Loose Leaf Notes

1. I have my cake and eat it too.

2. The power went out the day before my birthday, May 16. The power company said the estimated time for it to come on was midnight, so power for my birthday, May 17, alright.

3. It happens every year but this is the first year I got orchids on my gourmet carrot cake by Invisible Chef Kelly Erb.

4. HERE is the first shot of my Kelly real deal birthday carrot cake taken in 2005 when my blog was brand new.

6. Joe’s bee picture (above) that he made at a Spikenard Bee Sanctuary retreat is titled, “There’s a buzz about you today.”

7. Having a birthday right after Mother’s Day is a little like having a birthday after Christmas.

8. We squeezed my birthday in the day before a long road trip and in between me scrambling to get control of a mouse infestation in the attic crawl space where the mice were living and where I found a notebook of old poems from when I was a teenager and in my early ’20s that I had completely forgot about.

9. I was finding my voice but it was often more dramatic than truthful, more romanticized, and I was trying to be older than I was. I found a manuscript I had submitted somewhere called Blue Drummer and one of my first poems titled China Cup.

10. From author Matt Labash: “Read more than you write.  I once had a sickeningly prolific friend say that he now writes more than he reads. This made me never want to read him again.  It’s your duty, as a writer – any kind of writer – to always keep filling your tank. And you can’t just do that by huffing your own fumes. You have to always be on the hunt for things that inspire, that amuse, that somehow open up the world to your readers.  If nothing can capture your imagination, how are you supposed to capture the imagination of others? There’s no surer way to do this than to make a habit of reading writers who are better than you.  In my case, that gives me a large pool to choose from.  The more good words you pour into your funnel from others, the more good words are likely to come out the other end.  If you’re a writer, you’re forever a student – you don’t get to graduate.  So keep reading.”

11. I read more when I was younger and lately have thought of myself as a moderate reader who writes more than I read. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that I am an avid reader, but one who reads articles and news stories, who researches more than reading novels and literature, who enjoys music and song lyrics, who reads memoirs of artists, writers and poets, who is inspired by art shows and jumps around from subject to subject that interest me, psychology, dreams, quantum space, language, flowers, politics, fashion, history and more.

12. How come age isn’t like art or poetry? / How come it’s hard cold facts? / A labeled box that never fits / A branded number that follows your name / And just when you get used to it – it changes!

13. China Cup: I’m a piece of china made in heaven for you / My cup is blue with some chips and cracks along the glass / If you’re gentle I’ll last a lifetime / But if you’re unkind I may break this time

____________Thirteen Thursday