Our hosts today for the fifth and final day of the March Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com are preservice teachers, students at Aquinas College. Come on over and read their prompt as they inspire us to write a nonet.
All I can do is daydream about spending time with my grandchildren, so that’s what I do most afternoons in the 2:36-3:07 slice of my day. I have photos of my family on my desk, and I think on the happy memories when I was rocking newborn Silas, playing Yahtzee with 15 year old Aidan, and pushing Saylor and Noli on the swings, catching River and Beckham at the bottom of the slide, and helping Sawyer put on his new rollerblades at the park. These are the days I look forward to in retirement, and while I can’t be there yet, I can surely daydream about it……..
There’s a small park about 1/2 mile down the highway from my office, and on spring days when the pollen isn’t enough to push me over the edge, I like to get a 6″ Blimpie sub and eat half of it as I picnic in the park. There are covered picnic tables, and parking is just steps away. It’s a perfect way to take a break from the office and get a little Vitamin D. It’s also a quiet place to take my journal and write.
When Covid hit and we took to the camper for weekend getaways, we re-discovered the inner peace of picnics as we spent more time outdoors in nature. We didn’t even need a table. We took our camp chairs and sat by a lake or on a mountaintop and let the dogs play as we spent time doing nothing but relaxing. I decided at that time to find way to picnic in the middle of a workday to keep the perspective. Nature has a way of doing that. And that’s when I found the park near my office.
No one ever thinks about going here, tucked away as it is off the highway. Sometimes I come with a group of friends, but I also love having it all to myself. It’s the best way to spend a lunch hour any day, but especially on Fridays.
Has your city or town suddenly sprouted a nutrition drink shop or three? These beverages they call loaded teas are all the rage everywhere, and let me tell you something.
They’re addictive.
I was at a conference in Athens, Georgia and missing my daily caffeine fix. A simple Google search with a button for directions led me to a shop within 7 minutes of the University of Georgia campus. Visiting my brother and sister in law this past weekend on St. Simons Island, same thing: three left turns and I was standing in line checking out the March concoctions. I ordered mine with a scoop of immunity blast and collagen.
Most days, though, it’s just a simple grapefruit with a scoop of immunity and a little extra sour to offset the sweetness. 24 calories later, I’ve staved off my hunger and eat a minimal lunch. People swear the tea helps them lose weight, and while it isn’t drastic, I would agree. Our shops offer the telegram app, where a simple text will bring the tea straight to your door within 15 minutes.
Grapefruit tea is the most trouble I’ve been in since the 1970s, and I’m loving every minute of it.
Have you ever had a surprise come your way when you least expected it, and it turned the day around? That’s what happened to me yesterday right before lunchtime.
I’d had a morning, already. My father had fallen out of his chair during the night and EMS had to come help him get back up. I was worried, as he was supposed to be getting his chemotherapy but instead ended up getting treatment for pain from his fall. I live five hours north of him and was waiting to hear the report from my brother when my sister-in-law who lives on the south side of the Johnson Funny Farm texted.
Text from my Sister In Law
out of the clear blue
just before lunch
my sister in law texts
asking if I’m in my office
I got you somethingshe reveals
we do this from time to time
buy small gifts for each other
usually I get her Hot Tamales
spicy-like-us cinnamon jellybeans
or York Peppermint Patties
but today there’s a new twist
in the sweet mix: a key lime parfait
because that’s what we ate on
our most recent girls’ getaway
together
sweet surprises win the day!
and together, we win life!
Actual Key Lime Parfait I couldn’t wait to sample…….
Top o’ the mornin’ to ya! I took a spur-o’-the-moment trip south to visit my family as my brother and sister in law and I try to help Dad tackle some tasks he can no longer do on his own. Chemotherapy has zapped all of his strength, and we (and others) continue to try to help where he will allow it – which is not nearly enough for any of us to feel satisfied, but that will take the luck o’ the Irish and a lot of prayer to change. He’s testy with us, seems skeptical, and wants to be left alone. He’s made it quite clear.
Before my brother and I visited him, I had a little extra time to check out the Ace Garden Center on St. Simons Island, Georgia, and I’d spied a little leprechaun in the robust fairy garden section that I’d planned to go back and get after visiting with Dad. I was there to look for spider plants, known for improving air quality by giving off oxygen in their transpiration process. But leave it to fairies to lure me down the aisle of wonder and intrigue. While I don’t have a dedicated fairy garden, my whole front porch is filled with fairies in their own plant container homes.
Imagine my delight when my sister in law, Jennifer, asked me to swing back by the house after visiting with Dad. She’d known just the medicine I’d needed – – a little fairy magic to cheer me up! She’d read my blog yesterday morning and beat me to the fairy section, choosing the perfect assortment of fairies – and the leprechaun – to sit on the edge of my shamrock plant as a gift – – making them so much more meaningful. Each time I look at the leprechaun, I smile. And what she didn’t know was that I would have picked the fairies dressed in green – – for an extra sprinkling of Irish fairy dust!
When I opened the gift, a black nose appeared out of nowhere – – JoJo, one of their black labs, sensed the magic and joined the fun, studying this leprechaun and his trio of fairy friends, as mesmerized as any dog has ever been. Her fixation on them – even trying at one point to take the leprechaun by the beard and run off with him – lightened the mood and made us all laugh.
Sources say that there are no female leprechauns, and that these little magical creatures are the unwanted children of the fairy family – – grouchy, closed off, and untrusting. With their stubborn, curmudgeonly, cranky attitudes, even leprechauns need someone to show them some love – trouble is, they have a hard time accepting it.
I have reasons for understanding the close relative of the leprechaun in folklore – the Clurichaun, drunk and surly beings who are known for clearing out entire wine cellars. And I must admit: I, myself, a mere human, along with my brother and sister in law, had broken into some wine over the weekend. But let’s be real – – the leprechauns drive them to it.
There comes a time in life when all children can do is clap if we believe in fairies, to envision Mary Martin as Peter Pan rallying us along, to hope the lights don’t fade too quickly.
One of the most beautiful things about a writing group is that you often know the people in your circles better than those who work ten feet from you every day. And when your groups intersect so that you slice together, take on The Stafford Challenge together, and write poems at Ethicalela together too, you look forward to your small group Zoom times where you write and share face-to-face from the east coast to the west coast and two states in between.
That’s what happened last night. I didn’t join a small group for The Stafford Challenge last year, but when Barb Edler suggested that we form our own small group with more flexible scheduling, she took the lead in setting up our Zoom meetings so that Denise Krebs, Glenda Funk and I could all meet to write, share, and keep in touch. So in our Zoom last night, Glenda introduced a prompt that invited us to write definition poems. A special thanks to Glenda for the inspiration – and to Denise, Barb, and Glenda for suggesting a better ending for the second definition! Cheers to writing friends who inspire us and keep us writing in community. Since I’m slicing through increments of time throughout the day, I chose to write about my cubicle today.
cubicle (n.) – 1. an open place where I always feel I’m being watched. There’s no privacy here with two on-screen llamas, a whispering plant, the eyes of the family photos, everyone who walks by, the general webinar population, the parking lot parents who can see in the windows, and probably, probably cameras everywhere. 2. a limiting space to sit and work the day away but never, never my home away from home.
I’ve been in Savannah, Georgia this week for a conference, and everything’s coming up green. The grass is growing, flowers are blooming, and River Street is gearing up for its world-famous St. Patrick’s Day parade in a few weeks. The city becomes a shoulder-to-shoulder party on that day. It all brings back memories of our Senior Skip Days in high school, when we’d pile into cars and make our way from just across the state line in Bluffton, SC to Savannah, Georgia. The whole high school skipped class to honor the seniors, so we basically had four senior skip days during our high school years.
I don’t miss those days – – but I’m glad to have the memories, and I’m glad I was sparkle-sprinkled with the luck of the Irish all those years ago! I think the Irish blessing stays with me most days! Look around ~ my wish for you is that you find some Irish luck today, too.
Common Threads 