Every year I protest that I’m the only one who doesn’t get to eat chocolate. I’m told that if I eat chocolate I could die but I suspect that is my human’s ploy to keep it all to herself. When I want a cookie she says sugar causes inflammation. She said she read it on the internet but it undoubtedly is an Urban Myth.
Get your Sweetie a USEFUL Valentine!
In my hope
Bahá’ís are encouraged to see in the revolutionary changes taking place in every sphere of life the interaction of two fundamental processes. One is destructive in nature, while the other is integrative; both serve to carry humanity, each in its own way, along the path leading towards its full maturity. The operation of the former is everywhere apparent–in the vicissitudes that have afflicted time-honoured institutions, in the impotence of leaders at all levels to mend the fractures appearing in the structure of society, in the dismantling of social norms that have long-held in check unseemly passions, and in the despondency and indifference exhibited not only by individuals but also by entire societies that have lost any vital sense of purpose.
Though devastating in their effects, the forces of disintegration tend to sweep away barriers that block humanity’s progress, opening space for the process of integration to draw diverse groups together and disclosing new opportunities for cooperation and collaboration. Bahá’ís, of course, strive to align themselves, individually and collectively, with forces associated with the process of integration, which, they are confident, will continue to gain in strength, no matter how bleak the immediate horizons. Human affairs will be utterly reorganized, and an era of universal peace inaugurated.
(Universal House of Justice, To the Bahá’ís of Iran, 2 March 2013)
https://catnipblog.com/2017/06/22/brain-dance-bust-a-move-and-a-toe-or-two/
So here I am with my foot propped high
Hot tubing by Peggy
Fly’n High by Peggy
a judy pome
a peggy picture
Thinking Pink by judy
https://catnipblog.com/2017/06/15/worry-your-life-away-literally/
https://catnipblog.com/2017/03/09/research-shows-you-will-be-happier-for-3-months-music-to-my-ears/
https://catnipblog.com/2017/06/10/5-things-you-can-do-to-cheer-up-quickly-according-to-neuroscience/
Papa’s Instructions Pome
Mama Cold, Papa Cold and their 3 virus babies
Baby 1
Baby 2
Baby 3
Children, it’s now up to you
judy is yours to do
Cuz Mama is weary
teaching how-to
with no app or Siri.
And your papa is tiring
of non-stop siring
It’s Mom & me off to find a new home
Hallelujah! you’re on your own
I admit I’m obsessive about steering clear of people who are sick. I’ve been “known” to remove my groceries off the counter and go to another check-out if I see a clerk sniffing or coughing. With fibromyalgia everything lasts longer and is more severe so I go to great lengths to avoid people who even appear to be sick.
My husband caught a cold 2 weeks ago and I’ve assiduously washed everything down – counters, door knobs, light switches and my husband – with disinfectant.
I woke up yesterday with a scratchy throat, a headache and feeling even less chipper than I usually feel in the morning.
The Queen gave me a cold
How do I know, how am I told?
This cold is a dignified one
no snorting, sniffling nor dripping a ton
My makeups impeccable, not a hair undone
Despite a sore throat and my throbbing head
staying all day, aching in bed
I shan’t complain
For how often does one contract
“But at 90 . . . she is exercising caution as she recovers from a heavy cold which she’s had for at least 12 days, (12 DAYS!!!! ) and which is bound to have left her feeling pretty miserable. (tell me about it).”
“She hasn’t yet had an opportunity to go outside and explore her 20,000 acre private Norfolk estate. (So true, so true)”
https://doodlewash.com/2016/12/22/how-do-reindeer-fly/
Doodlewash is a blog I follow – both for Charlie O’s great water-colors but even more for his wonderful stories and descriptions about each drawing.
Today’s Doodlewash post inspired my pome.
Pome by judy
No one catches Santa on the roof
or in the snow sees prints
of tiny reindeer hoof
for Santa’s no bigger than a fly
and reindeer all the size of ants
ferry him through the Christmas sky
I don’t think it silly at all
to imagine reindeer quite so small
and know
how Santa slides down chimney flues
with nary much soot on his beard or shoes
So make your cookies the size of peas
and leave the milk in a thimble please
Limit the weight of gifts and such
to crush an ant
it doesn’t take much
* * *
Dear human-beings,
Besides being soft and cuddly a mission of mine is to bring poetry to the masses, of which you are some. And I am here to bring you the truth . . . even though it might hurt.
Santa was frantic at the North Pole
Finances in the red, he was in the hole
Mrs Claus couldn’t afford sugar
For her cookies sublime
Dear old hubby didn’t have a dime
North Pole employment had exploded
and Santa’s credit had eroded
He’d spent his last cent on black Friday deals
and turkey with the trimmings for thanksgiving meals
The night before Christmas he no longer had clout
When all the elves threatened a walk-out
Elf-union held all the chips
As evidenced by the grin on all the elf lips
For every elf in all the land
Had won a pay deal without tipping their hand:
Double pay all December
a free thanksgiving meal in November
Finally fringe benefits for elves was real
For Santa and the Mrs, there was no appeal
Santa had bitten his nails to the quick
Both right and left eyes developed a tic
All Santa could do was self medicate
So he stuffed his mouth from the cookie plate 
And downed all the rum from a hot toddy cup
his blood pressure sky-high, went up and up
His big fat belly shook like a bowl full of lead
While visions of bankruptcy danced in his head
So all you children and adults too
Have compassion and learn to make due
STOP asking for presents and things you don’t need
YOU must now take heed.
It’s no time for greed
If you want Santa another Christmas to live
to every red-kettle-bell-ringer
Dig in your pocket and GIVE.
Poetically yours,
Freddie Parker Westerfield
Freddie Parker Westerfield, Published Author
The weather is changing
my body rearranging
Help! I’m in a fibro flare
Everything hurts
including my hair.
Sharon Bonin Pratt is a writer, an artist and a dear friend. I think she also is psychic. I’ve been not feeling great and the subject of her last post was just what I needed. AND it’s dedicated to ME!!!! What an honor!
Shari inspired me to look for a smile (SEE THE VIDEO).
Here’s a sample from Sharon Bonin Pratt’s Ink Flare:
“Who can laugh without relaxing? Isn’t that why some of us (not me of course, and certainly not you, but other unnamed folks) pee their pants when laughing raucously? Losing all control is not a bad thing, even if you must change your whitie-dities, because when you’re having that much fun – who cares about all the rest? Oh, and it’s contagious! In a good way, not like the flu, but like having enough cup cakes for everyone in the world. So now I not only feel good inside my own world weary bod – I feel good because everyone around me also feels good. Motto for today: Spread cheer – laugh out loud.”
May heavenly rain
water the hearts of mankind
with loving-kindness
* * *
Flotsam of our past
it’s water under the bridge
Wave from river banks
* * *
Washed away through tears
Cleansed through the sweat of our brow
human suffering
* * *
“Gotta admit . . . that boy has a way with words.”
Haiku Horizons – prompt WEEP
(inspired by and with apology to Helen Reddy)
Boogie while you’re young
Pierce your tongue
Dye your hair green
Eat fat, not the lean
Don’t give a lick what makes you tick
Eat, drink and be merry
because if you tarry
you’ll soon be too old
all covered with mold
And have to scrap it off with a stick
First time she’s made any sense . . .
You may know it as stream-of-consciousness, non-stop writing, free writing – all the same names for what amounts to writing with no thought to spelling punctuation, whether it makes sense or not. Just write. I call it brain-dump.
It’s a writing technique used for warm-up, breaking into writer’s block or uncovering unconscious process. In the journal class today we were given the prompt “We do not write in order to be understood, we write in order to understand” (C.Day Lewis).
I typed out my journal page (I hope you appreciate the lengths I go to for you my readers!) to show you an unedited glimpse into what a sample of free-writing looks like.
But first!!! here’s the ditty that came out of my free-write:
My tiny trains of thought
chugging uphill
Hopefully if I run out of steam
I will stay on track
I think I can I think I can I think I can.
Actual journal page. (The flower is from the napkin I had for cookie refreshments)
“Who on earth really understands us we are understood by others only in reference to how the other perceives their own world thru their own lens which always clouded just like the mist that clouds the sky this morning I’m obscured obscured and I obscure how I see what I see through a clouded lens of my feelings and perceiving the cloud it’s hard to know what is real and what not obscured vision filter it thru a mist as if I see with the brightness I don’t know my reference my experience no one can ever know They think they know I think I know yet my senses are bound up in my brain scattering thoughts confused thinking between the past and present in the obscurity of the future I meant to write obscurity of the present, interesting slip of the pen in the scattering of thinking on paper no one knows what this means I don’t know what this means how am I suppose to know how am I suppose to understand what can’t be understood it’s safe to say no matter what I write no one will understand NOT EVEN ME how can we pretend to know much less pretend to understand always curious wanting to understand wanting to know it’s as if a long train pulled by a locomotive is coming can’t see the end if I’m at the beginning can’t see the beginning if I’m at the end and in the middle of it all are cars filled with the unknown going up a hill like the Little Engine that Could try to reach the top of the knowing to see other to the other side where it’s just a glide, just a downhill run where the brakes need to be applied not the foot on the throttle if a train has a throttle I think I can I think I can I think I can”.
“Ye are all leaves of one tree and the fruits of one branch.” Baha’i
As I “count up” to my 70th birthday” I think more and more about choice & inevitability, and the wonder of the unknown. When I received these pictures from my friend Sharon they struck me as reflecting the human condition . . . mine included.
Tree, speak to me
of essence
Speak to me.
reaching ever reaching
for the Source
clinging to the sky
soaring from the earth
growing visible invisible patterns
in time and space
clinging tenaciously
clinging by my roots
to a passage yet unknown
Thanks Sharon for sharing!
Becca Givens posts pictures of trees she photographs on her blog Sunday Trees. Becca has much more discipline than I do as it is every Sunday! Here’s some of her “trees” Sunday Trees 03, Sunday Trees 08, Sunday Trees 26 in the Mayan Ruins
Give, strange little word
neither melodic nor quaint
quixotic at best
A give-or-take verb
Frankly I don’t give a darn
a strange little word
“Give ME a break – Judy’s the one who’s strange . . .”
“Thou Shalt Not Whine” is a hand embroidered sign in my office that was given to me by my good friend Sharon.
I do try to live up to that motto but today I am whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiining. I have a headache, my body aches all over, my feet are burning, my brain is fogged and the only energy I had was depleted by the effort it took me to get in bed and take a nap*. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Woe is me! Oh! woe is me!
“I’m not lissssssstening”
Like all (or many) of us living with chronic conditions the key is life-style management to keep the symptoms at a low simmer instead of a rolling boil. In the last several decades I’ve perfected life-style management:
judy’s Life-Style Management
Overdo it quick
take advantage of the lull
then crash, moan and groan.
Whimper quietly
when no one is listening
It’s free therapy
*You don’t have to wash your hands after reading this post. I’m not contagious. It’s just fibromyalgia letting me know who’s in charge.
My motto: Never, ever give up on healthy eating when it comes to chocolate!
Brownie mix and pumpkin . . . well you’ll have to read my first attempt 3 ingredients to Eat Healthier and lose cravings . . . not so delectable. So back to Google and trying cake mix instead of brownie mix. I also used an ORGANIC brand of pumpkin but the “batter” was so stiff I couldn’t stir it. So I plopped in an ORGANIC egg . . . and of course, flax-seed to make it a COMPLETE health food.
ALL organic ingredients
LimERICK by Rick
Dogs are incredibly likeable creatures
with many commendable features.
They sniff and they lick
and rarely get sick
whether named Freddie or Duffy or Peaches.
(couldn’t find a name to rhyme with features)
* * *
LimeRick by Freddie
There once was a dog named Freddie
he sleeps a lot in his beddie
never wears clothes
checks you out with his nose
much more cuddly than any teddie
Freddie Parker Westerfield
Rats! George Clooney is off the market! I rarely write about celebrities but Clooney is an exception. I was in love with him before he was famous. He played detective James Falconer on the TV show Sisters in 1993. I didn’t have a clue who he was. I only watched the show to see him.
Clooney Rat
You’ll have to read my only other Clooney post: You Mean I Could Have George Clooney’s Baby (and a Hacked Haiku)
Bob the Blobfish sez:
“Here she goes again. . .”
There once was an unfortunate duck
whose love life completely sucked
his brown feet ignored
leaving the ladies quite bored
He’s genetically out of luck
Unlucky Ducky
“. . . for the ducks that do have orange feet, well, it’s all about attracting the ladies. Chicks dig orange.”
“Bright orange coloring suggests that a male duck, also known as a drake, is getting all his vitamins, particularly carotenoids, such as beta-carotene and vitamin A, antioxidants that can be beneficial to the immune system. “This indicates that his behaviors and genes are good enough for him to recognize and eat the right food, or that his immune system is strong enough to produce bright orange legs,” Omland says. “The female sees this as a very attractive trait to pass on to her offspring.”‘
“Omland’s work only looked at drakes’ bills, but he thinks there’s enough circumstantial evidence to say that ducks check out each other’s feet, too. “Blue-footed boobies have, obviously, very blue feet, and it’s very well documented that they use their feet in courtship and that females do care about the coloration of males’ feet,” Omland says. “Perhaps mallards, like the boobies, have a foot fetish.”‘
Don’t believe me?? Read it here: Why do ducks have orange feet?
OK to grimace
when you read my weird haiku
Groaning is better
The eighth deadly sin:
Committing all the seven
in your own lifetime
A good friend, who shall remain nameless – this picture of her is definitely a sin.
A limerick is a funny little poem containing five lines. It has a very distinctive rhythm and rhyme pattern of which that was not one.
by Freddie
Portrait of Tom & organic Slug
So if YOU took Tom from off his farm
in the middle of the night
please give him due thanks
for gracing your table. (It’s fitting and right).
And for all the bugs and many slugs
which make him an organic delight
Dear Human Beings,
P.S. I was told to tell you my Human wishes that you things to be grateful for in your life, like me for example.
Good thing I’m not trying to make a living as a farmer. So far the cauliflower is bitter, the broccoli is tough, the apples are tasty but a bit mushy, the 6 berries died on the vine and word is still out on the 4 tomatoes which are green. Stay posted for my next CROP.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
with wedding bells and cockle shells
and pretty maids in a row.
Judy, Judy quite the foodie
How does your garden grow?
with broccoli plants and lots of ants
and snails in each row.
Everyone knows that EXpirations – like sneezes – spread germs.
Here’s an example of how INspirations are contagious.
Max and I just got back from our morning prayer walk. I was singing to God while Max, well, Max was sniffing to the max.
A huge raven swooped by, landing just ahead on a light post. It was sleek, shiny black and started calling loudly for other ravens to join him. I wondered if that raven was the patriarch or just some young whippersnapper with a rousing call to action.
| “What an inspiring post this… yes, I have often prayed..May God never let my thoughts get wrinkled…May I continue to exude youthful energy and exuberance…And Judy, if one has to go by Photos on your page here..you don’t look 67..touch wood…let me try:” |
A song waits to be written
And to be Sung
It’s so happy and joyous
To always stay young
Doesn’t matter if body belies
Let mind think fresh thoughts
Let heart with happier ones clung
Be cheery always, have fun
Talk to Moon, stars and flowers
Taste the rising sun on your tongue
A song that waited to be written
I know you have just sung
Hey, stay happy and stay young..
“Judy this song didn’t exist just ten minutes back.. . . .that’s the power of inspiration.” Ramesh Sood, (author of Elephant & Ant, coming soon to a computer near you). A Little More Than Ordinary..
Been working on some preliminary doodle-sketches for Ramesh’s Poem about the Love Affair Between an Elephant and an Ant.
Ramesh is so creative (and wonderfully quirky) to have dreamt up a relationship between such disparate souls! But his charming haiku and poem about this unlikely pair captured my attention and my heart.
Here’s a sample of the poetry prelude to Elephant and ANT to whet your taste for more!
Elephant & Ant by Ramesh Sood A little More than Ordinary . . . Prelude: Before Ant Before marrying his Ant
Preliminary Sketch of Rattie!
Acrylic
http://Haiku-Heights.blogspot.com
Week’s prompt: ghost
Haiku by Stephanie Lemieux
“Each week Carry On Tuesday 
(http://carryontuesdayprompt.blogspot.com/) will publish either a famous quotation or a line from a book, song or poem and invite you to Carry On where words stop. You may use some of the words or all of them either at the start of your piece or within the body of your work.”http://beccagivens.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/my-candle-burns-at-both-ends/
by Max
Love Tootsie
http://theaddisongirl.wordpress.com/
http://haiku-heights.blogspot.com – which gives out word prompts for haikus.
Here’s Max’s Haiku at the new haiku prompt “INFATUATION”
