Thought for today....

You’re never truly alone. Your muses will guide you in your journey — every step of the way. Together, they weave shadows into starlight to help you navigate the dark places of the soul.

Books

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.
- Jerry Seinfeld

I would not be able to survive without books. Not online books, audio books, kindle, or other electronic means, but REAL BOOKS - with cover art be it paperback or hardback, and preferably lots of pages. Books can take you forward or back in time, to exotic places, places where you can meet historical figures from earlier times, get to know them,(if you read enough historical novels, which I do). They can provide information, insight, humor, teach you things you didn't know existed...the list goes on and on. Books allow you to retreat when things get a little overwhelming, they fill otherwise empty, boring moments like when you are stuck in a waiting room somewhere, or waiting to pick up the kids from a school activity. I keep a little clip on book light handy, just in case I'm stuck in the dark somewhere. The one I have has a led light, and works great as a flashlight.

Everyone should read some science fiction too - I started my love of science fiction in the 50's, with a book called "Mrs. Pickerell Goes to Mars". Jumping to the present day, I remember reading books where the young people wore outlandish costumes, mohawks, piercings, and so forth. Where there was pill for everything, including some to make you feel younger. Everyone had little gadgets that they communicated with, there were video phones, people actually living in space. And lots of scary things, which have come into reality - especially if you watch the news. Not just local, but global news. So read your science fiction, folks.

Simplicity

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.
- Alfred North Whitehead

Not a bad idea - if it looks easy, it probably isn't.

Say what?

Everything you can imagine is real.
- Pablo Picasso

If that' so, how come I'm not living in a finished house, with running water and a flush toilet? I've been imagining that for the last 28 years, and haven't seen a sign of it yet.

Reality

Humankind cannot stand very much reality.
- T. S. Eliot

That's why my world is a magical place where anything is possible. I get cranky when exposure to too much reality is forced upon me.

Soap box of the day

I really shouldn't watch the news. It just gives me too many soapboxes to rant from - every day there are new ones to rant about....someone just did a study that shows that making healthy foods (fresh produce etc.)more AFFORDABLE has resulted in better nutrition and less obesity. PAY ATTENTION FOLKS! Right now, in the current economy, it costs A LOT to eat healthy. Over processed convenience foods are a big part of why we have an obesity problem in this country. I wonder how much the research cost?

Teens of their own

Few things are more satisfying than seeing your own children have teenagers of their own.
- Doug Larson

Only one of my two daughters has had to deal with teens of her own, but the eldest will have teens to deal with sooner than she thinks....they grow up so fast. But not to worry - they'll turn out just fine, in spite of the bumps and potholes in the road to adulthood.

Tomorrow is not promised

Tomorrow is not promised, and now is the time to do those things that bring you joy with the people you love and enjoy.

Delusions of grandeur

Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself.


- Jane Wagner

I fancy my self an accomplished artist - a beautiful older woman - gardener and lover of flowers - devoted wife, mother and grandmother - and last but not least - space cadet of the first order!

Music is soooo much more than just math!

I recently read the note on the back of the program from my granddaughter's Spring Concert (third and fourth graders).  It said, among other things, that music is math.  Well, I guess it could be - I don't see it - but then I am missing the mathematics gene.  Math challenged.  Can hardly add two and two. 

Music is so much more - Music is a language unto itself.  Music is emotion.  Without emotion, I guess music might be just math.  But I've never heard music without emotion.  I guess I must inject my own emotion into the music, music of any kind makes me happy.  (Even sometimes the head banger stuff, though I hate to admit it.  Same goes for rap - but I get into the rhythm.)

Music is love.  Music is feeling.  Song lyrics often can express how you are feeling better than anything else in the world.  It can make you laugh, tap your toes, get up and dance, shed a tear, remember your childhood, remind you that you are strong, it can gladden your soul.  Two different people can play the same song on the same instrument, and the feeling they put into the notes can be very different.

There is an old saying - "The Devil will not stay where music is!"

INSANITY

I DON'T SUFFER FROM INSANITY - I ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

Life - Live it to the fullest

No human thing is of serious importance.


- Plato
 
Life is too important to be taken seriously.  Or to wear tight shoes.  Be who you are, let the comments and actions of others slide right off your shoulders.  The important thing is to live and love well, and most important of all, HAVE FUN!

I don't get it

I just don't get it!  After 63+ years I still don't get it! But what is the IT that I don't get?  Sounds Seuss-ish doesn't it.  Just a ponderable.  I get parts of it - but I'm still dazed, befuddled and confused by life and social graces - and I find I just don't like being around many people.  Social situations like parties and such, I just have to stand back and watch the sit-com.  Because that's what most of these are - just a sit com. 

Men just don't get it.

Do male artists understand the difference between art for art's sake and art to sell?  And how looking at the process with the "art to sell" mentality crushes creativity?   I've had an absolutely wonderful time being snowed in, except for being starved for female energy, playing with all the things I"ve hoarded for years.  I really didn't need to hear "I know you're having fun, but you need to make things you can sell".  I just can't seem to teach the man any Art Etiquette.  Is there an Emily Post for artists' mates?

Enough With the Snow, Already!!!!!!

Day six of "Snowbound" West Virginia.  We haven't had a winter like this in a long time.  1996 I think.  I was browsing through some old sketches and found one titled "Cabin Fever".  That was only for a couple of days, then the snow was gone. That time a flood followed the snow.  We already had a flood from the last three feet of snow.  We'll have snow behind the house where the sun doesn't get to until mid summer!

This year, it has just kept snowing and piling up.  And our car has been sitting in the driveway, aground on the snow and ice, like a boat on a sand bar.  We've renamed our place "Frustration Station"  Just kidding.  There isn't a tow truck anywhere near that has 4 wheel drive?  Can you believe that?  They all have low-boys.  One came to the top of our drive, took one look, said "Sorry, even with chains I can't get you out" and he went back to the towing service 30 miles away.

Our neighbor is back from his trip though, and he came to the rescue.  It took two tractors - the little one went a little to close to the edge, and we had to get the big one to pull the little one out!  But this man is a Saint in my book.  He got our car out - and my husband on the way to purchase tires with a more aggressive tread, whatever that means.  I think it means BIG HONKING SNOW TIRES!

In a tight place

When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you,til it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
Harriet Beecher Stowe