May...
Ahhh... Computers and Love!

Kira wrote these words (in the picture to the left) on the wipe-off message board on my refrigerator. She has learned a lot in the last 8 months of sobriety, as she also learned a lot from the preceeding three years of alcoholism.

Hooray for her! Hooray for life!

If you listen, the lessons will follow the pain...

Once I knew that I wanted to be an artist, I had made myself into one. I did not understand that wanting doesn't always lead to action. Many of the women had been raised without the sense that they could mold and shape their own lives, and so, wanting to be an artist (but without the ability to realize their wants) was, for some of them, only an idle fantasy, like wanting to go to the moon.- Judy Chicago

The two graphics above that are pictures of billboards are copied from dribbleglass.com, check that site out for some amusing stuff...

The "stiff nipples" picture is from Goofy Image Gallery, also a good place to check out for a laugh once in a while- just what the doctor ordered!

And, the picture with Michael Jackson's face superimposed on a dog's- at least I think it is superimposed, you can't put anything past that man... I think it is from some e-mail I got at one time. Chuckles...

Good Day Amigos!!

It is Cinco de Mayo, the day to drink a Corona, have some salsa and be merry.

The Fifth Of May celebrates the victory of Mexico over the French at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862- it is not a celebration of Mexico's independence.

Who cares? Go to Mexico Online if you do...

Other big happenings...
Sunday, May 4th was the big race at Richmond International Raceway- of course! What? Hadn't remembered that? Oh! Hadn't ever thought of that... :)

Well, Jay ran across this interesting tidbit... seems at the race they had a life-size replica of the "Got Milk?" race car... made of Cabot Cheese. Thanks to Cabot for the picure of Rita the cow that I borrowed.

For more info follow the Cabot link or go to the Junk Food News site. Mmmm.

There is wonder in the moment, if we but look for it, let it touch us, believe in it. And with the recognition and celebration of the wonder comes the joy we desire and await... We can let our experiences wash over us. Longing for a different time, a distant place, a new situation breeds discontent... We can practice feeling joyful in the present, be thrilled with the realization that right now, all is well. All is always well. Life is full of mystery and wonder and each moment of our awareness adds to the wonder.- Once again, from Each Day A New Begining, Hazelden Meditations, April 25th, Daily Mediatations for Women

Once last year, when Margaret and I were talking about life, she asked me what had made me happiest in my life. Her question took me by surprise, and I had no answer. I did not know what in my life had made me happy. She told me that the birth of her son was her happiest moment. It shocked me that I had not thought of my children in searching for a happy moment. I had come to the conclusion that I might have never been happy. At least in the sense of feeling joy.

Those were days of sorting through thoughts. Attaching meaning, or trying to. Of course I had felt happiness, and even joy, in the distant past. At the time more recent pain had drowned out those feelings and their memory- or even erased them as if they had never been.

But the wonder returns, and life brings joy even after the sorrows.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.- Helen Keller

I am exhausted, and so is Jay. We have been busily working on his house. We have painted the living room and kitchen, and are now going to tackle painting the bedroom. I couldn't find a picture of Sears' Easy Living Paint, so I settled for the SEARS gif...



We also built a barn-style 10 X 14 storage shed in the back yard over the last couple of weekends. It is manufactured by the Arrow company, thus their logo...



Jay likes badger stuff, and so, at left, the gratuitous badger hair paint brush... :)
I can't remember when I have been so pooped, or when I have discovered so many, many places on my body that can be sore to move...


But it takes a lot of effort to prepare for me, for my entrance into the future, into forever. Life is quite a story, quite an adventure that unfolds from the opening line, until the last page is turned, and then there is no more. The beginning and the ending set the boundaries of the story, and of our lives. Without the ending meaning is ambiguous, or maybe nonexistent. Why is there death? Why does life end? Our lives are stories that we write as we go along, with each person who interacts or intersects with our life contributing to its content. The beginning and the ending binds us, makes us who we are. How else could we know how important life is, how precious our time, how meaningful our presence here truly is?

Will Clegg wished me a happy Mother's Day. Thank you. I had a lovely holiday, yet did not talk with or see either of my chidren. Carrie and I had dinner last Thursday and talked of many things as our lives together continue to change dramatically. And I talked on the phone with Kira on Saturday to catch up on her own adventure in this world. Late Sunday morning, which was really 2AM Monday morning, she left me a voice mail that spoke volumes about us, about all that she has been through while I came along for the ride to keep her company. We are fine, my daughters and I. We make it through this maze of their mother's life as best we can, and we are doing alright. And so, on Mother's Day, Jay and I visited his mother at the cemetery, and we had coffee and decadent desserts at the bookstore, and enjoyed a lovely ride through this beautiful place we call our home. And we continued our ongoing manual labor, preparing his home for me, for us. It was a beautiful Mother's Day.

Carol Channing is 82, and she has found the love of her life. She just married her childhood sweetheart who she went "steady" with in her adolescent years. They met again after not seeing each other for over 70 years, and they saw the same person they already knew. When you hear her talk about it, you know that this is different. Click on their picture to go to an article...



And another interesting couple- Elvis Costello and Diana Krall. How cool. He is 48 and she is 38. We already know that they must make beautiful music together.


Click on either picture to go to the artist's own professional site.



And so... yes, there is the perfect love, the love of your life, if and when you are ready.

To see the "perfect husband" click here: The Perfect Husband, A Pictorial Essay. :)

A lady I have known my whole life, who lives down the road from my folks still, sent this link to me. She is 72 I think. (This is a disclaimer...)

Go Granny, Go

More later...

Speaking of Diana Krall, her latest album is winning awards- she has a great voice. I have especially enjoyed her rendition of Joni Mitchell's song "A Case of You".

Joni's lyrics are wonderful. I love this song.


Some lines from my memory...:

You are in my blood like holy wine,
you taste so bitter, and you taste so sweet.
I could drink a case of you, darling
and still be on my feet, I would still be on my feet.

I remember when you said that love was touching souls,
and surely you touched mine.
Part of you pours out of me,
in these lines from time to time.

I met a woman, she had a mouth like yours,
she said go to him if you can,
but be prepared to bleed.

You're in my blood like holy wine,
you taste so bitter and you taste so sweet.
Oh, I could drink a case of you, and I would still be on my feet.

Click on Joni's picture above for a link.

HAPPY 25TH ANNIVERSARY LINDA AND JERRY!!!


This month my sister Linda and her husband Jerry celebrated 25 years of marriage. Many people came to my mom's house in Michigan to congratulate them and wish them many more happy years together.

So here's to many more years for this couple, two good and kind people.


Life has value only when it has something valuable as its object.

According to Marilyn French, "Mutual pleasures are the sacred core of life: food, body warmth, love, and sex. These things are sacred because they are necessary, because they confer pleasure in the giving and the receiving. They satisfy the profoundest needs, and in their satisfying, satisfy two." Some of our most profound pleasures are grounded in mutuality and can only be realized in love.- Ethel Spector Person (Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters)

The Asian languages are so different from English and lead to many interesting translations, such as the picture at left.


Go to Engrish.com for some examples that may make you chuckle...



Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.- Mark Twain

The Evergreen State College



Class of 2003

Announcing the college graduation of Carrie Ann Kearney!!!

Carrie has completed her Bachelor's Degree, her graduation is in Olympia, Washington on June 13th.

Her parents, family, and friends are proud of Carrie.
She now moves on into the world, ready to learn more and do more, searching for the rest of her story.

Congratulations Carrie!

When I first started doing some work in hospitals, coming from working in mental health, the discharge planners struck me as depressed. I remember remarking to a friend that is was difficult work, that all of the patients were sick or dying.

One of the first cancer patients that I interacted with was a woman perhaps in her 60s, not old and not young. Her cancer had metastasized to her bones and her body was rigid- it took several people to move her.

She told me how she had become progressively unable to move and had begun using a wheelchair at home but had still not gone to the doctor. She provided daily care for her granddaughter, who was something like 8 or so. She had provided day care for her since she was a baby, while her mom was at work. She described a tender, loving, close relationship with her grand daughter and had not wanted to know for as long as possible what was going on in her body. Actually she basically already knew- she knew it was bad.

Now she knew for certain that she had only a month or so to live and that she would be getting even worse than how she was then. And she told me that she was thinking that she would not let her grand daughter come to see her, that she did not want her to "see me like this". She said this as if it were a decision that she had made, yet here she was telling it to me as if I needed to respond. I couldn’t remember them teaching me in school how to respond to this kind of telling; all I knew was how it might feel to have someone you were close to still be alive but not be allowed to see them. It made tears come to my eyes, and that I think was the first time that happened to me. So I just told her what I felt about her idea, what my heart said. I told her that I could imagine her grand daughter growing up and regretting not having been able to see this grandmother she had felt so close to before she died. And I told her that I couldn’t imagine her regretting having gotten the chance to say good-bye to this person who formed so much of her early experience of this life.

That was all I said. That is all I know. I was covering that unit just that day, and she was going to a nursing home where she would die. I, as so often is the case, did not get to know how things turned out or how what I said impacted her or her decision. Such is the work of the hospital discharge planner. I don’t have a clue why they all looked depressed to me at first.

Remember: It is actually not possible to love too much, to give too much. Sometimes the love is not returned in kind and you feel that you have to cut your losses, but don't let that make you afraid to venture into love. You can't find what you don't give away, so give your heart away and don't be afraid to give your granddaughter one last hug, or be tempted to protect anyone or yourself from love. It is the stuff of life.

This 50 something year old man, I think in Texas, was and I guess still is causing a rucus because he rides around on his bicycle for exercise- wearing only a thong...

What's the big deal???

I LIKE THE POETRY OF WALT WHITMAN...

He likes to put...(yes, the three dots...) in his work, just like I do...

The picture at left is when he was younger, the picture at right is Walt Whitman in 1887 (Photograph by George C. Cox, New York). He lived from 1819 to 1892. Clicking on the left picture will take you to a poetry site about him.

If you click on the name Walt Whitman that is underlined, it will take you to a page that I have put some of his poetry on and will be adding to as I go along... :)

(Last added to 5/22/03) WALT WHITMAN

CLICK for ongoing writings/quotes from JUDITH VIORST'S book: Necessary Losses

(Last Added to 02/17/03...)

If you have comments on my topics or content, please send them to me at:

Comments received from responding humans and my responses can be accessed by clicking on the picture of the chimp at left;

My dear old friend Ken, AKA: Grappler, was the originator of the idea for this...

Music: Click on the Licking Lips Featuring: Tom Waits, "Hold On" Page Created May 2003

Click to Return Home