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.

Thundersnow and Other Previously Unknown Facts of Life

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I was just Skyping Forgottenman and he commented on the massive thunder there.
I remarked that at least that meant no snow and said I wondered why it never thundered before a snowstorm. 
He answered that it did.  Thundersnow.
At which point I had to look it up and sure enough, this is what I discovered thanks to Google:

thun·der·snow
/ˈTHəndərˌsnō/

noun
  1. snowfall accompanied by thunder and lightning.

    “thundersnow happens in Iowa about once every winter”

    Gobsmacked. How can I have never heard of this?  Had any of you heard of it?

Colloquy

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Colloquy

If you want to float my boat, when you speak your piece,
know when you have made your point and preserve the peace
by resisting going on once you’ve reached your peak.
It’s always best to stop and give others time to speak.

It’s often a consensus that brings matters to right.
Like oil on fire, those who know it all only ignite
conflagrations that make bringing matters to a close
impossible as they attempt their theories to impose.

As tempers flare and anger mounts and epithets are hurled,
as in a drive-by shooting, rank chaos is unfurled.
Pure reason makes its calm retreat, waiting for the day
when each one speaks and then allows others to have their say.

 

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle 585  the prompt words are: boat preserve speak resist oil fire drive fly shoot matter close right.

Faces Trio

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After posting already on each of the below prompts, I spied this photo on my desktop and the contrast between the three faces was so lovely to me that I had to double dip by posting again on each of them.

For Whatsoever is Lovely, Week 1 of 2023
and for Cee’s FOTD, Jan 2, 2023

Hummingbird Breakfast

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Hummingbird  both perched on and feasting on its favorite meal—an aloe vera blossom.

For the Whatsoever is Lovely Week 1 Prompt, Jan 2, 2023

By and By

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By and By

Lately, when she couldn’t sleep, she debated whether
she should forsake winter for a more salubrious weather.
Hidden under blankets with a heater at her feet,
she dreamed of balmy breezes and the sunlight’s heat.

In less than a day, she could drive down to the border
and find a small posada where she could sit and order
margaritas by the pitcherful beside a sunlit sea—
a novel fallen from her hand, a chihuahua on her knee.

Tacos or enchiladas? In her hometown, she’d be loath
to order either one of them, but here she’d order both,
all her peccadillos unviewed by censoring eye.
She pledged an oath to do it in the by and by.

Prompt words today are border, both, salubrious, peccadillo, winter and hidden.

“. . . In the sweet by and byWe shall meet on that beautiful shoreIn the sweet by and byWe shall meet on that beautiful shore . . .”


—lyrics by S. Fillmore Bennett and music by Joseph  P. Webster

Bougainvillea: FOTD Jan 2, 2023

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For Cee’s FOTD 

Restored Plumeria: Last on the Card, Dec., 2022

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Every year my plumeria tree loses all of its leaves and flowers, so this year we added decorations of our own .

For Brian’s Last on the Card prompt..

Fallen Woman

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Sam has asked what tree we would choose to be and perhaps this is fudging a bit, but this  is a poem I wrote a few years ago about the tree I am no doubt fated to become:

Fallen Woman

For Sam’s prompt: https://mcouvillion.wordpress.com/2023/01/01/which-tree-would-you-be/

Party Animals

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(Click on photos to enlarge.)

This Year’s Additions

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This Year’s Additions

They jockey for attention and steal the old dog’s ball.
When I try to calm them down, it does no good at all.
To get any quiet time, I have to lock them out.
Paths worn through the garden show where they’ve run about.

They commandeer my deck chairs in spite of my requests
that they should surrender them to my party guests.
They  make off with my underwear for a tug-of-war
so it has been three times now I’ve had to order more.

Puppies are enchanting when one first gains custody,
but they jump up on my lap each time I try to pee.
When I go to bed at night, exhausted from my day,
that’s the time they want to join me for frenetic play.

They walk across my laptop to burrow in my hair.
They are an energizer bunny sort of pair.
My sister says I’m crazy. Two puppies in one year?
But the first one was so tiny and the second was so dear.

Their delight in each other so delighted me
that I had to add them to our family tree.
Three dogs and two cats, it’s true, is probably too many.
The only thing that would be worse is if I hadn’t any!!!

 

Prompt words today are path, custody, enchanting, jockey and ball.