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.

Christmas Day, 2024

Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.

For two years, I’ve been turning friends and especially the small writing group that meets at my house on to my special recipe Sangria and Cheetos Torciditos..by popular demand, serving them once a month at our meetings and regularly to other visitors at my house.  This has led to a yearly Cheetos gift from my neighbors, Sergio and David, who will go to any length to procure a new Cheetos-themed gift.  Two years ago it was a swim towel that looked like a huge Cheetos Torciditos bag.  The next year it was a perfectly-ordinary-looking brown mug that when you poured hot coffee into it turned into a bright orange copy of the Cheetos bag as well. This year was the most original of all. You can see it pictured and explained on the photo of it’s box above.

Merry Christmas to all a few days late.

My Year, for SOCS Dec 27, 2024

Click on photos to enlarge.

For SOCS

The prompt was “My Year,” so I’m choosing a photo from each month of the year 2024 to post here in a gallery.

Hibiscus at Sunset, FOTD Dec 27, 2024

Click on photos to enlarge.

For Cee’s FOTD

Another Sunset, for Photo Challenge 547

Another Sunset

This bald
horizon line,
teeth of far-off cliffs.

An orange that hurts, it is so bright—
the face of the sunset
makes its daily pilgrimage.

Only yesterday breathing in a sea.
Today, facing the hard stone
of an offshore outcropping.

We, the tender-hearted,
wait for you each evening.
We line our hearts up for you.

Over here, I’m the girl
In red sequins at the front,
waiting for your black velvet brother.

For Photo Challenge

Here it is Again! Fibbing Friday, Dec 27, 2024

1.  Ackamarackus:  What my father used to say every time someone began to play the shakers in Latin music.
2.  Anencephalous: What some people accuse a man with tiny feet of also having.
3.  Antediluvian: What they call a boy who has finally agreed to give up his Teddy bear.
4.  Accismus: The next holiday after a Thanksgiving.
5.  Agelast: The woman in a beauty shop whose main job is to put gel in your damp hair before blow-drying it. 
6.  Arabinose: What they call a Palesitinian man’s large proboscis
7.  Antimacassar: What they call a man who curses every time he passes a Macdonald’s Hamburger Spot.
8.  Anagrammatic: What Anna became after graduating from college with a degree in English.
9.  Aichmophobia: Someone with a dread of pain.
10. Atrabilious: Someone who develops a stomach disorder every time they hear music sung by Ol’ Blue Eyes.

 

For Fibbing Friday  Image by Alamy

Bougainvillea for FOTD Dec 25, 2024

For Cee’s FOTD

Merry Christmas, 2024!!!

My small writing group and spouses are coming for Christmas comida and white elephant gift exchange. Under each plate is a fortune and on each slip they draw for what their turn is to choose a gift is also a question to answer. Forgottenman made a list of fractured fortunes to distribute as well.  If you want to see them, I’ll print all of them after folks have already seen them.

“Born Lazy” for My Vivid Blog, Dec 24, 2024

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Born Lazy

You can have your tennis, your jogging, golf and hiking.
I’d rather spend time coasting while other souls are biking.

You’ll never find my name in the record books of Guinness,
for I don’t excel at basketball or badminton or tennis.

Somehow, nature slighted me when it came to “gameness.”
When asked to participate, I simulate my lameness.

I guess I was born lazy. I simply love my bed.
I pretend not to hear it when the cat yowls to be fed.

When duty calls, I plug my ears and happily roll over.
I find it is more comfortable here in beds of clover.

For My Vivid. Blog, the prompt word is “born.”

Thunbergia, for Cee’s FOTD, Dec 23, 2024

 

For Cee’s FOTD

Santa Makes a Comeback

I just couldn’t let Santa die a final piñata death, so I removed him from his shattered shell and did a bit of reclamation work and now here he is, gracing the door of my garage. If you didn’t see Santa’s former role, the story is here: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2024/12/22/breaking-pinatas-for-cellpic-sunday-dec-22-2024/