This is another of my friend Steve Frowine’s gorgeous orchids. I’m wondering if he was able to take them back with him when he moved back to the states.
To see Cee’s gorgeous hydrangea, go HERE.
Orchid: Cee’s Flower A Day Challenge
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Author Archives: lifelessons
Mum’s the Word
If you’ve read my posts on Africa, you already know more about me than my mom ever did. Once, years later, when I asked my mom if she would like to know the full story about why I stayed in Africa instead of traveling with my sister when she came to visit me and then coming back to the U.S. with her, my mother said, “I never told my mother anything that would make her feel bad.” Case closed.
There was a whole part of my life my mother never knew about by choice. She never knew that I was nearly killed twice while I was there, or that I initially stayed because I was in love with an Ethiopian man. My sister knew all because she was there when the shooting took place, and I had told her about the kidnapping, but she never told my mother. In many other ways, I am very like my mother, but there are some other genes surging through me, because I always want to know everything and I will almost always ask for the “rest” of the story.
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Dear Mom.”: Write a letter to your mom. Tell her something you’ve always wanted to say, but haven’t been able to.
Java 101
Java 101
It was 1965, my freshman year at the University of Wyoming, and once again I was venturing out into the world by going home for the first time with a college friend. On our first night in her hometown, we dressed up and drove to the “Halfway House,” halfway between Worland and Thermopolis, for three inch steaks and, even though we were all just 18, because her parents had called ahead with permission, for one Sloe Gin Fizz or Tom Collins each.
The next morning, we awoke with aching heads and fuzzy tongues to the smell of coffee–Pat’s mother at the kitchen table pouring a cup for each of us, refilling her own mug, refilling the pot with water and more coffee and setting it back on the burner to perk.
For the four days we were there, the pot was never turned off between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., and it was never empty except for the minute between pouring the last cup and filling it up to perk a new one.
We were a caffeine society predating the caffeine craze of the 90’s. The later craze coincided, not coincidentally, with the formation of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and stricter drunk driving laws; but in the 60’s and 70’s, we drank coffee as an antidote to hangovers, not as a replacement!
It was a shared vice for which we could imagine no drawbacks. No calories. No fat. Pretty cheap. Unlike the cigarettes we all lit up to accompany our coffee drinking and talks around the table, there was not the least whisper of any negative effects of coffee. It kept us awake during studying for finals and during long nighttime drives between towns in Dakota and Wyoming and helped us wash down our NoDoz. (more caffeine!)
It would be thirty-five years in our future before we turned from those endless cups of hot java sipped from between swirling curtains of cigarette smoke. Driven by morning coughs, short breath and nagging doctors and kids, we would give up first the cigarettes, then, encouraged by aching joints, insomnia or too many trips to the bathroom, we would give up the coffee.
But still, the biting smell of coffee brewing in a pot or urn conjures up memories of Mack’s cafe, where endless chipped white mugs of coffee marked our maturity from preteens to adults. Those first 100 cups choked down while holding our breaths had inured us–initiated us–led to our addiction to and lust for caffeine–until we loved the acrid taste. Black. No sugar. Aspartame was just a future gleam in some chemist’s eye and no one had heard of latte, mocha, jamocha or espresso. No one had ever heard the word cappuccino except in an occasional spelling bee where it was misspelled along with the rest of the obscure words. Although everyone drank coffee, no one had yet iced it, foamed it or whip creamed it. No one had thought to float chocolate curls or cinnamon in it. We just drank it, like truckers, black–from the ever-plenteous pot.
It is almost 10 a.m. and In the absence of a Daily Prompt, I am declaring my own prompt and inviting anyone who reads this to follow along and post on yesterday’s prompt page, as I am. The subject is Coffee!! Make of it what you will. And please link to this page as well. https://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/07/14/java-101/
Ah, finally, at noon. Here came the prompt, which is to write about something I did that I’d advise no one else to do. Well, first of all I’m posting the link to this post and then I’ll see about writing a new one. So instead of not doing as I did, please do do as I did and write an additional prompt today about Coffee and send a link to my blog through comments!
Orchids: Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge
Innocent Until Proven Guilty
Guilty or Not Guilty?
Does Anyone Know What Kind of Snake This Is?
I found them hanging out under this plant:
Okay, sorry. I wanted to give you the same experience I had when I first found them in two different areas and thought the dogs had killed them! Even after I picked them up, I was positive they were small snakes.
Foxgloves??? Flower of the Day
These flowers were on the grounds of the Lake Chapala Society in Ajijic. I’m guessing they are foxgloves. Does anyone have a different guess?
For more flowers, look HERE.
Guitar Envy
Today’s prompt asks us to tell about a talent I’d love to have, but don’t. I answered this prompt a year and ten days ago–on my birthday, actually. Please go HERE to see that response.
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Practice Makes Perfect?.”
Deserving of a Holiday
If I were asked to pick one person to be commemorated on a day dedicated to him or her alone, I would ask to rotate the day between four people.
On the first year of the rotation, beginning with next year, 2016, the 400th year after his death, I would choose to celebrate the work of William Shakespeare. Just as the other three honorees I will mention served to bring succor to our bodies and lives, William Shakespeare appealed so much to our hearts and intellects that he is still one of the most read and viewed writers and playwrights in the world, even 400 years after his death. According to Wikipedia, more than 410 feature-length film and TV versions of William Shakespeare’ s plays have been produced, making him the most filmed author ever in any language. Oh, that our blogs would be that inspired and live that long! For a brief biography of Shakespeare, go HERE.
On the second year of the rotation, I would choose Gandhi, for doing more to teach the concept and practice of passive resistance and non-violent protest than any other person that I know of. To see a fictionalized short of his accomplishments, go HERE. To see a longer biography, go HERE.
On the third year of every rotation, for teaching us that is is possible to overcome disability, for the courage of Helen and the dedication and incredible teaching skills of Anne, I would choose Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan. To see a short video describing how, although deaf and blind, Helen was taught to communicate, go HERE.
Every fourth year I would choose to commemorate Jonas Salk, who invented the polio vaccine. Although countless others have contributed to medical research to combat disease, possibly no other virus has been as widespread and feared by parents as the polio virus. In 1955, the announcement that the Salk vaccine was effective in combating the disease seemed a miracle and widespread inoculation of children began. For a short video on the disease and its cure, go HERE.In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Honorific.” If you could pick one person to be commemorated on a day dedicated to him/her alone, who would you choose?
The Rabbit’s Navel
“The Rabbit’s Navel” Retablo by Judy Dykstra-Brown
Numerous Mexican legends surround Rabbit, and each object in this retablo depicts one of them. Even the name “Mexico” is derived from Nahuatl words for the rabbit in the moon; and its capitol, Mexico City, is built on six lakes in the form of a rabbit. If you open the box this retablo sits upon, you will find inside a manuscript that conveys the story of the rabbit in Mexican legend and how I was drawn to it. The Aztecs had a legend of 400 drunken rabbits who were the gods of pulque–a drink made of fermented Maguey–the same plant that Tequila is made of. The woman sitting next to rabbit might be Mayahuel, the goddess of Maguey, but it is more likely that she is the Jaina woman explained in the quote below from the book Maya Terracottas.
“Representations of Maya women occur more commonly as Jaina figurines than in any other medium. These Jaina figures represent two kinds of women, both archetypes of female behavior. One is a stately, courtly woman who is sometimes shown weaving; the second is a courtesan who appears with all sorts of mates, from Underworld deities to oversized rabbits. The imagery of both derives from Maya concepts of the moon, perceived as an erratic, inconsistent heavenly body, whose constantly changing character follows the monthly cycle of female menses…
…The second female type is far more active, and she projects her sexuality…she is usually bare-breasted, and she gestures, as if offering herself to others. The demure woman may be painted in various colors, but this one is generally painted blue…Nothing else in Maya art conveys sexuality more convincingly than these figures. Although they may be conceived as the moon goddess and her consorts, they also reflect human behavior. As companions for the dead – perhaps particularly for old men – they seem to promise renewed sexual activity. For the living, such Jaina figurines may have been titillating objects for private observation.” (Schele: 1986, p. 153). Cf. Kimball, Maya Terracottas, p. 23
