Of much knowledge there is no end

Cut too many corners and you will find yourself going in circles. Give away your time and things will work better. No one is as interested in you as yourself. This is natural, so don't take offense easily. Everything is artificial and arbitrary ,so pick anything and do your best. No more is required. You are only considered great when you reside in a small pond. Do your best and move on to the next thing. A short memory can be a great help if used properly. Now, get to work on believing what you know.-Dad-Olsekr-Donald-and all those other names people call me that I'm glad I don't know about.

The scars we all wear inside

Posted by Mom, but Dad found the poem
"The Cross of Snow" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In the long sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face - the face of one long dead -
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night lamp casts a halo of pale light.
Here in this room she died; and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose; nor can in books be read
The legend of a life more benedight.
There is a mountain in the distant West
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such a cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died.

Longfellow's loss is spoken for us all, with all our losses, and expresses the scars we all wear inside. It is said but necessary to think about sometimes!

Yet, we are in the most beautiful season, a season of hope and resurrection as the earth gears up and begins another round of abundant fertility - so we have a time for enjoying this glorious creation. And we get messages from the front about reptiles and amphibians coming out to be counted in some beautiful and inaccessible places - thanks for sharing! And Ashley - thank you for showing me the fairy world of the abundant fireflies last night - it saved my mood! And we are blessed and life is good!

Hello in There

Today at the thrift store, I came outside first and was waiting on Billie Sue. An older fat man and his wife had just arrived. He apparently did'nt care that much for thrift stores so he told her he would wait outside for her. She said ok and led him over to a chair that was sitting outside the door and said "you sit here and I'll be back in a little while". Trying to be funny, I said "Well, at least she did'nt put a leash on you. He laughed, took the baton , and ran with it.For the next 10 minutes I did not need to speak a word. He spoke of someone in his family's association with the Grand Old Opry in Nashville and his earlier days hunting and fishing, among other things. There was a time I would have thought someone was wasting my time,but I don't see it quite that way anymore. Since I have retired 5 years ago ,I have met quite a few people like this,many of them at thrift stores.They are either lonely or just like to talk. Either way, they usually have something to say that I enjoy hearing ,and make for a fun story for me to tell later. Besides, I just might be one of those people.
Dad

St Patty's Day Yesterday

Posted by Sierra

Woke up this morning dreaming there was a radio beeping low battery somewhere in the woods and I couldn't sleep or find it. Finally, actually woke and realized Jimmy's fire radio was doing that very thing- quite loudly while Perdido slept alongside it, ignoring it. The point I guess is that I did find the noise and turned it off. Always strange when the waking world enters the dream world...
Yesterday was St Patty's Day. I had been looking forward to it mostly because it was a day my brother always enjoyed and sometimes I use that to focus myself on deliberate time that I will make an effort to enjoy my life. I don't have any particular memory of us celebrating it together, but have a letter he wrote me a few years ago on that day. I woke up knowing it was a holiday and had jigs playing in my head. After days of beautiful spring rain that I also enjoyed- hiking into it with my husband and dog- enjoying the lovely soft light it cast in the house, - St Patty's day brought sunshine! Felt giddy and silly all morning, making up silly songs on the way to take Perdido to get her ears cleaned and nails trimmed. Back at the house singing made up songs to her about how much she shined after the bath we had given her. My giddiness a blessing at a time when I have been mostly too intense for this kind of silliness. Rooted through CD's to find my Irish Jigs and Reels and brought it to the car to play on the way to the indigo snake pens where we lifted Perdido into the fence and let her off the leash. We buried blue kiddie pools for the snakes to use later while Perdido ran free around us. I can't describe the joy it brought me to watch her off the leash, bounding with a joy few people ever have, her long black ears flapping behind her head like a superhero's cape as she ran! Back home, We leashed her to the picnic table and worked together in the garden- mulching, planting, starting tomatoes and pepper, eggplants and basil. Cooked peanut sesame noodle with leftover grilled chicken and curled up on the couch with Jimmy to watch a silly movie.
This morning researched what St Patty's day is all about (besides the green and clovers and leprechauns it has become). Apparently it is considered a day of spiritual renewal. St. Patrick was ironically most well known for driving the snakes out of Ireland (which by the way never had any). Interesting that we spent our day aiding the reintroduction of snakes here... But for me, it was a day of spiritual renewal. Enjoying the joy that spring brings. I look forward to the Equinox on Friday. Spring is here!

Quotes

Posted by Sierra

"The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not." -George Bernard Shaw

"When I do not walk in the clouds I walk as though I were lost." -Antonio Porchia

"You road I enter upon and look around! I believe you are not all that is here; I believe that much unseen is also here." -Walt Whitman

"From this hour, freedom! From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute, Listening to others, and considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me." Walt Whitman (maybe the quote from the b&w dog poster?)

"Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me;
Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me. " -Walt Whitman

"Be not discouraged- keep on - there are divine things
well envelop'd; I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell. " -Walt Whitman

Rain falling at dusk
swept on, on
spilling millions of moons on grass blades -Shoiu (haiku Shane painted on his bookshelf)

To the River Otter

Posted by Sierra
I found this poem last winter and it has stuck with me...
To the River Otter was written around 1793 when Coleridge was just 21 years old. The Otter was the river running through Ottery St Mary in devon, the village where he was born and spent his early childhood.
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To the River Otter- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Dear native Brook! wild Streamlet of the West!
How many various-fated years have past,
What happy and what mournful hours, since last
I skimm'd the smooth thin stone along thy breast,
Numbering its light leaps! Yet so deep imprest
Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
I never shut amid the sunny ray,
But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,
Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,
And bedded sand that, vein'd with various dyes,
Gleam'd through thy bright transparence! On my way,
Visions of Childhood! oft have ye beguil'd
Lone manhood's cares, yet waking fondest sighs:
Ah! that once more I were a careless Child!