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.

Frisky Business: Animal Mischief (In Celebration of National Dog Day)

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Frisky Business

My dogs aren’t highfalutin. Don’t compete by size and weight.
All that classy dog shows preach, they repudiate.
Diego never notices where a thrown stick lands,
and neither one’s consistent in following commands.

On stormy days, Morrie’s been known not to chance the rain
to go about his business in the usual terrain.
They’re murderers of  possums. This is no fresh news.
And when six pork chops vanished, I followed all the clues

down to where the evidence lay “hidden” in the yard.
How did six chop bones get there? It wasn’t very hard
to figure out the mystery. Diego was the thief
tall enough to bring about my dinner party grief,

swiping all the main course directly from the pan.
When his master’s back is turned, a dog does what he can.
But at least they are consistent in appearing for their meals.
No dog can only live on the comestibles he steals.

For more frisky business, go HERE or HERE or HERE or HERE! Or HERE, HERE or HERE or HERE! The entire story of the purloined pork chops is HERE, and, if you want it all in a nutshell, THIS ONE pretty much wraps up the whole story of my misbehaving dogs.

Prompt words today are highfalutin, repudiate, consistent and, since none of my other prompt sites has posted a prompt yet and since August 26 is National Dog Day, I’m declaring  my fourth prompt word to be dog!! If you see this and want to play along, just post a link to a photo or poem or anecdote about your dog to this site.

Here is my link for your pingbacks to this site: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2019/08/26/frisky-businessanimal-mischief/

Testing Affection

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Testing Affection

When I booked a sea adventure with a lover, I confess
that traveling together put our passion to the test.
It’s true I grate on people. I’ll attest to this one fact,
but it’s also true at times that my guy could use more tact.

When he kept daily tallies of the cookies on my plate—
a definite statistic I preferred he not relate—
he meant it as a joke, but I considered it as snide.
Comments about my appetite are ones hard to abide.

He maintained a steady pace and told me not to dawdle,
and even though his rapid steps made him sort of waddle,
I should have kept that to myself, but I fear I did not;
and that is why things got as heated as they finally got.

I said I’d zero tolerance for what was going on
and before he knew it, I was off that ship and gone.
And this is often how it goes when new love goes out traveling.
It’s often hard to face new climes without romance unraveling.

 

Full disclosure: Although the imagery in this poem reflects a recent sea voyage taken with my sister, the content is purely fictional. Well, except for the cookies harvested from the abundant buffets, which we both consumed in rather embarrassing numbers, but really, no one took a tally and no one waddled!! Nor did it put sisterhood to the test.

The fact that traveling together can put friendship or romance to the test, however, can be all too true. The first European driving vacation I took with a certain lover, I couldn’t wait to get home so I never had to see the jerk again, and at one point I really did tell him to pull over and I got out of the car and vanished into a forested tract for awhile. Thankfully, he waited patiently and I eventually emerged and got back into the car. Things evened out when we got home and within a year, we were married. Nonetheless, there is a reason for the old adage  that “true love (and traveling together) never did run smooth.”

Guided by the needs of these prompts, I have combined the two stories and the frictional lovers’ driving misadventure has been transformed into a cruise.

 

Prompt words for Aug 25, 2019 are friendship, excursion, snide, attest and zero.

Flower of the Day, Aug 25, 2019

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The air was filled with the fuzz from these flowers on our trip up into the mountains above Montenegro.

 

For Cee’s FOTD

Chicago O’Hare at 3 a.m.

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Chicago O’Hare at 3 a.m.

Patti and I took separate flights from Athens to Chicago but since we both had to overnight, we shared a room at the Hilton O’Hare Hotel at the airport. We’d set the alarm for 2:30 as my plane started boarding at 4:40 and I needed to dress, finish packing and make my way to terminal 3 at Chicago O’Hare Airport. The alarm went off and I managed to get up and into the bathroom without awakening Patti. I dressed, put on makeup and only then checked my computer… only to discover it was just 1:15. I had dreamed having the alarm go off!  No wonder she hadn’t heard it.  I took my blouse off and climbed back into bed half-clothed and slept for another hour.

At the airport, I couldn’t find an open security line and found most airline employees to be rather surly at the inconvenient hour of 3 a.m. I got three different instructions about where to go but finally found my place at the end of an extremely long line located in the opposite direction of where I’d been instructed to go formerly.  Half an hour later, I’d made my way to the walk-through, only to be stopped by a TSA agent saying I registered as having metal wrapped entirely around my body in the hip area!  Very strange. Did I want to go to a private area? No. Pat away. She patted and patted.. until finally the mystery was solved. I had on a blouse with a seed bead fringe around the bottom. Evidently the beads were lead crystal—thus registered as a bomb of sorts wrapped around my middle regions. Every time I think I have this security thing worked out, a new surprise!  Now 4:10 a.m. 34 minutes until boarding..then Dallas Ft. Worth bound.  Hate that airport!! Almost home.

You caught me.  This is not the excellent photo of sleepy wayfarers in the Chicago AA waiting room. My computer refuses to accept my SD Card, so it will have to do.

Too Much Information

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photo by joel muiz on Unsplash. Used with permission

Too Much Information

Substantiation of your sex appeal is shown in your tattoos—
illustrative options in so many different hues.
It’s true that your charisma is there for all to see,
inscribed upon your body be it thigh or calf or knee.

If I might take a moment, I could read you like a book.
A hieroglyphic record in your body’s every nook.
The snakes around your biceps and thorns circling your neck,
beer bottles on your forearms and the joined hearts on each pec.

All the ladies of your past hidden here and there.
Mandy on your wrist and Susan nestled in your hair.
Lucy on your pinkie and Maxine upon your shoulder—
might you regret them later as you get a little older?

That tear that’s sliding down your cheek, the stars beside your eyes,
that naked lady on your neck—do you think it wise?
I’m thinking of your grandchildren, for when your shirt you doff,
you won’t have any secrets, for your stories won’t come off.

Prompt words for today are charisma, tattoo, options, substantiation and moment.

Scoreless

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photo by Ben Hershey for Unsplash, used with permission

Scoreless

As a jock he’s overrated. He’s insipid and a bore.
He dishes out the dirt on all his dates that’s mainly lore.
By their choice a second date is rarely in the works.
They have their radar out for all such predatory jerks.
On the field he’s second rate at passing and advancing.
But those skills are stellar when compared to his romancing!

Prompt words for today are insipid, dirt, jock, overrated and choice.

Mykonos

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Mykonos
Click on any photo to enlarge all.

Mykonos is a city of light and wind. Citizens are required to whitewash their houses three times a year and color police enforce the color restrictions. Narrow winding streets were a deterrent to marauding pirates and they did a good job of deterring me as well. We were perpetually lost. The wrapped pipes (white, of course) reminded me of African masks. It was obvious to us all why Mykonos is  noted for its windmills, as constant gusty winds helped to cool down the otherwise hot day. Shopping galore, but I resisted the $1500 blouse and instead photographed the resident reigning cat in her royal wicker chair. No dogs were in evidence, but this black cat welcomed us to shore from her comfortable spot under the shade of a concrete bench. A lovely end to our last day of the cruise. Tomorrow we arise at 6 to go to Athens to catch our separate planes to Chicago.  We overnight there and then I head back to Guadalajara, my sister back to Sheridan.

A Stroll in the Park is not What it Used to Be

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A Stroll in the Park is not What It Used to Be

This park is overrated. It is not my zone of choice.
One cannot be heard here unless you raise your voice.
The signs are not well-written. They’re curt and brash and rude.
One gets pebbles in one’s shoes when fashionably shoed.
Little dogs are walked here that irritate my nose,
and I don’t approve of the scanty jogging clothes.
If the Queen were walking here, I think she would be shocked,
for not one single passer-by is stockinged, gloved and frocked!
All-in-all, a walk here is not what it once was.
I only visit here because the ice cream vendor does!

Prompt words today are pebble, written, zone, overrated and choice.

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For Cee’s FOTD.

Das Boot

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Here are a few assorted photos of life aboard the Emerald Princess.

Click any photo to enlarge all.