The reality of life (hits)

The reality of life (hits)

selective focus photo of gray metal folding walker
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Generally speaking I am a very easy going fellow, an optimist, a lover of life, and frankly I have had a pretty easy life compared to many (and I do need to remind myself of that more often perhaps), but sometimes, life, puts you in situations you KNOW about but don’t want to dwell on or even think about the reality of same… Today, was one of those days.  I am keeping the details slightly vague but specific enough so you get the gist of it.  I received a call about a certain relative that could not get out of bed (they are getting up there in age), I was on my way to work but of course as dedicated as I am to my job (admittedly probably too much) a family flush does beat a straight job in the poker game of life, well I essentially had to carry them from their bed into the bathroom, and to be blunt their bladder was not listening to their mind (you can fill in the rest, it was not pretty. I can only imagine the embarrassment on their part when you live your whole life and now need help for the basic things), oddly, none of this hit me at the exact time, I think I went into “nurse” mode and just did things instinctively, later on the whole scene had a much greater impact on me and is sort of stirring around in my head (not in a particularly good way), I am trying to process this into the positive realm because I really believe in that…  So what’s my point in all this ?  To cull your sympathy ?   To share what maybe others are going through and not talking about ?  Maybe…  but I think if I boil everything down it comes to love.  Tell those you love that you love them, time is limited, be thankful for life every moment you can, sure, you will fail, I sure as hell do, but I work to make that my goal and walk in that direction (sometimes distracted, sometimes focused), put love out there, sounds almost pollyanna-ish but what’s the alternative ? the older I get the more things seem to come down to the simple things we all inherently know but may not always practice moment to moment, and maybe that is a lesson to… practice… it won’t make perfect but practicing the good will at least focus some positive energy in that direction.

I didn’t think I would write anything today, I am quite mentally exhausted because besides what went on this morning work has been absolutely brutal this week… but more brutal than confronting the aging and dying of loved ones and what that looks like ? nah…


Blessing 10.4.2018

divine sunrise
thankful for this life
greeting dawn
at first light
the privilege mine
to awake
with these eyes
and see.
thankful for this life


notes… if you read all this, thank you, stories, comments and vignettes are always appreciated.

The Northern Lights (are overrated…)

The Northern Lights (are overrated…)

snow light sky winter
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Well… ok, maybe not so much (the aurora borealis is pretty darn cool after all), but I was watching this massively awesome BBC series “Wonders of the Solar System” and was enlightened (pun) by the fact that the phenomena is not limited to this little sphere we call Earth, in fact, that massive red giant (no, not Colin McGregor or the Kool Aid Man)… I am speaking of course of our celestial big brother Jupiter, as it turns out Jupiter has these light displays on both the north and south poles… The “lights” are all formed due to the solar radiation (called the solar wind) thrown out constantly by the sun deflected by the magnetic field of the planets (in short, it is slightly more complicated than that).   Just another chapter in how amazing this universe is (even our little tiny corner which is the everything we will ever know).  Sure, I am a bit late to the party on this… but I can admit that.

So anyway, this poem also formed from a ball of dust and the ort cloud (my head) last night… (and here is my Voyager inspired poems, I think I might start a collection page of my science based/themed work instead of these ad hoc links, but that is just a thought)….


9.30.2018 “miracles of the solar system”

I contemplate the world, spinning

a veritable grain of sand

on this continent, thinking

might I levitate in place

and the ground beneath

will rotate around under, my feet

as I will to absorb the total cycle of the sun

my mind to become flat and limitless

to expand outward to the edges of the universe

a platform, a table for all to sit upon

the knowledge, the power, of a billion suns

could this lonely spot of life

handle the vastness of an expanse

that weighs in blocks

not perceivable by human scales of thought

of this, just this one, on the shoulders of many

just to understand this

a world spinning

a night companion orbits round

what seems just out of touch

we have only touched once

so familiar

but these are miracles, in the every day flesh

for granted

sunrise and sunset

lest we forget

the immense fate and circumstance

for our faces

to be met daily

by the rising, of the life giving star

we so casually call, ours

the sun


Music ? I have posted this before but I have to post it again (and probably again), to me it fits the vastness of space… ambient space music supreme.

Seti – Pharos (CD-1 Arecibo)


Your thoughts and comments are welcome and appreciated, and might even be read.. by me of all people.

inspiration, the muse (read me)

inspiration, the muse (read me)

green mountain painting
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these words came to me,as they are, driving to work last saturday, what more can I say ?  this is the muse, this is being in the space intersecting with inspiration, I can not explain it like I can not explain so much of this world, as I am just this one dude existing in this world. with that said…


 

9.29.2018 “early am drive”

over the green of verdant hill

soft fingers of september sun stretch

glistening

each drop of dew provides

shimmering in the gentle warming of autumn dawn


notes… this is one of those I can not possibly explain, it happened and I loved it at first sight/write, it made me think of so many poets before me, sort of a hybrid (sort of haiku in spirit) but still me, I guess.

More thoughts from the porch…

More thoughts from the porch…

rolling armchair near staircase
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9.30.2018 “porch” (series)

I gazed out towards the horizon, searching for a moment of clarity, I paused and listened, and then – I heard a voice in this late september hour:

“yo, we’re not in kansas anymore”

Firstly I was surprised the horizon had a Jersey accent let alone a voice. Secondly I was not sure how the horizon was familiar with the source material. Thirdly I was surprised at what a deft metaphor that was for the passage of one season to another… but then again the horizon has a few billion years on me to contemplate such things. There are so many questions I would like to ask back but the horizon is always so out of reach that my speech can not possibly keep up. Talk about moving the goal posts… if I could somehow thrust myself forward enough to where the horizon will be it will have been and gone before I could even get to the spot, kind of reminds me of tomorrow, something else we never can seem to catch up with or be at. So what to do? Sit back and enjoy the cool air associated with the tilt so subtle in 23 degrees but so defined in the coming winter’s lease. Another year’s ride descends into the end of a julian cycle, hopefully I will see you on the other side, as this whole carousel resets again, for another spin.


notes: nah… I don’t feel like writing any, I don’t think this post needs it although I am playing with some words here, did you get all the asides ?

Observations… from my porch

Observations… from my porch

adorable animal cat cat s eyes
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tonight’s edition of my ongoing experiment.


9.30.2018

trapped in the utter utilitarian mundane, I stumble out of the house locked into the weekly ritual of throwing out the trash after a week’s end and a sunday dinner (portuguese BBQ in this case), so besides my porch (or to the left more accurately) I had a visitor, quite as startled by me as he (or she), a tabby cat whom I do not recognize (and who certainly does not recognize me), so we stared each other down like it was some version of high noon (albeit without the applied tension of an actual gun fight), so, who will budge first from this initial shock and lock? “your move buddy” I mutter, thankfully the cat, as it turns out, speaks english and starts to confidently saunter away (as masterfully as only cats can seem to do), but then I am flush with a small dab of regret, as I like pets and animals in general (and I like to think they might like me back indeed), so as the cat retreats I lower to my knees and make all those sounds we make that seem to catch a cat’s appeal, and for a moment I steal the attention, a pause, a mention, but this cat either does not trust me or has something better to attend to (can not say I blame him/her), so with that, the cat continues on across the paved boundary that separates the two sides of my street, onto the incline of my neighbor’s well-lit driveway, I pick up the garbage bag to finish my task, all the while the cat, looking back, tabby keeping tabs on me wherever I am, this cat seems to have the lure… but also the lesson, and what might happen, with curiosity.


Music?  some Voivod, because they will never get the due they are due.

Voivod – into my hypercube

there is just a line there about cheshire cats…  listen for it, it is rewarding.

and also digest this, since I am on a cat thing….

A cat that predicts death

and to all who read me, thanks, seriously.

Simply Sunday (well at least here)

Simply Sunday (well at least here)

close up photo of swiss cheese leaf
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As is my habit (not the nun uniform), I like to post some simpler thoughts on the weekend, just some snippets, notes, scraps of thoughts (little tidbits and crumbs from my journals over the months), so…


shine” 5/30/18

as the sun shines, I know your smile

your eyes, I am lost at sea

sinking into your midst

into bliss

washed up on the shore

the sun warms, once more

grains of sand

I succumb

into the dream

of your love.


6.8.18

empty park bench

lonely shadow

empty park

sorrow

not a squirrel nor a bird

just the wind

shuffling through the trees

alone with my thoughts

carry my words of love to her

please…


time blinks” 7.10.2018

my precious time

is gone

spent

and to be honest

I do not know

where it has gone

or where it went


morning joe” 7.10.2018

singular

expression

caffeine

injection

to percolate

a sleepy soul


I will go out of the box for a minute (as I am wont to do…) with a movie recomendation… real old school goofy 80’s comedy that I think is vastly overlooked (the where’s the beef lady is in it !!!! cmon now! – almost as cool as the parts is parts commercial)…

Moving Violations (1985)

stick with it, it is funny… cheesy? 80s?? yeah… all that… but trust me and thanks for reading if you are reading this. all comments/thoughts/vile epithets are appreciated.

the death of patience/the flipside of the instant information age

the death of patience/the flipside of the instant information age

ball shaped blur close up focus
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I wonder what will become of my dear old friend patience (I really should thank her for some great advice over the years), I do worry about her these days though, she is a tough old girl but… surely she is not quite dead (yet) but are her days stained with scarlet numbers (the type that are counting down)?

Let me step back for a moment, and set the table (so to speak, no forks involved, maybe a napkin), I often (or sometimes) think this is an absolutely amazing age to be aging in, when I think back (using snapshots from my view-master) at the little spark that is this (my) life, simply in my lifetime we have gone from rotary phones, to huge cell phones, to flip phones to well… no need to remember phone numbers at all (or even type them! and who can keep track of all the area codes), the same crazy train goes for information, what will happen to the poor Alex Trebek’s of the world in a world that trivia is merely a swipe and a command?  I’ll take obsolescence for $2,000 Alex…. daily double ! sweet!  (but I forgot to answer in the form of a question, dammit, I always liked Pat Sajack better anyway…) The sheer instant nature of information is astounding.  You want a pizza or a piece de resistance – we have an app for that, instant gratification of the stomach and the hungry mind.  We carry the world in our pockets, well, until it crashes or runs out of batteries and we frantically scramble about like someone needs CPR when just a USB port will do, the panic induced by premature battery termination is palpable when you are present in the presence of same, the abject sadness on the faces of the inflicted as they must endure the utter hardship of disconnecting from the social universe seemingly like the loss of a limb (for a moment in the blink of life)…

and here is where patience may come in.   in a cracked screen, in a waterlogged phone (well, they get around that too these days), in that time your OS decides to not be a friend, in a time when a friend you never met but exchanged 10000 messages with decides you are not a friend, in the time your signal is not quite 2 bars and those photos absolutely have to get through (I mean they are so damn cool)…

Take a deep breath… (try it now), please remember my poor beleaguered friend patience, she has so few followers these days, but she has been around, she will make a come back, she is a classic… after all.


I am going to go obvious musical drop on you all (well, at least for me, child of the 80s)…

Guns N Roses – Patience

Sure, Axel Rose is a legendary dickweed, but it is hard to argue their (GnR) impact on the music realm for a good chunk of decade.


thoughts, comments, insults (especially) are all appreciated, as are recipes, jokes, your sister’s phone number, and of course follows, thanks!

On the way to work today (nostalgia).

On the way to work today (nostalgia).

yellow school bus beside gray concrete building
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9.27.2018

left – right

left – right

up – down

up – down

red lights

parents wave goodbye

only for the day.

school bus


notes… not sure how the school buses function where you are, here it seems to be pretty much the same since I was a wee lad, the ritual of parents escorting you to the corner to board onto the bus for the day, seems like forever a go,  the memories came charging back so vividly when I was stuck behind a bus this morning (mesmerized by the rhythm of the lights). something that was so routine it was the routine, all we knew, gone after being there for so long, like everything else we get used to, life marches on.


Musical choice?  I am in the need of some classical, so time to pull out an old fave…

Sebelius : Finlandia (as performed by the BBC Symphony and Chorus)

Better said already…

Better said already…

silhouette of person walking
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Dylan Thomas

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

the poem of course, is historically one of the greatest in history… all poets aspire to write such wall crumbling words, we need to internalize same and live our lives this way.  Do I do it ? No.. I aspire to it.  These are wonderful words and an amazing example of why word art matters.  We must remember that art does matter but also the sentiment of truth anchors the best of art.  The truth being that we have this little slice of time to be relevant, to be actually US, to be ourselves, we will blink and be gone… we only have this little time, instead of living many of us are wrapped up in nothing (myself included).. how do we escape this pattern and LIVE as free people, free from perception, allegation, the chains of oppression of society and the expectations of same.  If you are expecting answers, I am sorry, I am seeking them as well.