Loose Leaf Notes

1. This is my 653rd Thirteen Thursday.  For someone who is not very disciplined or big on practices, it’s been quite a practice.

2. I like that whirl rhymes with twirl and swirl and blur rhymes with whir and stir.

3. I got my first humorous old person card on my birthday last week.

4. THIS is the way kids sing Happy Birthday these days and THIS is the way we do it.

5. The Poem Garden: Time to weed the poem / to plant a row of words / to turn the phrases / that bloom the colors / to follow the root / to the source of truth / for the sustenance / of the soul

6. Joe saved a garter snake that was trapped under our blueberry netting. See HERE.

7. Joe’s and my relationship has been sustained (30 years) because our inner work dovetails and we’re on a similar life study course, which has included studying the teachings of Carl Jung, Michael Meade and Lao Tzu, taking a class on Conscious Loving and pondering the science of Quantum Physics.  Our interest in personal growth and healing is also mutual and based on intimacy, honesty, imagination and vulnerability.  When I think about the integrity of my marriage, I’m reminded of what Eknath Easwaran said about choosing a mantra for meditation:  If you dig shallow wells in many places; you will never go deep enough to find water..-  From – Living My Version of a Successful Happy Life, my chapter contribution to the 2015 book, Floyd Folks: Collective Wisdom from a (One Stoplight) Mountain Community, a collection of stories about love, loss and triumph from eighteen local writers. – More HERE.

8. I did some research to find out why a garter snake is called that, rather than a garden snake. The best I could find was that garter is a reference to the snake’s pattern resembling a striped garter strap, pieces of fabric that were fastened right below the knee to keep one’s stockings from falling down.

9.  The best information I could find on why kids are adding “Cha Cha Cha” to the Happy Birthday song was that it’s a take-off taking on Alvin and the Chipmunks who insert the phrase into their songs. Following threads that have piqued my curiosity is how I spend half my time.

10. In the ‘70s I remember scribbling poems on scraps of paper in the factory where my sister Sherry and I worked during what we called our “Laverne and Shirley” days.  My friend Juniper recently reminded me how I had taped a poem titled “Poet Cashier” to the cash register when I worked in her bead shop in the early ‘90s: It’s all I can do / not to / say “Buckle my shoe” / after “One, two” / when I’m counting out the money. From – Living My Version of a Successful Happy Life,

11. It’s okay to draw outside the lines and even to blur the lines.

12. Is THIS too blue?

13. Chef Pasquala makes pizza for Mario on my grandson’s and my shared birthday HERE.

_________Thirteen Thursday