It’s Just Thursday | Playing for Time

And the rains came…

17 Jul 2025 3 Comments

Flash flooding on July 6, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. Heavy rainfall caused flooding along the Guadalupe River in central Texas with multiple fatalities reported. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

***

Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, it’s been a spring and summer of rain so it’s a Water World all over the place except where it isn’t, because there’s always the odd exception. So far our heavenly blessings have been copious but benign, and we’re living in the middle of more green than I’ve seen in all my previous years put together. That kind of benevolence hasn’t held true for much of the U.S. and other parts of the planet, however, and our hearts are aligned with all who’ve lost everything to the violent weather patterns. The chaos and destruction only add to an ever-increasing list of How Do I Handle THIS? occurrences, further complicating the simple act of existing for people already stretched to jusssst about their absolute limit. So sorry for the injustice of it all, world.

The Kansas City Metro area is reporting some off-the-chart rainfall totals from overnight:

Our neighborhood report shows 4″ so we weren’t slighted. Kim got up at 3am and peered through the blinds because he thought we were getting pounded by hail, but all the noise was coming from huge raindrops pelting the wall-to-wall windows. Must have been deafening and I’m envious since I miss out on all the night-time storms now, pore me. Okay, that’s enough weather, one of the least-endorsed subjects to yammer on about, jeez! Pretty sure I can find an alternate subject, hang on a minute.

E’erbody still here? I hope you enjoyed your lunch as much as I did mine, which was a tasty rendition of minestrone soup. And yes, you’ve caught me stalling. The daily glut of information and shenanigans is such that I don’t even know where to start, so I don’t. Every day, though, the challenges become more of a thing, so this would be no time to tune out.

It’s hard to say precisely what we need to happen in the world, right here, right now, but daily magic isn’t a bad choice:

Could be time to return to our roots and get back to the beginning. The VERY beginning, if such a thing exists.

In the face of overwhelming reality, every bit of beauty we can put back into the world makes a difference, so pitch in, beautiful people.

Image by Judy Smith

Slouching toward the promised land…

13 Feb 2025 Leave a comment

***

It’s winter. It snowed again. It’s cold. There, you’re all caught up.

Soooo, yeah, what a long strange year it’s been, all 44 days of it, and this morning dawned cold and crinkly once again. The sun is blindingly bright on the snow and it’s 6° as I write… one of those days that looks positively balmy until you step outside and freeze your nose hairs.

As the world beyond the weather grows increasingly frigid, and as I continue to process recent and ongoing events, I’ve realized this morning that my prevailing emotion at this point is not fear but disappointment. Like the Pollyanna I’ve always been, I’d held out hope for at least a pause in the hostilities, a willingness to see each other as people again, to make room for kindness first of all, but it wasn’t to be. Our candidates were too happy, they both laughed too much, and you can see how that would be so wrong for the country.

Nearly every generation thinks we’ve arrived at The End on their watch, but so far it’s been nothing but false alarms. We’re a piteous species in that we no more get something figured out than we feel compelled to sabotage that in some way. Always two steps forward, one step back. Sooooo slow, the progress, it’s almost possible to observe evolution in real time.

In lieu of a softer world I’m cushioning my own with books and music, good food and good company, all the things that matter and over which I hold some slight sway. Keep the goals reachable. Whatever makes you a happier human, DO IT. Live your life, it’s the one that’s happening NOW.

Image by Judy Smith

The sin of empathy…

30 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

***

Does anyone else feel like we all fell asleep and woke up to a world we can’t recognize or make sense of? Like… up is down, in is out, nothing is real, and nothing matters? Two weeks in, we’re being told to ignore what we see and hear, and important safeguards are quickly evaporating into thin air. Incredibly even for them, the newbies started by relegating empathy for other people to the Sin Bin, thus signaling a deep-seated upside-down-ness that we’ll be expected to accept in the name of loyalty, so it’s anybody’s guess as to where it goes from here.

The label can’t hurt me. I mos def HAVE been stupid about things I was assured were realer than the nose on my face. And according to my definition of a socialist, I’m one of those as well, as opposed to being a fascist, whose ranks my dad and friends stood against in our last world war.

Since the world will be whack for some time to come, what kind of options do we have for coming out of this emotionally intact, if not bodily? I like this for starters:

It’s a full-time job.

Pretty sure there’s massive change ahead, so a plan is in order; therefore, I plan to survive if possible, and help other humans and creatures do the same.

Image by Judy Smith

Waiting for Godot, aka the other shoe…

21 Nov 2024 1 Comment

***

The calendar says we’re more than two weeks out since the election but there’s no way my brain could have told me that on its own because the markers have been few and far between. It’s always unsettling to sail through a state of limbo, precisely because of the inherent uncertainty. Also, the relative quiet compared to previous experiences with the former guy feels, may I say, a little ominous. We’re watching the potential for chaos build by the day with each nomination to what resembles a junk drawer more than a presidential cabinet, and we see plenty of concern to be had, but since we are simply the embodiment of “the vermin within” our input has neither been sought, nor will it. Our task is to survive bodily and to handle the changes as they come at us. None of us know yet how swiftly or drastically those changes will be implemented; therefore, limbo. I can’t decide whether to keep trying to make the world a better place, or look for a safe vantage point while we watch the drama unfold.

I had hoped the following from Rod Serling in 1964 was true:

We dared to entertain brave hopes of a nation once again united… but were we EVER that? I think not.

It’ll make the happiest of old ladies grumpy.

Things we know at this auspicious point in time:

Our daily reality as Americans will most likely look very different this time next year, and I’m pretty sure the general population is in no way prepared.

Unfortunately, the country seems to have cornered the market on denial, so actual communication among factions is still at a premium. For nine years we’ve waited for his day to be done, waited to be free of his voice and leering mugshots, waited for him to disappear from our TV screens. Instead, this is life for the next four years, and maybe ’til I die, which pisses me off beyond words, as does THIS:

How dare woman-bots malfunction?! And then proceed to destroy civilizations, more’s the pity. I’m surprised we’re allowed to drive cars and raise the babies we birth. Now that I think of it, we could easily lose both of those rights before it’s over. Best to remain philosophical, right?

Image by Judy Smith

And so, let the great world turn…

14 Nov 2024 Leave a comment

***

Nothing puts us in our place quicker than events over which we have zero control, so those are the most disheartening and therefore damaging. Things happen, we register the shock to our psyches, and then, because we’re human and it’s in us, we start trying to process the whole thing. Unfortunately in this case (post-election) there are big chunks missing from the narrative, unwieldy boxes full of things we don’t know, power loose in places we’ve underestimated, so we’re left to piece together the governmental and societal cataclysm that’s been set in motion, one which will eventually change every aspect of life in our nation if allowed to run unchecked. Figuring out exactly what’s happened to us and what the everliving hell we can do about it is like assembling a 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle in the dark.

We don’t know how deep and wide the corruption is, but apparently it’s become the end-all-be-all entity in this situation, and we regular peons have no weapon against a concerted determination toward total control. Lots of “regular peons” are actually saying they WANT to be ruled, WANT to be told what to do, and we’ll see how long that attitude holds. Those same regulars think they’ll be immune to the downside of oligarchy, and that’s just sadly laughable. We aren’t all in the same boat, but we’re all floating on the same crowded pond.

I’m not old, but at 77 most young people (under 30) would consider me ancient. Still, I have yet to make any such noises as: “life’s too hard, I’ve been here long enough, time for me to shuffle off to Buffalo and leave it to the kids,” because I’m not finished living. Somewhere along the way I asked for a long life, and I did at the same time think to ask that my life not turn ugly and scary before it reaches its end, but here we are, we rarely get everything we ask for.

If we survive this era, it will be because we remembered how to love and care for each other. What I’ve seen to this point makes me a skeptic. Prove me wrong, world.

Something Americans traditionally have a difficult time with.

Your life, my life, the life of the nation. We’re really here.

Image by Judy Smith

Into the long, dark night…

07 Nov 2024 Leave a comment

***

ACCEPTANCE

by Robert Frost

When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud

And goes down burning into the gulf below,

No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud

At what has happened. Birds, at least, must know

It is the change to darkness in the sky.

Murmuring something quiet in its breast,

One bird begins to close a faded eye;

Or overtaken too far from its nest,

Hurrying low above the grove, some waif

Swoops just in time to his remembered tree.

At most he thinks or twitters softly, “Safe!

Now let the night be dark for all of me.

Let the night be too dark for me to see

Into the future. Let what will be be.”

Image by Judy Smith

Aging with exuberance…

12 Sep 2024 Leave a comment

***

A lot of things have taken place over the past couple of weeks, one of which is that smiling and laughing are suddenly de rigueur again, praise be! For someone who was unceremoniously told, decades ago, that she laughs like a chicken, it’s like being let out of the henhouse to roam free! Be YOU, you crazy lil’ bandy-legged chick, nobody CARES!

So while our Sister in Joy and Laughter was busy making history, this girl here turned double 7s, which I believe is highly lucky. If you know otherwise, please don’t spoil my illusions, thx. I love the fact that I’ve made it this far, but already being within binocular range of 80 is messing with my head a little, so adjustments must be made and you know what THAT means… she’s thinking again.

I started blogging some 15 years ago on another platform in response to my son’s suggestion that it might be therapeutic. He was right, I loved it immediately, and when the original site folded I found Word Press and kept cranking out whatever was on my mind on any given day. Obviously, over that many years changes have taken place… and age has joined the chat. Profound shock. There is absolutely nothing other than being old on the inside (a tragedy) that could truly prepare a girl for her third trimester of living, nothing. But I’ve been here sharing insights for a bunch of years now, and been painfully honest with you in what I’ve said, and that won’t change… so buckle up.

“These are the days of miracle and wonder

This is the long distance call.” P. Simon

These are the days of the medical Rolodex, the recurring appointments with doctors and their teams, keeping the vehicle running. These, if you’re lucky and spoiled, are the days of pedis and haircuts and massages that truly do extend life by making it better.

These are the days of steroid shots in the joints, extra attention to the chompers, and various other things which, much like the Spanish Inquisition, NO ONE EVER EXPECTS.

These are the days when your optometrist skips most of the preliminaries and says “Let’s talk about your cataracts.”

These are the days of skin cancer paybacks for those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. The ones we thought would never end.

What gets your attention is the acceleration. One day you’re like “Well, not too bad so far. Doin’ what I can,” and the next you wake up to major mayhem that apparently occurred while you were sleeping. This spiral of crepe here when I turn my arm… when did that start? And these bingo arms! There are jowls in progress? How rude! The supreme sense of languid laziness every single morning when I’d planned to be a ball o’ fire for a change… it’s ubiquitous, as is the faint whiff of guilt that attends my daily existence. Welp, girl, that’s the way it is, walk it off.

After an incredible nine years of turmoil and division as a people, combined with the introspection it has sparked, this is a true statement:

Kids, here are the facts this morning as I know them. Our world is getting better not worse. Joy and laughter are not buried forever under the rubble of political correctness and planet-wide catastrophe. We’re still HERE! That means hope is alive and well. I’m catching this bus.

Image by Judy Smith

E’erbody still here?

20 Jun 2024 4 Comments

***

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck gettin’ dirty and gritty
Been down, isn’t it a pity?
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city
All around, people lookin’ half dead
Walkin’ on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head…

Summer officially arrives here at 3:50 this afternoon, but as usual we’ve had a few show-off previews before the official date. I don’t mind the heat, I like the pace, love the sense of lazy freedom, so it’s all good. And warm. Eighties, nineties, how high will it go, boys and girls?

A cautious bit of news: We have doves again. A young skinny pair checked us out for a couple of days and decided to nest in one of our fern baskets. Our last glimpse told us there was one egg in the nest and we assume there’s another one by now, but they’re being very coy about the reveal. After Dave and Darlene disappeared I was hesitant about attaching names to any more of them, but Kim has christened these two Bonnie and Clyde and here we go.

BONNIE

CLYDE

It feels good to have them here and we’ll be looking forward to the babies. The sweetness and continuity are nice in a world where everything stays chaotic 100% of the time.

Welcome to summer, ENJOY!

Image by Judy Smith

Sound off…

11 Apr 2024 Leave a comment

***

My abject apologies, boys and girls, I failed to check back after the Big Dark, possibly because our eclipse experience consisted of a few moments of pale gray sky. Did e’erbody make it through, feet still on the ground, life continuing as usual? We are one amazing country, with never a shortage of drama. Who’d a’ thunk a strip of darkness across a fraction of the continent could arouse such inventive theories? Alas, it was simply the universe doing its thing again, some more, without any help from us. That’s good, ’cause we are, generally speaking, dumb as rocks.

Growing up, a farm girl with a big imagination, I’d often have a feeling come over me that said I’d see hard times before I die. Not just hard times but unique events we hadn’t witnessed before. In June of 2015 I realized the “voices” hadn’t lied to me, and we were in it. My heart hasn’t known true peace since because everything I’ve held dear in my life is under threat.

Growing up, I was part of a big family clan. Many of those people are gone, and the ones still here have sorted ourselves into factions according to our personal moral codes. The first casualty of that scenario is trust, followed immediately by communication. And without communication, relationships die.

Growing up is optional, you know, but a dash of maturity along with the years is a good thing. And as age and a seasoned mindset take center stage, we start to understand that throughout our lives, from womb to tomb, nothing is what we think it is at the time. In fact, it takes hindsight to evaluate most of what happens to us in life because we’re too caught up in trying to survive it.

It isn’t just family relationships that suffer, friendships take a big hit, too. Our move to Lawrence ten years ago turned out to be part of a small exodus from our former town. Unfortunately, the enterprise we were part of fell apart not far in, and when it went the friends went with it, something I hadn’t foreseen. Good thing I’m such an introvert.

Maybe the eclipse was a BFD after all… exposing the top of my head to it seems to have given me brain damage, not that anyone would know for sure.

I’ll be glad when the world laughs again, true happy laughter from a deep source. When we rediscover our sense of humor and start looking for the fun twist, the sudden right-hand turn, the laugh line instead of a barb… that’s when we’ll know things are getting better.

Image by Judy Smith

An update…

04 Apr 2024 Leave a comment

***

As you know if you hang out here much, spring has been slow to find purchase this year. We’ve had pleasant days interspersed with cold ones, sometimes snow, often rain which we’ll take any time. But my body’s ready for warmth, benevolence, comfort, and energy. I’m ready for the mornings when I can open the balcony door and sit outside half-dressed (arms and legs totally soaking up the sunshine) with my coffee. I’m ready for the walks I’ll take, and I see that by next weekend we might be looking at temps in the 80s, high 70s, so clear the streets and sidewalks, people, she’s going out into the greater world.

Speaking of the balcony, open doors, and spring sunshine, look at THIS tiny harbinger! David and Darlene finally decided to move into their dove house yesterday morning, and by evening there was a new arrival. It will likely be joined by a second one soon, if not already, but Darlene’s a constant presence now so our view is blocked. She and David will be fattening themselves up for the long haul, so we’ll try to peek into the birthing chamber when they’re both out for a bit. As you can see, mourning doves are haphazard nest-builders at best, although they did add some dried grass before the egg dropped. Darlene must have been crossing her legs while procrastinating until the last second, but she’s an old pro now and all should be well.

So… despite the lingering chill in the air it’s officially spring at last. (No more frosts/freezes, please.)

Stay tuned for progress reports if you can stand it.

Image by Judy Smith

I resolve…

29 Dec 2023 2 Comments

***

Do you make New Year’s resolutions, and if so what’s your track record? Every December I used to make a whole-ass list of things I aspired to do and be, and every year I was lucky to make it to the champagne before all was lost. At the end of 2022, I realized it was time to get a clue so I made just a solitary promise to myself… that I would savor and appreciate that first sip of coffee every single morning of 2023. I’m gratified to tell you that with two mornings remaining I haven’t once neglected to give thanks in my heart to Kim for brewing my morning Rx and to Jesús in Columbia who picked the beans. Simplicity and sincerity seem to be key to resolutions, and having observed how it all went over the course of an entire year I’m feeling emboldened to choose TWO worthy goals for 2024, neither of which will be named until 2025, or never. I’ll also be keeping my habit of coffee gratitude, as it’s a sweet one to cultivate and true thankfulness has to start somewhere meaningful.

Whether or not you’re putting it in the form of a vow, what do you want most for your own life and others’ in the coming year? Beyond the status quo I mean. Who doesn’t want world peace and tacos? What would set in motion the best sorts of events and changes for you, and what are you willing to do to make that happen? You’re thinking about it, right, have been since we realized the holiday season was upon us? Go back a sentence or two up there and understand that we’re not talking about change just for shits and giggles, but the kind of awareness that determines the direction we’re headed. It matters, always, and this is a handy time to reassess. Maybe keep this thought uppermost, though…

Image by Judy Smith

Addendum…

05 Oct 2023 4 Comments

***

Fall has a thing she does every year called Bring On The Melancholy, and since October 4, 1985, she’s been bringing it with a vengeance. For the first time in 38 years I missed every signal while dancing with them all, so the denial is still strong with this one. Mystery solved. The crushing grief of the past couple of weeks has a direct source, beyond the usual fall mood.

The story is here:

My Brother’s Keeper

The heart always knows.

Image by Judy Smith

Pending illumination…

14 Sep 2023 Leave a comment

***

Taking a little R&R.

Back soon with words.

Image by Judy Smith

What is life, if not a gamble?

17 Aug 2023 Leave a comment

***

LIFE IS LIKE A DECK OF CARDS

Hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs.

Hearts = LOVE

Diamonds = WEALTH

Spades = INDUSTRY

Clubs = WAR

Most every society known to man has started from LOVE, in the form of an idea, a mutual goal, a dream.

In lucky cases the dream becomes WEALTH.

Wealth propagates greater and better INDUSTRY.

And INDUSTRY eventually, inevitably, turns to WAR for sustenance because there is no WEALTH-provider more generous.

Therefore, WEALTH, INDUSTRY, and WAR have been anointed the great protectors of LOVE, the place where everything originates.

Have we missed the point entirely? Repeatedly, ad infinitum? Is LOVE even still the goal? Is it winning any WARS in this millennium?

LOVE holds layers and implies much: Freedom, first of all. And at the very least, intimacy, passion, and commitment. Without it, humanity is dead in the water, so what’s the point of endless WEALTH, INDUSTRY, and WAR?

As Country Joe and the Fish put it in 1967…

And it’s one, two, three,

What are we fighting for ?

Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,

Next stop is Vietnam;

And it’s five, six, seven,

Open up the pearly gates,

Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,

Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.

Can someone tell me in what ways the American psyche has changed in the nearly 60 years since those lyrics were written? Nobody? Damn, I was really hoping somebody would be able to point to some positives as a bit of reassurance to all of us that LOVE is indeed still the point.

In an era when the laws of natural selection are playing hell with continued evolution, it becomes ever more crucial to keep the main thing the main thing. And LOVE isn’t just the main thing… it’s the ONLY thing.

JSmith 08/17/2023 with thx to Kim Smith for his generous insight during spa time.

Image by Judy Smith

Life aboard the Big Blue Marble…

29 Jun 2023 1 Comment

***

In a hyper-conscious moment here and there as we trek through our days, we might happen to remember that we’re on a large intricate rock hurtling through space. But it’s mostly an incomprehensible thing that we take for granted nearly every second of our lives, so I love what astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, planetary science guy Carl Sagan said…

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” -Carl Sagan

One of the last known images captured by Japan’s Hakuto-R lander before crashing into the moon shows a stunning ‘Earthrise,’ with the shadow of the moon creeping over Australia during a total solar eclipse. (Image credit: ispace)

In light of the facts…

Simply an observation agreed with.

We live in a world where unimaginable things happen, are quickly dispensed with, and are rarely spoken of again. A significant for-instance:

The daily shootings, immigrants drowning by the boatload, concerted efforts globally to stamp out any and all differences — racially, sexually, politically, philosophically, artistically, or in terms of values and relationships, ALL difference, as it presents itself. The whack-a-mole approach to control.

Thus, for all the reasons…

And we think it’s our fault somehow, which only tends to illuminate the fact that we’ve been trained to see ourselves as a super-race, immune to death and failure. What I know after the dust has settled is this:

If calm hasn’t traditionally been your first response to life, it feels magical when it comes to you.

We could all likely benefit from supporting Teri in her pursuit of self-fulfillment…

Your beverage of choice, but fight.

Image by Judy Smith

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ALL the stuff …

Top Posts & Pages

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