I have no idea what made me think about the following incident today. It has nothing to do with St. Patrick’s Day or wearing green or playing bagpipes. I do hope that you had a fun day celebrating your Irish heritage even if you have no real Irish heritage!

Remembering this incident might possibly have something to do with a mother (location unknown) who realized that her young daughter’s beloved goldfish bowl held zero actually living goldfish one recent morning.

Maybe I heard it on The Today Show. Maybe I read it online. Maybe someone wrote it in a blog post. Maybe I dreamed it. Anyway, the mother was worried that her daughter would be extremely upset upon finding out about the goldfish demise.

So the mom added some of those very small carrots to the goldfish bowl…and everything was just fine and dandy when the daughter checked on the goldfish! I wonder how the carrots are doing floating (?) in that water-filled bowl!

Hearing about the carrots being goldfish must have reminded me about THE INCIDENT that happened to me a long time ago when I was fourteen. My cousins were visiting our house for for a few days or maybe one day. That’s not the really important part. Their parents and my parents were drinking coffee and talking in the breakfast room. The children were driving them crazy. I was the oldest and two years older than their oldest. There were five of them and one of me.

So their mom said…

I have a great idea! Tricia (me)…walk all of the kids down to Gibson’s (a small Walmart type store). Let them each buy a little toy and then walk back. And she gave me some money.

Gibson’s was just a couple of blocks away and we did fine walking and even crossing a street. When we got into the store, I gathered all the children around and gave them a lecture…good practice for when I became a teacher. I told them that we would…

STAY TOGETHER, NOT RUN,  NOT SCREAM, NOT CRY. BASICALLY ACT JUST RIGHT OR THERE WOULD BE NO LITTLE TOYS!

They all shook their heads up and down. They promised. As soon as we started walking towards the toy department… the oldest child ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. The rest of us did not follow my very fair rules and all screamed at him to stop. He kept going. I was beyond furious. I had never been so furious in all of my fourteen years.

We looked all over the store and could not find him at all, so we walked back to the front door of the store and waited. We saw him walking towards us looking like a rat that fell into the creek and could barely walk.

The child (twelve years old and he should have known better) was soaking wet. His hair was flying every which way but the right way. Water was dripping down his face. An awful sight.

I screamed (another scream)…”What have you been doing? You look crazy!” Honestly, it was just downright embarrassing. And then he said…

“Tricia…don’t you understand? I stuck my head in the fish tank! All I wanted to do was to see what the world looked like for a fish. Doesn’t everyone think about that?

That twelve year old boy is a successful writer now. He has imagination and creativity galore! I cannot help but think…why in the world didn’t I stick my head in that fish tank?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day…And Keep Celebrating All During the Weekend!!

When a good friend graduated from college, I sent him a card to congratulate him and wish him well in graduate school. I received a copy of the following poem from him as an early graduation present…I would not finish college for another year or so. He was two years older and much wiser than me at that time. We had worked together on the college newspaper, The Pine Log.

As a member of the college newspaper staff, he had been the Editor and I had been a Copy Editor. Directing his life with the poem’s philosophy, Robert McCullough absolutely achieved high levels of success. Thank you, Robert! Without knowing it, you gave me a focus and a plan for life.

When I first read this poem, I realized that luck in life depends on what you put into it. It is truly amazing that one small gift can make such an appreciated difference!

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Desiderata – Words for Life

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

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The meaning of the poem’s title…Desiderata are the things considered necessary or highly desirable. The poet is listing things that possibly could be desirable in life!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/luck/

Small town grandeur…Telluride, Colorado

Telluride, Colorado is just different. Sure..Telluride’s beauty is undeniable. The ski slopes in winter are not particularly crowded. Telluride is not a massive ski resort, as compared to others that we have visited. The shops are expensive, but the sweaters for sale are simply the best. Guess what…you don’t need to be wearing one of those high priced sweaters to feel at home in Telluride! Being yourself is enough.

Telluride is sort of like being in Austin…but this Austin has mountains and snow and biking trails that seem to reach the sky. You might remember from another post that Austin’s motto is “Keep Austin Weird”. Telluride might adopt their own motto…such as “Keep Telluride Eclectic”. From the fun people to the fanciful architecture to the old fashioned ice cream parlor, Telluride is a unique combination of friendly people and a different way to live. Telluride is a place for the free spirit to live…perhaps a free spirit with deep pockets of money.

As Christopher Solomon says in his article “36 Hours in Telluride, Colorado (The New York Times, 12/10/2015): “Beauty and great skiing keep pulling the money here, and that keeps refreshing the scene. But it’s the people who make this place interesting-a quirky stew of Patagonia-clad men who look as if they came straight from base camp; flushed women direct from their 10-mile runs; still others reciting poetry in bordello-wear at a Colorado Avenue bar; and gray-poneytailed hippies who play ‘Sugar Magnolia’ so often you’d think Jerry Garcia never went to that great jam fest in the sky. Telluride isn’t a just a ski area; it’s a way of life.”

Telluride is located in the San Juan Mountains…the southwestern part of  Colorado…49.6 miles from Ouray and 65.7 miles from Montrose. We have visited Ouray multiple times and I wrote a post about this equally interesting Colorado town a few months ago. Honestly, it is less expensive to stay in Ouray and drive over to enjoy Telluride. The drive is outstanding and worth the effort. Better yet…rent a jeep and drive to Telluride on the jeep trails…it does take a bit of nerve and some jeep driving practice!

A must see in Telluride…Bridal Veil Falls 

When our children were still in elementary and middle school, we met our very good friends in Ouray. Their two daughters were in elementary school…so there were eight of us all together. They had been going to Ouray for years and knew the jeep trails backwards and forwards. We had never been to Ouray, but had rented jeeps quite a few times in Red River, New Mexico. So…surely we knew what we were doing! My husband was doing great driving our jeep until we got to Bridal Veil Falls.

When we were very close to the falls…we had to turn around. The pass that we planned to take was closed because there was still too much snow. The temperature was 101 degrees when we left Texas. Just a not so subtle reminder of why I was really supposed to live in Colorado!

In order to turn around, we had to back up incredibly close to the edge. Our son and their five year old daughter were “helping” by giving my husband continuous advice on backing up.”EEK…WHOA…STOP!” yelled the two helpers who quickly ended up standing outside of the jeep during the maneuvers! 

However, Bridal Veil Falls met all of our expectations. The waterfalls are 365 feet in length and are the tallest free falling waterfall in Colorado (according to the Telluride Tourism Board). Many people bike, hike and drive four-wheel drive vehicles up the road to the falls. Telluride is very near perfect any season.

Peaceful, friendly, challenging, old fashioned buildings…yet modern at the same time. Telluride…a place to enjoy the mountain views as well as the warm small town atmosphere!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/massive/

I almost went to Walmart for groceries last week. I had a ton of things to do that day and the last thing I wanted was to face the crowds at a huge, overcrowded store. Therefore, I opted for a smaller “just a grocery store” type place. At Walmart, I tend to wander up and down the cooking utensil aisles, the “put it together yourself” furniture aisle, the socks aisle because I like crazy socks and…well…you name it, I am on that aisle.

It is typical for me to spend thirty minutes at Walmart before I have even spotted one banana or loaf of bread. I am pitiful. I just like to look at junk and non-junk that I absolutely do not need. I am also instinctively drawn to any aisle that has office supplies. I have enough paper clips. Wait…let me check…I have enough plain paper clips. I do not have any of the brightly colored ones. I will write that down as a need.

However, last week I fought the tug of Walmart and went to the smaller grocery…that I refer to as the “incredibly civilized store”. It is fancy. There is quiet music and there are quiet people. Not one person has ever rushed passed me with their grocery cart as if they are late to their own wedding. And…best of all…they have a deli filled with delectable cheeses and delicacies from anywhere in the world. And…beautiful flower in beautiful vases. You see…this store appears to be the Neiman-Marcus of grocery stores. Like I said… incredibly civilized. And far more expensive than my dear Walmart Supercenter.

I always felt much safer at the civilized store. Simply less people. I felt safer until last week. 

While shopping at the “civilized store”, I was looking through the large selection of jams and jellies from other countries. One jar that I wanted was on a lower shelf, so I bent down to get it. I suppose it was instinct that made me stand back up and look at my cart. Actually, my cart was right beside me. Before I bent down to retrieve the jar, there was not one person on the aisle with me. Nada! I remember thinking that I would never be on an aisle with no other people at Walmart.

When I stood back up, there was a man with his hand on a bag of potatoes that was in my cart. The bag was right behind my purse. He jumped back when I stood up and said…

“Did they say they wanted potatoes?” and then he said…”Oh, you’re not my wife!”.

He then walked away as quickly as possible. It was such an odd encounter that I followed him and he had totally disappeared. The aisle was very close to the check-outs and the front doors. I looked everywhere for that man…not to be found.

I knew immediately that he was most likely up to “no good”. Perhaps I should have yelled right away for help. I did quickly tell the store manager what had happened and they looked on the security camera footage. Evidently, this was certainly not the first reported incidence. Very scary.

Without instinct or intuition, I would probably have stood up to find a cart without a purse and maybe a parking lot without a car. One click on my key fob and he could have found my car. It was parked on the row closest to the door. Lesson learned. Be careful. Be watchful. Even in the “civilized” store…which really turned out to be not so safe at all.

Can it be safer at a more crowded store? Sometimes! At least, I did not buy any more pens or pencils. At least, I bought some very good cheese. At least, I know that I am shopping for groceries at Walmart today!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/instinct/

The Azaleas and Japanese Maple Tree in our front yard.

Azaleas have a special place in my heart. My parents had a yard filled with the tallest pine trees and the most colorful Azaleas imaginable to a child. As a family, we immersed ourselves in taking care of the flowers, lush green grass and those tall pine trees.

There were most likely other trees in our yard, but I have no idea what they were. And there were most likely other flowers, but what were they? I just do not know. When the Azaleas started blooming, my eyes were totally on those flowers. After I met my husband, I found out that he felt the same way about his parent’s yard and the Azaleas in front of their house.

Isn’t it wonderful how some people are placed together who have similar feelings about home. The land at our farm is filled with tall pine trees and pastures where wildflowers grow profusely in the spring. When we first drove by our current home in Dallas/Fort Worth, we knew immediately that we were interested…because of the yard. We were just lucky that there was a “for sale” sign out front.

“Nature is a revelation of God;

Art a revelation of man.”

 ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow~

Was it really luck or a large amount of help from above? We had been looking at homes with a realtor for weeks in suburban areas. The realtor had never shown us houses in this neighborhood. In fact, she was not even familiar with the area. Sometimes, realtors just focus on one particular area where they think the quickest, most profitable sales will occur. We found the house when we were driving around and almost getting lost on a Sunday afternoon.

It happened to be late Springtime when we first saw the house…the trees were large and full, the grass was very green and there were flowers! We were sold before we stepped foot inside the house. Shows you what curb appeal means to a buyer! The house turned out to be a wonderful place and a fun yard for our children as they were growing up. Our two children were totally immersed in the fun of playing outside in their yard…just as we both were immersed in the fun of playing outside when we were growing up!

It was not long before we planted some beautiful Azaleas and a Japanese Maple to the other flowers and trees in our yard. As shown in the above picture…they flourished with an abundance of love and care!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/immerse/

Justin Townes Earle is a singer/songwriter with a new record titled Kids in the Street being released on May 26th. Justin is undeniably good at what he does and he happens to be part of my extended family. Justin is the son of my rather renegade cousin, Steve Earle who is a successful and multiple Grammy winning singer, songwriter, actor as well as author. Justin has taken his inherited talent for putting words and music together to a new level of expertise.

To me personally, Justin’s music resonates with the laid-back sound of Memphis soul music tied with the blues. I have loved folk music since I was very young and I can hear some of those same deeply felt lyrics in Justin’s songs. With this record, Justin is evidently branching out to new sounds and new directions. I am looking forward to hearing the entire record!

From the magazine, Rolling Stone…portions of a recent article about Justin’s new record…

“Justin Townes Earle-despite a name that evokes both father Steve and his dad’s mentor, Townes Van Zandt- has always had a knack for forging a strong and unusual relationship between roots music’s past and its newest arbiters. He made songs about wandering the Lower East Side of Manhattan feel natural against his sledgehammer strums and the beat of an upright bass, and despite his taste for everything that rested outside of country’s borders-Memphis soul, swing, blues and rockabilly-he’d never ventured beyond his native Tennessee to record an album or work with an outside producer.

But Kids in the Street, Earle’s forthcoming record and his first on New West, does just that. At the production helm is Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis, who took Earle to his studio in Omaha, Nebraska, to make the LP and help the singer-songwriter transition even more heavily away from the traditional folk-country arrangements he grew up around. The album’s lead single, “Champagne Corolla”, is a subtle poke at the pastiche of an American musician cruising around their gentrified neighborhood in a vintage truck, when the people who settled there first toiled for something far more working-class. Stacked with horns and a Motown groove, “Champagne Corolla” is a preview of an album that Earle says will not only tackle some recent life changes-marriage, a baby on the way, a sober existence after struggling with addiction-but wrestle with the ghosts of Nashville, both sonically and physically.”    

  -Written by Marissa R. Moss for Rolling Stone-

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/record/

The cookbook titled A Cook’s Tour of Shalom was given to me in 1978. I possibly have no idea who gave it to me and I have no idea what the gift-giving occasion might have been. Our son was born in 1978, but I would not have received a grownup type cookbook at a baby shower. No, surely not! Actually, it probably could be that I gave it to myself…I am known for that sort of gift-giving! It is a very, very real pattern with me!

I might say to myself: “I took my car to get a car wash and vacuumed all of the inside! I deserve to buy myself a little present!” or “I read all of my current emails today! So really exhausting! I certainly deserve to buy myself a little present!” or “I remembered that I had an important dentist appointment today and I almost arrived on time! I deserve to buy myself a little present!”…such a pattern of self-centered thinking. Not a good idea at all. Yes, I imagine that I bought the cookbook for myself!

This particular and most likely gift from me and to me turned out to be one of the most interesting and amazing cookbooks in my collection. My close friend in high school and also close friend today is Jewish. I loved to go to her house for special celebrations and to her sorority house for dinner when we were in college!

There are so many typically Jewish foods in this cookbook that my Methodist family never fixed…such as Passover Blintzes, Matzo Balls, Farfel Apple Pudding, Wine and Nut Cake, Pickled Mushrooms and Smokey Salmon Spread.

A Cook’s Tour of Shalom was put together by the Temple Shalom Sisterhood in Dallas, Texas. My most favorite recipe in this cookbook is a truly delicious and unusual (at least…to me!) Meat Loaf Recipe…

Fantastic Meat Loaf

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground chuck

1/2 cup cottage cheese

3 tablespoons applesauce

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

2 eggs, lightly beaten

salt and pepper to taste

Mix together well and form into a loaf in a loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Pour sauce over the top. Sauce recipes follows below.

Sauce:

 3/4 cup ketchup

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

ENJOY!!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/pattern/

 A tree in the suburbs… found near what was once a two lane road.

There is a nuance to the outlying areas of cities. Quietly and with subtle dominance, the city found a little two lane road. Just a regular two lane road that has graduated into a six lane thoroughfare. Ahh…the delights of life in the suburbs of a big city…too much traffic.

What happened to the farms that flourished just fifteen or twenty years ago? What happened to the rolling hills filled with trees and cows and horses? New neighborhoods. Big houses and big prices. I miss that little road and those green trees swaying in the breeze. I miss the birds and the squirrels and the little nests high up in the branches. I miss the sound of the wind and leaves whistling a familiar yet almost forgotten tune.

Just a few weeks ago, I started thinking about the many changes. I started thinking how the natural beauty of the area was being replaced by perfectly paved streets and winding sidewalks and the sheer perfection of planned landscaping. I was driving down that now six lane road (that could almost be called a highway) when I saw two exceedingly beautiful trees. These trees are on either side of the driveway to a church parking lot. The sunlight shimmered on the blossoms. The blossoms are near symmetrical in their placement on the branches. Why did the trees look so out of place?

The reason why…the trees are quite simply artificial. The comparison of the trees with the new neighborhoods and their nice winding sidewalks was almost too much for me to comprehend. Artificial trees and concrete streets and sidewalks. What happened to hiking trails, naturally flowing creeks and trees to climb?

I drove into the parking lot of the church to get a better look at the artificial trees. I took several pictures. I shook my head in dismay. I suppose that I believe in letting nature be in charge of beauty. I have the feeling that our Heavenly Father intended for us to see even the smallest leaf and the smallest flower growing on a tree.

One of the artificial trees is pictured at the top of this post. I do not think that Joyce Kilmer had artificial trees in mind when she wrote the following poem…

Trees

Written by: Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/nuance/

My family and I…Thanksgiving, 2016!

I do not know much about swarms of honeybees. Let me change that to I do not know anything about swarms of honeybees. I just know that if I were to come face to face with a swarm of honeybees…I would hightail it to the house! Posting about honeybees simply was not an option!

How about a swarm of cats? Well…I do not have any cats right now! How about a swarm of horses? Nope! How about a swarm of birds? Who am I kidding? I have not yet recovered from seeing that scary movie…The Birds! I was just a kid! Obviously, too young! So what to choose?

I looked all over the place and I finally found a swarm of something…pictures! I have tons of favorite pictures that you most likely do not care about. So…I will just choose a few from the swarm!

Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, playing cards with friends in Tulsa, our son-in-law and friends riding four wheelers at our farm, drone family picture at Thanksgiving, chapel at Big Cedar’s Top of the Rock!

Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo…with my husband and our friends, with our daughter, even little ones can be champions, rodeo awards ceremony!

Various pictures at our farm…including our Granddog!  Plus a stained glass window from the chapel at Texas Woman’s University!

Some of my favorite pictures from our daughter’s wedding! Plus a picture of downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas.

A video of the opening ceremony for the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Star Spangled Banner sung by the TCU men’s chorus. The video is very large and I cannot move it down… I have no idea why and I do not have the patience to try to change it anymore!!! So there you have it…a swarm of favorite pictures and one very huge video!!! 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/swarm/