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.

“Early Morning Alarms” for Writer’s Workshop

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Early Morning Alarms

First the ghoulish yowl of cat.
Then the dogs’ accompanying scat.

The far off whine of the machine
that abets the gardener’s routine.

With creak of valve and scrape of tool,
water streams into the pool.

This water surging from the jet
completes my waking up quartet.

Yolanda’s key turns in the door,
adding one harmony more.

Her music joins the morning’s set
to swell it into a quintet.

What finer way  to stir one’s head
on alternate mornings, here in bed?

For the Writer’s Workshop prompt, Alarm

FOTD July 25, 2024

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Jade Plant, Echeveria and Tradescantia.

For Cee’s FOTD

Summer Rain for dVerse Poets

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The rainy season runoff shoots from the drain that pierces a high stone wall.

Summer Rain

The rain falls
fresh as cucumbers
on cobblestones and tiles,
the dust of another summer
washed from crevasses
and curves of stone and clay.

The air is cleansed
of the scent of primavera,
jacaranda
and flamboyant trees
and the whole world
breathes easily again.

For the dVerse Poets Quadrille prompt: Summer

Morning Garden, For Cee’s FOTD July 24, 2024

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This scene is a bit surreal.  It does contain flowers, but also other elements that create an almost eerie atmosphere, including the mist coming in from the right. But since the prompt is titled “Flower of the Day,” guess I should include a bit of a closer view of the bougainvillea as well:

For Cee’s FOTD July 24, 2024

For FOTD, July 23, 2024

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For Cee’s FOTD

Wings, for the Sunday Stills Challenge

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For the Sunday Stills Challenge: Wings

The Numbers Game #31. July 22, 2024. Come Play Along!

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Here is an image of hummingbird moth by Graehem Mountenay. I’ve never been able to capture one and have seen only one in 22 years. They must be present, though, judging by the dozens of their caterpillars that we remove from my Virginia creeper each year.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Welcome to “The Numbers Game #31”  Today’s number is 152 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 under that number and include 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.

For the Sunday Whirl Wordle 664, July 21, 2024

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Daunting Pilgrimage

The raucous calls of prophet crows warn us of our error
in traveling down this moonlit road, thus augmenting our terror.
Our minds connect as voices recite their trembling prayers—
all our former evening plans now peeling off in layers
as one-by-one we zigzag from our predetermined path,
our former plans forgotten in the aftermath
of dreams of ghosts and goblins that await us up ahead.
The woods are dark and scary, adding to our dread
of the moving shadows and that macabre song
that trembles on the wind’s voice to hurry us along.
The silken touch of terror sends fingers down our spines,
reducing some among us to sniveling and whines.
Of the ten of us who started out, just five of us still here,
our group reduced  one after one as our goal grew near—
an aged house much worn away with one feeble light
glowing through the darkness of this frightening night.
But as its door swings open, all five of us repeat
the words that break the horror of our journey, “Trick or treat!!!!”

 

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 664  the prompt words are: sing trembling zigzag connected mind silk dreams moon prayers crow road prophets Image by Simon Berg on Unsplash.

Schefflera Tree for FOTD, July 21, 2024

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I love this tree. I had them in California but they never bloomed. They do so beautifully here.

For Cee’s FOTD

What Were You Doing in 1976???

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Today I went through my huge stash of photos to try to find one particular photo for my book that I never found, but what I did find was this photo of me. I was living and teaching in Cheyenne, Wyoming and my friends and I had gone for a drive in the country  and decided to do a photo shoot. My friend Julie took this photo of me which I had totally forgotten and in the same file was this program from Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, “The Daddy of Them All.”

It looks like it has seen some hard times, including having a bit of rodeo barbecue smeared on it, but if you look a bit closer at the third photo, you’ll see an interesting fact that I had also forgotten.  The name of the bull ridden by Smokey Merritt in the World’s Championship Brahma Bull Riding  Contest was none other than Ju Dykstra!  Was it a coincidence? Nope. Because the honor of having a bull named after one was limited to prominent men, two members of the committee had submitted my name as “Ju Dykstra.”  First I knew of it was when it was announced during rodeo event # 4 as, “Next out of the chute is Smokey Merritt on Ju Dykstra!!!”

To my knowledge, I am the only woman ever to have a Brahma bull named after her in the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, but it may be that they’ve changed their policy and there have been many. Suffice it to say that I was the first!  Try as I might, however, I cannot discover which  won out in that match—Smokey or my namesake.

What were you doing in 1976? If you have a funny story, please share it and link it to this post.