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.

Ursid from Lake Bacalar, Buenavista, Quintana Roo. Dec. 22, 2025

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This is the night sky from Lake Bacalar in Buenavista, Quintana Roo, on Dec. 22, 2025. We got up at 5 to drive through the jungle to the lake to  try to view the Ursid Meteor Shower which was supposed to be most active in the hours before dawn. Home at 6:45, chilly and damp from lying out on the wet wooden deck over the water to get free of the surrounding jungle.  I saw 6 or 7 meteors in the more than an hour we were there. Xill thinks she saw 13.  Most of the action was supposed to take place around the Little Dipper which was not viewable. This is the Big Dipper, which was still in the very dark part of the sky. The lower part of the sky was lightened…probably by the lights of Tulum 2 hours away.

 

Our viewing spot, in daylight.

For Cellpic Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025

The Numbers Game #104. Please Play Along! Dec 22, 2025

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Welcome to “The Numbers Game #104”. Today’s number is 226 (posted by Forgottenman for Judy). To play along, go to your photos file folder and type that number into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and post 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. Here are my contributions to the album.

**Click on  Photos to Enlarge and View as Gallery.**

Devastation
“Pachamama” by Paloma Camarena
for a drink at Chac Lan Restaurant,
Cynthy had some secrets to tell.

Betty Botter, for SOCS

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Image by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

The SOCS prompt is: batter/better/bitter/butter and although I know it
breaks the rules, I can’t resist reciting an old childhood tongue-twister:

Betty Botter bought a bit of bitter butter.
“But,” she said, “this butter’s bitter.
I can’t put it in my batter, 
for if I put it in my batter,
it will make my batter bitter,
but if I buy some better butter,
it will make my batter better!”
So Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter
and made her batter better.

It’s Friday, Ergo I Must Fib.

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Illustration by Kisoulou on Unsplash

Here are my responses to Pensitivity’s Fibbing Friday.

1. Why was January chosen to be the first month of the year? All the other names for months were taken.
2. Why does the Chinese New Year not start until February? It takes longer for the New Year to get to that side of the world.
3. What’s the point of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day? Hunger.
4. Why do we make New Year’s resolutions? So we have the pleasure of breaking them.
5. What will Santa Claus be doing now that Christmas is over? He’ll be eating black-eyed peas. 
6. According to tradition, in the Twelve Days of Christmas, the 1st day is Christmas, itself. So what is the 12th day known as? The last day of Christmas.
7. Why are so many of the gifts listed in the song, The 12 Days of Christmas, birds? There was a special on them at the pet store.
8. What earthly event marks when an angel gets its wings? Popeyes sells its BBQ Wings at a discount price. 
9. What happens on the Winter Solstice? The Winter Solstice.
10. How did the tradition of the Yule log originate? A really good salesman/con artist didn’t have a gift for the Xmas party host so just grabbed up a log as he passed through the woods and convinced them that this was a sacred tradition. Word spread.

The Numbers Game #103. Please Play Along! Dec 15, 2025

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Welcome to “The Numbers Game #103”. Today’s number is 225 (posted by Forgottenman for Judy). To play along, go to your photos file folder and type that number into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and post 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. Here are my contributions to the album.

**Click on  Photos to Enlarge and View as Gallery.**

Accumulated
Daniel DePalma Mixed media mural
Queen Gloria
ForgottenMan
has plenty of viewings.
Bowl
Tonight’s solution was to remove the planter on the left and substitute a lava stone molcajete with two carved stones inside to break up all the rectangular shapes. .

Lake Bacalar, brother and sister enjoying the water.

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Buenavista, Lake Bacalar, brother and sister enjoying the water, as were we.

For JohnBo’s Cellpic Sunday.

“Hearts” For The Sunday Whirl 375

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Hearts

Hearts on hooks sweep back and forth
from east to west to south to north,
hung on chains where they are caught,
dizzy from what fate has wrought.
While other shocked hearts steam and swell,
 bound tight to sticks in their own hell.
Whether held by chain or stock,
hearts the world over feel the shock
while you, I hope, possess a heart
that’s been free from the very start.

For The Sunday Whirl 735 the prompts are: hook sway hearts strip chain dizzy sweep you stick swell steam shock

“The Usual Stuff” for SOCS

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The Usual Stuff

I’ve had enough
of the usual stuff––
wars, tsunamis
murdered mommies
global warming
cancers forming
mad religions and heretics
engineering our genetics
drug cartels
emptying wells
mounting debt
nuclear threat

I hate to say it
but every day it
is getting worse
this global curse
Presidents who line their pockets,
turning food stamps into rockets
and human capers
in all the papers
so all in all
it’s an easy call
I find less friction
in reading fiction!

The SOCS prompt is “Usual.”

More Friday Fibs

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Ava Gardner

1. What is a palava? She had quite a few.  Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway, Mickey Rooney and Artie Shaw were some of the more famous ones. 
2. What is a pavlova? Dad’s fifth wife.
3. What is meant by purge? The irrepressible need  to urinate.
4. What is meant by purse? The poet Shelley’s first name. His second name was Bysshe.
5. What is a crash? The remains of a psychic after cremation.
6. What is a creche? Mr. Gueverra’s birthplace.
7. What is a symbol? Not exactly the seed pod of  cotton, but very close to it.
8. What is a cymbal? Not exactly a sphere, but very close to it.
9. What is lichen? Midway between a hatin’ and a lovin’.
10. What is a lychee? Guevera, when he is sheltered from the wind.

Here are this week’s Fibbing Friday questions. The theme this week is Say What?
Thanks to Forgottenman for not only remembering to remind me about Fibbing Friday, but for setting it up for me to answer. Now that is a friend!

Buenavista and Bacalar, Dec. 10 & 11, 2025

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How many floats do you see?
A bit of truck art
and in the rain…

Celebration for The Virgin of Guadalupe has begun and will go on all night and all day tomorrow. It started with a party next door…We also passed processions all the way back from Bacalar to Buenavista.

Here is a video of two dancers at the celebration next door;