Salty like hot dogs (and tears). Sweet like marmalade (and life).
Isn’t impatience beautiful? Isn’t it wonderful? Don’t you just love impatience?
Wait — what? You don’t?
What did Kafka say? Really? He said, “There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness.”
Why did he dislike flowers so much?
What?
There’s a difference between impatience and impatiens?
Never mind.
Forget everything I just said.
I just jotted this. Like in less than 5 minutes. The prompt today was “impatience.“
“Haud yer wheesht”
“Yer bum’s oot the windae”
These are my two lines for One-Liner Wednesday. I know, I know — it’s supposed to be only one.
I’m getting ready for my third Burns-ish celebration that I do with the seniors where I work. I’ve got the bagpiper set, haggis in the fridge, and cooking to do this weekend.
These two lines are Scottish. I have yet to go to Scotland, but I love reading about, watching movies set there, listening to the accent, etc.
Wheesht alone means hush, like talking to a child. But Haud yer weesht is a wee bit stronger, like Be Quiet!
Yer bum’s oot the windae means You’re talking rubbish.
I chose those two Scottish lines because I’ve been thinking about one of my countrymen who HAS traveled to Scotland, may even own property there in the form of a golf course or two, who may be abroad right now, who really needs to learn to wheesht because his bum’s oot the windae, if you know what I mean.
I have some regular visitors to my office. I rather like that. I watch them peek around the door to see if someone else is in my office.
“Is the coast clear?” or “Can I come in?” or “Is it all right if I say hi?”
Of course, I invite them in. It’s the best part of my day.
These days, I have a frequent flyer. I’ll call him Stan.
He’s a can-I-come-in kind of guy. “How are you, young lady?” he always asks.
Between you and me, I hate being called “young lady.” I’m not young. I may not even be much of a lady. And he’s younger than I am. Whatever.
“So what did you have for dinner last night?” He always asks that. I tell him. Even when it’s peanut butter and jelly. I think he’s looking for dinner ideas.
When I was cooking for my tribe, the hardest part was the idea.
If someone told me that tonight was meatloaf night, I would make a meatloaf. But coming up with the idea for meatloaf was something that taxed my brain.
So I started writing out a monthly menu.
Seriously.
My very first blog — 20-some years ago — included a page that was “What’s for dinner tonight.” I had a friend that told me that’s what she always went to first. For the idea.
I don’t even remember the name of that blog.
Sad, but true.
Why am I telling you all this? Oh, yeah. Stan in my office.
Stan comes in to talk. About this and that. About nothing, really.
And yet about everything.
“I love talking to you,” he said today. “You’re very honest.”
I don’t know how to be anything but.
“You’re strong,” he said.
I might beg to differ, but what good would it do?
“What are you having for dinner tonight?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied, honestly, weakly. I really don’t.
I think there’s something unspoken in all these conversations.
I’m not 100% sure what it is, but I think it’s the honesty.
I’m not looking to BS anyone. My life is my life — full of mis-steps and mistakes.
Come into my office and I’ll tell you all about it.
And listen to you talk about your less-than-perfect life.
The coast is clear.
You can come in.
It’s okay if you want to say hi.
I started a post on baking cinnamon rolls and how the baker develops a recognition of the consistency of the dough as it’s being kneaded. Yes, this yeast is alive and doing the thing it’s supposed to do.
But then I second-guessed myself. Few people will relate to that, I thought.
My fallback is to find a quote using the prompt. I forgot to mention that today’s prompt was consistency.
Consistency quotes are, well, pretty consistent. Encouragement to stick with a thing.
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” ~~ Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
“Consistency is the mother of mastery.” ~~ author unknown
“The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.” ~~ Tom Landry
“Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity.” ~~ Bruce Lee
“Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.” ~~ John C. Maxwell
You get the idea, right?
And it’s great advice; it really is!
But then I read Oscar Wilde’s quote on consistency.
He always was a rebel.
And I really appreciate that.
One of the ways that I organize my thoughts each morning is reading. It sets me on the right path for today.
Then, I copy a quote or two into my journal. Writing out the words, I believe, helps them stick in my brain.
This weekend, I am not at home. I could have sworn that I brought a pen with me, but it is nowhere to be found. It’s probably with my glasses.
I’m at an inn, not a chain hotel. If I were in a hotel room, I’m sure there would be a pen or two, a pad of paper or two, and far less charm than where I’m staying.
So, this morning, here is where I will copy the quote that struck me.
I’m reading a book called Aging: Growing Old in Church by Will Willimon. For the past several years, I have focused on one author each year. This year, I chose William Willimon, who somewhere between his first book, Between Two Advents, an early book of his, and this one, he shortened his name to Will instead of William. I’m curious about that.
I also wrote a letter to him, yet to be printed and mailed, asking if I could meet him toward the end of the year. When you read a lot of books by an author, you feel like you know him. My authors have all been deceased by the time I’m bingeing on them. Will(iam) Willimon is very much alive. Maybe I’ll get brave enough to send that letter.
Anyway, today’s quote:
The poet T.S. Eliot lists three ills of aging: ills of the body, ills of the world, and ills of the past… Some older persons are consumed with remorse due to life paths taken and not taken, fractured relationships, and regrettable life choices…. Nearly every Sunday the pastor invites us to ‘confess our sins to Almighty God,’ an invitation for everyone to unburden and leave their regrets at the altar. Jesus commanded us to forgive our enemies, and sometimes our greatest enemy is our vain attempt to live our lives without mistakes and regrets.
I believe that a fundamental secret of successful aging is learning to affirm the lives God gives us in the face of regret that God didn’t give us the lives we thought we needed to live happily.
This post is brought to you by the JusJoJan prompt: organ. What a great word! When I read it, organize immediately came to mind. Organ could also refer to your liver or kidney, or a musical instrument. Then there’s organic chemistry. And organisms. Even a word like ‘organization’ can go in different directions! So thank you, Kaye, for a great prompt!
One of my mother’s favorite sayings when something was lost was, “It’s always the last place you look.”
It’s funny, I suppose. I say it myself these days.
But it’s really NOT funny when you’ve lost something and looked EVERYWHERE. This has been the case for me this past week. I lost my new glasses. I have looked everywhere.
Everywhere.
And yet my mother keeps whispering in my ear, “Keep looking. It’s always the last place you look.”
Not helpful.
This post is brought to you by Linda Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday for which the prompt was “favorite saying“.
The shadows flicker on the walls
Distorted images, truths, faces, facts
They grow, shrink, grow again, moving all the while
What am I seeing?
What is true?
I must escape this cave…
This song, The Cave by Mumford and Sons, has long been a favorite of mine. When it was in its auto-repeat phase for me, I was fascinated by the lyrics.
What does it mean to “Come out of the cave walking on your hands”? I looked it up. Those lyrics are a reference to both Plato and St. Francis of Assisi, who both sought to understand life.
The song challenges us to look at the world differently.
While not using the word “philosophy”, it IS a response to Sadje’s JusJoJan prompt: philosophy.
It’s also my attempt at a Cherita, the W3 challenge for this week. Cherita is the Malay word for story or tale.
A traditional cherita unfolds in three verses, each growing in length:
Verse 1: one line
Verse 2: two lines
Verse 3: three lines
Okay — so there have been times in my life when I have started something and midway through stopped to ask, “Whose dumb idea was this?” Of course it was mine.
Of course it was.
When the JusJoJan prompt for today came up, I looked at the word — symbiotic — and thought, whose dumb was that?! I think you know the answer.
I had quickly submitted it as a prompt word while feeling very frustrated with the state of our country. We’re at odds with each other too much.
I think the beauty of our country has been that we don’t always have to agree. We are free to disagree. We are free to speak about what we believe. We are free to be who we want to be. AND we are free to seek a mutual good for us all.
Until now.
But I don’t want to focus on that.
Symbiosis is when two different species or organisms live intertwined lives.
Here are three different symbiotic relationships:
Commensialism is where one species benefits and the other remains neutral. An example is barnacles on whales. The barnacle benefits from the free ride and access to plankton; the whale is unaffected. In politics, it may be the politician who considers a bill doesn’t really affect his constituents and doesn’t come with a big pricetage. It may benefit another state significantly without costing him anything. He votes FOR it.
Mutualism is where both species benefit, like bees and flowers. In politics, this may be the behind-the-scenes negotiating on some big bill. The politician may say this part benefits me and that part benefits you. Let’s do it.
Parasitism is when one species benefits and the other is harmed. Ticks immediately come to mind. Blood-sucking disease-bearing arachnids that we can all do without. Political analogy? I’ll leave that up to you.
My mother always used to say, “The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana.”
~~ Betty White
This post brought to you by JusJoJan, One-Liner Wednesday, and bananas.
A man named Harry McBubbish
Wrote a novel he wanted to publish
But all those who read it
Suggested no edit
But said, “This book is rubbish!”
Spinster/publisher Mary Contrary
Read the book that was written by Harry
“Oh, Harry,” she sighed
“Make me your bride
And I’ll publish The Blueberry Fairy.”
The JusJoJan prompt for the day: rubbish
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 