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.

Shelled Sanctity

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Shelled Sanctity

This retreat for turtles in the mountains of Nepal
has the godliest turtles on our Earthly spinning ball.

See the holiest of holies in their tiny saffron robes,
doing daily meditations by pushing tiny globes

first eastward and then westward with a pointed beak,
defining piety by actions instead of how they speak.

See lurking in the shadows, a million tiny ants,
bending low to watch their passing, those tiny sycophants—

who profess to kiss the ground that the turtles walk upon,
but instead just make use of the paths they’ve made when they are gone.

Busy small collectors, they build layer upon layer
of food to nourish bodies, but murmur not a prayer

in thanks for what they’re given, for they know right well
proper thanks is being given by the Brothers of the Shell.

 

Prompts today are lurking, define, saffron, satirical, godliest, turtles and sycophant.

Caladium Bicolor: FOTD Sept 2, 2022

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Some leaves are as beautiful as flowers, this one included.

For Cee’s FOTD

Memories of Gloria

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Gloria Palazzo

Above is a link to the article just published today in the Ojo del Lago that I wrote about my friend Gloria who passed away in August. Earlier, I published photos of her HERE.

Rudely Interrupted

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Rudely Interrupted

Notwithstanding what the newspapers say, I am not capricious.
I merely have a questioning eye that’s oftentimes suspicious.

I found the blade and saw the blood and what I had surveyed
I felt was information that must be conveyed.

It’s true the entire police force was at once deployed
and also true the mayor was excessively annoyed 

that it was his summer barbecue  that was rudely stormed.
by the selfsame vice squad that he had lately formed.

Only to have them tell him when he did his yearly preps
for his fabled pig roast on his own front steps,

he should remove the grisly evidence lest neighbors be alarmed
that it might have been a human being that was harmed.

The mayor, truly irked at the action he’d incited,
resumed his annual picnic and I was not invited!!!

 

Prompts today are capricious, blade, survey, deploy, questioner, newspaper and notwithstanding. If you want to play along, the links to the prompt sites are under the prompt words. Image by Hassan Rafhaan on Unsplash.

Morning Garden Walk: For FOTD Sep 1, 2022

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I took a walk around the front of the house to find “a” photo for today’s FOTD. Kukla accompanied me (without invitation) and photobombed numerous shots, most of which I deleted. As usual, I had trouble making up my mind, so here are a “few” of the shots. Click on photos to enlarge.

I ended at the east gate to the backyard.

See Cee’s beautifully composed flower pic HERE.

Crocheted Critter-Crazed!!

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I’ve shown earlier crocheted animals and dolls that I’ve purchased from a young woman in the local street market who crochets them all from her own head–no patterns–and each is unique. I think they are fabulous and so moderately priced that I can’t resist. I’ve bought ten of them so far! I bought these three today and will give one to Yoli for school and keep the other two for friends who have babies or grandchildren. Unfortunately, Zoe got to them and had two on the floor. One was missing. I searched all over the house for it and finally found the doggie behind the bed with one ear missing!! A lengthy search turned up the ear. I’ll be able to sew it on again, but still. She is such a traviesa!!!!

I thought the one with legs holding school supplies was an octopus, but she insisted it was a dinosaur. Cute idea, though. All three of these together cost the equivalent of $37.11 U.S. Amazing.

Here is a link to most of the others I bought before: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2021/12/16/december-leftovers-lens-artists-challenge-178-our-choice-of-themes/

Last on the Card: Can You Tell What It Is?

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This is the last photo on my phone, dated August 31. You guess what it is
and I’ll tell you what it is after 5 guesses. Perhaps it is obvious.

For Bushboy’s Last on the Card prompt

Fruitful Harvest

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Watermelon
All sliced and ready to eat.
Tuna (prickly pear fruit) is a favorite in Mexico.
Pineapple
And bananas off my own tree!
Ripe strawberries.
First, I removed the calyx and pith of the strawberries.
Berries on the heavenly bamboo not for human consumption
But berry pie is! Ahhhh.

Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.

For CMMC Fruit prompt

Resolution

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Resolution

She refused to remain the underdog, tethered to her stanchion.
She’d trade her present hovel for a stately mansion.
She’d update all her fashions and tone her waist and thighs,
exercise with vigor to decrease her zaftig size.
She’d become more vivacious, more up on all the news.
She’d practice stealth and cunning in interpreting the clues
of what it took to rise up in the elite scene,
responsive to what it might take to be a social queen.
But alas, it never happened, for to her great sorrow,
she kept putting self-improvement off until tomorrow.

Prompt words today are mansion, update, responsive, stealth,  vivacious and underdog.

A Weighty Oddity

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For Sam’s “A New Kind of Challenge” Prompt he asks us to publish a photo of something odd in our house that weighs a lot. This life-sized lady sits in my front garden in front of my entrance door. I show her here with a couple of different lap “bouquets.”  I’ve shown a photo of her recently but she meets the criteria, so here she is again. Carved of solid cantera stone by a local artist, she is probably my heaviest unusual object other than my house itself. Will this do, Sam? If this doesn’t meet your criteria for oddness, I’ll try again.