I planned not to highlight today’s remembrances, but they aren’t yet through with me.
This, too, passed!
06 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
Every morning now, Word Press shows me posts from my (extensive) archives, and although I vow not to do this EVERY day, some are worth a reread. Maybe. Today I need an infusion of happy, and you might too. This one takes us all the way back to the COVID months.
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Oh, those archives…
05 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
*** Uncanny how life from a year ago mirrors today, only different!
I MAY have thoughts…
24 May 2026 4 Comments
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Boys and girls, time rushes on and in one more month we’ll be at the midpoint of a year we couldn’t envision starting in the first place. Much against our hopes and dreams it’s been a ride that never stops, so we just keep hanging on, because what else?
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To my great sorrow, the writing has dried up to just a thought or two here and there, without the energy to capture any of it. Either everything that can be said has been said, or there’s no way to say it. Small talk feels phony in light of daily reality, even if I were to think of worthwhile things to share with you.
Oh, but here’s something! Yesterday I got to spend a few minutes with two of the most amazing little girls I’ve ever met. Sisters, very close in age, and full of life in a way I needed to sit with at that moment. The BIG sister, at all of two & a half, quietly recognizes all the letters of the alphabet and can count to ten or twenty (my brain was buzzing so I’m not sure), and I found myself wishing I could ask her for a little advice on living a joy-filled existence!
Other than that…
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A total lifesaver at this juncture is my trainer, Shannon. The more we work on strength, balance, and simply moving, the better life feels. With the weather MAYBE settling in, my future days should feature a whole bunch of walking. Watch this space.
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We could all give it a try and compare notes!
I’m deliberately refraining from bringing up anything TOO controversial, except here’s something that seems applicable on this sunny Sunday morning…
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The day happened around me and I slipped away, but I’m back now with a positive and colorful word for all of us. It’s the little things.
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Spring forward, right?
06 Apr 2026 2 Comments
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And how’s that going for e’erbody? It feels like we might be stuck on April Day One, the Fool’s Day part, but what do I know? We’ll just have to keep pressing every onward, as a guy I know used to say.
Maybe you’re aware from the scarcity of posts showing up here, but it’s a lot more challenging to write for fun these days. There are words and sentences in my head all day long, but most of them, if shared, would take a heavy toll on whatever sort of following still exists for this little blog of mine, and I’d greatly miss the community of it all. Social interaction, with friend or foe, family or not, is an exhausting minefield now more than ever, requiring more energy than most introverts have in the tank. Look around you. If your quiet ones have gone to ground they’re either refueling or digging in, which is harder to do in spring and summer than in the relative unfriendliness of winter. The “digging in” part, I mean.
The problem is, here we are. Things we were made aware of eleven years ago, and projections put forth at the time, have either happened, are in the process of happening, have been uncovered, discovered, covered up, ignored or postponed… and here we are.
We don’t know what’s next and that’s a fact. We were promised NO NEW WARS, and now the word nuclear is no longer verboten in impolite company, but is instead being bandied about as if it were a viable possibility. We were promised many things, none of which on the positive side have come to fruition. Sometimes it’s a challenge to keep sweet in the eyes of the world.
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When this is over, the world is going to need an influx of everything good and helpful and true. Stay ready to offer whatever you can.
Rain, rain, stay all day…
06 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
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Oh, my! Thunder and lightning, very very frightening! This odd lil’ duck has been sitting here in the dark since she got up, listening to the raindrops on the windows, and it’s life-giving. It’s now pouring down in buckets and can keep this up all day because it’s ideal weather for ducks. It’s the antithesis to these past weeks of grief, outrage, disbelief, and sheer terror at the possibilities, and it couldn’t be more welcome. Feels like sweet balm and I hope your day will hold a big dose of that, in whatever format hits best.
When life piles on and insists on being a whole chaos agent, I go looking for the glow-up, the uplift, the good news that hides ’til it’s safe to come out. Facebook’s plethora of tearjerker stories are aimed right at my heart, and IDNC whether they’re 100% factual or based on composites, they do me good. Because here’s the thing…
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I’ve learned that, contrary to everything taught to me by my mom and grandmas, I can indeed hate. I can do it and fully own it, and it’s a cleansing fire but it’s exhausting. And soul-killing. So we press “every onward,” boys and girls, trying to keep our hearts right, if only in the interest of good health.
The lesson of war and bloody conflict is this, every time, but it’s the very one we can’t absorb and remember…
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Now that I’ve said the word “war,” I might as well let Heather Cox Richardson say the rest…
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This one makes me laugh, so I like it a lot. Alexander Hamilton was 21 years old when he became a founding father, right around the time of this “quote,” which sadly is what’s called in polite circles “fake.” Alas…
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The sun’s been out a couple of times, so maybe the delicious rain is over for a while, but it was a sweet start to the weekend. You all have a peaceful one!
Is the year still new?
12 Jan 2026 2 Comments
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I ask because it seems awfully long-running, enough so that if this were February it would be March by now. Before the year changed, I decided I’d hide and watch for a few days before assessing the fresh blank page and venturing an opinion. We’re nearly mid-month and I still have no idea what to say about where we find ourselves. That shiny new page is already marred by jagged angry marks made with a black sharpie, so if events continue to unfold at this same rate and pitch, 2026 will be historically horrific, a standout nobody wanted to see. The prospect leaves me speechless so I’ll be communicating via sign language for the remainder of this piece.
How it feels, increasingly, day by day:
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I make intentions rather than resolutions and there are reasons for that…
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Told ya’.
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I’m fresh outta wisdom, words, and patience, so I’ll leave a mea culpa and move along.
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To all in favor of peace, love, and humanity, I wish you a truly meaningful 2026. Be safe, be kind, and know you’re loved. Amen.
Christmas countdown time?
01 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
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Nobody seems to know what happened to October, but November showed up this morning so we must keep the line moving. The good thing is that it’s traditionally a beautiful month, full of plans and anticipation for many, a time to start the pre-hibernation ritual for most. The clock returns to its rightful setting (and oh that “they” would LEAVE it there), while darkness falls like a theatre curtain by 5:30 and earlier. Messes with my head all the way to my toes every time “they” tweak reality, so Greenwich Mean Time year ’round would be super-great, thanks.
As we streak toward the end of a year that feels three months long, everything in our nation and elsewhere is in a state of flux. Our entire way of life is under assault, with wildly disturbing things happening every day without fail, and there’s not a damn thing any of us can do about it. It’s heartbreaking to think there are still people who watch what’s going on and say, “Yes, this is exactly what I wanted,” or at the least, “Nope, not a dealbreaker yet.” I wish I had answers. I wish SOMEbody did.
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Most everything gets better eventually so let’s all keep on keeping on.
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Sage advice from a sage.
Hello, October…
01 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
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Yes, boys and girls, another segment of 2025 is upon us, and be forewarned, it will pass as quickly as the previous nine have done. Month by wild month the year becomes history before we’re fully woke and then what, straight into another just like it? A person can hardly be blamed for asking.
Nevertheless, all the nostalgic autumn truths still stand. We open our hearts to the dying time in order to see fresh new life emerge in the spring and trust that will happen year after year, proof that we stay in some ways, against all odds, perpetually innocent.
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The following came across my feed this week and its melancholy fits the season. As the world grows colder, stranger, and let’s face it more terrifying by the day, the average person on the street is left wondering “What can I do about all this?” And the unfortunate honest answer is “Not much, really.” BUT… we can still care enough to be our authentic selves and keep going, which matters because people are looking for other genuine people who will help keep the lanterns lit.
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It is indeed an increasingly Halloween world, a place seemingly populated by monsters and ghouls, and when I wonder what to do in the face of all that I default to Mary Oliver and her calm realism.
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DAILY AFFIRMATION
And the rains came…
17 Jul 2025 3 Comments
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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:
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Could be time to return to our roots and get back to the beginning. The VERY beginning, if such a thing exists.
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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.
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The ache of being awake…
25 Jun 2025 Leave a comment
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Once again a month has passed since I last gave serious thought to writing something here. That seems to be the new default schedule for now, maybe because it takes that long to process the things that happen from one day to the next. In the end, I finally come back here because I can’t do otherwise.
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The world is a cockamamie place, always was, always will be, and getting more out of hand by the hour. But unless somebody’s gonna stop the planet and let us hop off, there’s nothing to do but survive the best way we can without hurting anybody. Look for the good, look for the love.
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It requires a certain determination every day to take the next step and do the next right thing, often against a soundtrack filled with unlistenable chaos, but the alternative isn’t really an option, so we buck up and do the thing. And then we do it all over again the next day.
And then you realize you might have greater need of them later.
Humans don’t generally do well under constant chaos and uncertainty. That kind of stress brings out the rat in us and we find ourselves hosting thought patterns that shake us awake and make us think straight again, thank goodness for that part.
But is that what enough people even want?
We can be positive thinkers and still admit that the world isn’t an easy place, that relationships are hard, that stress of every kind takes a toll on every human every day. That being alive is a very real dilemma to be faced.
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I’ll leave us with this bit of hopefulness from a recent B’day “perade”.
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Wow, look at the time!
11 Mar 2025 2 Comments
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It’s been a while. A whole month has passed without my having held forth about it, and we’re none the poorer for it, because the processing of momentous events takes time and a certain remove from the action. Otherwise, our voices grow steadily louder without solid sense behind them.
It’s been a time. An incredibly eventful one, rife with change on an hourly basis. The onslaught is such that commenting on it feels like showing up to a mob hit with a water pistol.
It’s been a challenge. We voted for a kinder, more humane society, but that didn’t happen, so we deal with what did.
There’s a growing rumble of protest encompassing all fifty states, but we don’t yet know the extent of the Power of the People that might be awakening. You know, becoming woke. There’s still much we don’t know, but the picture becomes clearer day by day. For now… I’m finding comfort and companionship in books and music, doorways to magical worlds, often intertwined. What we can see of the universe tells us it’s a brutal but intensely beautiful place, and that beauty keeps our spirits anchored to the good in all of it until we can see the good and the beautiful in each other again.
“When the world seems heavier and filled with troubles, remember about patience and timing. Everything comes when it must come. A life cannot be rushed. So often we feel like pushing the river… we don’t want to wait. The river flows on at its own speed. There is always a timing at work, always a plan, even if we don’t see it at first. Patience and timing.”
~Dr Brian Weiss
art/ Natalia Lukomskaia
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The sin of empathy…
30 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
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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.
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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.
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On light and hope…
19 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
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Boys and girls, I promised you a Pollyanna post before tomorrow, so stand by for a test revealing whether or not I can produce one. In truth, it’s simple: think positive thoughts and write them down. Got it.
I’m positive that after tomorrow life will change, so be ready for anything, good or bad. Don’t let the good pass you by while you’re focused on the scary stuff.
I’m positive, and have proven it to be true, that we don’t have to immerse ourselves in “what’s happening” every living second of our lives, and equally positive that it’s damaging to do so. I hopped off the TV news merry-go-round months ago because I can be far more selective and equally freaked out by reading the daily feed instead of watching it. In addition, I’m positive my daily perusal is overkill.
In the cockamamie world we woke up to, I’m positive that the following is factual:
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I’m positive that the world can someday get itself right-side up again so imma hide and watch. Since I’m no help, at the very least I can choose not be a hindrance.
Whew! What a relief.
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I’m not voluntarily going anywhere and I hope you won’t either.
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Playing for Time 
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