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 Messy Part of Life

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Messes forever!
Neither a fun project nor an unmessy one.
A box of slides and albums of photos of the art work of my husband and me–sorted and condensed from four boxes full into two boxes, then abandoned unfinished when I needed to use the dining room table to entertain guests. Now the condensed mess resides between the bed and the closet in my bedroom. Sigh.
Is the fact that someone left the water running a hint?

Ally Bean of. The Spectacled Bean asked us Have you posted photos on social media that show the daily, often overlooked, messiness of your life?t Here are mine. Click on photos to enlarge and read the details of these messes!!

 

Smiled At

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Smiled At

The effervescence of your smile
has me soaring mile on mile.
I’m tremulous within your bubble,
It’s elementary. I’m in trouble!

I travel on the lift of you,
billowy in glimmer’s hue.
Transparent from the very start
in what I carry within my heart.

It was as though, once trapped indoors, 
you opened in me all the doors.
And now I float out, high and free,
bearing your smile along with me.

 

Prompts today are effervescence, elementary, tremulous, indoor, glimmer, billowy.

Floral Alphabet Challenge: The Letter “H” and FOTD, Sept. 21, 2022

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Hibiscus Trio
Heliconia
Heliconia
Heliconia
Heliconia
Hibiscus
And so is this.
Hibiscus

Please play along by posting your “H” flowers and linking both HERE and in Cee’s FOTD

Questions and Answers about Books A to Z!!!

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This list of questions about books was shared by  Deb’s Despatches A Bookish A to Z.  Below are the questions she shared with my answers:

Author You’ve Read the Most Books From: Carolyn Keene!!! Remember her? I’ve also read all the books of Jane Austen, the Brontes, Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Tyler and a number of other authors I can’t remember at the moment.  Jodi Picoult. I love it that her books are so well researched in different areas and I find myself delving into areas I would otherwise not examine––like a mixture of fiction and nonfiction. If I find a book I like I read every book I can find by the same author.

Best Sequel: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Currently Reading:  The Missing Sister, Book 7 of The Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley,

Drink Choice While Reading: Ice water in my special stainless steel thermal cup that keeps it cold all night.

E reader or physical book: Audible books

Fictional character you probably would have dated in high school: Mr. Darcy

Glad You Gave this Book a Chance: The Story of O. I usually don’t like blatantly sexual books, but this one had a sensual beauty about it. Read it a long time ago. Perhaps I’d feel differently about it now.

Hidden Gem: The Delight of Being Ordinary by Roland Murrulo

Important Moment in Your Reading Life: My sisters were both English majors, so by the time I finished high school I had read most of the required reading books for a bachelor’s degree. It changed my life, I think. 

Just Finished: The number 6 book in The Seven Sisters series. 3/4 of the way through the seventh.

Kind of Books I Won’t Read: Anything with violence, Harlequin Romances, books that present problem after unresolved problem. I’m tired of mysteries. Used to read a lot of them.

Longest Book You’ve Read: I have no idea.

Major Book Hangover Because Of: Not sure what this question means.

Number of Cases You Own:  5 

One Book You’ve Read Multiple Times: Pride and Prejudice

Preferred Place to Read: In bed, listening to Audible, or while cooking or driving or working in the art studio.

Quote That Inspires You, or Gives You All the Feels, From a Book You’ve Read: “That big hour of decision, the turning point in your life, the someday you’ve counted on when you’d suddenly wipe out your past mistakes, do the work you’d never done, think the way you’d never thought, have what you’d never had – it doesn’t come suddenly. You’ve trained yourself for it while you waited – or you’ve let it all run past you and frittered yourself away. I’ve frittered myself away, Crossman.”
– from “The Autumn Garden” by Lillian Hellman (but actually, I have read that it was written by Dashiell Hammett to help her over a blank spot.) I typed this out 41 years ago and have had it taped to every desk I’ve written at since then. Same copy. It can barely be read. I’m reading it now.

Reading Regret: That my eyes have gotten too bad to read anymore. I am on the computer a minimum of 10 hours a day and by the time I’m ready to read, the print is blurry. Also, I tend to listen to books while I do other things so Audible books are best.

Series You Started and Need to Finish: The Seven Sisters

Three of Your All Time Favorite Books:

  • Pigs in Heaven  or Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Pride and Prejudice  by Jane Austen
  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
  • A Tale for the Time Being. by Ruth Ozeki. Loved that book. Read most of it twice.

Unapologetic Fanperson For: The Teenie Weenies by David Lubar and anything by Dr. Seuss

Very Excited For This Release (More than all the others): Book 8 of the Seven Sisters series. It’s being written by the son of the author who passed away after writing the last two books in one year.

Worst Bookish Habit: Wanting to keep books I’ve already read. Running out of space.

X Marks the Spot—start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book: Chicano Voices by Carlota Cárdenas de Dwyer

Your Latest Book Purchase: The Blue Butterfly by Leslie Johansen Nack

Zzz-Snatcher Book (the last book that kept you up late): Major Pettrigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

As ever, do recommend something for me to add to my ever swaying To Be Read pile. The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge M.D.

Floral Alphabet Challenge: The Letter “G” and FOTD, Sept. 20, 2022

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Golden Shower Tree
Gazania
Gazania Treasure Flower
More Gazanias
And yet more
Geranium
Golden Dewdrop (Really!)

Floral Alphabet Challenge and FOTD–The Letter “G,” Sept. 20, 2022

 

For the Floral Alphabet and FOTD

Old Bones on a Long Hike

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Old Bones on a Long Hike

Traipsing along under vanilla skies,
the splatters of rain came as little surprise.

Then the spray of the sea salt blew into my eyes,
providing my tears a means of disguise.

Climbing the hillside, away from the surf,
my ancient legs struggled with the rough turf.

Once I tripped lightly whereas now I trod
with difficulty over each giant clod.

But then a companion looks down from the view
and points out it’s wild ginger we’re struggling through.

Regaining my humor, I start to have fun,
always a sucker for a corny pun,

for without a clue and with no way of knowing,
I’ve been gingerly coming and gingerly going.

 

For the dVerse Poets prompt, we were given a list of spices and asked to include at least three in our poem. I couldn’t find a picture of me hiking lately (for good reason) but could only find this photo of me in my twenties, perhaps imagining how I’d be fifty years from now ????

Familial One-upmanship

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Familial One-upmanship

My brother has a reputation for excessive lingering.
I think he has advanced degrees in mooching and malingering.

The black sheep of the family, the brunt of all our jokes,
at forty-three he still receives an allowance from our folks.

He ruins family dinners by being loud and brash.
His favorite interactions end up in a clash.

Discussing brands of vodka or motor cars or fashions,
he’s bound to expound at great length about his latest passions.

His family is his outlet for letting off his steam.
His exquisite taste in clothing dissected seam-by-seam.

We get no word in edgewise when conversing with this brother,
so when choosing a table mate, I veer toward any other.

There’s one in every family, it’s true right down the line,
but if you’ve one you’d like to trade, I’d gladly trade you mine.

Prompt words today are discuss, outlet, malinger, clashes, brash,allowance, exquisite and vodka.  (I took this picture but it is not my family.  I took it at a town reunion years ago and it is used for illustrative purposes only. I don’t have any brothers, so the guy  in the poem is fictional, but you might recognize him anyway.)

Sangria Punch for dVerse Poets

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Sangria Punch

Take strawberries, about a cup.
Disinfect, then slice them up.
If you are a liquor lover,
pour tequila in to cover.
Overnight, just let them stew,
then add sangria to the brew
and add fresh orange juice to it
and 7up, more than a bit.

Then slice more strawberries to freeze
and add as many as you please
to pretty glasses picked for show
and put them neatly, row on row
upon the freezer shelf to chill,
ready for your guests to fill
with fresh sangria punch to kill!

For dVerse Poets Quatrain “Punch” Quatrain prompt. Recipe below in non-quatrain form.

1 or 2 cups sliced strawberries and peaches, too, if you wish
2 or 2 cups tequila to cover well
Soak overnight in tall glass pitcher. In the morning, add
1 quart Kirkland Sangria, 1/2 quart fresh orange juice.
When ready to serve, add 1/2 quart 7up, mix and pour over
frozen strawberries places in glasses in freezer to chill.
Adjust for tastes. I do every time. Amounts are approximate.
Store covered in fridge. It improves in flavor as it sits.


HERE is the original dVerse prompt.

Floral Alphabet Challenge, The Letter “F,” and FOTD

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Fuchsia Arete
Frangipani
More Fuchsia
Firecracker plant

Cautionary Tale

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Cautionary Tale

Before a flower you chance to pick,
pick a flower without  bees.
Bees sting painfully and so quick.
So, quick, you need to get the wound
wound tightly to dispel the pain.
Pain  you’d never have felt if only,
only you had looked before.

For the Murisopsis My Name Scavenger Hunt prompt–A Daisy Chain Poem