Author Archives: lifelessons

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About lifelessons

My blog, which started out to be about overcoming grief, quickly grew into a blog about celebrating life. I post daily: poems, photographs, essays or stories. I've lived in countries all around the globe but have finally come to rest in Mexico, where I've lived since 2001. My books may be found on Amazon in Kindle and print format, my art in local Ajijic galleries. Hope to see you at my blog.

Incapable

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jdbphoto

Incapable

Capable? I fear I’m not
for usually, I’m too hot.
Sleeves I do for vanity,
but capes weren’t made for folks like me.
If the capes are long and fem,
I get my heels caught in the hem,
and if they’re roomy and too wide,
I find that I get lost inside.
I get my purse strap tangled in,
the neck tangled around my chin.
The bat wings flap and catch the breeze.
The wool ones make me gasp and sneeze.
So, if you’re a swaddler, leave me be.
I like my torso cover-free.

The prompt word today was capable.

Tinklegate: How I Beat Out Donald Trump in the Numbers and Became More Sure That The World Is Going Completely Crazy!!!

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Fellow blogger and close friend okcForgottenMan, who keeps very close watch on the internet, just found and sent me this bizarre link below that deals with a blog post I made in May. I can barely believe it, but he assures me it is likely for real. This is absolutely surreal!!! Be sure to read to the end. Somehow I never thought I’d attain my fame by beating out Donald Trump for views!  ( Please note this posting is not really about the allegations against Mr. Trump.  It is about the internet, blogging and how my blog ended up in the middle of it all. If you don’t read through to the end, you won’t really understand the intent of the posting.)

The link: Why did people google ‘golden shower’ more on 29 May 2016 than in the aftermath of watersportsgate?

HERE is information on the website that published the above article.

And HERE, HERE, and HERE are my original  posts about the Golden Shower Tree alluded to in the article.

Mur de fleurs: Flower of the Day, Jan 12

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I took this photo of this seeming wall of flowers at home a few weeks ago.  What kind of wallpaper would it make?  Too much? Perhaps.
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For Cee’s Flower a Day Prompt

Nativity

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Nativity

It was some day, that day when light came into my world.
Reaching out my arms and legs as they came uncurled,
so many lovely colors bursting into sight.
All this brilliant pigment where formerly was night.

All the parts familiar still attached to me—
my ankle and my navel, my elbow and my knee.
But no longer together, curled into one tight ball.
I never knew that I could be so wide and tall.

Stretching out to fill this square I wonder when
I will be forgetting the curved world I’ve been in.
My mother now beside me instead of all around.
At other times she’s simply nowhere to be found.

My father’s arms around me—arms brand new to me.
All the other others coming to see what I may be.
Scratchy things now touch me—dry things and things with fluff.
Everything a new thing until I’ve had enough.

Then I find my power and make some kind of noise.
Soon I’m joined by other infant girls and boys,
and the whole room fills with sounds of our distress.
Very satisfying, I fear I must confess.

The nurses all come running, the fathers and the sisters.
The orderlies and doctors, the misses and the misters.
And when they lift us up, each one in different arms,
all our cries desist as they cater to our charms.

“Some day,” they’ve been saying, and now we are all here—
a fresh new crop of humans arrived for them to rear.
Once more we exercise our lungs and make each father cower.
Fresh to this new world, we have already found our power.

The prompt today was someday.

More Mystery Tree Blooms: Flower of the Day, Jan 11, 2017

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This is my favorite stage of bloom for this tree.  At this point, the blooms look like something out of Dr. Seuss. Sort of goofy. We need more goofy in our lives, so I’m sharing them:

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

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To see other stages of blooming–all present on the same tree/bush at the same time, go HERE and HERE.

Flower of the Day – January 11, 2017 – Begonia

Call to Arms

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Things That Cling


Call to Arms

Sweaters do it, slips do it.
Even crackers and clam dips do it.
Let’s do it. I want to cling!!!

Saran wrap was made for it.
Lonely hearts first lust then fade for it.
Just put your arms in a ring.

Hold me and squeeze with them.
I’m the thing that you should seize with them.
Want all the hugs you can bring.

Monkeys in trees do it,
pointer fingers when you sneeze do it.
Let’s do it. Let’s do that thing.

Don’t hesitate o’er it.
Gotta tell you that I adore it.
Let’s do it.  Let’s have a fling!!!

The prompt word today is “cling.”

Finding Art Along the Way: Art Walk Prelude

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These are some of the pieces I’ll be showing in the La Manzanilla Art Walk on January 28.  I have another entire body of work–wall pieces where a part detaches to be worn as a brooch–that I’ll show you in a day or two. These pieces were all made by materials found on the beach at La Manzanilla or La Ribera in Baja:

Click on first image to enlarge all.

Vida del Mar

Mystery Car Wash Flowering Tree: Flower of the Day, Jan 10, 2017

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Here is yet another stage of the flowers on the mystery tree, all stages present at the same time. Click to enlarge photos. Go HERE to see a later stage of the blooms.

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See Cee’s gorgeous hydrangeas HERE.

Off-Kilter

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img_2063Nude Descending the Beach. Wall sculpture and photo, jdb

Off-Kilter

Who cares if your bangs are uneven,
your hem hanging down on the left?
If the picture frame’s a bit off-kilter,
who here would feel most bereft?

Who fusses and dithers whenever
the pizza’s unevenly cleft,
or in the new rug he just purchased,
if the warp is not square with the weft?

When it comes to most talents,
he’s not especially deft.
He has little talent at singing,
and he has neither looks, charm nor heft.

Yet if your smile is crooked,
my dear, I fear you are effed.
for with our friend “Even Steven,”
a mil off is as bad as a theft.

 

The prompt today is “uneven.”

Cruising the Volcano

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Cruising the Volcano

I have been so busy getting ready for my three-month move to the beach that I didn’t even consider that I’d be driving past Colima—one of the most active volcanoes in North America. I had read about the recent lava flow down the south side, the ash warnings with evacuation suggested in certain areas, and unusual activity in the months leading up to now, but my concentration today was mainly on Morrie, my surprise companion on this trip to La Manzanilla.

Long story short, my house sitter had to cancel on short notice. No house sitter—no one to live with Morrie and Diego. The result was that a friend took Diego while I brought Morrie to the beach with me. Other than his time in the animal hospital when he broke his leg two years ago and a handful of times someone let him slip out of the gate and he took off like a bat out of hell, this is only his second time away from his own yard as well as his first time away from Diego.

Today’s six-hour journey in the car must have been like a trip to a foreign planet to him. For hours, he seemed to be searching the surrounding world as we passed it by. I looked over at one point and Colima Volcano was sending up a huge balloon cloud behind him. It was a gorgeous shot. Unfortunately, there was no place to pull off and a big truck coming up fast behind. By the time I got to a pull-off spot, this is the view that presented itself:

img_1917 img_1916I barely noticed the volcano in the background as the towers dominated, and it had ceased venting.

Now, here is Morrie interspersed with the scenery we were passing. Luckily, Colima vented again a few times, but not nearly at the magnitude it had that first time I viewed it.

 Again, click on first photo to enlarge them all.

This late afternoon and evening, Morrie had his first introduction to the beach.  It is a tale in itself, but I need sleep right now more than you need a longer story; so, perhaps tomorrow I will tell it along with at least one other that had a surreal quality to it.