I been walkin’
With my face turned to the sun
Weight on my shoulders
A bullet in my gun
Oh, I got eyes in the back of my head
Just in case I have to run
I do what I can when I can while I can for my people
While the clouds roll back and the stars fill the night
That’s when I’m gonna stand up
Take my people with me
Together we are going
To a brand new home
Far across the river
Can you hear freedom calling?
Calling me to answer
Gonna keep on keepin’ on
I can feel it in my bones
Early in the mornin’
Before the sun begins to shine
We’re gonna start movin’
Towards that separating line
I’m wadin’ through muddy waters
You know I got a made-up mind
And I don’t mind if I lose any blood on the way to salvation
And I’ll fight with the strength that I got until I die
So I’m gonna stand up
Take my people with me
Together we are going
To a brand new home
Far across the river
Can you hear freedom calling?
Calling me to answer
Gonna keep on keepin’ on
And I know what’s around the bend
Might be hard to face ’cause I’m alone
And I just might fail
But Lord knows I tried
Sure as stars fill up the sky
Stand up
Take my people with me
Together we are going
To a brand new home
Far across the river
Can you hear freedom calling?
Calling me to answer
Gonna keep on keepin’ on
I’m gonna stand up
Take my people with me
Together we are going
To a brand new home
Far across the river
Do you hear freedom calling?
Calling me to answer
Gonna keep on keepin’ on
I’m gonna stand up
Take my people with me
Together we are going
To a brand new home
Far across the river
I hear freedom calling
Calling me to answer
Gonna keep on keepin’ on
I can feel it in my bones
I go to prepare a place for you
I go to prepare a place for you
I go to prepare a place for you
I go to prepare a place for you
OK, so I’m selfish. I decided to make this post be about ME.
I’ve been curious lately about my WordPress “statistics”. In my perusal of old posts, I came across a Draft titled: 7 months, post 149, 92 followers June 13, 2016. I never finished it, I’m sure because I thought it was way too egotistical.
I have tried all these years to be fairly unconditional with myself about all things quantitative with my Blog, so I was surprised recently to see that my number of “followers” (a word I continue to feel so pressured and embarrassed by…) had ballooned to 499!
And even more shocked that I started really wanting just that ONE MORE Follower!
Come on! 500 is such a great number!!
So I’m claiming that desire and offering up a reminder of a few of the posts I feel the best about. Maybe someone will see one they missed, read it and share it? Maybe someone who is a new visitor here will become a “Follower”. (Oh my gosh, can’t we just say “reader”. Followers need a Leader and I am so much more LOST myself than most!)
I hope you will find something from this list that you enjoy, or even better, learn from.
And to the 499 of you, who clicked some box that now labels you in my blogging world as a follower, Thank You so very much for your continued visits, and for the pressure your numbers put on me to be better and better at this whole Blogging thing.
With love and gratitude,
Kathleen Kelly
The age I was when I wrote my very first story
This was my reader’s favorite. I was actually quite surprised by this, and very touched. I love this sculpture, by a dear artist/friend, Virginia. She made it for herself after being one of “Peggy’s” volunteer caretakers in hospice (for way longer than any of the medical staff expected.) Peggy just kept rallying, saying she was not ready because she was working on accepting her second wing. Virginia, the artist, hadn’t planned on selling the piece. but my sweet James knew how much this piece moved me and, for my birthday, surprised me with it.
The requisite “K” is in “clicks”. By the way, one of the best photography blogs EVER!!
Here are a few of my favorites.
This one is the story of why I started writing in the first place. I have 52 only slightly edited chapters that I really do want to share in a book someday.
I have been glued to a camera since my little Brownie, received as a birthday gift in the 4th grade, but I have never enjoyed it as much as I do these days. The convenience and quality of photos available with my phone has been a real pleasure. I definitely have a few favorites, but truly take no credit for them. My favorite category is Accidental Photographs, those long-shot ones you think will never turn out good, show something you weren’t expecting or even that happen with the equivalent of a Butt Dial…
Wait…What???
Here’s one of many. I do crack myself up. I think I’m funnier than anyone else thinks I am.
And lastly, I loved the weekly challenge we used to have called Song Lyrics Sunday. It gave me a chance to share favorite music….a LOT of it. Here’s just one example:
Well, that’s it for this post (which will now be past due). I had fun writing it and confessing such a deep dark secret to you all….that I wanted at least one more follower!
😊
WAIT! STOP THE PRESSES!!!
(Boy, you have to be a certain age to know what THAT saying means, eh?)
Since I started writing this post, I see a new Follower has joined me!
Weekly Prompts has challenged us once again to share something inspired by their prompt. I love their weekly encouragement because they include the following:
Show us or tell us, and don’t forget there are no rules and no deadlines.
On days when I actually have the time (and energy) to post something, but my mind is empty, I go to their site for ideas.
This week’s is great for me because I have a whole category of photos for my blog called saying about “Art is in the eye of the…” . Having this category helps me include my ongoing theme of Chosen Perspectives. Today’s challenge is perfect! HowI (we) look at something is everything.
For some personal historical context aesthetics (and choosing a perspective): I spent much of my early life feeling very “homely”, a conclusion I came to about myself when, at age six, I asked my grandmother if I was pretty. I was probably playing “dress-up” with her clothes and jewelry at the time. In her defense, her answer was probably based on a religious edict to prevent vanity. She said, “well…(long pregnant pause here)…you have nice hair, Dear.”
I was crushed…and you can see here why I had a tough time believing Gramma about my hair…
It wasn’t until I was about eleven years old that I began to reconsider her declaration about my looks.
I saw an episode of Twilight Zone called “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder”. Clearly, I was impacted as it’s been 61 years since it was aired, and I still remember most of the scenes. If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth the time. Go online and watch it! If you did see it, I bet you remember it. Mind boggling for an 11 year old.
Anyway, it fit right in with my early thoughts on the lessons my Dad was covertly demonstrating about perspective.
I finally arrived at a time in my adult life when I was seeing myself as at least mildly attractive, with really great hair. My mane was apparently very appealing, even to strangers on the street or at the grocery store. Enough so that people would come right up to me to comment on my hair. Maybe Gramma was right after all?
And then…AGING hit with a vengeance!
I am currently losing the battle between a really loud cultural bias about women and choosing a healthy perspective on my own looks.
Back to the theme for today. Here’s what I came up with on what is (and isn’t) Aesthetically Appealing….for me.
The first four are random shots of things I found beautiful. You, of course, don’t have to…
Next, some comparisons…photos showing how the perspectives you choose can show you so many things…
this was an accidental shot…kinda ugly…but this is a (macro) closeup of the same thing, which I find kind of pretty…
This is a photo of the San Juan Island rock, that’s been painted over and over for 30 plus years, by anonymous “artists” . I think the first one is not very “appealing”…
But this next one…well, what do you think?
Same rock…
I really love photographing flowers. I have hundreds of shots of perfect flowers that are hard not to categorize as beautiful and aesthetically pleasing…
as long as I don’t zoom in too close. Then, they can be downright creepy! Not at all appealing.
One of my favorite flowers is the Hydrangea. It is so pretty in absolutely all of it’s stages.
Like these luscious, richly colored examples…
But Hydrangeas have taught me a lot about beauty and aging. Have you ever noticed how lovely they become, in a whole new way, as they age and even die?
I’d love to decorate a whole room in these peaceful colors
You tell me, from your perspective, which photo below is more beautiful and appealing?
This?
Or these?
I really love them both.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about nature and aging and death, probably normal given my age. Why is it more difficult to see beauty in something old or dying, than in something fresh and young?
I did a post earlier this week for Wordless Wednesday, showing the dying process of a beautiful leaf from one of my favorite plants.
These are my final shots, taken just this afternoon. From my perspective, these photos are every bit as interesting, and appealing as the first ones I took.
I’m longing for Spring but today, Cee challenges us to share scenes from our archives. I love her challenges. Helps me appreciate the beautiful things I have seen, and sometimes think to photograph.
My favorite Autumn scene is the “Wonder Wall”. Just a couple miles from my house. It’s a block-long retaining wall across from our local Home Depot. I take pictures of it every year because it is so amazing.
This wall is such a great place to experiment with your camera…macro vs telephoto, time of day, color adjusting, week by week, individual composition, balancing colors, etc., etc..
Clearly, I never get tired of it. I have snapped so many pictures, I printed them and turned them into a photo card series…even had a poster made of one!
Oh and the featured photo at the top? It’s to remind you Autumn is not just spectacular colors in the Pacific Northwest.
It’s also weird fungi! Lots of it! Huge! Like from-another-planet strange!!
But yesterday was one of those winter days in the Pacific Northwest that some of us selfishly keep secret from the rest of the country.
What I woke up to…
If people knew how absolutely gorgeous it can be up here, and how worth all the gray it is, we might be over-run with tourists, or experience even more of the population explosion inspired by Starbucks, Amazon and Microsoft!
I mean, what do you call this kind of winter sky BLUE??
At this time of year, when it’s only light out for 7 hours or so, I can’t think of anything more optimistic than a Primrose! They show up in the dead of winter. They are relentlessly cheerful! And they presumptuously assume they will be back again next year!
I first learned about them from my best friend’s mother, Lucille, who each year would fill her front door area with these welcoming little splashes of color. When she could no longer make it out to plant, one of us would do it for her…right up until her final year.
I watch for the first batch to show up every year, in my yard…
There’s this year’s first, amidst uncleared winter debris…
But I also watch at my grocery store (I know, I know) and this year, they are already here!
10 for $10.00!! Pretty cheap so I always load up. You’d think because they are a perennial I wouldn’t need to replenish my own garden each year. I don’t, but still, I can’t resist. there’s always some little spot for another one. Some of mine are 6 and 7 years old!
One year I had an idea.
I live on a long, very unusual, dead end street that’s a country-like oasis in the middle of a ritzy city. (When I moved here over 45 years ago, there were only 3 other houses and we all had horse acreage! Now there are 25 homes!)
Though our peaceful country lane has built up over the years, we have scored big-time in wonderful neighbors. Most everyone knows everyone and we all watch out for each other.
On that one year, we had just lost one of our earliest residents, a dear, sweet gentleman. He had an unexpected heart attack. In my search for something supportive to do in his honor on this somber occasion, I kept thinking of the story of Johnny Appleseed.
I headed for the grocery store…and then late that night, the houses on the lane gone quiet, I sneaked out to plant a Primrose in every single yard, in honor of our sweet neighbor. Almost everyone figured out I was the Primrose Fairy, because they knew how obsessed I was with these hearty little flowers, but I don’t care. I kinda like my reputation of being the oldest (and maybe strangest) neighbor on our street.
And to this day, each year, when the first Primroses show up, to honor the memory of Arul, always a smile and kind word for his neighbors, I take one down the lane to his widow. He was truly a Peach of a guy!
I have also made a habit of welcoming the new neighbors to our street by leaving them a surprise Primrose to plant or just enjoy for a while. I just left two more this morning. Now that I’ve been here the longest, I like sharing the history of our street with the newcomers.
So now, I give you the Primrose (and remind you of the story of Johnny Appleseed).
Thanks for reading and please comment if you like.
