to a booksale, cleaned, read, walked and cuddled with my cats. What more could I ask for! I only spent $12 at the booksale and ended up with 9 books. Not a bad deal. I was going to get my Christmas tree but decided to wait until next weekend. I'm going to get my ornaments out of storage then so I might as well wait and not have a mostly empty tree sitting around for a week.

I haven't had a Musical Monday for awhile so here's one for you. Baby the Rain Must Fall sung by Glenn Yarbrough. The video says it's a tribute to Steve McQueen. I thought the quote was interesting: "...every baby boomer honestly believes that the average woman would rather sleep with a dead Steve McQueen than a live Ben Affleck." GQ

Now I'm pretty sure I'm a baby boomer and I don't believe that. Steve McQueen just doesn't appeal to me. I don't know who Ben Affleck is so I looked him up. I guess he's cute but again, doesn't do much for me. Now if it were Cary Grant definitely. Or Pierce Brosnan. Or Martin Sheen - I've been watching West Wing and for a fairly old guy, he looks pretty good! Anyway, here's some music to brighten up your Monday.

Sunday Thoughts

I particularly like my quote this week: In solitary stone fastness among the mountains, there is a strange market, where one can barter the vortex of life for boundless bliss. ~Milarepa (Tibetan poet/yogi, born 1052)

This is a mountain monastery north of Yushu [Gyêgu] near the confluence of the Tongtian and Sepa Rivers.It's where I would imagine one bartering the vortex of life for boundless bliss. I wonder if it would be worth it?

I don't know about Sunday Thoughts as a title. I liked Silent Sunday - maybe I'll go back to that. . . 

Bunches of random stuff

Another post of various bits of information I've found in my web travels!

Pew Internet report says that more people are going online for fun and to pass time, not to specifically look for something. Apparently this is mostly people under 30. I'm slightly over 30 but I go online all the time just for fun. It's amazing the stuff you can find. As this post will show!

One of my not-so-secret interests is UFOs. Seriously. Really and truly. Whether I believe in actual aliens from outer space visiting earth I'm not prepared to say but I find the subject fascinating. Here's an article from The Skeptical Inquirer about the Roswell Incident in 1947. I want to go to Roswell someday!

I cannot imagine why you'd only want an email address for 60 minutes (well I can but I'm going to pretend I can't), but if you do, check out Guerrilla Mail. No registration and you get an email for 60 minutes. If 60 minutes is too long for you, try 10 Minute Mail. Yep 10 minutes. Everything is disposable today.

If you have cats and want to get them a cat tree for Christmas look at these new ones from Whisker Studio. One looks like a cat (sort of) and the other like a tree. Both my cats want the cat one. Unfortunately they seem unwilling to get a job and help pay for it!

Some good advice from Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

If you like pictures, quotes and poetry, visit A la recherche du temps perdue. It's a very cool site! By the way, the title means In Search of Lost Time. I could let you all think I read French but I really used Google translate. I would like to learn French and Italian. I'm worried that my brain is too old though.

I found an interesting site called Quiet: The Power of Introverts. It's managed by Susan Cain who has written a book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.I like the site and what she says. You've probably guessed that I'm an introvert. I've been told all my life that I'm too quiet, I should speak up more, be more outgoing, etc. You know what? I like me this way! Quiet is good, introverted is good, being alone is good. I don't dislike people (well a few maybe) but I'd almost always rather be alone. There are only a small handful of people I can tolerate being around for any length of time. I need to be alone, I need quiet. It's one of the things I love about my apartment complex - it's very quiet here. I rarely hear my neighbors and even the street noise is muted.

As I stated in my second paragraph, I do like going online just for fun. But always, always, always I'd prefer to read. I prefer reading to anything else. Here's a picture from The Tattered Cover Bookstore blog called Bathing in Books. Isn't that wonderful!

Ok, that's about it I think. Speaking of reading, my plan for today is to visit a huge used book sale sponsored by the Friends of the Sacramento Library. I'm looking for some mysteries, beading books, poetry, and just about anything else! I'm signed up to receive notifications from Book Sale Finder every week on book sales in my area. If you like book sales, you might want to register with this site.

After the book sale (if I have money left!), I'm going to look for a Christmas tree. I want to get one soon and decorate. The cats are looking forward to helping me!

StoryPeople

Have you heard of StoryPeople? Now that I ask the question I'm not sure how to explain what they are! Created by Brian Andreas, the company now sells prints, furniture, calendars, and much more.  I have no idea how many stories they have but they are all great. This is from the about us section of their website and probably gives you a better idea than I have!

We're a diverse group of people, artists, activists, healers, tinkerers. We talk, we laugh, we eat great food & drink great wine, sometimes we disagree (passionately) & sometimes we agree (equally passionately) & it's all part of the same gift of being alive together. Our wish is that other people experience this amazing world we live in as a world of imagination & possibility & healing. We believe our stories do that. (& that's not just StoryPeople stories, but all our stories...) We believe (fiercely) in the power of stories, not because they're our stories, but because it is valuable & right to protect the precious connections between people.

Anyway I love StoryPeople! I have two prints hanging in my living room and I'd like to get a lot more. I was going through their site last night and finding stories I thought fit people I knew. I wanted to get them as gifts but it was getting rather expensive! Maybe I'll do it individually throughout the year. I can easily find at least 2-3 prints that fit everyone I know. I have so many favorites I couldn't possible show them all but here's a few. The first one is a particular favorite! Anyway I hope you enjoy these as much as I do and if you are looking for Christmas gifts, this is a great place to start!