Poem posted by Mom

"I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great" by Stephen Spender (@1920)

I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered their soul's history
Through corridors of light where the hours are suns
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the Spirit clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the Spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.

What is precious is never to forget
The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.
Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light
Nor its grave evening demand for love.
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields
See how these names are feted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life
Who wore at their hearts the fire's center.
Born of the sun, they travelled a short while towards the sun,
And left the vivid air signed with their honor.

I thank God for a family who can appreciate this imagery!

Easter Dinner - Family History - posted by Mom

Instead of turkey, it is ham that is the family Easter dinner, instituted by Grandma Tommie, along with her famous potato salad and green beans. I arose and cooked that meal today and thought about her. I had been thinking about her in church on Maundy Thursday when we sang "The Old Rugged Cross" - one of her favorite hymns. So I got up about 5:30 and had a ham in the oven by 6:30 and picked green beans and thought about family traditions. Today I wish more family could have been here, but Carla came after the glorious church service, and brought a friend, and me and Donald and Ashley ate that good meal! And I often think about the trouble that it is to cook, when you can go to the store and buy all things ready-made, but how cooking it with my own hands is an expression of love in my life.
It's not because I think I'm not always going to be here, but just because I want you all to have some perspective on your own lives that I want to tell the family story, even if it dribbles out in bits and pieces. Life is harsh. It's hard and gritty in some way not matter who you are or where you come from. It's just because we think we are privileged and have so many choices that we think it is possible to live a perfect life.
We can't. That's where grace enters your life. You look back at your family history and you know that perfection is not attainable. We just bumble along and do the best we can, cross ourselves and thank God when our mistakes produce consequences we can somehow live with and move on.
Where you come from: I grew up not really poor but nearly. My family grasped at money, maybe not nickels and dimes, but certainly quarters and dollars. Now my philosophy is : "If it's a problem only about money, it's not a real problem." Since I first wrote this I have experienced a real problem and now I know this to be the real truth.
Your ancestors: Just a couple of generations back, your ancestors did hard physical labor on hard scrabble farms that never really produced a good living. Each generation that could get out left it behind and chose a different form of hard grind.
On your mother's side: hillbillies from the hills of Tennessee and the South Carolina-Georgia border. Descendants of indentured servants from Europe? - England maybe? Indian blood mix was claimed. Your mother's grandfather, William Redmon Fowler, worked in the hosiery mills in Clinton, TN and then retired to Chattanooga. He was good with machines and invented things. He was a good gardener and canned homemade vegetable soup. He and Annie Mae Fowler lived in Clinton, where Tommie was the youngest child. She had an older sister, Marion, and an older brother, Raymond, whom she idolized. Tommie had polio when she was 2 years old.
That's all for today- Easter is a good time for just watching the sunset and that is what I plan to do!

Chasing the Wild Turkeys posted by Sierra

The Equinox has come and I welcome Spring and the beauty of the cycle of seasons- returning always to full bloom... Turkey hunting season is on and Jimmy and I rise early in the dark morning hours to listen to the joyful gobbling of lovestruck birds seaching for mates. Some mornings we hear nothing and walk out a trail in the woods, setting up in some shrubbery, Jimmy clucks and yelps and when there is no answer, still we feel the shapes shifting in the woods- are reminded of the life and beauty hidden out there. This morning, I stayed home, back at the Elliott's Creek cabin in Moundville, I stepped onto the screened in porch at sunrise and heard the turkey's joyous gobble from my porch. I will look for blooms hiding in the woods today at work.

Good Friday/Easter - Posted by Mom

There are all kinds of messages in Good Friday and Easter. The full moon last night and the vernal equinox presage new life springing up and out and we are so ready for that! This season also reminds us how good things can come to us, even when all hope seems to be dead, when we are sure that we are at the end of the road. I am so thankful for hope and faith, for life that can continue in the face of utter despair and turn around to bring joy if we are open to it! Easter is proof that the forces for good and love in the universe ultimately beat out the evil forces that bring about death and despair. But we can only see that invisible victory if we are looking for it and choosing to affirm life and love in the face of loss. I have gone through a sad period again lately, but it has been balanced with planning a wedding that is all about affirmation of love and joy. Dad and I were watching a program this morning about "big brother" phone surveillance techniques and laughing about how bored they would get listening to me and Sierra talk last night about tablecloths, serving dishes and buying wedding finery, not to mention the bizarre turkey story -maybe the government could have found some alien story there! Yes, Sierra and Jimmy went looking and listening for turkeys yesterday and didn't get one, but I found one in a sack by the road! But, as always, it is good to be busy with mundane details and especially with our hands, making dresses and invitations, being creative with our thoughts and hands. That is when joy surprises us.

Wax On Wax Off posted by Sierra

Wax on, wax off. Simple words of wisdom that still ring true... After wrestling taxes and the open ended day, moping, wishing it was real swimming weather, knowing the water must be quite cold still so- put on my bathing suit and barefoot wandered out the back door, took up the hose in desperation and stood amongst the blueberries and sprayed myself down in the bright sunshine, then instictively began to spray green grime off the vinyl siding. Jimmy joined me and before you know it, there are brushes and toothbrushes and bleach water and we have finished two sides. Wax on, wax off, this is the best I've felt in days. The house isn't looking too bad neither.

Senior Citizen Sited (sic) - posted by Hulsey Dad

Fultondale. The Highway Department reports sighting a 63 year old Fultondale retiree attempting to scale a 5 ft. Hwy. Dept. fence. It was the darndest thing, said Fultondale Police Officer Orville Ifill. It looked like the old fella was trying to climb up a privet bush to get over the fence. I saw him go down and would've liked to have helped but he was on the other side of fence and that side of the fence is Gardendale Police responsibility. The senior citizen (now identified as Donald J. Hulsey) is a recent transplant to Fultondale from Southside.

Officer Orville Ifill commented "What do you expect? He said he was from Southside!"

Advanced Adolescence by Billie Sue

My age?
It is a geeky age, not unlike adolescence, a transition stage.
Definitely no longer "pretty", we have yet to attain the peaceful beauty of the elderly.
The hard edges still remain, but gradually they are softening.
Instead of increased height, we adjust to a body shrinking, growing wider and heavier.
With less sense of this unfamiliar body, we grow clumsy, bumping and falling.
Mentally also, it is like adolescence in reverse.
We shrink, and words go as mysteriously as they came during our youth.
The mental facility, the gift to clearly articulate our policies and positions goes.
We mentally bump and fall, unable to express the inner knowledge that we know.
The rational is replaced by the intuitive, and life becomes art instead of science.
Just 10 years ago, we were in control, at the height of our powers.
We knew we were agile enough to adapt and sought to expand our borders.
Now we seek simplicity rather than complexity, seek manageable objectives.
Like lemmings driven toward the sea, we know circumstances can change in a breath.
Like children we long for a security that we know doesn't really exist.
And we grapple for a way to padlock a security built through a lifetime of hard work.
In adolescence, you cling to the past at the same time you long for the future.
Lord, get me to the next stage where I will be at peace!

Written 4 years ago - I am not there yet!