Words that Define

Revised

The Problem with Definitions December 1, 2008

Most three-year-olds are shown falling stars
and taught songs about pockets and wishes
saved for rainy days. Mary was given
lost in space that, when confronted with earth’s
atmosphere, fell through the sky--burning out.

The sum of a meteor’s life ended in ugly lumps
of celestial rock, nothing like the giant diamond,
perched on Mom’s hand in the photo
balanced between candle and vase,
that Dad said was a chunk of coal.

When Mary was sixteen, rainbows
and promises never crossed her mind.
Storm winds flattened the giant oak
but left the house intact.
Her father dragged her out of the closet
To revel in a brilliant double rainbow,
and discuss light refracted
through millions of water droplets
hanging in air – a misty curtain that bent
sunlight into something different.

She got married before a justice of the peace,
her hands resting on an unpainted bar
of dark wood the darkness of which was deeper
than any she had ever seen. The tears of mothers
and the sweat of the convicted had soaked into the wood
staining it more deeply than the haze of years
when people smoked in public buildings.

Smoke floats away on the wind like a whispered ‘I do.’
The fluid of humans soaks in and stains things.

She lived a simple single life;
the quotidian and habitual cloaking her in silence
as she hunched over a microscope at the Fertility Clinic.
She answered haunting questions with plain words:
yes, no. She talked of sperm and eggs but never imagined
a union or its sum. Life was basic; like an on/off switch.

She was ill for a long time. There was no sudden stop.
Hers was a long decline into darkness,
which she hoped would dissolve into nothing.

The last neuron fired into the synapse: Is there a God?
It hung suspended between the branches of two trees.


Original

Most three-year-olds see falling stars
and sing songs about pockets and wishes
saved for rainy days. Mary saw rocks
lost in space that, when confronted with earth's
atmosphere, fell through the sky--burning out.

The sum of a meteor's life ended in ugly lumps
of celestial rock, nothing like the giant diamond,
perched on Mom's hand in the photo
balanced between a candle and a vase,
that Dad said was only a chunk of coal.

Rainbows and promises never crossed her mind
when storm winds flattened the giant oak
but left the house intact.

Her father dragged her out of the closet to show her
a brilliant double rainbow and talked about light
refracted through millions of water droplets
hanging in air - a misty curtain that bent
sunlight into something different.

She got married before a justice of the peace,
her hands resting on an unpainted bar
of dark wood the darkness of which was deeper
than any she had ever seen. The tears of mothers
and the sweat of the convicted had soaked into the wood
staining it more deeply than the haze of years
when people smoked in public buildings.

Smoke floats away on the wind like a whispered 'I do.'
The fluid of humans soaks in and stains things.

She lived a simple single life;
the quotidian and habitual cloaking her in silence
as she hunched over a microscope at the Fertility Clinic.
She answered haunting questions with simple words:
yes, no. She talked of sperm and eggs but never imagined
a union or its sum. Life had was a simple on/off switch.

She was ill for a long time. There was no sudden stop.
Hers was a long decline into darkness,
which she hoped would dissolve into nothing.

The last neuron fired into the synapse: Is there a God?
It hung suspended between the branches of two trees.

Thank You Note

I got to know this little girl's aunt by working on the nativity photos series I am doing for the preschool Sunday School. She asked if I would take photos of her niece. I got together with her yesterday and made a little gallery where she could look at them. I was blessed by her thank you note because she put her thanksgiving where it belonged and I am just grateful I had the opportunity to do the photo shoot.







Dear Me,
They are beautiful and exceed my expectations!!! And I've always wanted a "birch tree" shot since we moved in and I love the little rose bouquet and chair off to the side - you are amazing!! But the ones of MyNiece are exquisite - that's the word I was looking for especially since my sister has so many problems just living that MyNiece 's adorableness is lost in the shuffle and you captured it. I will be forever indebted to you!!! So I will thank the Lord again and again for first making my heart a servant heart to help with Sunday School and then to put us together and then to give the idea etc. I could easily tell you many of the numbers I like but then it would be most of them. I have a meeting to go to but I really want to stay at the computer all day and look at MyNiece pictures. Give Light a hug for me too since she was such a good sport and didn't get too much attention. Take care and thank you, J

Bookworm Meme

I've always meant to play along with this meme and now I am. I grabbed a tag from Misty at A Day in My Life.

The rules for it are fun.

Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56.Write the 5Th sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that.

Young Goodman Brown and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

You, methinks, would estimate it rightly. You, I know, would hear it with a reverence that I must not expect from the harsh, material world."

"Would I not? to be sure I would!" replied Annie Hovenden, lightly laughing. "Come explain to me quickly what is the meaning of this little whirligig, so delicately wrought that it might be the plaything for Queen Mab. See; I will put it in motion.

It really is the book nearest to me. It was on the top of a close to two foot tall pile on the table that sits near my chair at the computer desk.

weekend therapy

or I like burlap, old sheet music, buttons, hot glue and other stuff...










spent a big chunk of the weekend making Christmas boxes.

grandparents day

Since Light's grandparents live far away - some dear friends of mine who adore the girls and who the girls adore fill in (now that Grandpa Glen our adopted friend at the nursing home is too ill to do it anymore). However, D was out of town at a quilting retreat so it was up to J to do the honors.

He was very touched by Light's considerate behavior. He is hard of hearing so whenever she wanted to talk to him she would place her hand on his cheek and turn his face toward her.

the call of wild geese

Rapture

A simple errand turned complicated
so I started home at dusk
(later than I intended).
I crept along counting the beads
on a chain of red lights
that stretched along ahead of me.
To my left gray shapes
of geese settled down for the night
on the smooth plain of the sod farm.
I knew that one day
I would be running errands and notice
that the geese had left, called
by their leader because it was time to go home.
Stuck in traffic, I waited and realized
that all they were doing was waiting too.

MH

snowy days are here again

Prayer For Our Nation

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'

This prayer has been attributed to Joe Wright who is said to have prayed it before the Kansas State House in 1996m which he rewrote from a prayer written in 1995 by Bob Russel at the Kentucky Governor's Prayer Breakfast. Now it is being circulated as being from Billy Graham. It matters not who wrote if you choose to pray it - if you choose to refute it at least you know where to aim.

gratification

yesterday, i was dusting in our room for the first time in i-don't-know-how-long. it reminded me of the summer when i was sixteen and babysat for this eleven-year-old child. in addition to watching this child which consisted primarily of watching dirty dancing ad nauseum (by her choice) and going to the swimming pool in the slightly larger town fifteen minutes away, I also cleaned her house once a week for a little extra money - i remember dusting her curio cabinet full of precious moments figurines once a week and feeling it was pointless as there was no dust that could be seen on the surface of the rag when I ran it over the glass shelves -

our room was not nearly so pristine and i have to say that it felt very good to see the dark streaks dirtying the old cloth diapers

i also remember linda's mom telling me that she wished i could always watch linda because linda was so much more well-behaved when i watched her. it might have something to do with the fact that if her mom told her to do something in the morning before she left the house, i insisted that linda do it and i also insisted that linda be polite to her mom in my presence...

joan of arc

or a one dollar costume purchased this morning off the after Halloween rack...

more photos from Sunday