Do you believe in magic?

Reading other bloggers' posts this morning feeds my thoughts with ideas that begin to blossom in my head... (strange wording but it conveys what I'm trying to say...). Sometimes my head is near bursting with stories, ideas, thoughts about life/death, miracle moments, etc. I think that's why I write... to get some of them 'out of my head'... and make room for others.

I have beaucoup old stories, essays, poems, etc. that are lingering in files, old web sites, etc. Sometimes I think that maybe I'll resurrect some here, but then other distractions or new ideas pop up... and like those ominous 'senior moments'...  the thought is gone.

So... TODAY... I'm going to start doing just that.  I will try to introduce one poem or story or whatever... daily (probably not daily, but I can be optimistic?).  And it will be introduced in a way that will make it *optional* should a reader prefer not to read it (some stories are rather long - my sci-fi one for example).I doubt if any of you have been to my other websites, but if you have and have already been confronted with my ramblings, then please forgive me and ignore these efforts. But... as we are inclined to say, it is my blog.

I'll start with a short essay that was written about my belief in *magic*.  It was written with the idea in mind that with retirement came endless free time to do what you want.  Well, it does and it doesn't. Somehow free time is filled - not always with what you want to do, but that's another story. My idea back then was that I would write all day in between house-hold chores. This was my idea of heaven... write a little, work a little, etc.  It was a good idea, but didn't take into account other people's plans on how they wanted to use my free time. But again, that's another story. Here's this one:  "I Believe in Magic".  Have to mention that sometimes one story leads to another on these sites, so this one is connected by link to a children's story I wrote called "The Littlest Dragon".  You can feel free to read it if you like or ignore it.  Like I said, I have beaucoup stories...

Have a great weekend!  ; )

What can I say... ?

Just got these Valentine pictures of new grand daughter... and had to post them.  I'm sorry if some of you may not appreciate the doting grandmother approach and I do try to avoid overdoing it, but just thought these were too cute not to share. So please bear with me...

Valentine cats...

Devoted Brothers

Just a short post to say Happy Valentine's Day to Everyone!

Remembering a time best forgotten...

    Grandson at 4 in the park on one of our hikes...

Reading DJan's post about the highs and lows of life this past weekend made me think about my own.  I too wrote a similar essay back when I was writing on a website - before blogging in 2001. Probably very few people read my writings, but they weren't written necessarily to be read - just to get things off my mind. It helped.

Here is a link (if you're curious) :  www.mystoriesetc.homestead.com/index.html

2000 was a difficult year. I'm pretty sure many of us have years in our lives that are better off not remembered. This one however was a roller coaster   - with wonderful memories like our only daughter's wedding in the Spring and a once in a lifetime dream trip to Maine in the summer.... and then the world fell apart for a time.

pottery and iPhones...

One of our 'previous' cats - Teela.  She was a tiny little thing,
barely 5 lbs. but she was feisty and ran the house for years.

I've spent the better part of this week working on our pottery project as well as talking to 'Apple' people concerning our new iPhone. Both Monday and Wednesday mornings were spent in the studio getting our ideas and clay together for our chess sets. And both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons were spent talking in person at the Apple store and then  on the phone with an Apple rep. I can't believe it's Thursday already.  This week has flown by.

The reason for the consults was due to the fact that we upgraded recently from an iPhone 3 to a 4 because the upgrade was 'basically' free and the new phone is supposedly a little faster, has a few more bells and whistles, etc... but basically we did it because we could.  Well, nothings ever simple.  It took more than a few 'helping hands' to get all my apps, photos, etc. transferred from one phone to the other. There were reasons... security ones that had to be addressed due to some problems I had had about a year ago with someone fraudulently using my credit card. But I will say that all the Apple employees who helped us were terrific... friendly, knowledgeable, and very efficient.  It just took time.

As for the pottery, we're slowing getting there.  I have my first 6 animal figures done... to represent the King, Queen, Knight, Bishop, Rook, and Pawn. Now I will start making a small mold so that I can do the 16 pawns the same. I've had to 'revise' my original idea so as to keep making these small animals in the method I wanted to use... may be called 'gestural'?  I'm not an art major so I'm guessing here, but it's when you do the basic figure without detail... more or less letting the form or movement dictate what it is. So instead of a cat theme, it's turned into an animal theme; dog, cat, bunny, rat, snake, and bird.  Most of the figures are done in 1 cubic inch of clay... or less. The rat is a bit big... so I may have to scale him down some. But it's not easy sculpting in such tiny amounts. They can't be bigger than 1.5 to 2 inches or the chess board will have to be too big...

Anyhoo... for the most part, the week has passed. And passed quickly.

There's something else... and it has nothing to do with anything, but it comes to mind this afternoon.  For the last few days I've kind of been draggin', feeling a bit down (which is not like me) and haven't really known why. Guess I could be coming down with something, guess it could be a symptom of 'old age', etc.  But whatever caused this melancholy to come and sit on my shoulder apparently departed this afternoon as this    evening  I feel good...  

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

remembering a kindness...

A recent blogger mentioned "simple acts of kindness" and my mind flew back to years ago... and rather than reiterate the story here, I'll just link up to where I wrote it on an older site. This is the story.

As you can see, a kindness was done to me... and my unborn child 'passed it on' 22 years later. Some would say it was simply coincidence, but I prefer to think that it's all *linked*.  We are all *linked*.

I think we should all 'pay it forward' as the saying goes.
Kindness is contagious.

Do something *kind* today!

blogging...

a favorite photo

This will probably be short because I have to go to Yoga in a little while. But I've been reading blogs this morning and *accidentally deleting* comments (I'm such a klutz sometimes).  And I noticed that some people compare their blogs with other blogs.  Maybe this is normal, I don't know. However, I just wanted to say that to me a blog is a slice of one's life (albeit a small one) that part which a person chooses to share. It isn't a competition... or at least it's not for me (I'm afraid that I've never been competitive - probably why I don't care much for games).

Before I blogged, I journaled; first in tablets, then online. Why? Dunno.  But I've been doing it since I was a child and would do it whether anyone read them or not.  I do appreciate the readers... and the comments. It makes the whole process more interactive. And you get to make online friends (this is a plus!).  Writing in my journals never accomplished this.  It has always been a way to voice my feelings so for me it's probably psychologically beneficial. Blogging is a bit different. I share more of what I'm doing and thinking and less about personal stuff... or possibly the personal stuff gets a bit 'camouflaged'.

And another wonderful perk about blogging for me is sharing pictures! Getting to see what our online friends see! Sometimes getting to see things we would never be able to see in person ourselves.  I love this. Of course I have always been a big fan of photography. Being an amateur myself, some people's photos are fantastic! But I love them all... snapshots of kittens playing, a home-cooked meal,  a happy grandchild, as well as panoramic scenic shots of  nature's wonders...

And lastly, I find that blogging helps me categorize my days, weeks, months, and years.  I can go back and see what I was doing back on February 1, 2003 (or close - in this case it's Feb 2, 2003 - 10 years ago) - ... not important to anyone but me... but hey, it's my blog! As it stands, apparently (and I had forgotten this), this was around the tragic date that the Shuttle blew up over Texas. If you do check this link, you have to scroll down to Feb. 2nd.

Anyway, have a wonderful weekend! And Happy Blogging!