Tuesday, March 10, 2020


Sometimes I worry about things and can't sleep -- who doesn't?  But often I can't fall asleep because my mind keeps running on, continuing discussions I've had, or thinking about things I've read.  I have conversations with friends and relatives.  At some point I drift off and the conversations become dreams.
Oh, and I sleep in the buff, too.  I'd rather add another blanket or turn up the electric blanket a notch than wear night clothes.

Sunday, March 8, 2020





Odors of orange-flowers and spice
  Reached them from time to time,
Like airs that breathe from Paradise
  Upon a world of crime. 

               
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



Longfellow is, perhaps, my favorite poet.  Most only know him from the bit of children's doggerel**, and that's such a shame.  He had such a masterful way with words and such keen insight into the human heart.  He created so many memorable phrases, too, that people all these years later still repeat, not knowing at all that they were first thought of and written down by dear Henry.  Oh, well, into each life some rain must fall.

Now who said that...?

We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints
on the sand of time


** "I'm a poet but don't know it, but my feet do because they're long fellows."

Saturday, March 7, 2020


Shut up, he explained




From the comic novel The Young Immigrunts by Ring Lardner, Jr., published in 1920, a very expressive phrase that probably has more significance today than it did when it was written a century ago.

The Young Immigrunts

Now, Only Now



“If I could, I would stop the passage of time. But hour follows on hour, minute on minute, each second robbing me of a morsel of myself for the nothing of tomorrow. I shall never experience this moment again.”
― Guy de Maupassant

Monday, March 2, 2020



Evening


It's when the swallows finish up their last swoops and hand over the night to the bats.  It's when an uncertain breeze springs up from nowhere, rustling the grass and rippling the leaves.  It's when coyotes begin to yip and howl, padding through the spreading shadows.  It's when Venus brightens into visibility in the western sky and an owl glides silently overhead.  It's when there are sudden silences and strange stirrings behind you.
It's when I feel peaceful and happy.