Author Archives: lifelessons

Unknown's avatar

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.

School Reunion

11 Replies

1960

School Reunion

I love school reunions, it goes without saying.
Rehashing our virile youth now that our hair is graying,
our stories grow much shorter as our memories are fraying.
I’ve drunk nostalgia from the cup, but now there’s no delaying.

The past is always with us, but alternatives I’m weighing.
I’ve an acumen for homecoming, but no talent for staying.
Once the bloom is off the rose, I have to be off straying.
The past is a dead horse, whereas my future self is neighing!

2016
(Click on photos to increase size and view as slides.)

If you want to know how I colorized that old black and white photo, go here: https://deepai.org/machine-learning-model/colorizer

Prompts for the day are homecoming, acumen, bloom and drunk.

The Political Extinction of the White American Dinosaur

2 Replies

Don’t miss this excellent and hopeful analysis of the contemporary state of the union! And don’t we hope he is right? Click on link below:

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2019/01/04/the-extinction-of-the-white-american-dinosaur/

Portulaca Grandiflora: FOTD Feb 6, 2021

1 Reply

 

For Cee’s FOTD Prompt

Mystery Bird: Sapsucker or Woodpecker?

10 Replies
\

Please click on photos for larger views.

They are golden-fronted woodpeckers!  V.J., who identified them, is my hero. A twenty-year-old mystery is solved.

These two birds (or two like them) have been visiting the top of my very tall palm trees every morning for years. I always thought they were red-breasted woodpeckers, but only one has a pinkish spot on its head and the other is more golden-headed. Their markings look exactly like a red-breasted woodpecker or a sapsucker, but I can’t find any sapsucker with that colored head. Can anyone tell me what they are?

Sated

Leave a reply

Sated

Flirtation is cathartic—a furbelow of life.
Though it is mainly fictitious, still it eases pain and strife.
It sets our spirits soaring and makes us feel much younger,
but takes the edge off appetites without dispelling hunger.

A nibble here, a small bite there might set our lips to smacking,
but a deeper part of us detects what might be lacking.
Caviar on toast is fine for an initial tasting,
but what we need is turkey,
crisp and golden from its basting,

but succulent inside, or a meal that fills us up
like an egg salad sandwich or pea soup in a cup.
Flirting’s great for starters, but it isn’t real.
What really solves an appetite is eating the whole meal.

Prompt words for today are soaring, cathartic, fictitious and furbelow.

Fibbing Friday, Feb 5, 2021

6 Replies

For the Fibbing Friday prompt, here are the questions and my answers:

  1. What is Groundhog Day all about? Some people just take up more than their fair share of space on this earth. This is our chance to tell them what we think of them.
  2. What is déjà vu? Every Thanksgiving Meal of your life.
  3. What is meant by the phrase, “Hindsight is always 20/20”? From this day forward, our past memories are going to be fixed on the year 2020. Much as we wish it were not so, we won’t be able to help ourselves.
  4. What are reruns? The second and subsequent ladders in silk stockings. Now a passé term.
  5. What does it mean to be redundant? Dying the roots of gray hair previously dyed brown.
  6. What word describes unnecessary repetition? Mississippi
  7. What is the name given to TV shows when they are shown again after their original air date? I Love Lucy
  8. What phrase is used when you you can look back at a situation and clearly see what should have been done? “Been there, should have done that!”
  9. What is the feeling that you have been somewhere or done something before called? “Been there, redone that!”
  10. What day supposedly determines how long winter will last based on a particular animal seeing or not seeing its shadow? October 13, Pet Obesity Awareness Day. For a wild animal, its shadow is its only mirror and can be a shocking sight after a winter of no exercise. Many a chubby beast, faced with the truth, retreats underground again.(Yes, it is a real holiday.)

 

Winged Serpent with Burro’s Tail and Hibiscus: FOTD, Feb 6, 2021

1 Reply

 

For Cee’s FOTD

Bird Weekly Photo Challenge: Birds Beginning with the Letter D.

14 Replies
This duck came all the way across the lake to see us, hoping for crumbs. Sadly, we had none.
Dilly bird
Dressed-up Detritus Bird

Okay, I cheated a bit. Just no real doves or darters in my photo files. I made these detritus birds out of shells and a fruit crate that washed ashore during past years at the beach. Keeps me out of trouble.

For the Bird Weekly Challenge

Stories Told by Silence

4 Replies

Stories Told by Silence

Silence has a language unique to every ear.
Anyone can hear it if they choose to hear.
Do you listen to your silences? The various tales they tell?
I’ve listened to them my whole life. I know them very well.
Their insistent voices burrow through my thoughts,
trail their separate stories and tie them into knots.

Some seek out yarns in chaos: carnivals and bars,
rodeos and festivals, parades and speeding cars.
But there’s drama in the silence as it gathers round—
stories waiting patiently for you to hear the sound
of voices in the quiet. Hush now. Do you hear?
They’ll settle on your shoulder and whisper in your ear.

Silence owns no copyrights. It’s there for you to steal.
Unsort its separate strands and then spin them on your wheel.
The fiber of your silence can be woven into tomes.
Weave them into novels, storybooks and poems.
Stories are out there waiting. Hush and you might hear them.
Reach out and grab one for yourself when you venture near them.

 

Prompt words today are silence, tell and insistent.