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.

The Roads Both Taken (For Forgottenman’s Prompt)

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The Roads Both Taken (Rejecting Manic-depression)

Two roads diverged in my mellow mood,
and happy I could then travel both,
I laughed. Then I commenced to brood,
and found, at length that I was loath
to forego one and choose them both!!!!

(Overview. Bipolar disorder (formerly called manic-depressive illness or manic depression) is a mental illness that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, activity levels, and concentration. These shifts can make it difficult to carry out day-to-day tasks. There are three types of bipolar disorder.)

For Forgottenman’s Prompt, he wanted us to do a switcheroo on Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” by writing a poem using the lines “Two roads diverged in my mellow mood,
and happy I could then travel both,” as our first two lines. Above is my submission to the prompt.

To see my parody of “Mending Wall” go here: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2014/09/17/mending-pants-with-apologies-to-robert-frost/

And now click on this link to see the prompt and make your own submission: https://okcforgottenman.wordpress.com/2023/10/13/the-roads-both-taken-a-poetry-prompt-challenge-offering/

 

Hibiscus After Rain: FOTD Oct 13, 2023

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For Cee’s FOTD

Progress Report: The State of the Spare Lot: On Display Before and After

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The state of the lot in July, 2021.
First the five-foot high undergrowth had to be dealt with.
Then the ground leveled and boulders and 20 years of refuse from surrounding construction projects cleared.
And some of the areas are a bit overgrown again.
as does the ornamental grass.
The aloes are thriving.

Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.

Isolation for a year during Covid gave me more hammock time and more time to peruse the lot below me that I had bought tens year before. It had been a dumping spot for the entire neighborhood for years, and although I had tried to clear out the ten-foot high castor bean plants and other weeds once a year, I suddenly developed a yen to do more. This is the result so far!

For Lens Artists Challenge: On Display

Lantana, FOTD Oct 12, 2023

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Click on photos to enlarge.

       Those berries look delicious, but don’t taste!  They are the berries of the lantana plant whose beautiful flowers belie the fact that its berries are poisonous enough to kill a dog. I dug up all the lantana bushes in my backyard because the dogs were eating even the flowers!  Just yesterday I discovered this plant growing on my lower lot, and although it is still very small, here they actually can grow into trees. Since I don’t let the dogs onto the lower lot (except for when Coco detects that I am down there and so jumps down there) I am letting this plant remain. I must admit that when I first saw the berries, I didn’t notice the bloom and thought they were blackberries and almost picked one to taste!  Shhh. Don’t tell.

 

For Cee’s FOTD

Tree Art for CFFC

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These photos were all taken over the period of a few hours in 2018. The painted trees I found lakeside. Obviously, they had been painted by children, perhaps  by the children of the Ajijic Lake Chapala Society art class, since these trees were just outside its lakeside gates.

The tree “sculpture” was found somewhere in Ajijic, although I don’t remember ever seeing it on the Lake Chapala Society grounds.  Whether it is a natural product of the tree or whether its shape was helped along by some local artist, I can’t tell. There were no obvious marks indicating that it had been sculpted, but perhaps some of the limbs and body parts had been rounded off a bit, but very skillfully if so.

The wall built around the tree I believe I photographed in Chapala. It is not unusual to see walls and even roads constructed around trees here. There is a whole avenue of trees popping up out of the road bed in Ajijic as well on Aquilles Serdan.

For CFFC-Wood

Thunbergia: FOTD Oct 11, 2023

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For Cee’s FOTD

Soup’s On! For dVerse Poets

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Click on photos to enlarge.

The long hot summer seems to be over, folks, at least for awhile.  Hurricane Lidia has hit the coast and is heading our way. At my house, fans have been replaced by space heaters, toe socks have been dug out of storage, and the kitties have been allowed admittance to the house. Coco sits on the terrace table, facing me with hopeful eyes, and wins admittance to the bedroom for herself and Zoe. Rain has cooled down the pool and continues to fill it to overflowing, and the dVerse Poets prompt, as well as the weather, has turned my mind toward steaming cauldrons of soup.

Soup’s On!

After months of weather that is bloody hot,
it is a shock adjusting to weather that is not.
Lidia’s approaching. We feel her chilly blast.
More weather to complain about. I feel the die is cast.

Summer’s fast departing. In fact, I think it’s gone.
So jettison the ice cream and put the soup pot on.
Clear soups, consommé or bisque. Any soup will do.
Cream soups, chowder, velouté. Campbell’s, potage, stew.

I’d settle for corn chowder, chili or tomato,
but I’d be even happier if it were potato.
If there is just a drop of any soup left to be had,
I’ll settle for a soupçon. A spoonful. Just a tad.

So ring the dinner bell. At once, I’ll be by your side.
Ready to be souped-up, crackered, coffee’d, pied.
Then roll me to my bed, please, and tuck the covers tight.
Chowdered-up and toasty, I’ll bid you a good night.

The prompt for dVerse Poets today is to make soup!!! To see other poems about soup, go HERE.

Barrier for One Word Sunday

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Click on photos to enlarge.

For One Word Sunday: Barrier

Morning Glory and Ganesha: FOTD Oct 10, 2023

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Now, some anonymous “Doubting Tom” has questioned the integrity of this posting and suggested I just stuck this morning glory into the shot.  So, I’m adding a “proof shot” that shows the flower, sadly wilted a day later, attached to the vine. Doubt me not, oh anonymous one!!!

For Cee’s FOTD

Tag Along (A Short Short for dVerse Poets)

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Tag Along

You cannot pluck moonlight to bring in your pocket, yet unasked and unbidden, it may follow you home.

For dVerse Poets  Prompt:  Write a prose piece of no more than 144 words that includes this line from a  Helen Hoyt poem: “You cannot pluck moonlight to bring in your pocket.”

To see other reponses to this prompt, go HERE.