Transitions...

My resulution/revolution this year is dramatic and simple:

• CHANGE MY LIFE

I lost my job this year. I need a new one, and this "downsizing" came as a kick in the pants to do something different. Because, as the saying goes, if you always do what you always did you will always get what you got.

To that end:

• I'm going to school (again) and learning a new skill. I started my working life in healthcare and am returning there after many years doing assorted other things. Hopefully it will not only be a job, it will be a career that will provide a base to sustain my life into retirement.
• And - equally important - I'm seriously working on my (untitled) novel. It's not like I've never written anything - I have a file cabinet full of short stories, aborted novels, writing practice, poetry, etc - but I'm approaching this one a little differently. There is a purpose here; the story wants to be written, the characters are alive in a way no others have been before.

There is something... important... about doing all these things at the end of one year/decade and the beginning of another. It's a transition from one life to another, connecting one to the other and honoring both. The new drawing life from the old, molding interests and skills already known into something different. Something... more.

My New Year's wish for you: that your life be something more...

I'm dreaming of a... what?!

It's not often we get the white stuff in N Central Texas at the winter holidays, but every few years Mother Nature surprises us. This year the snow storms were supposed to stay far west, up in the panhandle... like normal. Wouldn't you know it, the Grand Lady changed her mind at the last minute (in a demonstration of the female prerogative) to show us just how little we really know...

All of N Texas is under a Winter Storm Advisory through the end of the day today, and with winds sustained over 30mph, we'll be under Blizzard Alert tonight and through tomorrow.

Now, I remember a couple of snowy holidays during my childhood, and ice-storms-a-plenty, but NEVER a Blizzard!! We're not equipped for a blizzard! Send us a hurricane or tornado, those we can handle, but keep the blizzards up north! (*snort*)

Anyway, I wish you all a blessed holiday season, and a peace-filled New Year.

Simple Gifts

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Happy Thanksgiving!

changing my life

"The future will depend on what we do in the present." Mahatma Gandhi

Sorry I haven't been around lately. Working on changing my future. I'll be back shortly...

BOO!

Round about the cauldron go,

In the perfumed potion throw!

Full moon shine its light on you,

And make thy future troubles few

This is the charm I make for thee,

As I will so mote it be!

found treasure

You know when you're scanning the channels and land on something that you haven't seen in a hundred years & in the 1st ten minutes you realize why it's considered a "classic" and wonder yet again why it's not on your keeper shelf...

The Great Escape
Steve McQueen... a baseball... a motorcycle...
And a passell... passle... well crap a whole lot of STARS and character actors & everyone of them is an "oh him!" A wonderfully complicated tour de force & oh yeah can we talk about the soundtrack...

I think watching this with my mother so long ago (yes it was that long ago!) was the first time I fell in love with motorcycles. :-)

And OHMYGOD I just looked up & there's Illya Kuriakin... okay it's David McCallum!!! Yeah what can I say I was a Man from U.N.C.L.E fan too! *sigh*

This may not be a "literary" post, but it's JOY for me tonight!

spin cycle

colors, mixed with darks, mixed with whites...
the water's too hot, the colors bleed,
blacks fade to gray

and wouldn't you know that tissue I couldn't find was in the pocket

the load is off center & the washer goes
thud
thud
thud
against the wall & tries to walk away
while shaking the load free
of all that
dirt