Little Mysteries
The essence of attachment is discovery,
but there’s also much allure in a mystery.
So sometimes when an answer seems definitely certain,
it might behoove us just this once to sagely pull a curtain.
Word prompts today are curtains, essence, discovery, attachment.
I guess I need to put out water for the cats . . . .
Doldrums
Divorce yourself from worry—that tangled skein of stress.
Most of the problems in your thoughts are ills you can’t address.
Tasks collect in clusters that dry out in the sun,
so concentrate your efforts on things you may get done
and shove the others in a drawer or stack them on a shelf
where they can be seen by no one but yourself.
Don’t let their hidden status be cause for delay.
Accomplish at least one task every single day.
Thoughts peripatetic flit from thing to thing.
Nothing is accomplished by resolve on the wing.
Make a list and stick to it. Tick off what you have done,
and then forget your worries and go and have some fun.
Life’s not just for doing or accomplishing or working.
Life can be made richer with a little quirking.
Loosen up your hairdo. Paint your toenails blue.
Turn around and talk to strangers in the movie queue.
Take some time off from your work and plan a small vacation.
No telling what adventures lurk in a new location.
If you’re wishing for excitement, it won’t come to you.
There’s so much more that can be done, and done begins with do.
In between the “musts” of life, inflict some “want to do’s”
and make them happen. Take a chance. What do you have to lose?
The longer that you wait, the more life becomes a ruse.
Have the courage to go out and live the life you choose.
Prompt words for the day are delay, cluster, peripatetic, skein and divorce. The painting is acrylic on canvas board. I just noticed I didn’t sign it.
When Forestwood mentioned Nasi Goreng in her blog, it suddenly turned on a lightbulb in my head, because lately I find that I’m tired of everything I eat–even my favorites–and the mention of Nasi Goreng triggered a craving for a dish I haven’t had in thirty years or more. Luckily, two of my favorite cookbooks are Pearl Buck’s Oriental Cookbook and To All My Grandchildren, Lessons in Indonesian Cooking by Leonie Samuel-Hool, and I knew that they both have recipes for Nasi Goreng. I was surprised, however, at how they varied from the traditional Indonesian recipe to Pearl Buck’s evidently anglicized version. I leave it up to you to determine which you prefer. I for one am going to challenge my chef friend Brad to a cookdown to see which wins the crown.
Luckily, both have recipes for how to make all the spice blends and sauces such as kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) you could probably purchase ready-made in a gourmet or specialty grocery store, but if you can’t find them, I’ll publish the recipes for them and if you are lucky, The same goes for Dadar Iris, which is essentially a little omelet. I’ll even publish the recipe and story behind Beancake, Bees and Beans. Yes, a real dish in Leonie’s cookbook. I’ve met her and have an autographed copy, because her children owned an incredible Indonesian restaurant in San Rafael, California. One year on her birthday, they constructed a memorial to her on the wall of the restaurant next to the door and customers paid to have brass plates with their names inscribed on them to honor her. My friend Lee had one made for me. I wonder if I’m still there!
Click on photos to enlarge and read recipes!
Bill of Rights For the Human Race
With this particular virus threatening the whole world,
in what particular variant will it be unfurled?
We dose ourselves repeatedly but what of those who don’t?
The threat seems constantly renewed thanks to those who won’t.
They will not see it’s provident that every person tries
to conquer our joint enemy before the whole world dies.
Human after human continues to spread spatters
as though the future of the world hardly even matters.
Unvaccinated and unmasked, they refuse to bend.
Where do the rights of others start and where do their rights end?
Prompt words today are spatter, whole, particular, provident and dose.
Night Visitor
A shift in light, a shape just glimpsed, a moment fraught with fear.
What spirit floats in front of me and breathes into my ear?
It thrusts into my consciousness, filling all its gaps
with memories that, truth to tell, I’ve recently let lapse.
Its stories fill my night out in whispers soft and low.
It beckons me to follow it, but still I answer “No.”
In fear of where it seeks to lead, I do not heed its sighs.
It might be other than it seems, in another guise.
That truth we find in dreams, alas, carries no guarantee.
Do we see what really is or what we wish to see?
For the Sunday Whirl Wordle, the prompts are: fraught glimpse shape moment lead gap thrust might breath shift sigh low Image by Lux Graves on Unsplash.
Forgottenman at Serial Monography has acquainted me with another online Wordle of a different type that I have become equally addicted to. You can find an explanation of how to play it HERE . And you can go HERE to sign on play the game. A new one is posted daily. Please note this is an entirely different Wordle not associated with Brenda’s blogging site.
Traveler’s Advisory
An explorer most intrepid, while plodding pole-to-pole,
one day declared this wish to be his penultimate goal.
He wanted to increase his pace to maximal extent
by carrying less luggage everywhere he went.
He found a weightless backpack that, sadly, was inflammable,
into which he stuffed all his possessions that were crammable.
He then set off upon his trek at a healthy trot,
on a day the sun was inordinately hot.
Glancing off his zipper, it started a small fire
near the bottom of his backpack that quickly traveled higher,
igniting matches in his pack, and then the gasoline
he carried to start fires with set a magazine
stuffed into his bag top gloriously afire,
turning his whole backpack into a funeral pyre.
The moral of this story is, if your travel pack
isn’t fire retardant, don’t bear it on your back!!
Prompt words for today are inflammable, pole, explore, maximal and pace.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 