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.

Ta Ta

images-1                                                jdbphoto

Ta Ta

It’s an exquisite loss, your going away,
and it’s also timely, I’m given to say.
You may find it inane that I’m saved while you’re lost,
but it’s true that some friendships come at a cost.
You’ve departed, it’s clear. This I so plainly see,
but your leaving has given me something back: me!

 

Prompt words today are timely, inane, lost and exquisite.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/rdp-sunday-timely/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/13/fowc-with-fandango-inane/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/your-daily-word-prompt-lost-january-13-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/exquisite/

Egg Carton Posies

 

I had friends over to make these recycled flowers yesterday.  We still have at least one more  day to go, but these are the ones I stayed up all night last night finishing…Fun.

Click on any photo to enlarge all:

 

If you are curious about the process, this is what we did. You need egg cartons or dividers for the flowers, toilet paper rolls or other thin cardboard for leaves and stems and vines,  large sharp scissors, a glue gun or white glue, paint, paper towels and patience.

For Cee’s FOTD.  An addendum: https://ceenphotography.com/2019/01/11/fotd-january-12-2019-daffodil/

Truth Serum

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Truth Serum

I’d like to form a splinter group of all the friends I know
to reconnoiter memories and then to tell and show.
Candidness, of course, would be most elemental—
telling truth and all the truth merely instrumental
in getting to the crux of things, in solving all the puzzles.
Life’s not got at best with blinders and with muzzles.

Our lives are rivers that we’d float together, in snug boats
comprised of past anecdotes from sagas to mere quotes.
Who hasn’t lived a movie if they’ve lived a life at all?
If only we had the courage, trust and gall 
to reveal our true life story—both its triumph and its shame
and to share it with each other with no censorship or blame.

The prompt words today are river, instrumental, memories and splinter.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/rdp-saturday-river/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/12/fowc-with-fandango-instrumental/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/your-daily-word-prompt-memories-january-12-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/splinter/

Cardboard Daffodil: FOTD, Jan 12, 2019

 

Click on photos to enlarge.

Here is my daffodil made out of an egg carton, inspired by Cee’s Daffodil: https://ceenphotography.com/2019/01/11/fotd-january-12-2019-daffodil/

Please overlook my paint-stained nails and hand!!!

Anthurium, the Crowd: Flower of the Day, Jan 11, 2019

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See Cee’s blue beauty HERE.

The Memento

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The Memento

Yes, I received your letter and the enmity enclosed.
And yes, it has accomplished what you probably supposed.
I here enclose your photograph. I have no further need of it.
If I want to end the grieving, I must dispose of the seed of it.

I’m burning all your letters and crumbling your dried roses,
disposing of your paintings of me in different poses.
I’m in need of no mementos to bring you back again.
I need no souvenirs to remember all the pain.

These ashes are the lovelock you asked me for that night.
I found it in your pillowcase the morning of our fight.
Its cremated remains were easiest to send.
They are so easily scattered to signify our end.

The prompt words today are letter, enmity, photograph and accomplish.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/rdp-friday-letter/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/11/fowc-with-fandango-enmity/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/your-daily-word-prompt-photograph-january-11-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/11/accomplish/

Perky: Flower of the Day, Jan 10, 2019

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For FOTD

Music in Black and White

Click on any photo to enlarge all.

 

https://ceenphotography.com/2019/01/10/cees-black-white-photo-challenge-anything-related-to-music/

Upon Losing a Friend or Lover

Click on any photo to enlarge all.

Upon Losing a Friend or Lover

It does no good to have remorse for partners you are missing.
Better that you concentrate on ones you could be kissing.
Be not forlorn. Frustration is something you can fix.
Just engage with life again and get back in the mix.
Life was meant to be lived out, no matter what the cost,
though it might take many friends to replace one you’ve lost.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/rdp-thursday-partner/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/10/fowc-with-fandango-remorse/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/your-daily-word-prompt-frustration-january-10-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/forlorn/

An Ode to the Annoyingly Ebullient

* jdbphoto

An Ode to the Annoyingly Ebullient

Her ebullient nature sometimes seemed a little cloying.
Others less endowed with cheer could find it most annoying.
It seemed that her ambition was to slipcover the earth
with a shell of levity—a monologue of mirth.
That others didn’t seem to have her appetite for humor
based on romance serials and hearsay and on rumor
didn’t seem to faze her. Her allusions’ rarity
coupled with her seeming lack of storytelling clarity
fazed her not a bit. Though no one else seemed to be buying it,
she kept on unrelentingly with her “pie in the sky” ing it.

 

But, there is hope. Click on the below arrow to learn more:

 

Prompt words today are ebullient, ambition, clarity and appetite. Here are the links:

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/rdp-wednesday-ebullient/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/01/09/fowc-with-fandango-ambition/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/your-daily-word-prompt-clarity-january-9-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/appetite/