???
Those pump-action metal toy ponies?
Dressing up?
1953
1956
1957
1960
1961
1962
Your first love?
1969
1973
1974
1981
1986
1987
1988
1990
1992
1993
2001-2022
2001-2022
2002-2022
2003
Todo Vida
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009-2022
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Todo Vida
2017
2018
2018
2019
1986-2021
1967-2022
2001-2022
2001-2022
2001-2022
2022
2001-2022
2022
2001-2011
2001-2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
Todo Vida!!!
2022
((Click on Photos to Enlarge)
Reinvention
Am I on a teeter-totter or an even plane?
Interestingly kooky or a bit insane?
I try to reinvent myself to fight off signs of dolor.
Does this mean I’m adventurous or that I am bipolar?
I stretch myself upon a rack, fresh insights to inspire.
Initiate new interests, hoping they’ll light a fire.
But there is no assurance that this new me will last
any longer than the other me’s that I have cast.
Prompt words are reinvent, rack, initiate, assure, plane.
I know I went a bit crazy with the photos. I had just a few and then kept filling in gaps.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Thanks Judy, the photos tell a rotogravure of a long life, but one still being focused, not changing but rather one being lived out with extemporaneous plans. And the poem is also great one of telling things that we all think about, but do not always talk about , that desire to finish our bucket list of life in a way that will leave promise of great memories. The unpredictable changes in directions in our life’s road keeps us making new decisions, but at the same time the past still determines what the future brings. I am there too, I so miss the past but know it is long gone, and that my future is not exactly yet determined~!
You are a great photographer too and so many of your photos tell a story in their selves, even ones that were taken by others. Your face is a storybook, some times happy, some time proud, other times not so much. But then the reader of a story must fill in the blanks.
I especially Love that photo of the butterfly but all the rest all impressed me in one way or another.
SAM
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Thanks, Sam. You are always so interested and supportive!!!
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And… I can’t believe you noticed I had on the same dress in the two photos. In one I was in the 8th grade and in the other a frosh. in highschool.
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The dress you were wearing in 1961is the same one you wore to that party in 1960~! Hair the same too~! Would you be interested in what I wore that year~?
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Yes, definitely. I actually wore a different dress to the party but tore out the underarmm and side jitterbugging so had to change into the other dress!!!!
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Oh what a great backstory to that dress, see photos do have a story to tell. Go here for my 1960-61 photo for my two new acquisitions, a beautiful wife and a red Oldsmobile F-85 coupe in the background. She had sewed that wedding dress before coming to meet me, and this is what we wore to the wedding. It is fun to know the rest of the story. I missed the Jitterbug all together, but did a mean “barn dance”, medecombe, chachacha, and chicka-cha because I was living in Colombia at that time.~!
My photo of 1961: https://mcouvillion.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5370&action=edit&calypsoify=1
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When I try to open your link I just get a message that I’m not allowed to edit it. No photo..
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Sorry Judy, though we fixed a lot of things on my internet there are still things actin funny.
LETS TRY THIS:
https://mcouvillion.wordpress.com/2021/06/10/maybe-not-the-only-answer/
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If you look, you must have been in editing mode when you copied the link. Do it in view mode.
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How nice! I really enjoyed seeing your old photos 🙂 BTW: I know what you mean by reinventing yourself, I can say that am in a similar position, but newer to this …
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Great post Judy!
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How much fun to travel through life with you, Judy, and all the various stages and art and fun and critters and friends. I loved this (I’m smiling here at my desk). Thanks for the journey.
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Met Leslie for lunch today and of course thought of you. Hope one of these days you join us.
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My hope too, Judy. We’re looking at maybe later in the early spring (does that make sense?) See you on Zoom on 1/28. Leslie invited me for a Zoom session during your writing retreat.
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oh goodie. We’ll light a candle. ;o)
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Great photos Judy.
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You’ve always been adorable, Judy, and still are.
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Oh Dolly, you flatterer…
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Totally sincere.
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