Omega

When we take our first breath we are unaware it is the beginning of our journey toward death. Hopefully we learn our choices have consequences and for every door that closes another opens. With guidance we should gain a sense of responsibility and morality.  Our contentment or direction may change but we still travel our road to death. The In Between Times are full of changes, love, sadness and goodbyes.

In 2008 I began to blog about my journey.  I've shared my dreams and my life.  You've become familiar with my love of the land, animals, and the people around me.  You've laughed, cried and prayed with and for me.

I'll never write a best seller nor paint a masterpiece nor make a great discovery that will change the world but YOU, my great blogger friends, have given me a delightfully varied view of this large world. It is time for me to laugh more, love more, spend less time on the computer and more time with my family, my life and my choices. As I continue on my path from birth to death I bid you adieu with sadness and with joy for having met you.

Life On A Log With Liquid...L

Little creatures often go unnoticed,

The Carpenter Ant searches for the Lost

as the Granddaddy Long Legs wonders how he got so wet.

All Life is precious.

Enjoy the Little things.

ABDUCTED

by life

by spring

by circumstance

Happy April!

Fruitless Turns Around

Just like trying again and again to capture a humming bird, life sometimes seems to work against you. Fruitless....or it seems that way.

My oldest sister, Marcy, was a school teacher for the same school for thirty-seven years.  She retired and like me and our other sister moved to the farm to help Mom and Dad in their later years.  She left behind her house.

I'm not sure how long we've all been at the farm because the years have a way of piling up and mixing all together but it's been a while.

Marcy's plans to renovate and sell the house were put on hold with Mom's death, Dad's Alzheimer's and death,  Hubby and then Marcy herself became sick.  With odds and ends of semi-emergencies sprinkled in the mix just to keep us on our toes, time passed  Life has a way of interfering with your plans.

I'm not telling this as a sad tale but only as an introduction to a miraculous day.

I believe her house sat vacant for over five years.  The renovations were not completed.  She still had the power on and paying taxes with nothing showing for it.  Being the busybody sister that I am I became determined to change this for her.

On line I went looking for real estate agents. Checked their specs and contacted a couple.  Marcy got a letter outlining what she needed to do...and there it sat for a couple of months or longer.

Being the bullheaded determined person I am, I finally just said, This day we are going to look at your house and get it listed.

We headed out...in a car.

Do you have the agent's number?  No, the letter's at home.  Okay, we will just pick the first office we see. (I got funny looks),

Stopped to potty and we didn't have a clue where a real estate agent was. Marcy picked up one of those free real estate books to see if there is one close.  A lady walked by and asked Marcy if she was looking for a place.  Marcy said, No, selling.  She and the lady began to talk.  This is the same lady we had been in contact with by mail!  What are the odds of that??

I told Marcy I thought this was a sign and we were going with this agent.  It felt like God had put her in our path.  And the agent was not the only person God would place in our path this day.

We arrived.  Entered.  Remodeling material still there.  Every thing looked okay.

City Marshall showed up.  Visited for a while.  An old friend showed up to visit with Marcy. Then a new neighbor that moved in after Marcy moved out showed up.  The city was having a clean up and a recycle drive to pay for the city's fire works display.  He offered to take anything we were going to discard.  Out washer, dryer, refrigerator, out broken things and trash with an offer to clear the things that pile up around the shed in every one's back yard.  Done, done and done!

A past student of Marcy's stopped by to visit.  Offers to send the local boy scout troop to clean her yard! Good lesson for them on helping neighbors, she said.

Real estate agent is called and arrives.  Marcy does the paperwork.  As soon as the price is known people are on the phone calling neighbors.  One man came to look at the house before the agent ever left.

Sooooooo, we piled what we could in the car from the house with plans to return with a truck to get her last bit of possessions.  The house is almost empty but the shed is full.  I have feelers out (with Marcy's approval) to donate most of Marcy's teaching supplies where they can be used by teachers or the church or some place they will be loved.

Hopefully, soon this will be a past chapter for Marcy she can close with a smile and a happy ending.

This N That

fungi on a log

Here I share tiny pieces as we all do, glimpses into parts of our daily lives. This is not a reality show so you don't get the in your face daily living dramas, tragedies and triumphs...not all of them so I'm gonna hit some highlights.

Marcy, my oldest sister, has passed her tests and remains cancer free for another year.  The tests and checks are getting farther apart.  I do the driving.

Beverly, my second sister (yep, I'm the baby), is still operating The Shop, mostly by herself. I go up now and then to help.  Things are still moving out and moving on.

Hubby is holding steady on his heart health but I can tell some days are worse than others. We are relatively young, he 64 and I 61, but we seem to be going downhill.

Our outings are mostly grocery and doctor runs,

We have a boomerang child.

Andrew graduates this year.

We no longer have any livestock.  Down to one rooster...they were quite old.

Hubby has the garden plowed for spring planting.

We have a list of work that NEEDS to be done as long as all our arms put together.

Sadly the elders here all woven together would not make one healthy person but we keep on keeping on.

On the brighter side, we are still here, pecking away at daily living.  We have acreage to explore, fishing, hunting, fresh water, sunshine and rain.  We are blessed.

Water

light and life

Like Moths...

For Magpie Tales

Each one of us

Approach the light

In a myriad of ways

Face on

Side ways

Open armed

Or closed

From the back

From the front

On and on we go

We try

Again and again

Thanks to God

And Tesla

Life and light are not 

Open flames

We continually 

Scorch and escape

Again

And again

Not unlike the moth

We are drawn

To the flame

We test the fiery waters

Of life

And sometimes

We refrain

From repeating mistakes

That delivered us

Too closely to the flame

Festivals with Poetry Jam

Festivals with Poetry Jam

There are many festivals

That I know is true

The one I celebrate

Brings life back anew

Every thing's connected

Each in it's own way

Rain brings growth

Sunshine makes hay

We all have a Creator

No matter what She's named

We should respect all of them

No One is to blame.

We Must Remember...

to view life through the eyes of a child.

Secrets

I have tried so carefully to guard them, to stop you from knowing. I am sure you have some idea about me. Having enjoyed many posts with Ten Things You Do Not Know About Me, I now present mine!

#1 I was born writing. Every time I clean a paper area, I find snippets of writing. Some I throw away, others I rejoice in their finding. My greatest wish would be that the snippets could be combined into a treasure like Margaret Mitchell's. It is amazing to note the changes in my life through my writings. I have written journals through the years and have destroyed them! If the piece makes it through my several bouts of thinning, it is copied into a hard back journal. It is amazing that I can read the stages of my life in these writings.

#2 I have a very different(sick) sense of humor. The things I find hilarious are just sometimes plain sick...but I still laugh. I like to play jokes, I like to scare people, I enjoy teasing. My husband fits right in...he has saran wrapped the toilet seat, oiled the commode ring, and put duct tape in my underwear! I topped him on that one and used clear double sided tape in his, like no one is going to see Duct tape in your underwear as you are pulling them on.

#3 I like to create... The stranger, the better. I have "Caution! Hard Hat Area" painted on the floor of my closet! Another Day Another Load is painted(again on the floor) all glittery and quite wonderfully, in front of my laundry section. The ceiling of my laundry area is old rusty barn tin, yes, exactly what I wanted. The floor is wooden but painted to look like mortared stone work.

#4 I like to paint...I would not call it art. I, much to my sister's chagrin, paint over old canvases of mine to paint another! I have only been painting about eight years because I never thought I could. To me painting is not the finished project but the act of doing. I let the paints take over and am not aware until it's finished. I first started painting on cardboard and wood or whatever was available. When I got my first real canvas, it was so white and pretty, I could not paint! I did not want to mess it up.

#5 I like horses...whoa, big surprise there! I have always wanted horses but never allowed to have one cause tractors don't eat when they are not working. This is not a secret, so let me think, what about this might you not know. I wrote a poem about wanting to be a horse when I was very young.

#6 I have had a Strange Light experience...recently. Three in the morning, watching the two planet/stars that will not be seen again with the naked eye for any years in my lifetime, a light appeared. Okay, so is it someone spotlighting, someone trespassing, a helicopter looking for dope...none of the above. No noise of engines or of anything reaches my ears. The layout of our land does not allow for what this light was doing. I could not find the source. It was the brightest light I have ever seen, a halogen would be a match light, to this thing. It grew, I am still trying to see where it is coming from, not from above, no sounds, in fact, the night had become supernaturally quiet. The Hill behind was dark but from that hill to the trees beside the house, it was light. It was a horizontal light because the back of the trees were bathed in light while the front was buried in shadow. From the tops of the trees to the ground I could see things better than in daylight. The distance covered with light toward me would have been a five minute walk. There was no end to the width, that reached over to the next hill. The light had not moved but rather grown from my right to my left. I do not know the time that lapsed and considered searching for the source. I stood in awe of this wondrous light for an unknown time. I thought I must wake my husband. When he came out, the light was gone and it was so dark again. It was hard to imagine the acreage that had been lighted. I suspect my husband thought I had jumped over the edge. He did call me the next day from work and say many people had reported the same light in several COUNTIES and the answer was a helicopter...right!!! I make no claims to what I saw. I watched and enjoyed the wonder of it and gave it no name.

#7 I believe pets are here for our convenience and not for theirs. I love, I care, I cuddle, I spoil but they will listen or die!!! No, I'm kidding on the last part. Guess this has something to do with being raised on a farm. If a dog catches chickens, it dies. They will listen to me! Now if I had been that way with my children...

#8 I believe there is a God, a Higher Being, Someone greater than the combined total of us that is in charge. I am closer to God in the woods than I am in church. I try to demonstrate my faith in my daily living. I admire and try to practice the beliefs of caring for the land and it will care for you. I judge no one in their beliefs. That is the wonder of our life, we are free to believe and speak...Thank God!

#9 I now admire the people that have done this before me even more. This is not easy. Bearing your soul in fear that some how they will no longer listen to your words.

#10 I am drawn to darkness. I love the writings of those considered insane. I have found in all that darkness there are bits of light that I need to see.

Now, will you still visit with me?