Another Fun Quiz

Don't you love it when quiz results really "GET" you?

Your Blogging Type Is Thoughtful and Considerate

You're a well liked, though underrated, blogger.You have a heart of gold, and are likely to blog for a cause.You're a peaceful blogger - no drama for you!A good listener and friend, you tend to leave thoughtful comments for others.

What's" Your Blogging Personality?

Poetry Thursday - Fr. Jan's Friendship Poem

Tonight we visited long-time friends, Rick and Kate. Quanah and their son Charlie have known each other since 3rd grade. They were in school together through 6th grade; did local musical theatre together in high school; they both majored in music in college though at two different schools.

Charlie married a young woman named Lindsay, a couple of years ago. She was in the same music program as Quanah. Q went on to graduate school in theology; Charlie teaches elementary and middle school music.

Rick and Kate were with us in Oregon when Quanah and Erin married last month. Tonight we all got together for a BBQ at their homes overlooking the Tuolumne River. Their family has grown over the years to include FOUR grand-daughters. Our family has now expanded to welcome a young bride, a new daughter for us.

I was thinking a lot about friendship tonight and the long road that can sometimes be traveled and the joys and sorrows, worries and trials that are encountered along the way. In the midst of these thoughts, I started writing a poem but was coming up short on a final quality picture to include on this montage.

In the course of my Google image search for something representative of friendship, I ran across a remarkable story and the poem that was written honoring a lifelong friendship. I may still write a poem about friendship but Fr. Jan's Friendship Poem deserved a place of honor this Thursday. Please click here for more about the friendship of Dorothy Corson and Fr. Jan.

And the studio progresses

click to enlarge picture

I took a series of pictures of the evolving ephemeric wasteland that was our front room just a week ago. I've gotten rid of quite a lot of just plain buried junk and added two large storage units. I also added a smaller glass front case and moved a small blue and white cabinet out of the bedroom. Tomorrow I'm picking up another glass front case. I love that cabinet and having two will make a nice bookend look for the sewing workstation. There is still a bit of this and that stacked around and you don't even want to see what is behind me as I take these pictures. But all that will be taken care of by next week and then I can actually start using my studio. At Last.

Reflection Awards

Carmen and Rethabile have both nominated me for a Reflection Award. Thank you so much. The weird thing is that I saw Carmen's nomination back on the 16th and I KNOW I posted a reply. Well, I know I THINK I did anyway because now I can't find it for love or money. It's almost like I started it, went to draft, and then got rid of it before posting. Very, very strange.

Anyway, I am very appreciative, you two, and all MY nominees need to do is click kCarmen's or Ret's names for a very thorough descriptions of how to pass it on. I know, I know. I'm being lazy but the hair is wet and work in calling. Drum roll please for the following reflective writers:

Corey - who requires no explanation and unless I completely miss it, has not been gifted with this award yet;

Frida - ditto on no explanation need here either. Her regular readers understand and new ones will.

Miss Robyn - who over the past year has grown into a remarkable and strong woman. I like where you have been going Miss R and following your journey has been a real pleasure.

Autrice - whose pithy observations of the world always elicit a laugh.

and last but not least, Darlene - whose continuing strength, even in her weakest moments, is an example for all of us.

Surf's Up

I had lunch yesterday with my big little brother and he was in a really good mood. So good that he played along when I whipped out my camera. I had the not so usual pleasure of snapping away and he not mugging at the camera. He probably won't thank me but I could not resist putting together this montage.

I've known since Dave was 7 years old and hanging ten on his skateboard that the kid would be a surfer. From San Diego's Ocean Beach to La Jolla, to Pismo and Maui and back, he has always had his surfboard ready to go.

Dave's pushing 46 now and a teacher in the Central Valley about as far as you can get from a wave and still be within driving distance for a day trip. But like clockwork, once a month he loads up his board, heads for the coast and hangs ten for all he's worth. Surf's UP, Bro.

Meet Miss SunDrop inspired by Miss Robyn

I don't usually make dolls and soft images though I do like them very much. With time, and soon actually, when my sewing machine is up, I will be doing more soft creations. But for now I was fortunate enough to have a little random face that I attached to a soft little doll I had been gifted with a couple of years ago. To her I added wings, a shell belt, soft fibers and dried baby's breath. SunDrop has taken up residence with a few friends and is fitting in nicely. She in very shy but has a very sunny personality.

To see other goddess creations, inspired by Robyn, please click here.

The 180 continues

I'm not really thrilled with this but the one thing that MaryEllen's challenge thoroughly did was light a fire under me to start looking at all the things I can do with my camera and with my software.

I'm not really sure what happened here. The background is supposed to be white and as I set the pictures to make a separation grid, it all turned blue 1/3 of the way down. The learning curve is definitely going to be a steep one.

The 360 challenge becomes a 180

CattyCat suggested a photo challenge that I thought might be fun. The idea is to find a spot, don't move from it except to turn in a circle and from that one point take pictures of what you see. It is suggested that you take at least 50 photos.

I found myself on Saturday morning at the Village Baking Company for my usual morning coffee, journaling, and reading. It was a beautiful morning, not at all hot yet, so I sat outside. I sat at a table that had me right up against the outside wall of the bakery. It occurred to me that I couldn't do a 360 set of pictures but there was no reason why I could not do a 180. So, for the next hour on and off as I sipped coffee, journaled and read, I also took a series of about 60 photos.

The further idea was to display the picture in such a way that one picture would contain several, sort of like a mosaic. Well, I haven't been able to figure out how to do that yet but my zoombrowser program has a photostitching option that worked nicely. The following four panoramic photos are actually a series of pictures stitched together. I thought the results were really interesting. I have several more photos to still stitch together but this is a start.

Give it a try. This is really fun and you see the world in an entirely different way. Oh, and be sure to click on CattyCat's link to let her know when you have completed the challenge. She's keeping a record at her site so that we can see what others are doing.

At the Next Table

Son gently guiding mother
her steps unsure.
Son gently seats mother
chair quickly set beneath her as
she trembles and sits.

Pink pants, so easy to pull on -
Cream sweater envelops
keeping her warm in the shade
of a hot summer day.
Sturdy shoes
Knee-Hi's
Hair just so
She is ready for a morning out.

How delicious the special pastry he brings her.
How filled with anticipation the
special promise of ice cream on Monday.
A son's promise to a treasured and aging mother.

Slow and simple the questions
posed to guide a conversation.
Mother becoming child.
Patience now a requirement.

Long silences punctuated by sought after comments.
Did you have fun at the wedding?
Did you enjoy the food?
Could you hear the ceremony?

Encouragement to say the words - to talk
A reminder that more than a nod is needed.
The effort of conversation -
so swift and sparkling in youth -
now slowed to a languid drift.

Arise now. Step carefully.
Soon to return to the long rest.

Poetry Thursday - Past Comes Present

I was 21 when I embarked on my first and very ill-fated marriage and one of the things you discover as you unbury the past are the bench post reminders of turning points in your life. The collapse of my first marriage would certainly qualify.

Back then I was so filled with anguish. So filled with despair and confusion. Fast-forward now 38 years, and I have a lot of the answers that eluded me back then.

Tonight I found a sheet of paper that has survive the trip to present day and the poem written on it reminds me vividly of the young woman who doesn't exist anymore except in memory. She has grown strong and is better in all ways, great and small. Here is that poem.

Landscapes

The coffee shop was our first battleground;

tea and toast between us.

What is God? Where is God?

Does God exist at all?

***

Offering and withholding -

The ivory tower caged your mind

You opened yourself - I entered

Into a fools paradise.

***

Oneness was an illusion

I was a part but apart

You tempted, teased, taunted

Gave me your body but not your heart.

***

You wanted someone like me.

Why not me?

What did he have to give

but living death?

***

School, work, marriage gone

Life like a sleeping earth.

One Deep Breath - Bodies of Water

Bodies of water

Drop in the ocean's bucket

Size does not matter.

Weaving the Threads - Part Three

Creating a Space of My Own

Years ago when life was more complicated (i.e. still raising children) Julie Cameron's book, The Artist's Way, showed me how to find a personal space and how to eventually zero in on what I love most - writing and photography. Like everything else in my life, these interests emerged and grew in fits and starts. I'm like many creative women, fascinated by and trying out everything but not focusing on any one thing. I'm sure this is the primary reason why I am now surrounded by clutter and unfinished projects and an endless list of "try that's". But with time, what really spoke to me started to take shape. I started visualizing what I wanted my at home personal space to look like.

Amazingly, I have had an entire space for years that I can call my own. Granted the shared computer is in that room but really, other than that - AN ENTIRE ROOM. Haw many women who do so much with only a corner would LOVE to have this space. But did I immediately make it my own? Well, of course not. Remember fits and starts? It became a dumping zone for possibilities and the detritus of ideas explored and tossed aside turned that room into a sort of ephemeric graveyard. Sometime along the line the vision started shaping up. What did I want in the room?

It turned out to be very simple:

• my camera


• my journals and writing materials


• my books


• magazines for inspiration


• sewing machine and all my accumulated tools


• and, not least of all, my photo archives

The continual vision of my simple, no frills, sewing machine refused to be dismissed. I collect fabric and buttons. Nothing fancy but there is a voice that says "do this". In the evenings I crochet, keeping my hands busy. This craft has found a permanent and meaningful place in my life.

So, now along with thoughts of retirement and the plan to prepare, I find myself focused enough to create my true personal space for - writing, photography, archiving family history, sewing small art pieces, crocheting and most important - a place to store my library of magazines. I may not do the projects within but they are the visual inspiration that keeps me moving in the right direction.

Epilogue

You get to a point in the reflection process where enough thinking has happened. Thinking too long (for me at any rate) becomes daydreaming. Nothing wrong with daydreaming especially at the start of a reflection. But in the past, reflection often turned back to daydreaming and the dream would go nowhere.

I've learned (and am still learning) to push through to the active stage, the doing stage of my daydreaming. My room is finally turning into an actual space. There is much to do but the easy part has turned out to be the tossing of "stuff". So the plan is:

• Continue tossing


• Set up workstations


• Continue to store and organize what remains


• AND most important - PLAY

Once I start playing, I will know that I have truly made a space of my own.

Continuing the Interlude

Mikim posted something at her blog about $600/lb coffee. Coffee drinker that I am, I just HAD to post her link here. Coffee lovers everywhere, enter at your own risk. My personal take on this coffee is - eewww!

Weaving the Threads - Interlude

Unpacking my past revealed these pretty dresses that my mom wore as a baby. I hand washed them today and pressed them. Sprayed them with some Fabreeze and voila!, fresh and like new.

Pretty sweaters and caps

Three little dresses

A slip and a cap

My father's baby pillow cover to the far right.

Weaving the Threads - Part Two

Unpacking My Past . . .

. . . is as much a metaphor for reconciling myself to past choices as it is a literal unpacking of boxes and freshening the things I love but keep packed away. I've been doing a lot of the first recently and it changed me enormously. The core of who I am is still there but the expression has changed. It isn't easy making these changes and some I have not handled well but learning the new rules of behavior as one banishes past ghosts can be a messy process.

The literal unpacking is my process for unearthing old family treasures - to photograph them, tell their story, and display them. I learned what these things were from my mother but preserving their stories in a more permanent way is left to me. Oral tradition stopped with me but I'm picking up the stories again and with technology, preserve them for our family.

I was at Orchard Supply and Hardware (OSH) yesterday and for the umpteenth time looked at a tall storage cabinet - four bottom drawers (one deep) and enclosed shelves on top. The first time I looked at this cabinet was two years ago. It was $189.00. Now it's $219.00. Nothing about the cabinet has changed except the price which has increased by $30.00. But this cabinet, I'm convinced, will be an effective problem solver for the enormous collection of family photos I have and need to sort through.

Right now they are all in a jumble of boxes. By getting this cabinet, I accomplish two things - I organize better thereby making the sorting more do-able; and emptying boxes frees them to store other items that need a temporary home. I can start putting order to chaos again. I've done this before but never finished the job. I don't expect to finish it either any time soon but my need to bring some order to it all pretty much has reached critical mass (again). Add to that the unpacking and exposing of my treasures and I will be forced to rid myself of more of the clutter that takes up too much space in my life.

Part of what defeats me (or at least slows me down) is the sheer quantity of "stuff" to deal with. I've tossed so much, Goodwilled so much, and there is still so MUCH. I'm not a start-a-project and work-to-the-end sort of person. So what takes one person a week to ruthlessly accomplish (hummm, would that be my DH?), takes me literally years! Just ask him. But, when I get into writing fits like this I generally make some progress to add to my long-haul style of putting order to things.

So, Saturday I continued to tackle the decluttering and determining of what is really important to keep. Yesterday I found a treasure trove of items from my mother's past. They require some sprucing up and freshening so first stop today is the grocery store to purchase of some sort of gentle soap and two 100% clean, never used pans for hand washing and hand rinsing. Then the gentle dry and iron. These items are all scheduled to become art-piece memory displays. Photos to follow, I promise.

Coming Soon - Weaving the Threads - Part Three

Creating My Personal Space

Weaving the Threads - Part One

Suddenly I find myself surrounded by people going through major life changes. If we are very lucky, we travel through many years of child rearing, navigating the sometimes deep and treacherous waters, waters that can make the Columbia/Pacific Bar look tame, with grace and dignity. Then, at the end of the journey, good fortune still holding, we turn out a fine and well-prepared adult version of the children they will always remain as in our heart. That done, I find myself surrounded by change:

• Retirement and its excitement;
• Potential for serious health issues;
• Acknowledgement of the hopelessness of the condition of one's spouse;
• Guilt and recriminations;
• Marriage and the nurturing of a new life joined;
• Fussy battling that has become the norm for communication;
• Clues about what I might do to prepare for my own retirement;
• Listening to others' stories;

These bullets have all visited me this month and I am reminded of how grateful I am for the companion I have in this life.

Do we scrap? YES

Do we get over it? YES

Are we joined at the root of our own basic selves? Does this keep us joined in purpose and goals? Does the future look good? ALL YES

Could I be happier? YES

Would I change anything? NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT.

I think about retirement now and I realize that I like my demanding job but I won't miss it at all when the time comes to navigate this big change. Until recently I could hardly wait. The two years seemed to drag in my mind. The next two years loomed as a monumental waste of time. It was only time marked for financial reasons - the getting of our money ducks all in a row. But then I read MaryEllen's recent post and reflected on Don's recent passage into the world of retirement. MaryEllen and Don and two things in common:

• They prepared ahead of time, and;
• They are busier than ever.

Over the course of several months we followed MaryEllen as she streamlined her possessions, moved to a new place, and feathered her very downsized but totally charming nest. She is tackling major health issues and paying it all forward by bringing activity and companionship to an elderly neighbor.

Don retired and life exploded into a fireworks display of change for us. He decompressed, started to smile more, took out his self-produced Honey-Do list and went to work again. Along the way he's made progress in his genealogy searches at a pace that didn't exist before.

And then there was the wedding, the vacation after, the surprises that ensued, the problems we encountered with the water pump on the car and the easy switch to a Plan B while the water pump was being replaced.

For a not terribly social sort of man, he has done more visiting in the past two months than I think he has done in the past two years and much of it HE planned. So my question is "Who ARE you and what have you done with the Don I knew?" Not that I'm complaining, of course.

So what does this all say to me? I have two years and a bit before the big passage is on me. I can use the present to prepare for the future or I can sit back, work, and do nothing except think about it a lot. The second choice holds no appeal and doesn't fit with my new intention of being in control of my life. So, prepare I must but what will that involve? Three things have been speaking to me recently:

• Unpacking my past;
• Create a personal space that works;
• Heal myself physically and spiritually.

Doing these three things will clear my path to retirement so that when I arrive, I will be ready. I hope, as I travel this road, that I also find the greater purpose I have been seeking.

End of Part One

Filling my heart at the start of each day

Carmen asked what we filled our cup with each day.

Each morning I go to House of Java before I go to work. I greet the day with my hot or iced coffee. As I sit there, I take out my journal and start writing. I had stopped for a while but now that I've started again I KNOW that this is what I need to do to start off my day well. It does not guarantee a good day but days are definitely better for doing this.

I'm not working today but I have a big writing project ahead of me. Java House is waiting.

Stay tuned

I'm working on a long piece. I tend to take a lot of time thinking about big pieces especially when there are a lot of seemingly unrelated thoughts at work. In no particular order, I am thinking about retirement, unpacking the past, the nature of friendship, creating a personal space, not listening to the whisper of old voices, and what it all means. So, like I said - Stay Tuned - Please.

Omigosh. Another one

Your Dominant Thinking Style: Visioning

You are very insightful and tend to make decisions based on your insights. You focus on how things should be - even if you haven't worked out the details. An idealist, thinking of the future helps you guide your path. You tend to give others long-term direction and momentum.

What's" Your Thinking Style?

It must be quiz week. Here's the second one.

Well, I would have never guessed. I'm HARRY!! No wonder hubby likes me so much. He watches Harry Potter movies over and over again. This is the guy who has a very short list of movies he will watch repeatedly - To Kill a Mockingbird; Forrest Gump; Gone With the Wind; The Quiet Man - to name a few. What Harry Potter Character are You? Harry Potter You are an outgoing, fun person. You like taking charge and you're a leader. You would do anything to help someone in need and you don't understand why everyone is so infatuated with you. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

41%

Well, you would think that after all of zombie movies I've seen that I would have a better chance at survival if the zombie Apocalypse hit. Just goes to show that I don't learn my lessons well. According to the quiz, I'm dead meat. **sigh**

Thanks to Laini for pointing me in this zanie direction.

One Deep Breath - Feathered Friends

Small, shy, appealing
Inconspicuous but brave
Heart tugged. Love blooms

Haikus for a Hot Day

Skin of birch tree breathes

Yellow leaf shivers, drops cold
Winter sleeps beneath.

Winter woman blooms

Into Spring cicada wings

Summer flight - away.

The Second Reason for a Trip to Portland

There are two reasons to go to Portland Oregon. First and foremost, to visit Powell's Books. The other primary reason for visiting is to go to The Grotto. This 62 acres botanical park and retreat center is like nowhere else I have ever been to. Visitors may enter troubled but they will leave calmed and at peace. I hope, if you are troubled now, that you will enjoy the bit of peace that follows here.

Pieta

St. Bernadette

The view from above

Shamrocks

St. Joseph


Monastery


Rose Garden


Our Lady

The Sorrowful Mysteries

The Light

Paying it forward can backfire

After posting my pay it forward post, a friend sent me an email recounting this funny story. It just goes to show that you just can't please some people. Here goes.

"After reading your post, my mind drifted off into the past and two little happening jumped into my head. One was as a family group my little brother who was about 5/6 pointed and laughed at an old "tramp" who was going through the litter bins in search of something to eat. Dad pulled us three kids into a huddle and told us never to do that again, and that that man could be just like him with children and family who love him but for whatever reason he can't be with them - anyway it left a lasting memory with us, (thanks dad).

The other time was when I was walking to work with a friend - hadn't been in Australia very long and was feeling a little homesick. We had picked up our morning coffees and were heading for the office when I passed a "tramp" sitting on the ground he was coughing and rubbing his hands to keep warm. My friend began to walk a little faster to get past him when that image of my dad telling us kids came into my head. So I gave him my coffee, got a smile and thanks love .... and then I heard ugh! coffee! I prefer tea in the morning! LOL

Like I said - sometimes a good turn can backfire on you. No doubt this is where the phrase "It's the thought that counts" comes from. LOL

It's all in the pour

There's a feather in my coffee

It's all in the pour.

Too pretty to sip

It's all in the pour.

Desire wins out.
It's all in the pour.

Sipping technique develops.

It's all in the pour.

Bottom's up

It's all in the pour.

There's a feather in my coffee.

It's all in the pour.