Answer the questions of the person who tagged you.
Tag whoever you want.
Use any picture that you like for New Years.
Memory –
This is more of a mysterious New Year‘s memory.On December 31, 2016 Iwent walking as I so often do and everything was as it should be. The very next morning, nice and early January 1, 2017 I saw something that caught my eye.It’s in the tree branches to Bo’s right. Look closely.
*** a wine glass was resting purposefully in the bare branches of a tree right at eye level. It brought to mind a dozen questions! I left itwhere I found it. Day after day I walked passed it for nearly a year. It became a part of things.Until one day someone came along and moved it. It surprised me how much I missed it being in the cedar tree.
An empty glass waiting to be filled with anything. Like a new year, empty and waiting to be filled with anything.It was that spring that I first started writing here on WordPress…
To the questions –
If you could celebrate the New Year anywhere. where would it be?
sky and water…
…right here is good…
What is your favorite snack food for New Years?
althoughI like lots of different foods, like cheese and kettle chips and fruit and guacamole and salsa…really really I do. But, I just can’tresist the chance to say…Cookies! You didn’t see thatcoming did you… world’s most perfect food.
Bo, however, likes toast! He can hear a toaster pop in the next county over.He’s very well mannered though when he waits for his share…
Have you ever kept a New Year’s resolution? If so, what was it?
Well, this morningIopened my sock drawer and as I looked at the options it came to me clear as day…life is short…wear your best socks now. Don’t save them. You’re worth good socks, the kind that hug your feet.Unless you’re going toplay in the mud with Dobby. Keep one pair of old socks on hand for messy doggy days.
So, I think I’ve just made a resolution. I’ll let you know next year how it all turns out.
I think I’ll ask Jack to teach me some new yoga poses too…stretch both the body and the soul..
What do you want to do with your blog this year?
Intrigue! Mystery! High Speed Adventure!
Perhaps I’ll tell you about my book idea. I already have a title. It will be called – The Dog Eats Half My Food. I can’t decide if it will be a memoir or a diet book. Probably, both. It will be riveting...and slimming…
And hopefully some quiet and thoughtful reflection…
Do you prefer a big party or a small gathering to celebrate?
Small, definitely small. Get two sofas and have them face each other. Push them togetheruntilthereisn’t any floor between them. Add fluffy pillows and blankets. Now then, you’ve built a sofa fort and you’re all set!
Who is next to answer the ‘same’ questions?
I invite anyone and everyone to wade right in and give it a go!
Thank you so kindly to all of you for being such a beautiful part of my days.I’m very grateful for You!
there was a butterfly that day, a stunning peachy tangerine one. Out of place. Three times he came to me from nowhere, over the water, under the sky and out of the breeze.
How much longer it must have taken than that to create the tale,
To watch it become more than mere words
Illustration by Maurice Sendak
The mother, the father and the boy
Were shipwrecked on a deserted island
Time passed
As time does,
Whether there are clocks to mark it or not.
The mother passed
The father passed
And, the boy was alone
But, he was no longer the boy
He was the hunter now
*
Evening after evening
Her soft voice
Called him to the shore
And to her song
Where the alone of him
Met the sea of her
And
Lapped at his heart
As waves that wet the sand
And make it their very own
So, the mermaid
Who had spent her whole life
Swimming away from things
Left her watery world
To be with the hunter
In their island home
Now, they were two
*
Time passed
As time does
And the hunter found the cub
The baby who would grow to be the brown bear
The hunter brought him home
The sticky honey loving bear
Who curled up by the fire to sleep
Now, they were three
*
Time passed
As time does
And the hunter found the kitten
The baby who would grow to be the lynx
The hunter brought him home
The playful purring lynx
Who loved to give you somethings
And get you to go to somewheres
Now, they were four
Time passed
As time does
And the lynx found a boy
Who would become The boy
*
But, for now
He was a crying baby in a shipwreck,
On that self same shore
Where the hunter had once been the boy in the shipwreck
Where the calling song was sung
Where the mermaid left the sea
And the hunter hadcarried her home
Yes, that self same shore
With the heart-lapping waves
So with the help of the bear,
The lynx brought the boy to their home
The one overlooking the sea
The hunter, the mermaid, the bear, the lynx and the boy
Now, were five
Just as one head, two hands and two feet
Are five
Held together by home and by heart
*
Time passed
As time does..
…in every line of the tale
There was the whisper of the waves
On the shipwrecked island shore
Singing the song of belonging
Of
The boy, the lynx, the bear, the mermaid and the hunter
Who lived and loved
Who loved and lived
As time passed
As time does
For now and for evermore…
There were no a’s in this tale
As an a could be anyone
Any hunter, any mermaid, any bear, any lynx, any boy
And there were no anyones in this tale
There were only someones
*
There were no names in this tale
But, names were not needed
Nor were they missed
I knew each someone well
As well as they knew each other
*
The hunter only ever hunted for one thing really,
What do You think it was…
And which The are You…
*
I recently read The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell. This is my own retelling of it and how it came to find a home in the heart of me. It’s a charming story written in 1965 with a few very sweet illustrations by Maurice Sendak. At the library it is shelved in the children’s section, and that is where it found me…
****
ellie894 October 14, 2019
Jarrell, Randall. The Animal Family. New York: Pantheon Books, 1965
ellie894 