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.

Bougainvillea: FOTD Feb 21, 2024

For Cee’s FOTD

Sedum Blossoms For FOTD Feb 20. 2024

ForCee’s  FOTD

Ballet At Sunset: White Pelicans on Lake Chapala for Birds of the Week

 

For Birds of the Week  Photo and poem by Judy Dykstra-Brown

Tabachine? Pride of Barbados or Dwarf Poinciana, For FOTD Feb 19, 2024

 

Pasiano has always called this dwarf poinciana a tabachine and I did find one identifier that called it a tabachine de la sierra, but most called it a dwarf poinciana or pride of Barbados. And, if you really want to confuse the matter, it is also called a Mexican bird of paradise.

For Cee’s FOTD

The Numbers Game #9, February 19, 2024

Click on photos to enlarge.

Welcome to “The Numbers Game #9”  Today’s number is 130. 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.

 

Fibbing Friday, Feb 16, 2024

For Fibbing Friday, Feb 16, 2024 the questions are:

1. Jonah wasn’t swallowed by a whale…he was swallowed by a  Wave. He was rescued by a Whale.
2. Who (or what) could make even the fiercest pirate quake in his boots? Ma Kettle
3. What did Huckleberry Finn have to really paint? Little Girl in Blue, but Mary Cassatt got the  credit.
4. What is the best food that can be paired with red wine? Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
5. What are you wearing in the sun? Duh. A sunsuit, of course.
6. Why do dogs chase after cars? Someone put a bone on the back bumper rail.
7. What did the cat say to its kitten about the humans? They’re not Purrrfect, but they’ll do.
8. Goldfish are not fish. What are they? Crackers
9. What would you rather do instead of sleeping?  Write about it.
10. The Phantom didn’t haunt the Opera House…He haunted the  outhouse, where he scared the _ _ _ _ out of everyone. 

Image by Todd Cravens on Unsplash.

I dedicate these less than stellar answers to my sister Patti, who said she was suffering withdrawal because i had chosen not to do the Fibbing Friday this week. As usual, I minded her and did the prompt.

Lilacs and Popsicles for dVerse Poets

Lilacs and Popsicles

A fresh whiff of lilacs on the evening breeze
sends me off in paroxysms—sneeze on sneeze on sneeze.
tuberoses give me headaches, jasmine flowers make me ill.
Whenever dates wear aftershave, I have to take a pill.

Pinesol makes me nauseous. I’d rather smell the dirt!
And please do not use fabric softener on my favorite shirt.
I can’t believe so many folks enjoy a scented candle,
for they’re another stinky thing I simply cannot handle.

When friends bring friends to visit me, they eschew scented lotions
and tell their friends to do the same, ‘cause I have these strange notions.
What I like to smell is dill, and soil soaked by rain.
The kind of things I like to smell I’m hard-pressed to explain.

Who likes the scent of curry or cabbage in the hall?
But I admit, I like them! They don’t bother me at all.
I love the smell of Popsicles—my favorite is cherry.
It’s floral scents that I abhor, so weddings make me wary.

I hug the bride and kiss the groom, contribute to her trousseau.
But I must always hold my nose and hurry as I do so.
Orange blossoms are the worst, along with the carnation.
Even roses, I admit, are an abomination!

I really do like flowers, but only how they look.
My favorite kinds of odors are kinds that you can cook!
Chocolate cake or pudding and hot dogs on the grill
are smells that inspire ecstasy—that certain little thrill.

Vanilla poured in pudding, bananas mashed for bread—
swirl around my nostrils and end up in my head.
Such romantic odors. What stories they do tell
of culinary orgasms and itchings they will quell.

So if you want to pleasure me, please, for heaven’s sake,
leave the flowers at the shop and simply bring me cake!

 

For dVerse Poets: Lilacs.  Image by Karo on Unsplash.

See how others responded to the prompt HERE.

“Sirens” For Sunday Whirl Wordle 642, Feb 18, 2024

Sirens

Mermaids spin their slippery thread of grass from ocean’s floor,
then string it with the beads of glass and risk their skins for more.
Surfacing to comb the beach for glass rolled  round by waves,
then sit in all their finery, enticing sailor knaves
to forfeit breath and life to brave the rocky ocean’s roar 
and creamy waves that bear them to a fatal shore.

 

Words for The Sunday Whirl Wordle are: surfacing breath slippery cream bear sit glass spin beads thread risk skins Image by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash.

Euphorbia Bracteata, For FOTD Feb 18, 2024

For Cee’s FOTD

Sights of Sound, for Lens Artist Challenge #287: Sound

 

For Lens Artists Challenge #287: Sound