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.

Practice Makes Perfect


Practice Makes Perfect

His patience in predicament has become legendary—
a necessary attribute in one so prone to marry.
He tolerated petulance in the child bride
married out of loneliness after his first wife died.
He tried to build her confidence, but finally set her free,
realizing what she needed most was liberty.
His third wife used another means to put him to the test,
running up his credit cards while feathering his nest.
His fourth wife played around, and the kin of number five
turned his peaceful home into a frantic humming hive.
Only in his dotage did he finally meet his prize—
not as stunning in her beauty, but lovely in his eyes.
No grand faults to overlook. No predicaments to fix.
No petulance to deal with. No relatives to nix.
Marriage done at any age can be pleasure or blight,
but  when he married in his eighties, he finally got it right!!

 

Prompts for today are tolerate, predicament, nest, legendary and confidence. Photos by JD Mason on Unsplash, used with permission.

Night Owl

 

Night Owl

With half a life lived in the dark,
an owl’s hoot, an answering bark,
the moon across the water scattered,
ragged clouds, wispy and battered––

I float in night and solitude,
the night determining my mood.
I lie in darkness and I brood,
a momentary interlude.

When sunlight comes in fits and starts,
The day brings out my other parts.
They rise in me from dawn to noon,
dispelling powers of the moon.

Thus balanced between dark and light,
each half consumes its daily bite.
I welcome each within its time
Life varied, balanced and sublime.

 

For the Early Bird or Night Owl Prompt.

HATS!!! (Saturday Challenge)

 

What other garment displays a personality as clearly as a hat does? Here are some of my favorites from a collection of over 1400. Click on photos to enlarge.

For the: https://weeklyprompts.com/2020/03/07/saturday-challenge-hats/

Trump’s Mental State. How can this be overlooked?

Please read the below article. Scary. This goes beyond politics. Are you willing to trust your country and the world’s future to this man? If the answer is yes, dare to read this article:

https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-mental-state-not-bidens-is-the-real-concern-mental-health-professionals-say-223617342.html

 

Succulent Lineup: FOTD Mar 7, 2020

 

For Cee’s FOTD

There is a Glitch in Everything

 

There is a Glitch in Everything

There is a glitch in everything. Everyone you meet
is lactose intolerant or allergic to wheat.
We can’t drink the water and everywhere we venture
breathing without masks is considered an adventure.

The ocean’s full of plastic. It’s ground up in our salt,
but nobody I’ve ever met feels it is their fault.
We still buy our Seven Up neatly bound in plastic
as all around our world the pileups grow ever more drastic.

If each and every one of us learned to just say “No,”
to packaging in plastic, we could stem the status quo.
If we only ate organic. If we all went solar,

cooled down the atmosphere, resolved our issues polar,

stopped genetic meddling, stopped drilling, pipes and fracking,
we might restore ecology that presently is lacking;
but the chances of our doing so probably are scant.
It’s hard for us to walk the walk. It’s easier to rant.

Prompts for today are water, glitch, everything, adventure and neat.

Shockingly Red

I just have to post this again for the red challenge!!!

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As well as these:

 

For  Nancy’s A Photo A Week Red Challenge.

Things That End in Ock.

Please click on photos to enlarge.

For Cee’s B&W “Things that end in ock” prompt.

The Great Unquoted

daily life color105
The Great Unquoted

Folks from the country are rarely surveyed.
They’re too far from the action so rarely waylaid
by people with surveys or long questionnaires
who don’t know the difference between bulls and mares.

They’re afraid of  rogue bulls (or perhaps they are steers?)
Then wood ticks and snakes are additional fears.
So they’re given to mutiny when asked to go
to where they consider the folks are so slow

that they’re dumb as the fence posts  that border the road.
They aren’t up on the lingo. Their clothes aren’t in mode,
but farm folks are happy no matter what season.
If they’d taken a survey, they’d find the top reason

is that folks armed with clip boards don’t haunt every nook.
They don’t stand at the corner or invade your brook
when a fellow stands fishing and thinking great thoughts.
They don’t snoop in your garbage or peek in your pots.

Here in the country, while working or drinking, 
we keep to ourselves all the thoughts we are thinking.
Let city folks keep all their lists, charts and numbers.
We county folk prefer our bucolic slumbers.

Prompt words today are afraid, top, country, mutiny and post. And for dVerse Poets Open Link.

He might look like a city boy, but that’s my dad stretched out under a tree down by the river, thinking great thoughts. I think my mom had him dressed up for a church picnic.

Contrasts: FOTD Mar 6, 2020

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I love the contrast of these smooth green speckled leaves against the rough concrete colors and textures.

See Cee’s incredible orchid photo HERE.