Poetry by our US Poet Laureate

An American Sunrise
by Joy Harjo

We were running out of breath, as we ran out to meet ourselves. We

were surfacing the edge of our ancestors’ fights, and ready to strike.

It was difficult to lose days in the Indian bar if you were straight.

Easy if you played pool and drank to remember to forget. We

made plans to be professional — and did. And some of us could sing

so we drummed a fire-lit pathway up to those starry stars. Sin

was invented by the Christians, as was the Devil, we sang. We

were the heathens, but needed to be saved from them — thin

chance. We knew we were all related in this story, a little gin

will clarify the dark and make us all feel like dancing. We

had something to do with the origins of blues and jazz

I argued with a Pueblo as I filled the jukebox with dimes in June,

forty years later and we still want justice. We are still America. We

know the rumors of our demise. We spit them out. They die

soon.

Or listen to her recite it herself An American Sunrise recited by Joy Harjo

Gone Fishing

I've shared these 2 photos before, among the few that were rescued from a fire my Rogers family (grandparents) had in Fort Worth, TX in the 1920s. 

Annie Lou Rogers Wilson was my grandfather's little sister, both of them raised by an aunt and uncle most of their childhoods.  But their mother moved from Walker County TX where they had been born, and lived the rest of her life in Galveston TX.  And at times the children are listed on census records living with her, like the 1900 Galveston Census.  Annie Lou would have been 25 in 1904. She didn't marry until 1906.

 10-30-1904 Annie Lou's Skiff - I'm pretty sure there was also a sailboat attached to this dingy.

10-30-1904 on Hannah's Reef Galveston Bay.

These gentlemen seem to have a fair catch of fish on display themselves, don't they? I don't see anyone resembling a woman who could have been Annie Lou.

For Sepia Saturday this week, we've got a nudge to go out on a boat, or sit by the water, and perhaps catch some dinner as lovely looking as their gentleman has.

I shall be purchasing some salmon at the Tailgate Market this morning, shipped in from Canada.

"Remember"

Joy Harjo, the US Poet Laureate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=107&v=gH0hp-n9gG8

Keep enjoying poetry!

Just saying...

 Susan Seddon Boulet

June is Gay Pride month

Activists are ready and waiting for their next effort of action.

We may be thinking alike, but not coming together yet to make a difference.

What we do as individuals is such a drop in the proverbial bucket...though it keeps us conscious of the important things that need changing.  We should not stop all our environmental efforts, nor avoid addressing the abuses we see around us, nor be un-conscious of our own priviledged status (whether regarding gender issues, racism, social class differences, geographical differences or even education levels.)

 UUCSV Choir singing "Ring Like a Bell." We also sang "We Shall Overcome" and "This Little Light of Mine." And "We are Dancing Sarah's Circle."

Pana Columbus talking with members following her service.

Sunday I listened with pleasure to another talk by Pana Columbus, and now have her latest book to read (autographed of course.)  She and others who are posting blogs here, as well as many other activist speakers, are reminding us that more is to come.  CHANGE takes work.

And she also gave us kudos for what we already are doing...as well as the all important praise that we take care of our own selves with celebration and not isolation. Her web page is panacolumbus.com

I'm also reminded of dear friend Byron Ballard's suggestion that we choose just three things to focus our energies upon.  It can keep us from being scattered about with so much that is wrong in the world today, and dissipating our energies throughout the spectrum of problems...and let's us feel a bit more effective as well.  And as she often reminds us, "We are made for these times."

And as Pana reminded us in her latest song "It's Time."

Dawn's early light

Though the earth had rotated toward the sun here at Stonehenge 5 hours before the sky outside my window had the same pearly cast, I knew this was a day I wanted to be up at sunrise. (Well, ok, I did close my eyes a bit longer, but kept being so thrilled to see the new light coming over the ridge.)

I thought of my friends who have a good sunrise view, and that they would be taking photos probably.  Can't wait to see them on FB or blogs! My scurrying clouds that turned pink with promise were along the ridgetops across the Swannanoa Valley. And the trees were bending down as if bowing to the beauty. Seriously the branches would bend down, showing the undersides of the maple leaves which are a bit greyer than the topsides...and then more would bend and then more - a dance was being performed just for my pleasure.

So today's intention is to be outside as much as I can.  Of course this 66 degrees will rise through the day...but if the mountain breezes continue, I'll gladly be sharing their air.  I do have a volunteer position at the Red House Gallery this afternoon...greeting visitors and working sales.

I hope this Summer Solstice, Litha, brings you such joy as I feel this morning.

Summer Solstice- Litha

Hope this mid-summer night gives you many lovely delicious dreams!

And may the next few days, weeks and months of hot summertime be full of bliss.

Way back machine

1929 - Mount Rushmore before the monument.

Musician's birthday same as my friend!

It's the birthday of Sir Paul McCartney, born in Liverpool, England, in 1942. 

What's your favorite song of his?




On the same day that my bestie, Rosemary Beddingfield was born. I miss her so much!

Happy Father's Day to all the people who act as dads

Without going into details of my strange and lovely family, I'm honored that one of my sons always calls me to wish me a happy father's day.  He never knew a father growing up, but was raised by a village, as many children in single parent families are.

These days with gender identities more flexible than ever, the role of fatherhood is often spread between different people in children's lives.

I have a big thank you to the religious education programs of the Unitarian Universalist congregations...which guided my sons to their own search for spiritual meaning. And I'm so thrilled to have a Buddhist, an Atheist and a Christian now.

But these programs were more than just teaching the basics of world religions, and visiting some of the major ones for services.  There were curricula which helped young people learn about their own sexuality. They learned how to respect differences, to listen intently, and to explore nature. There were many social opportunities and even summer camps with stimulating activities.  The leaders of these programs were mostly parents themselves, so we all shared our issues in a supportive environment.

A big smile of thanks to the father of my oldest sons, a man who has guided them to become the men they are today, both of whom are also fathers.
Here's my father's day wish from last year.

I am proud to have had a loving father, and to know his father during my childhood.  I enjoy looking at the ancestors in my family, thinking of the many dedicated and brave men that took their responsibility and duty seriously.

So I raise a bottle of ale today in toast to the Dads who shared their lives with the young people around them.

Elders attention!

It's Elder Abuse Awareness Day!  June 15...I had it wrong before.

If you think this is not happening, think again...

doing my share for the spiritual seekers

Our administrator at church is on vacation this week.  So I'm filling in for her in the office, at least doing some of the things that need to be done... like putting some new rechargeable batteries in the phone that wasn't charging and was dead!

This is the tiny office. I can work in there for a couple of hours before it begins to close in on me.  When I did this part-time job for almost a year, the door used to have clear glass so I could see the trees and sky, and the room was about twice as large. Another office has now been built for the minister.  I still edit a monthly newsletter, and so I keep up with things, mostly. Now I just fill in when needed, a little at a time!

The Spirit House

Last year I planted some vining Wandering Jew in it.  This year I haven't decided if I want to or not, so the little house sits on the balcony welcoming good spirits.

I can see it through the rainy window of my bedroom.

When it rains, I do blogs and ancestry!

 The hanging pot of geraniums - all hanging their heads...petunias closed against the weather.

 But the 4-0'clocks have sprouted well beyond my hopes...some are volunteers as I only saved 6 seeds from flowers.

 Unfortunately the studio floods when it rains, so our manager Charles, was busy wet-vacuuming it up.  Fortunately my mugs I threw Saturday are still quite wet also, thanks to the humidity! They can get handles added tomorrow or the next day!

As I walked back from my brief trip to see the wet studio, I saw these Stella D'oro daylilies, valiantly blooming in the rain.

Migraine with aura

As I was reading my friend's blogs this morning, the pinpoint of light in the center of my vision started, a bright whiteness which meant I couldn't see the very middle of each thing I looked at.  I thought, this must be what macular degeneration is like all the time.  But for me, that was a signal that for the next 10-15 minutes, I would loose my ability to see and read clearly.

The pinpoint quickly spread out in a familiar pattern, forming a circle that was ever-widening, but the center of my vision gradually returned.  I left the computer as the little rainbow colored prisms grew, like signal flags shimmering in a glowing semi-circle in both eyes.

I walked into the kitchen to get more coffee, thinking of how my mother had a stroke and lay on her kitchen floor over a day, sometimes shouting out the window to neighbors until they heard her.  But she wasn't taking the blood pressure medicine that I now take.  I do wonder however, if I might end up debilitated.  These parts of the body keep wearing out...and diseases creep in that we don't expect.

I am fortunate that I don't have pain associated with these migraines.  I do have sensitivity to light following them, but if it's not a bright sunny day (like today) I can go about my life after that visual interruption.

They started back when I was in my 40s that I remember. I will never forget the one that came as I drove on an interstate to my doctor's office in Atlanta.  There were semi trucks along side me, and I was trying to stay in my lane, by shifting my eyes back and forth to see clearly where I was.  By the time I got to the doctor I was a wreck, and started crying and said to the receptionist while I waited for my turn that I had gone blind.  That was the worst time I ever had with the visual impediment.  And the doctor referred me to a neurologist.  I was advised to not take birth control pills (which I wasn't on anyway.) I was recommended to drink caffeine.  And later I got some expensive pills for migraines that had to be taken right at the beginning of the headaches.  Since I seldom had pain, I didn't get more than one refill of them.

But where the aural migraines used to be only a few times a year, now they seem to happen more often.  Nothing in particular seems to trigger them, besides a glare of sunlight reflected at an angle into my eyes.  Sometimes having an eye exam would trigger them, from the bright light shown in my eyes.  This morning I was just reading a computer screen, which I do every day...so it's not an abnormal occasion.

As I've shared about having these migraines, I've found more and more friends also have them, sometimes with a very painful headache.  I remember hearing of (mainly in novels) various sufferers who have to go to bed in a darkened room with migraines.  It must be terrible for them.

Healing Woods

Some industrious young people have moved stones to make a mini-dam, and thus another swimming hole.

Today's Quote:

Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light.

FRIDA KAHLO

A bit of journaling

I've been thumped on my rear, fighting a recovery from, of all things, novocaine!  I had a minor filling (well, let's catch this one before it gets any bigger!) on Friday. I took ibuprofen when I got hit by the pain of where the shots had been injected that afternoon.  I ate soft foods, because I couldn't stand chomping down on that side of my mouth.

Then Saturday I noticed my jaw still had swelling.  And needed the ibuprofen still.  Same thing Sunday, and I was napping each of those days...I do get groggy with any pain relievers.

Woke up Monday and jaw is still tender with this lovely egg size swollen place.  Whoopee. Made an appointment for a walk-in visit at my Dr.  I don't think they see me enough, so I go visit them whenever I think they need another glimpse of my smiling (swollen) face. That's facetious.

On top of that, we had pressure washing outside our buildings.  So all windows have to be closed and locked (meaning use air conditioning.) And all plants on porches have to be removed.  You may know, I have 13 plants out on my porch.  I was going to haul them inside, but another neighbor put hers out under a tree, so she helped me move mine there as well.

They had started on next building uphill from mine, when I went to eat spaghetti for lunch (nice soft food.) When I got back they had finished my building, with my porch smelling of bleach. I took off my shoes when I got inside. Then I went to Dr. who said my face would probably stop swelling if I kept icing it and take ibuprofen, and not use my mouth very much like talking and chewing difficult things.

Oh dear, I had been talking as well as eating at lunch, so I won't do that much until this is better.

Fortunately one thing which was scheduled, to have the electricity off for 3 hours, didn't happen.  They will probably do that without giving notice next time.

So I never made it to the studio. And I did have a tiny little nap.  And I don't have a fever at least! I was given a prescription for antibiotics in case I feel worse, or at least not better, within the next 24 hours.  I hate taking antibiotics because of all the side effects they give me.  I would rather use them when I'm really sick, and not as a slam-bam-this-might-help kind of routine.

So that's the way things got out of my control for this Monday.  Tomorrow, I have things to do, people to see...I sure hope I'm doing better by then, just after posting this!

And as a post script, I just watched the last of James Holtzhauer's games on Jeopardy. He didn't bet enough (for a change) to win final Jeopardy, and thus he chose to hand over the game to others.

“Jeopardy!” champion James Holzhauer is nearly $2.5 million richer, thanks to a quick mind and even quicker thumb reflex." But Monday night he didn't bother to ring in on many questions that he probably knew. He went into final with 2nd place, and then bet a minimal amount rather than as much as he could, so that was the end of his series.  I've learned a lot about big betting from James.

Second post script: 100 years ago today! On this day in 1919, Congress approved the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the vote.

The necessity before plumbing

Along with the prerequisite bowl and pitcher, there was a beautiful chair containing a comode.

A very special chair!

Weather doing just fine!

Pardon me, a journal entry is needed this morning!

It's so cool outside, I had to close the bedroom window halfway through the night. Glad I did because, drum roll here, it rained a bit sometime before dawn.  I know because I got up with the sun for a change.
And having made my warmed-over coffee, I took it outside to sit in my canvass chair on the porch.

Oh no, nothing doing! It had been left out to the sky, and received plenty of damp!
My dear little plants may have been watered regularly while we've soared to 90 almost daily. But they were just smiling (you know like plants do) and perked up their leaves and flowers like happy kittens.

 8 am there are 3 new little sprouts peeking out of the dirt...they are 4 o'clocks! My plants with seeds last year gave me these! Whoopee!

So coffee sits here next to laptop. And I blog a bit, then sip. It is getting cold just like it did in the winter, when I also sat here in my sweater and reheated the coffee a few times before it was all gone.  Believe me I'm not complaining.

The second topic on my mind will become another post...about the healing powers of the woods, as suggested by Terri Windling on her blog in Britain.

And thirdly. But before I hit "post" for this, I must make a reminder to self. Hey Barb, you haven't gone to all those dental visits without having learned that Novocaine wears off, and THEN you need the ibuprofen. So today I had a minor filling done, but she gave me a last extra dose of Novocaine, when I kept cringing as she blew that cold air on the cleaned out cavity...must have some nerve that was exposed.  But I found out that I could have real pain with my cheek all swollen up, and my lips not working right...as well as not being able to chew because I kept chewing  my inner cheek. But I was really hurting when the drug wore off. I quickly took my iburpofen...and put a warm compress on my very sore cheek. Then I curled up in bed and took a nap.  When I woke up I continued to eat soft food. I will try to remember to be proactive (which I've always done in the past) and take the ibuprofen as soon as I get home even though I'm still numb!