Obstructionism vs Hope

I don't know if the Republicans in Congress are being sincere (some of them are) or simply obstructionist (many of them are), but I think they are doing themselves and the nation a disservice. Most seem to be clinging to the wrong-headed and failed idea that the only solution to any problem is to cut taxes for people with money who will then allegedly let it drip down to the rest of us. I've always thought that was a false premise and history seems to continue to prove that it doesn't work. I'm not saying that we can't offer some help to small businesses.... and I emphasize small... but if the poor and middle class can't feed their families or keep a roof over their heads or afford even basic medical care, they are not going to be spending big bucks keeping small businesses going.

And like many spoiled rich kids, the Republicans in Congress (with some notable exceptions) seem unable to grasp the concept of long-term gains or the concept of compromise. It's all instant gratification in their world or it has no value. They can't see the value in creating jobs modernizing government buildings so that they are more energy efficient, benefiting the environment, providing short-term jobs and saving money in the long term. They apparently continue to think the infrastructure can be allowed to deteriorate. They don't want to help the states (although I thought the power of the state and states rights are central to their philosophy... isn't that true?) . As far as I can tell, Republicans only think things are bipartisan if they get everything they want. They also seem to have a scorn and disregard for the poor and middle class which borders on the pathological. Any money spent on us is money wasted. We are meant to survive on the crumbs nobly dribbled out to us by our better, richer brethren and then to be judged for wanting to eat and thrive and live. How dare we! Being a responsible, caring society in Republican world is socialism. The seem incapable of accepting the idea that having a social conscience is not the same as being a socialist society and that creating a tiny elitist upper class of the super wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle classes is neither true Democracy nor good capitolism.

On parallel ranting front, I continue to be annoyed by the way the media covers things. It just annoys me. And I watch PBS and CNN and I'm still annoyed. They report Republican talking points as though they were fact rather than opinion. There is no in-depth analysis of anything, just rote recitation of the dumbest and most reactionary voices on both sides of the aisle. This puts us as citizens at a major disadvantage because rather than giving clear analysis of what all the disputed issues are about, we get "drama."

I hope the American public will speak up and let both the president and the Republican party know that we are behind him, that we elected him and that we are willing to do what he has invited us to do - participate. Check out the new government website: Whitehouse.gov, which includes an invitation to particpate through the Office of Public Liaison. Check out Care2.com's petition site and let your government (and others) know where you stand on a wide range of issues.

I think something else most of us could do is reclaim our power to think. Does what some politican or news reporter is saying make sense? Does it add to our knowledge? Or is it just words and slogans intended to inflame us, stimulate a knee-jerk (emphasis on jerk) reaction, or numb us with fear and anxiety. Questionable as the first stimulous package was, do we really understand it or what it was supposed to do? Was the problem with the the bailout (I believe much of this bail-out money was in the form of loans for which we may eventually be paid back) the concept or the way what we did was managed (mis-managed)? I don't understand economics enough to have an informed opinion about the first bailout, though I certainly find obscene the junkets, fancy jets and large bonuses given to failures. That said, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot or burn my own house down because the guy who built it made some construction errors. We are all on this ship so if it sinks we will all drown together.

I hadn't thought about it before, but I think one of the things I like most about President Obama is that is is FOR things much more passionately than he is against them. This goes to a deep belief of mine (which I often fail to live by) that there is much more power in putting positive energy into what we want and believe in than in spending all our thoughts and happiness on grumbling (as I'm doing here) about what we don't like.

So I am FOR taking steps to help the poor, to rebuild schools and failing roads and bridges. I am for keeping people in their homes - but not just rich people. If the Congress can't come up with stimulous package that does these kinds of things, I go with Jon Stewart's idea. Just take a trillion dollars and give it to the people. We can use it to pay off our debts and our mortgages and spend it on things we need. This will solve the housing crisis, buck up the banks and make everybody's life much nicer. Seems like a pretty sensible plan to me. Maybe he should run for office. I'd miss him though. He's one of the best news people we have in the country, even if he is "only" a comedian.

Not sure if I have just rambled mindlessly here or if I have said something. I'm going to post it anyway and not go back and re-read.

On a happier note than politics. Weather has warmed some here. Snow is melting though my surroundings are still almost completely white. The birds are dancing in the sky. Squirrels seem to have running around with lighter hearts... (ok... maybe that's my imagination). In any case, I know this isn't a very good picture, but I love the way their wings look as they take flight....

Happy Monday!

Shadow Shot Sunday

It's time for Shadow Shot Sunday. Afraid there are lots of snow shadows again. This winter has been relentlessly bleak. There has been no melting of the snows at all, though today promises to be warm for the first time in forever. There is hope for melting and there is hope for Spring. This week I've seen some birds other than the crows.... one I didn't recognize, a woodpecker, and yesterday a blue jay and a cardinal out back. I'm so sick of the whiteness, that I decided to go into my photo "archives" and add some reminders that there are other seasons and that my world will have color again in a month or so.

Shadow Shot Sunday hosted over at Hey Harriet's blog and if you like shadows (as I do), check out all the wonderful posts featuring shadows of all kinds.

Happy Sunday! May all your shadows be beautiful.

Saturday Videos

Our new president is a very smart man... and hopefully he is teaching us to take our government back into our own hands. It's so easy to blame Congress while we sit back and whine and don't vote or put our own two cents into the process... I'm glad he's reminding us that we have a say and asking us to use our voices and participate. I like him better all the time, even though I do worry about the Afghanistan thing.

And I always enjoy Olberman.... this is a rant about the evil Dick Cheney.




And then there's Jon Stewart's genius. I don't think anybody could say it better.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Why Are You Such a Dick? - Audio Tape

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 49

This is week 49 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works.

I'm really happy that Wordzzles has fallen on my one-year anniversary of blogging and grateful to all of you who play regularly. I don't know if it was a good idea or not, but I did a little something special (I hope it's special) coming up with the words for next week's challenge. Can you all guess what it is?

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: author, Wall Street, rage, lemons, channel changer, cookies and milk, candelabra, Pine Cone Motel, illusory, fluffer-doodle And the mini challenge: war, wooden shoes, flabbergast, chimera, vodka martini

Here's my ten-word offering for this week:

Frank Johnson, financial broker turned author, sat in his hideout at the Pine Cone Motel, where the police had stashed him for his own protection, mindlessly clicking from station to station with the channel changer and scanning the Wall Street Journal for news. He nibbled nervously at a meal of cookies and milk. He had expected some anger, but was stunned by the unbridled rage his former colleagues, several of whom had made death threats against him. He missed his beautiful, witty wife Sarah and their sweet life together. She was his heart and had encouraged him to go public with all that he knew. He missed her voice calling him Fluffer-doodle (it was their little joke because of his problem with excessive flatulence). The strength – the miracle - of her love and support had given him the courage to speak out about the illusory nature of what he had called in his book the “candelabra boom” – prosperity that was all flickering shadows and profits built on quicksand. So many lemons passed off as lemonaid by people who knew what they were doing. He had named names. The names were out to get him. He was scared. But Sarah was out their waiting for him. That knowledge kept him going and fed his spirit as cookies and milk or even bourbon could not do.

And here's my mini challenge:

I was totally flabbergasted when I woke up and saw a giant rabbit wearing armor, carrying a lance and shouting, “I declare war on foxes,” but then I realized it was a chimera born of a half dozen vodka martinis foolishly imbibed in quick succession. What still confuses me, though, is that the wooden shoes it was wearing were at the foot of my bed when I woke up the next morning. I’m still trying to figure out where they came from.

And for the mega challenge:

Sipping her third vodka martini, best selling author Miranda Muggleson was beginning to realize that fame was both fleeting and illusory. Her first book - Chimeras and Rabbits in Wooden Shoes - had been all the rage for about six months. She had done the talk show circuit. At one point you could click the channel changer to almost any station and you would have found her there. She had shared lemon meringue pie with Oprah, and enjoyed cookies and milk with Ellen DeGeneris, and even been wined and dined by Charlie Rose. The world had been her oyster. She had it made. Then she had taken most of her massive profits and invested them with a well know broker on Wall Street, dreaming of a future of mansions, candelabras and limousines. Now she was flabbergasted to discover that she had been taken. Her fortune had shrunk to a pittance and she was once again a nobody. Worst of all, she had gone from penthouse living to a room at the Pine Cone Motel. Time, she guessed to write another book. Maybe she would call this one: Fluffer-doodle Wars.

~~~~~~~~~~


This is the last week I'll be doing a Vanity Wordzzle. This is the first one I posted almost a year ago when Wordzzles started. It's one of my favorites that I ever did.

This week’s vanity wordzzle: Napoleon, Zeus, underpants, Madonna, cellulite, 47 flavors, Arnold Schwartzennager, Barbara Walters, "Don't come near me or I'll call the police," power

Strange dream. Being interviewed by Barbara Walters, dressed only in a bra and underpants, the cellulite rippling over my whole body in hideous, rolling waves of flesh, shame and humiliation numbing, but I had to be brave, to not show my embarrassment. That would be worse. She was interviewing three of us at once: Me, Napoleon Bonepart, and Zeus. Why I had to be with them, I don't know. Just to make my insecurity even deeper, I guess. Anyway, Barbara asks each of us to name someone we admire and tell why. Napoleon picks Arnold Schwartzenagger because he's strong, relentless and determined. Zeus says Madonna because she reminds him of Artemis only she's really sexy. I pick (I don't want to be predictable) LynnAndrews because she consistently manages to be simultaneously dim-witted and profound. Then she got personal and we each had a tearful catharsis just before the commercial break. The sponsor was Baskin Robbins so we each had to name our favorite of the 47 flavors. I picked Chocolate Chip, Zeus liked peach, Napoleon said Rocky Road, and Barbara said Strawberries 'N Cream. It was all so odd. Outside, a woman's voice shouted, "Don't come near me or I'll call the police," but we were taping, so instead of checking on her, they just closed the window. I started to protest but Barbara had asked her next question, her voice redolent with its profundity: "I'm curious, given your respective lives, how would each of you define power?" Zeus said it was control and authority and manipulating events. Napoleon thought it was military superiority. I said I thought those were illusions of power, that real power came from trusting and loving yourself, because then no one could threaten your inner peace. Needing to control others was just a response to the belief that otherwise they would control you. Power wasn't about control, it was about being. Napoleon just snorted when I said that and said I was a jerk. Zeus threw a thunderbolt and left the room. Barbara Walters said, "How interesting," in a nervous voice which made it clear that she felt she had lost control and didn't know how to get it back. Then inspiration struck: "Tell me, do you always do interviews on national TV in just your underwear?" Outside, the woman's screams grew louder.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: ubiquitous, do you see what I see, getting a word in edgewise, wild goose chase, grandmother of five, Freemasons, Pacific Paradise, everything and nothing, insanity prevails

Mini Challenge: shortening the distance, it’s all about bloggers, the Fortress at Pigeon Falls, finding Pam, a raven’s nest

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Celebrating

This cake was the one my niece Cindy made for her daughter's first birthday.

Yippee! I'm back! Nathan the Magnificent fixed my computer! All sorts of wonderful things that weren't showing up before are now visible and the screen no longer dissolves into mush every 20 minutes or so. There is much joy here in Hancock.

Not only am I restored to my version of normalcy, but today is my one year anniversary. Yup! I've been posting almost every day (until recently) for a full year. Yeee ha! I had made a failed effort in 2006 and given up and then my niece Cindy's friend Linda (snoopmurph) nudged me gently to try again. And I did. I titled my blog's rebirth Laying Another Egg. I'm so grateful that I have stuck with it and met so many wonderful people along the way. I enjoy the photo memes (though I get sort of overwhelmed by them sometimes) and am so grateful for the faithful crowd that plays wordzzles every week. This evening I'll post the 50th wordzzle post... oops... 49... I'm so confused. But still, 49 isn't bad!

A number of people asked about the Peruvian Whistling Vessels I mentioned in my last post. So here's a little information about them and how I ended up in posession of a set of my own.

The vessels were rediscovered by a man named Daniel Stat, a businessman who purchased it at an estate auction and one day on impulse blew into it. His experience blowing into that one vessel changed his life and sent him on a quest to discover more about the vessels and their history and how and why they were made and used. One thing he discovered was that they were buried with their owners, not passed down from generation to generation and that they were kept secret from the Conquistadors. Eventually Mr. Stat studied and explored and figured out how to recreate them and over time passed that knowledge on to a man named Don Wright, who is the person who made my vessels. Each vessel contains some part of the clay from all the vessels that went before it. They are cast in molds and hand burnished by Mr. Wright. Here's a link to some photos of that process. But how did I wind up with a set of these strange and rare creations?

After my sister's murder and more so following the death of both my parents and the injury to my legs two years later, I pretty much imploded emotionally. I went on something of a healing quest. I was already deeply in love with reiki. At a workshop I attended, I was introduced to a Whistling Vessel experience. I fell in love with the look of the vessels first. And the experience of a "blow" was quite amazing. The originals which I saw were all terra cotta colored, though the design is the same as mine. The vessels are a group experience. They come in sets of eight. They are NOT musical. Individually, they sound like tea kettles whistling. Blown in unison, they create a strange and inexplicable (at least by me) harmonic which induces a state of what is called "synesthesia." When they blow in unison, it often (for me) sounds like the wind blowing in my ears. It can be a very intense experience. Some people have been taken to past lives, some have "heard color" or "see sound." Before I left the city, I managed to share the experience 4 or 5 times with groups of friends and others, but while I was on the road and during all my moves, I have not been able to share them yet. My friends and I have talked about it, but so far haven't been able to act on the idea. But writing about it, makes me want to push forward with the idea. I've already talked about setting a date in the Spring where some folks from New York and my friends in Oneonta might be able to come and share the experience. We'll see, I guess. I'd say to everyone out there, that if you ever get a chance to experience this, go for it.

Guess that's enough for now. Here's hoping I last another year.

25 Things about Me and Some Other Stuff

Thanks for the prayers and good wishes. We seem to have had some kind of healing. Computer only dissolved into pixels once yesterday and I was able to get it to restart before I had to go through the whole cut off the power and wait and try over and over again to get the screen and the computer to talk to each other routine. I was afraid to do anything meaningful, though, for fear it would dissolve into mush. Spent some time researching the cost of video cards vs the cost of a new computer but am hoping maybe I won't have to buy either one, though I did see a computer for as little as $279. My friend is going to see what something comparable to what I have now would cost. If I can spend as little as $279 (or maybe less, re-manufactured), then it might be smarter than putting an expensive video card into a 6 year old computer. But hopefully I won't have to do anything.

I'm hoping my friend Nate can fix whatever the video problem is. I used Windows System tools and apparently there are "no drivers" for the video. Hmmm.

But anyway, I'm hoping that your prayers and mine have led to a cure and that I won't have to buy anything.

On another front, I was hoping that Congress would act like grown ups, but seems that's not in the cards any time soon. Or maybe they are and I've just become jaded. It may just be possible that the Senate is functioning constructively at present, culling junk out of the stimulus package... I just have some concern that what will get culled out is help for the poor and thing which are visionary.

Well my early optimism was a bit premature. So far the computer has fuzzed out three times as I tried to post this. My niece Diana tagged me with a meme at her Facebook account: 25 (25? that's an awful lot, she grumbled) random things about me - so I guess I'll see if I can manage that before everything goes wonky again. Going to try not to tell you things you already know.

1. I love to laugh.

2. I love crossword puzzles. I really miss the New York Times which I used to do in ink. Little secret about people who do the Times in ink... it's easier that way. Writing over mistakes works better than trying to erase newsprint.

3. I have written a number of children's books which remain unpublished. Maybe I'll be one of those people who becomes famous after they are dead.

4. I have an idea for improving futons which I wish I knew how to patent and market. I think it's simple but clever and would make for a much better product.

5. I used to do a really good Wicked Witch of the West imitation when my sister's kids were young.

6. Someone once read the poems of Rabindrinath Tagore to me in Bengali. It was beautiful and would have been very romantic if I had found him attractive and had not been running a high fever at the time. Still, it was pretty cool to hear Indian poetry in the music of it's native tongue.

7. I was going to be an English teacher at one point in my life. I wimped out.

8. I type 90 words a minute.

9. I was a clarinet major when I first started college. Before I was going to be an English teacher I was going to be a music teacher. Sense a pattern here?

10. I got to meet Pablo Casals and sing in a Chorale conducted by him in my sophomore year of college. I was also in the New York Choral Society briefly and sang with Peter Paul and Mary in Carnegie Hall.

11. I once worked in the Mammology Department of the Museum of Natural History. Among the things I got to do there was to number and catalog the bones of bats and rats and other small rodents from Southeast Asia. It was tiquite fascinating to be behind the scenes. The people in the tannery (yep, they had one) had a pet ferret and a bunch of creepy little bugs that cleaned bones in no time.

12. In 1978, I spent six months travelling across the US by train and bus. I spent time working in Minneapolis and Seattle. I was already somewhat agoraphobic so this was a major feat for me and a genuine adventure. Would have been much easier if I had a license and a car. But I'm still glad I did it.

13. I once worked in the advertising department of Macy's Herald Square. Awful job. I had been looking for Christmas work. While I was on line waiting to apply, I met a man who was born in the same hospital as me one day earlier... my almost twin.

14. I own a set of Peruvian Whistling Vessels. (pictured below)


15. I love playing Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble and Clue. I almost always win at Clue for some reason. It's a mystery as to why.

16. Writing random things about yourself is not that easy.

17. I never got to go to a prom. I used to feel very sorry for myself about that. Didn't have my first date until I was 20 at which time two guys I worked with asked me out. I thought they were making fun of me and said only if we all went together. So we all went together. I ended up dating one of them for a while. His name was Lou and he was from Wappingers Falls which is where my sister's children grew up years later. He was a herpitologist and had a pet snake named Speedy who used to sit on my lap. Speedy seldom moved.

18. The problem with my legs was diagnosed as "ataxia." I don't think that's really what it is, but I don't suppose it really matters in the end.

19. I love rocks.

20. For my 60th birthday, my niece Diana gave me a cool drawing/analysis that is also a ticket to the mother ship should Mother Earth begin to implode. I keep it on my bookshelf for easy access.

21. I was a vegetarain for about 5 years, but living house-bound doesn't lend it self so well to vegetarianism.... or anything else.

22. I learned to drive in my 50s and have owned two cars - a 1986 Oldsmobile named Car-Car and a 1988 Dodge Daytona called True Blue. I like driving as long as there is no traffic on the road.

23. I love the smell of roses. My grandfather, who died when I was very young, used to grown them on a tiny plot in Kew Gardens, Queens. He kept them in the refrigerator.

24. I love Afghanistani food. A friend in NYC lived across the street from an Afgan restaurant and we would eat there from time to time. It was never crowded and the family that ran it were very nice people.

25. I love New York City but I don't really miss living there... except for delivery. Delivery was very cool, especially because you could get just about any kind of food there is delivered... and just about anything else too. Delivery is an agoraphobic's friend.

That's it. Long and boring, but I'm posting it anyway. My computer dissolved into pixels about 4 more times as I was doing it. Sigh. Here's a picture of my pass to the mother ship.

More Computer Troubles

Hi,

In case I seem to be neglecting people, I apologize. Still having trouble with the computer. New screen keeps breaking up into fragments and then freezing and then when I try to boot back up, the monitor says "no signal," even though I can hear that the computer has booted up. Turning the power completely off from everything seems to help but it takes varying amounts of time for the fix to take. I'm moving int being pretty cranky now. Pretty darn cranky. Very cranky. Like mega cranky. I'm not sure how well I'll survive another week or more without my computer. It's like asking a junkie to go cold turkey. Not pretty.

I was going to try to add a picture to this post but I had to shut down twice so I think maybe I'll just post words today. Sigh.

Pray for me. Pray for my computer.

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 48

This is week 48 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. I completely lost track of the fact that today is Friday. Completely. Until about 6:45. And I'm tired. So anyway, luckily someone wrote and asked me something about Wordzzles or I'd have simply forgotten and I wrote these at the very last minute, very tired under pressure and they are AWFUL! I mean the stink up the joint. And my imagination will simply not kick in to add any imagination to them, so all I can do is post them - late - and apologize that they are so bad. I didn't think this batch of words would be that tough, but they were for some reason. Not too happy with next week's words either. My brain seems to be vacationing in the Bahamas while the rest of me shivers and moans about cold and snow. But I'm writing all this because I just hate the idea of posting what I've written.... but eventually I have to, so... guess I will... Sorry....

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: snow and ice, vegetarian chili, pampered kitty, anthropology, do you own a home, coronation, you can change the world, hideous curtains, stammering, premonitions Mini Challenge: Is there a doctor in the house, blowing in the breeze, shadows, comedian, sleeping disorder

Here's my ten-word offering for this week:

Snow days are the best. Nothing beats a nice bowl of vegetarian chili and a pampered kitty purring on your lap on a cold winter day when snow and ice are making the outside world too miserable to venture into. Yesterday was a TV all the way day for me. A little Discovery Channel programming on anthropology followed by HDTV asking me, “Do you own your own home?” and telling me how to shop for one, then showing me seven easy ways to take my hideous curtains and make them into show pieces. Next I watched a PBS documentary on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. At one point I must have fallen asleep and I think kitty changed the channel because I woke up to some strange woman stammering premonitions and muttering something like You can change the world. I closed my wonderful snow day with a big bowl of popcorn and great Netflix movie – if you haven’t seen “Lars and the Real Girl,” you really should – and had the best night’s sleep I’ve had in ages.

And here's my mini challenge:

His long hair blowing in the breeze, the comedian Gary Giggles stood in the shadows thanking his lucky stars that he had already finished his act an hour earlier, before the man with the sleep disorder had arrived. He felt sorry for his colleague – alone on the huge outdoor stage - trying unsuccessfully to turn the problem of into comic gold. He had now resorted – only have joking - to the desperate cry of “Is there a doctor in the house?” Alas there as no reply,

And for the mega challenge:

As a result of her sleeping disorder, Marissa had been having terrible dreams and premonitions for several weeks. In one of the dreams, which she had almost nightly, she was in a strange, horribly decorated house with the most hideous curtains and furnishing she had ever seen and walls decorated with posters that said things like You Can Change the World and Anthropology is the Best Ology. There was also a collection of gaudy dishes each with a different cat and the world pampered kitty in gold, but as far as she could tell, no actual cat. On the stove was a can that said Coronation Vegetarian Chili. Outside everything was snow and ice so it was a shock when the door swung open and Frankenstein, who had long hair that was blowing in the breeze, stood there holding out a real estate card and alternately stammering, “Do you own your own home?” and “Is there a doctor in the house?”. Frankenstein was followed in short order by the comedian Groucho Marx singing Me and My Shadow. Something must be done, she muttered over and over. The curtains are bad enough, Frankenstein reminding me over and over that I don’t own my own home is painful in the extreme, but Groucho Marx singing is the absolutely the worst.

~~~~~~~~~~~

This week’s vanity wordzzle: feathered dream-catcher, silence, sea wrack, total, absolute, dolphin, eerie, living room, magisterial, bird feeder, munitions dump, God-jar

“I know what the feathered dream-catcher is for, but what’s a God-jar, sir? I’ve never heard of that before.” The old man gave her an eerie smile and studied her quietly for a moment. “Hmm. I did not recognize you at first,” he muttered, as though by her question, he knew her now. “Not many ask about the God-jar, only the true seekers. The God-jar is something different to each person’s journey. It is not some quaint conversation piece with which to decorate your living room. It is a thing of great power.” Lucinda was strangely shaken, not just by his words but by the stern, magisterial tone of them. “Oh, I was just curious, really. . . I mean, I’m not . . .” He just nodded and smiled quietly. “Not many ask about the God-jar. Not many are ready for its wonders.” “Yes, I see. Oh, what a lovely bird feeder,” she exclaimed, trying desperately to change the subject. She felt like she had stumbled into a minefield or a munitions dump with one innocent question. He smiled at her again, this time with a twinkle in his eye. “Ah, dear child, you do not understand. You did not ask about the God-jar, it has asked about you. You see, it is the God-jar which seeks people out, not the other way around. It does not call many, but now it has called you and its call is absolute and must be answered. Although you do not realize it yet, you are a light seeker. I am a shaman to my people and I would be honored to act as your guide and teacher on this journey. Are you willing to listen?” Lucinda nodded quietly, not sure why she was saying yes, but knowing somehow that there was no other answer. “Good. Now, you must clear three weeks time on your calendar which you can spend and when you are ready, return to me here. I will be waiting. Before you return, however, you must spend one day in total silence. Go down to the shore, sit on the sand, among the sea wrack and listen to the whispers of the wind and the ocean, and especially watch for the dolphins. They will speak to you and you will tell me what they have said. We will go from there.

~~~~~~~~~~

Next Week's 10 Word Challenge: author, Wall Street, rage, lemons, channel changer, cookies and milk, candelabra, Pine Cone Motel, illusory, fluffer-doodle.

And the mini challenge: war, wooden shoes, flabbergast, chimera, vodka martini

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Obsessed with Icicles

I seem unable to stop taking photo after photo of the icicles hanging off my eaves right now, hoping to catch how interesting and odd the shapes are and how the light glints inside them. So far I haven't satisfied myself really... and then some new glow pops up and I have to try again. Yesterday, even though it was still very cold, the sun was out and they were dripping. This morning they seem to have stretched a bit, but there's no melting. So not many words today. Don't think I have enough energy to do Skywatch today, so I'm just going to post my icicles and go take a nap. Hope those who are in the hardest hit parts of the country have their power back and are snug and warm and safe. So far it has been cold here and snowy, but that's all. Only February left, which means Spring is on the way, right? It is coming, isn't it?