A Morning Walk

Darling Dog and I went for a walk this morning.

The air smelled like maple syrup and the squirrels strutted around the dirt embankments up the hill, taunting DD. An ambulence siren sounded, followed by the bellows of a hound at home by himself. Barooooo... A sad, sad song. Prayers for the man on the stretcher, gentle words for the dogs.

Make America Again

O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?



~ Langston Hughes "Let America Be America"

Friday's Sundown Smatterings

I hope everyone had a very, merry Thanksgiving and is gearing up for a Christmas season full of cheer, gratitude, and sharing of the spirit of this blessed holly-day. I was talking with a dear friend of mine last week about the dream of having all the money in the world to over-gift for friends and loved ones. I so often stumble across things for sale, here there and everywhere suitable for my mom, or a co-worker, etc. and have to keep my wallet in check. How nice would it be to be able to SPLURGE this Christmas and buy EVERYONE in your life exactly what you would if there were no limit to your bank account?

I would buy my dad this watch because he already has the best sunglasses around.
My mom would be forced to accept this so she could make her own flax seed crackers and these so she would look dazzling while doing so.
Numbers Man would get this BMW. He's been wanting a new car/SUV.

And I? I would be so blissfully reeling with excitement over their gifts, I don't think I could think of giving anything to myself. Although, *cough*, this might find a place in one of my shopping bags. Haha...

Those wise men were wise indeed to bring presents to little, baby Jesus. I love shopping for Christmas presents...it's like a charitable sporting activity. Who else get's excited about Toys for Tots toy drives? I have no children of my own (yet) so I jump at the opportunity to pick out a doll for a very special someone.

xoxo C

Red Buttons

Like cardinal buttons

The colorful snaps

Peek out between

Crossed sticks, palest green.

Gemmed reflectors

Searching for cloudlight:

Twinkling through

The drops of new-

Dew or faerie mists of

Mid-November haze.

Scrumptious Day

Today is turning out to be a beautiful one; there is not a cloud in the sky and the colors of the world seem bright as can be. Darling dog is running back and forth between the window and the sliding glass door here in the living room, whining about passers by and falling leaves.



"The rocks wore vines of crimson, and goldenrod was full of bees and yellow butterflies. Gnarled roots bore little creeping tufts of squawberry with bright, red berries dotting thick between. But Courtland passed on and saw it not."

~ The Witness by Grace Livingston Hill

Under the White Light

When the world around me is occupied by shades of muted greyish blue, matte jade, and wrinkled ochre I long for brevity of stark white, crisp in its spartan fashion, enslaved to reflection and illumination of those demure and daily lies we tell to put on a good face.

"I felt he'd found my letters and read each one out loud,
I prayed that he would finish, but he just kept right on..."

Guinea Pigs: Someone's Got to Go First

Someone at work mentioned this book to me the other day and it got me thinking...

The tree above is the first in the neighborhood to turn its leaves and it is smashing the cerulean sky into jagged puzzle pieces while the rest, still green as can be, cool-ly look on to see how things go. Of course it grabs our attention and our thoughts favor the exuberance of each luscious leaf, but it will drop them all first - I'm sure of it. Those leaves will dry out and fall leaving its branches bare while the hesitant neighbors put on airs and live it up together in a wash of complimentary hues. A riotous party and the guinea pig came to the party stark naked. Poor guinea pig.

Pinkiness

~Happiness~

by AA Milne

-

John had

Great Big

Waterproof

Boots on;

John had a

Great Big

Waterproof

hat;

John had a

Great Big

Waterproof

Mackintosh -

And that

(Said John)

Is

That.

Welcome to Fall!

Can you believe it's already fall? Time to religiously watch old Gilmore Girls episodes, laze around in flannel robe, and of course...live on Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Oh happy day!

Rory: We're fondue purists, Grandma.

Lorelai: Yea we dip old school.

Emily: The government says you should have nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

Lorelai: Imperialist propaganda.

Rory: Noam Chomsky would agree.

Lorelai: I bet Noam doesn't dip fruit.

The Color of Summer

All the flowers are blooming pink and red and yellow, just like the balloons. I took a bit of liberty enhancing the balloon photo because they were so vibrant anyhow...oomph galore!

This morning I drove down the road (Lake Washington Blvd.) to Starbucks for a Caramel Capuccino & the Times (NY, not Seattle) and was bowled over by the incandescent glow of sunlight bouncing off of the the blooms, baloons, and bicycle riders. Anyone who has visited the Seattle area will know that we have a hard core bicycle culture here. I will avoid going on a rant about how they blatently ignore the rules of the road and put us all at risk...err, perhaps I didn't make it past that point as I had hoped. In any case, the bicyclists are usually be-garbed in jewel toned spandex numbers that stick out like a sore thumb in the grey, Northwestern haze, but under the summer sun, they look a part of the scenery.

Continuing in Prosperity

Daniel 4:27

"Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue."

What Will You Become?

Philippians 3: 14 - 21

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Cool Muslin Morning

She wore a cool muslin that morning - white, with a waving vertical line of brown running through it; also a white linen collar and big straw hat which she had taken from the peg outside the door. The hat rested any way on her yellow brown hair, that waved a little, was heavy, and hung close to her head.
Madame Ratignolle, more careful of her complexion, had twined a gauze veil about her head. She wore dogskin gloves, with gauntlets that protected her wrists. She was dressed in pure white, with a fluffiness of ruffles that became her. The draperies and fluttering things which she wore, suited her rich, luxuriant beauty as a greater severity of line could not have done.

~ from The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Nature speaks in it's own language, free!

Vowels...

A Black, E white, I red, U green, O blue : vowels,
I shall tell, one day, of your mysterious origins:
A, black velvety jacket of brilliant flies
Which buzz around cruel smells,
Gulfs of shadow; E, whiteness of vapours and of tents,
Lances of proud glaciers, white kings, shivers of cow-parsley;
I, purples, spat blood, smile of beautiful lips
In anger or in the raptures of penitence;
U, waves, divine shudderings of viridian seas,
The peace of pastures dotted with animals, the peace of the furrows
Which alchemy prints on broad studious foreheads;
O, sublime Trumpet full of strange piercing sounds,
Silences crossed by Worlds and by Angels:
O the Omega, the violet ray of Her Eyes!

~ by Arthur Rimbaud

Letting Colors Show

The Lord makes us in all shapes, sizes and colors. You do not see the emerald leaves willing harm on the snow white petals.

Ernest was an elephant, a great big fellow,

Leonard was a lion with a six foot tail,

George was a goat, and his beard was yellow,

And James was a very small snail.

~ A.A. Milne