Month: October 2017
Scale for WPC 10-11-17
So the theme this week is Scale and apparently it was already a favorite of mine. No surprise as the instructions were filled with the word “perspective”. That, of course, really caught my eye, and reminded me of so many photos I have taken over the years showing the scale of something from differing perspectives..
Here are just a few.
I have a collection of little trains. This is the, by far, the smallest.
Series of shots showing the scale of shells found in Fiji.
And last, but certainly not least, one of my favorite all-time posts from one of my favorite all-time bloggers, Mr. Badfish himself…
It’s a good read!
a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/scale-2/”>Scale</a
SYW (Share Your World) 10-9-17
https://ceenphotography.com/2017/10/09/share-your-world-october-9-2017/
I’m responding to a Challenge from a blogger I admire. Another great way to get the writing juices flowing. She posts 4 questions that we are to answer, with or without photos. Here are this week’s questions (with my answers). If you already know me, you will be able to guess which of the questions got me thinking the most!
(I’m experimenting with changing text color so hopefully my answers will be in BLUE!)
What do you consider is the most perfect food for you? (It can be your favorite food to something extremely healthy.) The POTATO! I can’t think of a single way a potato can be prepared that I don’t absolutely LOVE. Maybe because my mother was born in IDAHO and most of my ancestors are IRISH! I’ve loved potatoes since I was a kid when my Dad would fry up a bacon-onion-egg-cheese-potato mix. He’d hand us a salted, raw slice for crunching on while we waited for our favorite breakfast!
Are you focused on today or tomorrow? Lately, neither. I am apparently focused on yesterday for a while. Reminiscing, revisiting, reclaiming, reuniting, remembering…all things I’ve spent this year doing, and enjoying every minute of it!
I’m slowly writing up stories from the Epic Roots Road Trip we took this summer.
If you could interview one of your great-great-great grandparents, who would it be (if you know their name) and what would you ask?
I would ask John Ray Young:
“What beliefs did you get from your father Joseph Young, that you passed on to your son, my great great grandfather, Brigham?”
“What did you teach him about religion?”
“What did you model for him about the treatment of women?”
What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.
I was inspired this week by my friendship with Karuna.
https://livinglearningandlettinggo.wordpress.com/
If you have not seen her blog, she shares an amazing spiritual journey and is becoming quite adept at photography!
Our history is so long, with its ebbs and flows, and yes, bumps. I love knowing someone for a really long time. Karuna is the reason I started blogging and I am so grateful. I have thoroughly enjoyed the process, even when writing about difficult subjects.
WordlessWednesday 10-11-17
SongLyricSunday 10-9-17 Traveling #2
orniahttps://helenswordsoflife.com/2017/10/07/song-lyric-sunday-theme-for-10117-2/
OK my brain must still be in “traveling” mode from our recent Epic Trip, because I keep thinking of more and more songs for this theme. I’ll try to make this one my last post for the week.
I picked the song for obvious reasons but my personal one is that James and I got to take an amazing Road Trip a while back on his Harley Ultra Classic, complete with a trailer so we could haul camping equipment. We rode down the West Coast from Seattle to Pacific Grove, California, stopping to camp in the Redwoods! This was our trip song!!
Enjoy the video! (If you are of a certain age, you won’t be able to stop yourself!)
Lyrics
Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Lookin’ for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Darlin’ go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space
I like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racin’ with the wind
And the feelin’ that I’m under
Yeah Darlin’ go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space
Like a true nature’s child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die
Born to be wild
Born to be wild
Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Lookin’ for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Darlin’ go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space
Like a true nature’s child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die
Born to be wild
Born to be wild
Written by Mars Bonfire • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group
Song Lyrics Sunday 10-8-17
The Song Lyric theme this week is “traveling”.
Dedicated to Glenn Frey
On our recent Epic Road Trip, this was one of my favorite songs to blast out loud as we barreled down some Google chosen highway!! (Any excuse to post an Eagles or Jackson Browne song…)
This is a great early version of the song “Take it Easy”, with an interesting article about it.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3067
Lyrics
Well, I’m running down the road
tryin’ to loosen my load
I’ve got seven women on
my mind,
Four that wanna own me,
Two that wanna stone me,
One says she’s a friend of mine
Take It easy, take it easy
Don’t let the sound of your own wheels
drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
don’t even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
and take it easy
Well, I’m a standing on a corner
in Winslow, Arizona
and such a fine sight to see
It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed
Ford slowin’ down to take a look at me
Come on, baby, don’t say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is
gonna save me
We may lose and we may win though
we will never be here again
so open up, I’m climbin’ in,
so take it easy
Well I’m running down the road trying to loosen
my load, got a world of trouble on my mind
lookin’ for a lover who won’t blow my
cover, she’s so hard to find
Take it easy, take it easy
don’t let the sound of your own
wheels make you crazy
come on baby, don’t say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is
gonna save me, oh oh oh
Oh we got it easy
We oughta take it easy
https://helenswordsoflife.com/2017/10/07/song-lyric-sunday-theme-for-10117-2/
Suspicious Radiator! Story Two from Epic Road Trip (in reverse order)
Bright and early on the day before we were to leave Natchez, Mississippi for home, we took the Toyota van in for an oil change and return-road-trip check up. We expected this to be a quick, hour long process as we were booked solid with last minute wedding preparations for my cousin’s nuptials and reception that evening.
After some time waiting they came and told us we needed a new radiator, that this one was shot and that it was leaking coolant everywhere. News to us as we had seen no leaks and had had no problems. They showed us the huge puddle of coolant under the car and the supposed damage to the radiator.
There’s a saying that applies to men, about certain body parts being held in such a way as to trap said man.
I don’t know what the comparable saying is for women…”they had me by the ovaries“???
But anyway, clearly the radiator was NOW hemorrhaging fluid so we had to agree to a new one…which they of course, had in stock, right? So they said anyway. After waiting a few more hours of crucial wedding errand time, they finally informed us that the new radiator had to come from Vicksburg, a mere hour and 25 minutes away. So they gave us a loaner car.
Right up until their closing time, which coincided exactly with the wedding start time, they still had not received the new radiator. This was no small deal. We had to make the trip from Mississippi back home to Washington to arrive on a very specific date. This delay could mean the difference between safe driving each day of our 4 day trip, with a nice sleep over in a motel…or driving straight through, pretending we were in our 20’s when we could actually pull off that sort of thing!
It all worked out but was definitely touch and go, and very stressful.
Even though it felt like we were in a hidden camera episode of 20/20 or 60 minutes, busting unethical mechanics who break your stuff and then make you pay, it was hard to be mad at the place since during the waiting time, the service manager approached me in a panic having just found a tiny feathered intruder that had knocked itself out flying against the huge windows in the waiting room. She asked if I could help her by holding it for a minute. (Did I have a SIGN on my forehead or something? The number one thing on my Bucket list?? “Hold a Hummingbird!”)
When we finally had to go, I put the little guy in a box and set it outside in the sunshine. Sure enough, fortified by rest and homemade nectar, the tiny intruder flew up, up and away! I can still feel those tiny feet in my hand.
Kinda balanced things out, you know?
Pedestrian for WordPress Photo Challenge 10-4-17
Re-booting the blog…
I went on a vacation. I called it our Epic Roots and Reunion Road Trip. I thought I would write something clever and entertaining each day like I read from others, but it turned out to be impossible to write. Every day was filled with unexpected adventures and absolute necessities, the latter defined completely objectively!
Now I am home and though I am still savoring many highlights from the 34 days we had on the road, I have no clue where to begin writing about it.
So instead of saving the best for last, I’ll start with the last important event we had, which also happens to be one of the very best!
I got to meet one of my very favorite Bloggers!!
It all started when her photography caught me eye. Each week, she’d post for the weekly WordPress Photo Challenge. I loved her photos, truly a talent, but even more, I loved her words and philosophy. So I started commenting on her site, then following her.
If you have ever had it happen, you know what a special treat it can be when you come across someone who articulates exactly what you think and feel, but a lot better! It makes for a great friendship!
I asked her once if she’d be willing to engage in an actual conversation with me about a particularly laden topic and I don’t know if she batted an eye, but her resounding yes was instant.
I think that exact exchange started a real friendship. We decided to do it in a phone call but then of course, life happened and we have yet to have that talk. But the connection has built anyway. And we will get to that talk someday.
While planning, I noticed on the map for the Epic Road Trip, we were passing right through her town on our way home so guess what? James and I spent a lovely afternoon with her. She is so sweet and kind and generous. She was completely prepared to make up the guest room for us, even though she had just spent 10 days or so caring for her grandchildren whose parents were busy in Houston in the Harvey aftermath.
Unfortunately for us (but maybe lucky for her) we were on a dead run from Mississippi back to Washington State so we all settled for a short but memorable visit.
I had brought her a piece of art she had seen in a picture on my blog and she gave me one of her photos, enlarged and stunning!
Here’s her blog.
https://pausesandclicks.com/tag/pauses-and-clicks/
One of my favorite posts of her is this one.
It tells about her personal Instagram a Day challenge but so much more. If you read the comments, you’ll see the seeds of our friendship germinating…
I dare you to read her blog and NOT fall in love. This is one very good woman!!
There.
Blog rebooted!
Song Lyric Sunday
Especially for you Helen! I have a great story about this song but when I looked it up, I found that many, many others do also.
Here’s mine.
To become a practitioner in the kind of therapy I do takes a ton of personal work first.
You have to practice what you preach. You have to model behavior you hope to see in others. You have to be impeccable….ALL THE TIME! Not just in front of your clients.
After 30 years of practice, I figured I had this one down, until my wonderful therapist/mentor/teacher/”Mom” passed away! She is the person who first shared this song with me and it became my anthem for myself, and eventually for many clients. But when Elaine died, I had forgotten all about this song.
At her memorial, with hundreds of people there, someone told me they got a “message” from Elaine that I was supposed to go up to the front of the room and lead the group in a song.
I said “WHAT??”
First of all, I do NOT sing in front of people after a traumatic high school event where my choir teacher broke my heart and spirit by telling me to please just lipsync because my voice was so bad.
And second of all, how was I supposed to know what song!!
I resisted…but my training kicked in (and maybe a little “fake it ’til you make it” self-love).
I’m not one to ignore channeling or messages from beyond or whatever it was, so I marched up there, and without a second thought, I belted out THIS VERY SONG! Clear, loud, and, later I was told, even on key!! I lead the group in singing several rounds because anyone who knew Elaine, knew this beautiful song! (I still get goose bumps remembering this moment!)
That action, compelled somehow by someone else’s belief in me, finished one more piece of work for me that had lingered all these years!
Close your eyes when you listen and imagine these words coming from the person you most need to hear them from.
Love,
Kathie
https://helenswordsoflife.com/2017/09/30/song-lyric-sunday-theme-for-10117/