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.

Lost Places

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Lost Places

Some of us find the world
in the places where we are born.
Some of us can find no place there at all
except in retrospect.

We write books about these lost places
as though we knew what they were all about;
as though just by living there, we understood that place.
Actually, by writing about them we visit them again
and feel as much a stranger as we did before.

That is how we can stand to write about them.
They become the exotic other lands we’ve traveled to.
Misfortune becomes the best part of the story;
and we, at last, are grateful for it.

For the Writer’s Digest “Lost ” prompt

Technique: How Not to Walk a Crocodile for FOWC

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How Not to Walk a Crocodile

I’ll admit, it’s been a while
since I walked a crocodile,
so my technique is rather rusty
and my memory is dusty.
Still, I’ll tell you if you sit awhile
how not to walk a crocodile!

Don’t walk him through the butcher shop.
The butcher will just call a cop.
Don’t visit bakeries at all.
His roar will cause the cakes to fall.
That store where Mother bought her dress?
No place to walk your croc, I’d guess.

And though your pet may need some air,
it’s best that you don’t take him where
small dogs are left out for our viewing
just right for crocodile chewing.
Dog parks do not work for crocs
Find a new place for your walks.

Don’t walk him on your grandma’s floor.
She’ll sweep you both right out the door.
Don’t take him to your Sunday School.
He’s sure to break the Golden Rule.
And if you take him to the deli,
no saying what ends in his belly.

I’ll share a secret with you now.
It is, I really don’t know how
to take a crocodile for a walk.
All of this has just been talk.
And can I guess by your big smile,
you do not have a crocodile?

For FOWC the prompt is technique

“Afterthought,” for the dVerse Quadrille Challenge

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Afterthought

I had this thought before you came along,
so whatever you thought I was thinking is wrong.
I wasn’t thinking  your dress wasn’t right,
although now that you mention it, perhaps you might
choose one that was made for a girl of your height.

for the dVerse Quadrille Challenge, the prompt word is What. You can see how others responded to the prompt HERE. Image by Fray Bekele on Unsplash.

For Cee: Jade Plant for FOTD, Nov 11, 2024

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Cee, when I posted my first FOTD  in 2013–the year I started my blog, this jade plant was just a baby, but as you can see, it has grown to a considerable size since then. It is now 4 1/2 feet high, 5 feet wide  and 11 feet in circumference. It has grown right along with your readership! xoxoxox

Here are some more photos of it, close up. Click on photos to enlarge.

 

 

For Cee’s FOTD

The Unhaunting, For the Sunday Whirl Wordle, Nov 10, 2024

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The Unhaunting

Ancient ruins cloaked in fog rise from the icy ground,
yet here no restless spirits are likely to be found.
The wind has driven all from this commune of the dead,
and stitched the lace of curling clouds to frequent them instead.
They hover over columns and sail the empty halls,
brushing clear the cobwebs of these once-haunted walls.

For The Sunday Whirl  the prompt words are:cloaked ruins ancient lace communes stitched spirits wind drive curling icy ground

New Faces, for Cellpic Sunday, Nov 10, 2024

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Click on photos to enlarge.

Lots of new faces in the past two weeks!  For Cellpic Sunday

The Numbers Game #47, Nov 11, 2024. Please Play Along!

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Click on photos to enlarge.

I love this fiber collage by Ana Favela
Second Place: Julia Margaret Bringham, Rolling in the River
Chopping the spines off the agave.

Welcome to “The Numbers Game #47.”  Today’s number is 168. To play along, go to your photos file and type that number into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and  post a link to your blog in my Numbers Game blog of the day. If instead of numbers, you have changed the identifiers of all your photos into words, pick a word or words to use instead, and show us a variety of photos that contain that word in the title.

This prompt will repeat each Monday with a new number. If you want to play along, please put a link to your blog in comments below. Here are my contributions to the album. Click on first photo to enlarge all photos. Then click on the arrows!

 

The Shores of Mexico, for pic-and-a-word-challenge-394/

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Click on photos to enlarge.

 

For Pic and A Word Challenge: Shoreline

Restless

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Restless

I try to cast the dreams away
but push them off to no avail.
An empty world does not assist
for no one comes to hear my wail.

The walls remain in place around,
muffling the horrid sound
of pleas that come from so far in
that they reveal my secret sin.

I must admit that I cannot remember whose prompt this is and so cannot link it. I started it 11 hours ago, got distracted and then came back to it an hour or so ago and finished the poem. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to find the prompt! I believe it was the photo as I know I didn’t take the picture.

If anyone knows the link to the prompt, please help!!!

ASA Show at the Garden of Dreams, Jan 22, 2023

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Click on photos to enlarge.

Today I did a show in the Garden of Dreams—a beautiful Boutique Hotel in Ajijic. It was a show for members of the Ajijic Society of Artists and it was a lovely if long day. I left my house at 7:30, arrived in Ajijic at 8 and set up until 10. Luckily there were young men there to help carry in my tables and chairs and the heavier boxes. The show ran from 10 to 4.  As usual with every show I’ve done in my life, I was the first to arrive and the last to leave, but it was a lovely show with nice neighbors and against Yolanda’s sage advice, I did come home with a few purchases, but only three. That’s pretty good for me.  I met a number of new friends and renewed contact with some old ones I haven’t seen, sold a few pieces of jewelry and more books and made more money than I spent. I was asked to join a group of artists who visit each others homes to view art collections and that is a pleasing prospect. Above are some of the photos I took of the day.

 

I somehow erased this post, so I’m reposting it now, 22 months later.