The seasons converge in Autumn; Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. September, October, November and December come together. Snow, sunshine, birth and death happen. The wind blows, or doesn’t blow, and what we know for sure is that which we don’t know, in the face of uncertainty. We feel sadness, happiness, hope and despair. One is irrelevant, without the other.
Category: Uncategorized
Hallowe’en
On Hallowe’en the old ghosts come
About us, and they speak to some;
To others they are dumb.
They haunt the hearts that love them best;
In some they are by grief possessed,
In other hearts they rest.
They have a knowledge they would tell;
To some of us it is a knell,
To some a miracle.
They come unseen, they go unseen;
And some will never know they’ve been,
And some know all they mean.
“The New Book of Days” by Eleanor Farjeon
Sensitivity
“Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist-a master-and that is what Auguste Rodin was-can look at an old woman, protray her exactly as she is…and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be…and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart…no matter what the merciless hours have done to her.”
― Robert Heinlein
The Wine Month
The Saxons called October Wyn-Monath, or Wine Month.
Ancient Germans called October, Winter fyleth
In honor of the full moon.
In 2020 the golden colors of the Wine Month
leave me feeling drunk.
In my stupor I dream of snowy days
And white snowflakes tumbling down from the sky.
Put the Fire Out!
Tiffany has been having episodic headaches lately, mostly at night. They showed up Wednesday, in the night, an uninvited guest without a welcome, they’ve stayed for five days now, to be exact. In a wild attempt to understand what was happening, like many, Tiffany resorted to Dr. Google, and found out they are genetic, and nothing can cure them. They can only be managed with lifestyle changes, and maybe medication from the doctor. In her research, a Quiz popped up, so she took it. The title was, “If you were to have a job, an occupation to manage migraines, what would you be?” In the final assessment they said she would be a Firefighter. She thought that was perfect, and also hopes the flames have finally been put out, and the embers die as soon as possible.
Prize of the Forest
Deep within this forest sits a white mushroom. Twelve feet in diameter, in the shape of a beautiful salad bowl, created solely by the forces of nature told me: “something is right with the world.”
The Supreme Good
The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.
In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don’t try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.
When you are content to be simply yourself
and don’t compare or compete,
everybody will respect you and you will respect yourself.
Tao Te Ching
Learning…
…to live with uncertainty.
…to reflect on the meaning of the past.
… to adapt to differences encountered.
…to understand what that knot in your stomach is saying to you.
…to embrace change and new realities.
…to make loved one’s a priority.
…to ask them for help.
…to cherish Time Un-rushed.
…to see yourself in a boat at sea with others.
…to ride the highs and lows of the waves together.
…to judge the changes in the tide with your companions.
…to continue with new ways of living.
…that we are confronted by a human crisis.
…to understand that crisis may be easier for you than for others.
…what it is we want to change, and to build?
Andrew Zibuck Says
October 17, 2016 at 7:42 pm
A couple is 2.
A few is 3 or 4.
Five is 5, because it’s a round number. It’s five. If you mean 3, 4, 6, 7, etc. you don’t mean five. If you mean 5 you’d say five.
Several is 6, 7, 8, or 9. Because ten is 10. It’s two 5’s. A ten. Ten-spot.
Some is 3 to 175.
A nameless stranger
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I said that “Patriotism” is a way of saying “Women and children first.” And that no one can force a man to feel this way. Instead he must embrace it freely. I want to tell about one such man. He wore no uniform and no one knows his name, or where he came from; all we know is what he did. In my home town sixty years ago when I was a child, my mother and father used to take me and my brothers and sisters out to Swope Park on Sunday afternoons. It was a wonderful place for kids, with picnic grounds and lakes and a zoo. But a railroad line cut straight through it. One Sunday afternoon a young married couple were crossing these tracks. She apparently did not watch her step, for she managed to catch her foot in the frog of a switch to a siding and could not pull it free. Her husband stopped to help her. But try as they might they could not get her foot loose. While they were working at it, a tramp showed up, walking the ties. He joined the husband in trying to pull the young woman’s foot loose. No luck — Out of sight around the curve a train whistled. Perhaps there would have been time to run and flag it down, perhaps not. In any case both men went right ahead trying to pull her free … and the train hit them. The wife was killed, the husband was mortally injured and died later, the tramp was killed — and testimony showed that neither man made the slightest effort to save himself. The husband’s behavior was heroic … but what we expect of a husband toward his wife: his right, and his proud privilege, to die for his woman. But what of this nameless stranger? Up to the very last second he could have jumped clear. He did not. He was still trying to save this woman he had never seen before in his life, right up to the very instant the train killed him. And that’s all we’ll ever know about him.
This is how a man dies. This is how a man … lives! - Robert Heinlein Wikiquote – From an address he made to a naval academy in 1988.
On Tiffany Creek 