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.

“All Lined Up” for SOCS Jan 25, 2025

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“All Lined Up”

Lined up at the show
and everywhere we go,
it seems like we spend half our lives in lines that move too slow.

It seems that half the doing
consists of constant queueing––
a penance that we have to pay for eating, riding, viewing.

At cafes, traffic lanes,
post offices and trains,
museums, subways, cafeterias, we make small gains.

Standing more than walking,
muttering and gawking,
our progress is so slow that there’s less moving than there’s taking.

As we go two-by-twoing,
like milkcows softly mooing,
waiting here in lines, we find that we are all-too-often ruing

leaving our house at all
to line up at the mall
I think I’d rather be at home than waiting with y’all!

Here are a few “LIned Up” visuals: (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Santa lit and lined up with friends.
I said line up in order of size!!!
Always one that has to get out of line.
Mini Lineup
All lined up for the tasting.
Lined up for service.
The blessings of the animals were done in both Spanish and English. Frida’s smart mom noticed the long English line and that there was no one in the Spanish line, so we were blessed in Spanish. Frida died a few hours later!
Cowboys line up to herd bobble-heads. Tableau by Edgar.
The cormorants were collecting in a long strung-out line

And, for more “lined up” photos go HERE.

The SOCS prompt is “In Line.”

Mystery

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I just discovered a very strange thing. Here are three photos of the rustic bench that my friend Lach “saved” for me by infusing the rotted wood with epoxy . The first is a photo of just the bench, the second of  Lach with the bench. The third has Lach sitting on the bench and me behind, but where has the bench gone? He seems to be sitting on air!!! How could this have happened????? Has AI taken over my photo file and started pulling jokes on me?

I swear, I did not alter the photo..and would not have had the skill to have done so.

Shaving Brush Tree Bloom for FOTD Jan 24, 2025

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for Cee’s FOTD Jan 24, 2025

This is one of my favorite trees.  This one was covered in these blooms.

“Hubba Hubba!”for Fibbing Friday, Jan 24, 2025

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For Fibbing Friday the challenge is:

1. What is a fib? A heart stoppage  that may be cured by a defibrillator.
2. What is a crib? The third chest bone down from the top.
3. What is a bib? The first 39.6 % of the Bible.
5. What is an antler? What you call your mother’s youngest sister.
6. Define staunch. A very strong bad odor.
7. What is a paunch?  Your father’s midday meal.
8. What is a launch? The midday meal in Great Britain.
9. What is a nub? The mirror reflection of the bread used to make a hamburger.
10. What is a hub? A reversed half-hearted cheer.

A Poem of Negation for dVerse Poets, Jan 23, 2025

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Why I do not Ham on Rye it

You cannot borrow steal or buy it.
Sumo wrestlers never try it.
Female starlets do or die it.
Vitamin makers fortify it
You never cookie, cake or pie it.
Pizza parlors terrify it.
Now and then I me oh my it,
but I hope I don’t defy it,
for if I ever hope to guy it,
I simply must stay on my diet!

 

For dVerse Poets, a poem of negation.

Mirror Image, for the W3 prompt, Jan 23, 2025

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Mirror Image

Who is the person
reflected in my mirror
over the past 77 years?

First me
then my mother
then my grandmother.

A reflection first of youth,
then lines
deepening into cracks.

It took me a minute to write the poem but two plus hours of sorting through 160,000 photos in my photo file to find photos to use with it. I never did find the actual photo I wanted to use. So goes life. It is true that a few years ago I started to see my mother instead of me when I looked in the mirror. Recently, it is my grandmother’s deeper wrinkles I see.

      • W3 poetry prompt

        For this week’s W3 prompt, Tia offers us the following guidelines:

        • Theme: The bittersweet, painful, or unsettling aspects of the past and its hold on the present;
          • Optional Challenge: Use imagery of shadows, cracks, or reflections to add depth to the theme;
        • Form: A “square” (e.g., 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, or any other pattern you choose);
          • “Rows” represent stanzas;
          • “Columns” represent the number of lines in each stanza;
            • For example: 3×3 = 3 stanzas of 3 lines each; and 4×4 = 4 stanzas of 4 lines each.

Angel Wing Jasmine for FOTD

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This was in the front yard of a beach house visited.
And this was the back yard! Ahhh.

Click on photos to enlarge.

 

For Cee’s FOTD

“How Much is Enough?” for the Writer’s Digest Wed. Poetry Prompt

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How Much is Enough?
(Appraising the Situation)

Enough’s too much when it comes to fish
or any other smelly dish.
Too much for castor oil in spoons
or relatives on honeymoons.
Amoebas?  Any one’s too much,
and a date who wants you to go Dutch
clearly tells you he’s not “it.”
One mosquito, when you’re bit,
is not “enough,” but “one too many.”
when your preference is “not any!”

Kids with colds and snoopy neighbors,
tiresome chores and heavy labors,
bitter pills and jerked-off scabs,
rainy days with no free cabs,
diarrhea, scabies, gout?
Too much! Too much, without a doubt!
“Enough’s enough” is repetitious,
obvious and almost vicious.

So don’t go spouting it at me.
I hate cliches from A to Z.
I won’t have any said to me.
If you use them, you’re dead to me!
“It is sufficient” I will accept.
“I’ll have no more”  is most adept.
But don’t go muttering platitudes
at folks like me with attitudes,
or I promise we’ll be getting rough
enough to prompt, “Enough’s enough!”

 

For Writer’s Digest Poetry prompt: Appraisal  Image by Tonmoy on Unsplash.

We Saw a Shark!!!!

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We were sorta wary of perhaps encountering a shark after a shark incident 20 kilometers south of La Manzanilla a year ago. Luckily, we didn’t encounter one in the water but then the second to last day, this one washed ashore!!!

 

Diving for Beach Sardines

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This is the first time I’ve been back to La Manzanilla in a year and the activity was amazing with thousands of sardines jumping up into the air around us and frigate birds and pelicans swooping down to try to catch them. This video shows frigate birds diving to scoop up sardines from the beach.