Awesome!

Found something in my reading earlier today, and it is "awesome" ..... just saying the word sounds like it is a B-I-G something, and in truth the concept of awesomeness, is pretty grand in and of itself... The author's name is Neil Pasricha, and his blog is <1000awesomethings.com> ...it's a pretty kewl place, a different entry for every day, that one awesome thing he finds every day to talk about, be it so very tiny and humble to something magnificent, just that one thing that makes you stop and re-examine what you thought you knew. He now has a book out as well, which I will be looking into obtaining for my summer reading forays.....

Imagine, if you will, where your mind will go when you stop for a moment to examine how awesome something is: the sun shining through ice-covered tree branches, the sound of a babbling brook that is hidden behind a wall of trees, the gas guage that reads "E" but still seems to have enough gas to get you home, the doe and fawn on the side of the highway as you drive on by.......

Oh, the treasures to be found when you slow down long enough to 'smell the roses' .....

a time for deep thoughts

Corri sat beside her bedroom window pensively staring out. The late afternoon sun fell upon her face as it bounced and slid over the gently moving surface of the lake. Here and there she could see tips of white as the breeze pushed up the water, disrupting the smooth glassy surface that reflected the brilliant blue sky dotted with white puffs. It was nice to just sit and let her mind wander…the past few weeks had been unbelievably busy to the point where she had absolutely no time to herself. Dad had just been moved to a care facility – his Alzheimer’s had gotten so bad that Mum could no longer keep up with or keep track of him. Everyone in the family had pitched in when they could, but it fell to Mum and Corri as the youngest who still lived at home, to do the bigger share…Sometimes he knew who they were though most times did not, and Corri knew how difficult that was for Mum who had been his everything for so long to suddenly become his nothing. It was done now, he was in capable hands at the Home, and Corri had taken her Mum here to the campground so that she too could start the healing process….Mum hadn’t wanted to go, how could she leave him in an unfamiliar place with strangers ?? It had been surprisingly easy to leave her Dad there, he seemed not to know who they were, only new people to talk to (Dad had always been the social butterfly) and stories to share – he went off with his new friends without a backwards glance at all. Mum had been crushed, but she agreed to leave him for a bit and come back later to see how he was getting on….Corri drove her back around supper time, and other than a simple ‘Hallo, how are you?’, Dad was off with his new-found friends, though Mum could be heard muttering “…you’d think he had spent his entire life with them the way he is carrying on…”

Corri drove her Mum over to the Home several times over the next few days, and yes, even managed to persuade Mum to pack up some things so that they could leave on a vacation, “yes, Mum it’s all arranged, the cabin is ours for the whole month”…..and “it will do you good to have some time to relax”…..and finally, it was done, they were on the road with a brief stop at the Home to see Dad , and then off they went to the lakeside cabin.

And now, here she sat pensively studying the lake, the tensions of the past slowly ebbing away, much like the current was doing on the lake below. She had needed this respite, as did her Mum. This vacation was needed to build up their mental reserves and strength so that when they returned home, they could finish picking up the pieces of their shattered lives. Corri’s siblings were to check in on Dad every few days, and so far from what they had said in phone calls, nothing had changed. He still did not know who they were, nor did he seem to miss Mum, at least none of the nursing staff had said so anyway…..Mum had a difficult road ahead of her, for too long she had needed to be needed, and now would have to find a different way to use her time. Not that there weren’t plenty of opportunities available to her, she had simply chosen to not look at any of them previously because of Dad….

So, ‘one step at a time’ as Dad had always said…..Corri sighed, time would tell where they would go from here…..

..how wild is this life?

….well, got a bit of a chuckle the other morning. Was on my way down the road, on my way to go meet my sister, when I caught a flash of pink. Yes, P-I-N-K…..quite a few (?maybe 20 or so) of those familiar lawn ornaments…the ubiquitous Pink Flamingo, lined up beside the driveway and scattered across the front lawn (they were no longer there later that afternoon when I returned homeward) – had to be someone’s idea of a joke …amusing way to start the day, nonetheless.

Less than a half-mile from that, I pass a corn field that had recently been planted. In a low spot was several dozen Canada geese, most with their heads tucked under their wings…guess they thought that was a good place as any to bed down for the night as the previous evening had been heavy torrential rain and gusty winds. Don’t usually get to see so many at once this early in the year, so was rather nice.

So ok, I am now thinking it is going to be a good day as I continue on my merry way….going through a small town the little car in front of my truck suddenly puts the brakes on and swerves narrowly missing the youngish moose that ran out of the woods on our right, across the road, and into some woods behind the local Town office on the left side…..yeah, I hit the brakes too, and no-body (and nothing) got hurt ……phew!

This week’s wildlife sightings involved the neighbors who called to let us know there had been a fox seen in the previous few days acting oddly, running down the road and up their driveway to the deck (and this is with people and dog right there), and someone also said they had seen it running down another road stopping every few yards to shake its head before continuing on….yup, sounds like rabies, and local Animal Control and Sheriff’s Department both had said we were free to shoot it if it came at us. Well, the other afternoon the sheriff himself is the one who took it out, and where our house sits we pretty much had a ringside seat. The rifle blast sent one of my dogs racing to my basement office to hide under the desk – picture this if you will: big ~70-lb Lab/Pointer shaking like a wind-blown leaf, teeth chattering like he was cold, and big white bug-eyes trying to come out of his head, and all the while he is trying to hide …..Can someone please explain how a dog who growls so menacingly at anything that crosses our lawn (in such a way so as to strike terror in us if we didn’t know him to be such a marsh-mellow) with the hackles raised to stiff peaks, could be such a wuss at the sound of a gunshot?..Sheesh….good thing Hunting Season does not start for another 4-5 months….

nightmares

{let me preface this by stating: This is NOT a true occurrence – this is where the prompt led me, though there have been news stories where this could have been the scenario}

“Sweat beaded on her forehead and she took a shuddering breath. She was so close to being done forever.” How long had she been quivering like this she wondered, as the painful spasms rocked her body once more. The sweat and other substances flowed and dripped off her body. She couldn’t understand why something like this was happening to her…

She thought back to her childhood when she first arrived at the house. She heard everything that was said to her, but having been born mute could never ‘speak for herself,’ so when the nice lady at the home where she lived with the other children told her she was going to a good home, she thought things would change, and that maybe someone could teach her to make the sounds the others made….instead, she remained trapped in a world where only guttural moans and grunts came from her throat.

The new place seemed nice, and the people that lived there: an elderly woman who could barely see or hear, needing an extra set of hands to care for her…..so if nothing else, the girl felt useful. The man that lived there as well, that was a different thing…..he was younger than the old woman, with beady little eyes that watched e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g she did, and sometimes appeared as though he was ill, breathing hard and licking his lips. The man made her nervous, and he did not seem to talk much to anyone, though as she got a little older she quickly learned what a certain look in the eyes meant and made herself scarce so that he would not touch her. He let her get away with avoiding him sometimes, though the smile never reached his eyes when he would only say “I’ll see you later’…..She dreaded those times, because she knew he would come to her bed that night and she wouldn’t be able to breathe when the big sweaty body lay over her…she learned quickly not to fight what the man did because he would make her hurt even more…She did try to avoid it by going to the old woman’s room, hoping for protection, but in the dark of night the old woman neither saw nor heard what happened on the floor beside her bed, and the man would still take what he wanted, then walk her back to her own room and take her once more…

She shuddered at that memory….once a night was bad enough, but having to endure the pawing hands that touched her everywhere inside and out AGAIN made her want to retch, violently in order to empty herself of his touch, much like her body seemed to want to do now….she could smell the metallic sweet odor of blood, knew it to be her own… Pain racked her body once more….the waves of clenching pain kept rolling through her…she took another shuddering breath…..

She had decided she could no longer live in that house…the elderly woman had expired, quite peacefully, some 2 weeks back…now there was nothing to stop the man from touching, or pinching, or fondling, or worse, w-h-e-n-e-v-e-r he wanted. Since she could not speak and had never learned to write, there was no way she could have made anyone else aware of her situation, but she knew she had to leave and get as far away from here as possible…..

The man was gone when she woke that morning, the truck as well…..good, his weekly trip to town, so she had a few hours before he returned….no time to waste. She moved quickly, too quickly it seemed as her body tightened into spasm bringing her to her knees…taking a deep breath she slowly stood up, and picked up the items she had previously stashed and hidden, tied them together in a small bundle, looked around once more, turned to walk out, then stopped. She turned once more, this time moving resolutely toward the stove where she helped herself to several red embers in an old pottery jug. She turned to leave once more and once more her body betrayed her as more shudders racked her slight frame, causing her to drop the jug of embers which rolled away across the floor in every direction….no time to obtain more, she had to get out of there, so she moved towards and through the door, closing it softly behind her….
She moved to the tree line as quickly as her body would permit, as the spasms continued with every movement…she made sure to walk in the stream so that no one could follow her….the icy water numbed her feet causing her slip on the rocks, so it was hard to tell if the pain was because her belly hit a rock, or if it still only came from within her….she tried to hurry out of the water, slipped once more, reached to grab a branch only to find it was a bramble that pulled loose resulting in her landing backwards in the icy stream once more. She stumbled out of the water and headed into the woods where she soon found herself hopelessly disoriented…she did not notice the deeper shadows that yawned open before her, and tumbled deep within the old well…the darkness mingled with the unrelenting pain…the blood poured out of her from several mortal gashes, all the while her body tried to expel itself of something else…..her eyes fluttered closed….her breathing sounding more and more ragged and shallow, sweat pouring from her as her body twisted and contorted in pain….

crying in the dust

“…I'm so tired of being here . . . I wish that you would just leave
Your presence still lingers here and it won't leave me alone…”

Your words still resonate in my heart, though it has been quite some time since you spoke to me. Why did I survive and you did not? The plan had always been for us to be together, to live and love and grow old together…whose idea was it to shorten your lifeline in such a way that we couldn’t share the end together?

My memories take me back to days sitting on the back porch swing, holding hands, talking of the future….where we would live, what kind of house would we build ,how many kids would we have…..you know, all the dreams young couples in love are supposed to have…I could so clearly see us in our golden years still sharing the back porch swing, holding hands and reflecting on all we had accomplished with our lives…..

When I open my eyes there is only dust and loneliness filling the empty years….the house became someone else’s home when I could no longer bear to live there alone…the memories those walls hold are theirs now, not mine and never yours….

“. . . . These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase . . .
I'm bound by the life you left behind
Your face it haunts . . . me . . . “

Oh how I wish I could no longer hear your voice or see your face in my mind….I cannot move on even now, and it has been so long. I crave a peace that I cannot have…..immortality is only as good as the companions you have, and I grow ever more weary of a life without you…..

“. . . But you still have all of me . . .”

The List -- part A

First, let me preface this by stating that it does not fall under any of the weekly writing prompts I have been attempting to follow...this is more of an aside, which will be followed with a Part-B at some point in the near future.

It seems that lately everywhere I go, whether it be a book store or somebody’s blog, I am finding lists. Lists of the author’s degrees or other books published, other blogs that are being followed, how-many-and-where-from readers of said blog. There are even lists of the Top 100 ___ -- people to meet, places to go, things to do, books to read, etc…I guess in a way putting The List down in print somewhere makes you feel you have to follow it, you are somehow held accountable for all that it contains and made to feel a failure if things do not go as planned and the list is completed by the time you are at death’s door…. Do I want to do that to myself ? …well, not so much in terms of the items on the bucket list HAVE to BE DONE/BE SEEN/BE READ/BE MET/etc…The List for me would include items from all and every aspect, but I see it more of a Wish List of things I would like to see or do, or people I would like to sit and talk with, or places I would like to explore whether from a historical/educational/enjoyment aspect…the list would be a combination of all of the above because oftentimes the items cross over between categories making them difficult to label as one or the other.

With that being said, I could also not qualify each item listed with a number of order, because as with all “interests” and “wish list” items, they change in priority as one moves through life. So, does this make the list a de-cluttering of my life by making me focus on just certain things, or is it in fact cluttering it up even further by limiting my life experiences to just what is on the list?

We shall have to see….stay tuned for Part B….

Morning Dance for May

There was a dance at the bird feeder this morn...as I stood at the back door with coffee in hand, I watched the ever-changing procession of birds coming in for a fast bite before heading back to their nests. Looking over the lawn, there is movement that is not wind-caused but little brown sparrows of several varieties. Quite fun to watch their little tails go straight up as the head bobs to the ground to pick up morsels previously dropped by others. The feeder hanging in the tree above them is a regular way-station too.....a sparrow there is soon joined by a chickadee (there is a pair that has returned to make their nest in the swing-pipe across the yard)...The blue-green headed grackles roll in and the small birds scatter, however, the noisemakers of this local bird community don't get to enjoy much of it before they are run off by another of the noisemakers, the bluejay. He comes in and struts around like he owns the place (he is one of about a dozen we see here), jumping onto the feeder where his weight sets it to rocking and in the process knocking seeds to the ground where he then goes to reap his reward. Then, a flash of red coming in from the side...the cardinal is back this morning too, though I am not sure if this is a young un-attached male or the female (there were 3 cardinals vying for rights in this yard last year)...a few minutes of feeding and then off it goes as well.

Always a different crowd in the yard, and you never know if it will be the songbirds, the showbirds, or the disruptive bully-birds....We have had sparrows, woodpeckers, nuthatches, grosbeaks, and the occasional hummingbird….there have been turkeys in the lower yard, and even a Canada goose one summer (there is a pair that nests quite close to here every year). There is also a blue heron I have seen – this will be the third year this un-attached bird is here. The mourning doves and robins, and of course the crows, are here all summer long. Sometimes in the early evening you hear the solitary call of an owl as well....that, and the lonely-sounding calls of the loons who live on the pond....have also seen a few small hawks (and with the multitude of small wildlife here, the pickings are good for them). There is also a bonded pair of eagles nesting on the pond a short distance away, so we have gotten to enjoy seeing them and their two youngling floating on the air currents, recognizable from a distance because of the white heads....

Yes, definitely a different world out there, but a wonderful one to be a part of, even if it is only the dance around the May-pole known as the feeding station …