The hurt washes over like the ocean. Calm sails capture the wind With their chests puffed out, Rulers of the great blue seas Until a storm arrives Of doubt and regret The spray stings my cloudy eyes. It seemed fun at the time Becoming Co-captain of my own ship. A ship without compass, But the anchor held steady, A safety net in unknown depths. Now worry eats at the wooden planks. No more anchor in these troubled waters. W...

I took up gardening somewhat recently. The first reason being, we get such glorious summers where I live on the East Coast, and I decided that I wanted to spend more time outside. Where I am, the summers are long, hot, and dry. So long, in fact, that we don't really get an autumn until it's closer to winter. It's the same with spring. Getting out in the garden seemed to be the easiest way for me to spend more time outside...

In March 1918, some of the first recorded American cases of what became a worldwide influenza epidemic, also known as "Spanish flu", were reported at Camp Funston. The 1918 influenza pandemic, usually set as January 1918 up to December 1920, was an unusually deadly flu epidemic. It infected 500 million people around the world. Probably 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million died, making it one of the deadliest ep...

I was sitting at the messy play table, with some freshly made playdough. I had the kids helping me roll it out and add colour to it. I had the usual mini rolling pins and cookie cutters out that my helpers were using. "My Nana is picking me up today," T said excitedly. "I'm going to stay at their farm.""My mummy is picking me up today," C replied. The two besties happily chatted between themselves for a bit, talking about...

His picture is among a lot of images I store here on this site. His happy, furry face 'smiling' at me. One ear flipped up the way it often was. He was my Sparky boy. Just a glimpse is enough to make my eyes moist. What is it about the simple things that bring us such joy. The unquestioning love that our life-companions bring to us. Whether they are creatures with four legs or the actual people who also encourage and admir...

It's the little things of the job that make everything worth it. All the stress of working in education, all the meetings with the big bosses, the paperwork, the endless staff meetings, professional developments, the weekend-long courses, all the after-hours work we have to put it to get work complete, that all just seems to melt away with the little moments that happen each day. Those special times when you just smile to...

Night falls when it seems I am alone, and I know all those things I have learned need to be remembered for the future, more especially the truth and not those lies that can be found in-between most things like blue on black, or black on blue. As I stand here in what seems to be a courtyard in a city of shadows where sound can be heard echoing off the dark tiles and enclosed by dark walls the colour of anthracite and notic...

Friday the 13th?! Other than a series of semi-scary movies (one through five actually terrified me once upon a time) today is just another day. Right? I don’t understand all the hokey “bad luck day” nonsense. I’d ask Google if my internet worked. It went out this morning. As did my cell service. Luckily I had nothing better to do today than sleep. Okay. That isn’t entirely true. I did have to go to the bank and do some de...

Remembering a time walking all alone in the Southern rain, and passing by both graveyards and battlefields along with the forests and the fields that stand here under both the moon and the sun’s dark light. Knowing that at one time both the Valkyrie and the Angels came to gather to carry off those who left their blood stained on those battlefields, past the moon to live forever in either Heaven or in Valhalla and they nev...

The first sunrise I lived through was in Arkansas. I was born in a small clinic in a small town called Mulberrry. My mother didn't live there. My parents had a rental house in another small town named Alma. But she was lucky enough to give birth to me in a modern facility rather than at home.Not long after that we started our movement around the country. My father's parents had followed some of the Okies in the next door...

Shadows are falling, and I have been standing here all day, with time seeming to be running away and there is no reason to really be anywhere. It feels like my sense of humanity is slowly going down the drain, and hope seems and feels like it is slowly becoming undone. While I feel like my humanity has gone down the drain. I ain’t really looking for anything in anyone’s eyes, and though it’s not dark yet the light of reas...

 Okay, fine! I will admit it then. Here goes. I am an addict. Are you happy now? No? Well, what else do you want from me? (Heavy sighs, eye rolls, stomping my feet) My story? Why? You think you can fix me, don'tcha? Well guess what? I'm not fucking broken!   Maybe I am slightly damaged. Slightly. Damaged? Aren't we all? Except for you, of course. You have somehow managed to live 40 years without so much as a scratch on yo...

***These are random thoughts I have while waiting for Hurricane Irma. At the time of these writings Irma's projected path shows her coming straight for me! I don't know what to do while I wait so I just keep writing***Saturday 9.9.17 10:30 pm ESTTom Petty wasn't lying!The waiting is, by far, the hardest part. It's been 24 hours since I wrote my last "entry" or whatever. About Irma. Ughhh I HATE HER! I just shouted that ou...

Every second is a life time with every minute bringing you closer to God, with nothing seen but red lights which make your body seem to burn. With a minute in the sunshine seems to translate sometimes as a decade in the dark a world away as it takes part in a dream. Still, there are times when it all remains like those finest simple threads when you feel you can’t clear your head, and somehow all is kept together with mos...

The show went on. Billy Elliot the Musical had a run of six shows from February 24th through 27th, and March 3rd through 5th. We were sold out for all the performances. It was successful by anyone's measurement. And I completed the show. We have a population of around 92,000 people in our town. Not too small, but even so it can seem rather small. One of the oncologists at my cancer center had two children in the play. I s...