7.11.2016
ELO - Hold On Tight (Song of The Day)
P.S. Wait until the singing starts before you give up on it. Accroches-toi a ton reve! :)
Your Poem [Poem by Robert William Service]
My poem may be yours indeed
In melody and tone,
If in its rhythm you can read
A music of your own;
If in its pale woof you can weave
Your lovelier design,
'Twill make my lyric, I believe,
More yours than mine.
I'm but a prompter at the best;
Crude cues are all I give.
In simple stanzas I suggest -
'Tis you who make them live.
My bit of rhyme is but a frame,
And if my lines you quote,
I think, although they bear my name,
'Tis you who wrote.
Yours is the beauty that you see
In any words I sing;
The magic and the melody
'Tis you, dear friend, who bring.
Yea, by the glory and the gleam,
The loveliness that lures
Your thought to starry heights of dream,
The poem's yours.
-Robert William Service
In melody and tone,
If in its rhythm you can read
A music of your own;
If in its pale woof you can weave
Your lovelier design,
'Twill make my lyric, I believe,
More yours than mine.
I'm but a prompter at the best;
Crude cues are all I give.
In simple stanzas I suggest -
'Tis you who make them live.
My bit of rhyme is but a frame,
And if my lines you quote,
I think, although they bear my name,
'Tis you who wrote.
Yours is the beauty that you see
In any words I sing;
The magic and the melody
'Tis you, dear friend, who bring.
Yea, by the glory and the gleam,
The loveliness that lures
Your thought to starry heights of dream,
The poem's yours.
-Robert William Service
7.09.2016
7.08.2016
Take Care of Yourself
I never used to understand why people said, 'take care of yourself!' when they said goodbye.
Until last Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, I unexpectedly ran into an older friend of mine that I hadn't seen in several months. Of course, I was delighted and we had a little chat and I gave her a big hug and we went our separate ways. But the incident got me really thinking.
Now, it's more than possible that my friend may just have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. But I remembered her as a healthy, put-together person with a great sense of humor and a positive, productive outlook on life and that was not the vibe she was putting out when I saw her then. She looked tired, she had dark circles under her eyes, and she seemed to have aged years since I had seen her.
I know that we all get old and we all get tired, and if she was just having a bad day, hopefully I added some sunshine to it. But honestly I was worried. I spent the rest of the day wondering if she was sick or unhappy or if she needed more help; she has few family members in the area and most of her close friends are getting older. I wondered if I should call and offer to help with some cleaning or something.
I wondered all of that because I care. She's my friend and I love her. As I thought back over our conversation, I realized that when I said goodbye, I had smiled and said, 'take care of yourself, now!' And I'd really meant it. I really want her to wear the colorful clothes I know she enjoys so much and I really do want her to savor her coffee in the morning and go for a short walk in the fresh air and to make sure she goes to all her doctors appointments and I want her to call me or someone if she does need help with something she can no longer do on her own.
The reality is that I've got a very full, busy life right now and although I would put in the effort to do whatever I could if she needed help, there's not a lot that I am able to do for anyone more right now. But I care about her and I want her to take care of herself. For me. For herself. For everyone who cares about her.
And then after I realized that, I realized that I needed to take care of myself like that too. Sometimes I get so caught up in everything on my to do list that I get sort of paralyzed and I forget to take care of myself. To live. I forget to savor my coffee and to go for short walks myself and to read books and to take my little brothers and sisters to the library and camping in the woods. I forget to weed flower gardens so I have something pretty around the place and I forget that I need to remember to take pictures of things that make me happy and to work on good habits in my life and to keep growing and working on things.
Somebody cares about you. And you care about you because you have to live with you-you have to be you. So, take care of yourself, please. Make sure you get lots of sleep and eat some vegetables and spend some time outside. Make sure you are learning something and laughing every day and getting hugged lots. (The most surefire way to make sure you get hugged is to give hugs, just FYI.) If you're not happy, if you're in a rut, if you're out of touch with the people you care about, do something about it. It's not something that's going to work itself out.
This is your life, this is you. So take care of yourself. :)
Until last Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, I unexpectedly ran into an older friend of mine that I hadn't seen in several months. Of course, I was delighted and we had a little chat and I gave her a big hug and we went our separate ways. But the incident got me really thinking.
Now, it's more than possible that my friend may just have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. But I remembered her as a healthy, put-together person with a great sense of humor and a positive, productive outlook on life and that was not the vibe she was putting out when I saw her then. She looked tired, she had dark circles under her eyes, and she seemed to have aged years since I had seen her.
I know that we all get old and we all get tired, and if she was just having a bad day, hopefully I added some sunshine to it. But honestly I was worried. I spent the rest of the day wondering if she was sick or unhappy or if she needed more help; she has few family members in the area and most of her close friends are getting older. I wondered if I should call and offer to help with some cleaning or something.
I wondered all of that because I care. She's my friend and I love her. As I thought back over our conversation, I realized that when I said goodbye, I had smiled and said, 'take care of yourself, now!' And I'd really meant it. I really want her to wear the colorful clothes I know she enjoys so much and I really do want her to savor her coffee in the morning and go for a short walk in the fresh air and to make sure she goes to all her doctors appointments and I want her to call me or someone if she does need help with something she can no longer do on her own.
The reality is that I've got a very full, busy life right now and although I would put in the effort to do whatever I could if she needed help, there's not a lot that I am able to do for anyone more right now. But I care about her and I want her to take care of herself. For me. For herself. For everyone who cares about her.
And then after I realized that, I realized that I needed to take care of myself like that too. Sometimes I get so caught up in everything on my to do list that I get sort of paralyzed and I forget to take care of myself. To live. I forget to savor my coffee and to go for short walks myself and to read books and to take my little brothers and sisters to the library and camping in the woods. I forget to weed flower gardens so I have something pretty around the place and I forget that I need to remember to take pictures of things that make me happy and to work on good habits in my life and to keep growing and working on things.
Somebody cares about you. And you care about you because you have to live with you-you have to be you. So, take care of yourself, please. Make sure you get lots of sleep and eat some vegetables and spend some time outside. Make sure you are learning something and laughing every day and getting hugged lots. (The most surefire way to make sure you get hugged is to give hugs, just FYI.) If you're not happy, if you're in a rut, if you're out of touch with the people you care about, do something about it. It's not something that's going to work itself out.
This is your life, this is you. So take care of yourself. :)
7.06.2016
Taking Stock #2
Making: a vision/mood board. I need more magazines though.
Cooking: hard-boiled eggs for some protein in my salads.
Drinking: Turkish coffee.
Reading: lots of articles my dad e-mails to me. Politics, health, innovation.
Wanting: a fridge for my bus so I don't have to drink lukewarm water after doing yard work all day.
Looking: for a more efficient way to make better coffee. My coffeemaker keeps burning it. ICK!!
Playing: satellite radio blues in the car on the way to and from work.
Deciding: nothing, really.
Wishing: I could just get in the car and drive far far away for a while.
Enjoying: summer thunderstorms.
Waiting: to see the new paint and curtains in the sales room at my work tomorrow.
Liking: Bob Marley's three little birds song.
Wondering: how the heck to keep ants out of my hummingbird feeder.
Loving: all the father's day posts in my Facebook newsfeed.
Pondering: the impact that the result of the U.S. presidential election will have.
Considering: the possibility of publishing a children's' e-book.
Watching: The Importance of Being Earnest.
Hoping: for a chance to change my work/school/schedule in the near future. Just ready for a change.
Marveling: over the gift of new life, the new baby calf in the barn.
Needing: some new deadlines.
Smelling: baked apples in the oven.
Wearing: my favorite pair of jeans.
Noticing: how fast everyone grows up and grows old.
Knowing: I need to take at least a tiny break and sleep/breathe/rest for a day.
Thinking: about going camping with my sister for a weekend about three hours drive away.
Feeling: contemplative.
Admiring: the blue, blue summer sky.
Sorting: laundry, clothes to donate to a thrift store.
Buying: little gifts for coworkers' birthdays.
Getting: tired of work, work, work, work, work.
Bookmarking: free language learning websites, French and Spanish.
Disliking: all the negative news on the radio.
Opening: my heart to the beauty of the mountains where I live.
Giggling: over Popeye cartoons with the littler siblings.
Working: on memorizing the book of Philippians.
Missing: my friend who moved to NYC two weeks ago, my sister who is in the Philippines.
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