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.

We Cannot Surrender Her

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We Cannot Surrender Her

 Try as I might, she will not go.
She sends me on to test the water
but remains on the shore.
Ankle deep and then no more.
Fingers trailing and then no more.
Having once found a false bottom,
she trusts no foothold.

The falling is the thing, I tell her,
yet she holds back from the fall.
Let me always be the one going down, I tell her.
I will always be the one bringing you up, she answers.
This is the role we alternate being the stand-in for.
What I want she keeps me from.
What she fears I pull her toward.

 Relax, I tell her,
but she fears what relaxation brings.
She cannot surrender herself.
I cannot be content until she does.
Twin sisters, we rail against each other, then hold hands.
Comforting. This is enough, she tells me.
Nothing is ever enough, I tell her.

This poem, written in yesterday’s session, loosely meets the prompt. It is about going places––that part of one’s self that wants to let go and that part that fears risk and needs to maintain safe control.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/the-wanderer/

Red Heliconia––Flower of the day

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Red Heliconia

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For more flowers, look here––http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/03/flower-of-the-day-december-3-2015-dahlia/

Moving Focal Point: Cee’s Rule of Thirds––Compose Yourself Photo Challenge

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Moving Focal Point: Cee’s Rule of Thirds

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Version 2I’m trying to figure out why the rule of thirds doesn’t seem to work in this photo.  I think it is because most of the elements are lined up to the left.  If the bottom elements extended over to the right margin, I think this would work better.  Below is the original., which I prefer.  Which do you prefer?
IMG_8964IMG_7106In this photo, cropped from the larger photo below, I followed Cee ‘s rule which says, “. . . divide your view finder into a gird with nine boxes  . . . .  you should place the subject of your picture on one of the points where the lines intersect.”   I much prefer the version above, where the larger “belly button” it placed over the upper left intersection line  to the busier original version below.

IMG_7106 (1)

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/02/cees-compose-yourself-photo-challenge-week-9-rule-of-thirds-introduction/

Beachside

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Beachside

If ever you are wondering whether
demeanor may be linked to weather,
you can decide–valid or not,
If I admit that I am HOT!!!!!

 

Climate Control: The idea that the weather and people’s moods are connected is quite old. Do you agree? If yes, how does the weather affect your mood?https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/climate-control/

Vecinos: Cees Fun Foto Challenge

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Vecinos (Neighbors)

IMG_7893My neighbor’s house, my trees

IMG_7897My house roof and trees

Version 2My other neighbor’s house and trees

DSC09960My house and trees w/ tree trimmer monkeys

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/01/cees-fun-foto-challenge-buildings-and-trees/

To the Point!!!! Flower of the Day 12/2/15

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To the Point!!!
IMG_8522Version 2

Version 3

IMG_8522 (3) They are not yet flowers, but they are going to be––and aren’t they intriguing?  The ants just seem to be rolling in whatever delicious elixir this cactus is secreting!

For flowers the opposite of these and beautiful as well, see: http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/02/flower-of-the-day-december-2-2015-dahlia/

Another Bloomin’ Mystery––Flower of the Day 12/1/15

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Another Bloomin’ Mystery––What is it?  Does anyone know?IMG_8525 Version 2 IMG_8524 (1)

Built-in Guilt-in

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Decaying Farmhouse in Missouri Soybean Field

hyperbolic photo by okcforgottenman–thanks!!!

Built-in Guilt-in

With leaking roof and floors atilt,
She hates the house her husband built.
Yet her affection rose above it.
Her reaction? Dear, I love it!!!

Now every time she goes to doze,
doors creak open and then close.
Trips to the bathroom make her seasick–
the perfect place for her to be sick!

She’d like to say, if she were able,
she fears the wall joists are unstable;
for every time she leans on them,
the pictures tilt and lights all dim.

In autumn, shingles fall like leaves.
She hates how the foundation heaves.
As walls close in and ceilings shift,
She rues her husband’s every thrift.

Their marriage is a thing of bliss.
She still swoons to his deep kiss.
He is a lover kind and true.
He rubs her feet when she is blue.

She loves him still with all her heart.
They’ll be together ‘til death do part.
She only hopes that his construction
is not the means to their destruction!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/the-guilt-that-haunts-me/

Lit and Bit

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Lit and Bit

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IMG_8947 (1) IMG_8942 IMG_8944 IMG_8950As I was taking the picture of the sconces outside, in the dark, I was breaking off the bougainvillea vines that grew in front of them, sticking myself on the thorns, as usual.  Then I felt a sharp sting on my forearm and called out to Judy (a visiting writer who is doing a retablo workshop with me at my house) that I was stung by something.  Then I felt a very sharp sting on my leg, under my Levis.  I grabbed the place and squeezed the material of my Levis, running into the house, trying to get my shoes off and my jeans pulled down.  “It’s stinging me, it’s stinging me!” I said.

“What do I do?” Judy shouted.

“Pull my pants down!” I ordered. She did and I held on to the bundle I imagined inside the jeans–hoping it wasn’t the notorious and very poisonous Donald Trump caterpillar that has been discovered locally.  When I opened my fingers, there was instead a black wasp inside.  How he got inside my jeans I’ll never know.  Perhaps he fell off my arm when I received the first sting, fell to the ground and flew up my Levis in an attempt to get away.  At any rate, the stings hurt like Hell.  I ran to the bathroom, wet my wounds and sprinkled on meat tenderizer which helped to counteract the worst stinging, although my arm and leg are still swollen and tender to the touch.  How I suffer for my blog!!!
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For more light photos, go here: https://themomhood.wordpress.com/2015/11/28/prompt-stomp-week-9-calling-all-photographers/

When I Grow Up

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 When I Grow Up

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Blank Page

It stretches forever in front of me.
There, no future happens until I create it.
And that is the power of words
that rub like pieces of gravel in my shoe.
I become less of a child in bearing them,
grow to adolescence as I pry them from my shoe.
In storing them on the page, I become my own creator—
writing a new world with each decision of word.
On the page, I can, if I so choose,
grow up again and again.
Each page filled or every edit of the last
becomes another part of me
that tells the same story:
that growing enough to fill the space inside of me
never happens.

Yes, one or two of you have seen it before, but since I had totally forgotten this poem, it’s clear that one advantage of growing up is that you get to enjoy the same things over again with very little memory of them!  This applies to books, movies and even first spouses remarried!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/ballerina-fireman-astronaut-movie-star/