Author: Sally

poetry

The Old Homestead

Sally12 Comments

I grew up in this old famhouse. Here
I stumble over memories
Stub my toe on them even
Sorting is quite daunting
This house is haunting
Daily I try
To get one
More box
Done

This is my response to TWO prompts!

The JusJoJan prompt for the day is stumble.

The W3 prompt is: Write a Nonet about the new year — 2026. How does this year feel to you so far? Are you hopeful, uncertain, energized, reflective? Have you set any goals or intentions? Are there resolutions you’re excited (or nervous) about? My goal for the new year is to wrap up dealing with my parents’ estate.

Faith

What Kind of Blessedness

Sally1 Comment

It certainly sounds more realistic for people in darkness to dream of God’s day of vengeance, finding satisfaction in the hope that at the Last Judgment all the godless enemies who oppress us here will be cast into hellfire.
But what kind of blessedness is it that luxuriates in revenge and needs the groans of the damned as background to its own joy?
To us a child is born, not an embittered old man.

Jürgen Moltmann, The Power of the Powerless

Okay, it’s not one, not two, but three lines that I’m using for One-Liner Wednesday. I read these words this morning and they spoke to me.

My faith is a struggle these days, what with all that’s going on with our government and the focus on retribution, and the callousness towards humt

Still, I read every morning, trying to start my day off with the right mindset.

To us a child is born. To us a child is born. To us a child is born.

God didn’t come in wrath, seeing to punish. He came as a helpless baby.

Writing

Intentional Walk

Sally6 Comments

Once upon a time I did a whole bunch of research on my hometown, Cooperstown, which is also the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Tourists come here in droves in the summer for baseball stuff — but the village is so much more than baseball.

Years ago, when I was taking care of my father, the home health aide came and shoo me out of the house. “Go do something for yourself,” she would say.

So I would go to the research library. I mean, isn’t that where everyone would want to go?

I researched the town, the old homes, the founders, etc. I made up a walking tour of the village and walked it a gazillion times with one of my daughter. She knew the tour better than I did, I think.

Then I was talking with one of my sons and asked what he would call a non-baseball tour of Cooperstown. He thought about it, and then said, “An Intentional Walk.”

I loved it.

(For those who don’t know, an intentional walk IS a baseball term for when the pitcher decides to throw four balls and intentionally walk the batter because he would rather face the next guy in the line-up. These days, the pitcher doesn’t even have to throw the four balls. They can just declare it. Where’s the fun in that?)

But life happened.

My father died.

We had a pandemic.

I took a full-time job.

The Intentional Walk fell by the wayside. Maybe I should resurrect it.

James Fenimore Cooper, part of the tour. This photo shows him avoiding the pandemic.

This post is brought to you by the JusJoJan prompt: Intentional

Writing

Bear Arms

Sally1 Comment

Philomena Cunk’s thoughts are always priceless:

@bbc

Good point… are they legs or arms? 🐻 #CunkOnEarth #BBCiPlayer #Comedy #PhilomenaCunk

♬ original sound – BBC

The whole bear vs bare debacle (leaving the arms out) is further complicated by Fuzzy Wuzzy.

You remember the poem, right?

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy
Was he?

Clearly Fuzzy Wuzzy was bare. A bare bear.

But did he have arms?

This bit of nonsense is brought to you by the JusJoJan prompt: arms.

poetry

Brrr…

Sally8 Comments

But —
But what?
But you’re wrong
Yeah? And I’m King Kong
That doesn’t make you right
You wanna fight?
Ok, tell me how you figure
That minus five is bigger
Than minus two
That’s easy to do!
You think you’re smarter ‘cuz you’re older
But minus five is clearly colder

This is my response to this week’s W3 challenge:

“Write a poem (up to 20 lines) as a conversation, text thread, or inner dialogue. Let the two voices go back and forth — negotiating, hesitating, contradicting — but never quite landing on a plan. Play with repetition and everyday details to build tension and show who these people are. Slip in small observations that make the moment feel real. And when you get to the end… leave it unresolved.”

Writing

Fast/Slow

Sally6 Comments

I fell asleep last night thinking about the word “fast” because I had seen that fast/slow was the Stream of Consciousness prompt for today. I know, I know – maybe pondering the words at bedtime makes it less true stream-of-consciousness but whatever.

Fast is such a funny word. We use it to describe abstaining from eating. That seems like the opposite of fast. No eating equals fast. Slow eating means enjoying a meal. Go figure.

Then I woke up this morning and saw the news. We’ve attacked Venezuela and captured their president. Well, that happened fast.

And it’s scary.

So I sent an email to my congressman and both senators at 5:30 AM.

Supposedly, Maduro has ties to drug cartels.

But didn’t Trump pardon a convicted drug trafficker who had been the president of Honduras?

He is inconsistent at best.

And waaaaay too impulsive.

Where are the checks and balances?

It’s moving too fast. Someone needs to slow him down.

I think I’ll fast today.

And pray.

Writing

Tidal Pools

Sally2 Comments

I read this quote this morning while looking for something to write about “magnify” — the JusJoJan prompt for the day:

If you stare at suds, you’ll go crazy. But in soap suds, you’ll find bubble cubes and many other forms. I just take those things, magnify them and sometimes blow smoke inside it so you can see it better.
~~Tom Noddy

Who is Tom Noddy, you ask? According to Wikipedia, “Tom Noddy is the stage name of Tom McAllister, an American entertainer whose television performances of “Bubble Magic” with soap bubbles in the early 1980s led to a book deal and “Bubble Festivals” at science centers across America. He is the originator of a large number of bubble magic tricks now performed by entertainers around the world.“

He found something that fascinated him and he looked at it every which way. It’s funny because just the other day, I had said to someone that I didn’t need to travel the world for a vacation. I could spend a whole day or week even staring at one tidal pool.

Which I did one day in August at the Bay of Fundy.

How could I not love watching that?

Writing

Mindfulness Monday

Sally2 Comments

Every Monday, a group of people gather at Connections for “Mindfulness Monday.”

What’s Connections, you ask? Connections is the part of my job I love most. It’s a program for people who are actively aging well, a.k.a. seniors.

Let me take a step back to explain. I work at a gym-sports facility-community center. It’s hard to define what it is. It includes

  • a “gym” with cardio equipment, weight machines, free weights, etc.
  • 4 studios for classes such as yoga, zumba, fitness, and cycling
  • a gym floor, where people play basketball, futsal, volleyball, pickleball (in the winter), and more
  • an indoor track
  • three swimming pools: an 8 lane 25-yd lap pool, a diving well, and a warm shallow pool that we use for teaching lessons and share with physical therapy where they do aqua-therapy
  • an 8 lane bowling alley
  • a golf simulator
  • a high climbing wall
  • racquetball and squash courts
  • 2 ping-pong tables
  • meeting rooms that can be used by community groups
  • Outside tennis courts, soccer fields, a little league field, and a high ropes course.

Also, in the building the local medical center has their out-patient physical therapy department so they can share the gym equipment and the pools.

This facility now hosts Connections, a senior program, and I get to be involved.

Two days a week Connections offers studio fitness classes, aqua classes, Tai Chi, games such pitch, cribbage, and Mah Jongg, lunch, community talks, two different supports groups (grief and Alzheimer’s), book groups, and Mindfulness.

Yes, at Connections, we have Mindfulness Monday.

Like many of the programs that have grown in Connections, it’s because a few people asked about trying it and someone volunteered to lead.

The mindfulness group, however, has taken root and grown. They expanded from 45 minutes to an hour to an hour and a half. They wanted time just to talk. They encourage each other.

Honestly, I’m not a 100% sure what they do during the mindfulness time, but I know they have readings and a singing bowl.

I apologize. This is so much more than a Just-Jot-It (JusJoJan) which I’m going to attempt to do for January (a blog challenge sponsored by Linda Hill), but today’s word was “mindfulness.”

Mindfulness Monday makes me happy and I don’t even go to it. Seeing people come together and find commonality not based in anger is nice. Really nice.

Writing

Keep Moving

Sally1 Comment

I used to think that I liked books that wrap the story in a neat little bundle. The plot was tight and complete.

I realize now that the gut-punch stories are the ones that stick with me:

  • The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings — my father gave me this book for Christmas when I was in 7th grade. I looked at the thickness of the book and thought, No way. Then I read it. And loved it. I cried and cried. How can I love something that makes me cry — but I do.
  • The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie — I still get a knot in my stomach when I think about it. “It’s all sp’iled…” The fact that I still remember that line and can picture the scene speaks to the power of the book.
  • A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean — Is it the nature and the water that make this comforting, and cause it to stick with me? Or is it the family conflict? Or is it the beauty and messiness of life all rolled into one.

This morning, I read that Dick van Dyke, who recently turned 100, had written a memoir called, “Keep Moving.” I think that IS the plot for life.

The neat tight plot isn’t real. Sad things occur. Mistakes are made. People disappoint.

And yet, the world is still a beautiful place.

My goal/theme for 2026 will be “Keep Moving.”

It’s going to be a great year.

This is my submission for Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS). This week’s word was “plot.“

poetry

Traveling Woes

Sally16 Comments

“I know it’s in here somewhere,”
She said as she dug through her pocket
She pulled out some coins, some random keys
A gold chain and her grandmother’s locket

She set in the dish a wadded up tissue
A hair clip, a Swiss army knife
“I know I didn’t forget it,” she said
As she pulled out a drum and a fife

“Could I offer you this?” she said to the man
As she pulled out a cup of iced tea
The TSA agent sighed a big sigh–
“Ma-am, I just need your Real ID”

This week’s W3 Challenge:

Let’s send 2025 off with a giggle!

Write a poem of 10 lines or fewer that places someone—or something—in a delightfully improbable location. Think sharks in a bathtub, a dragon in a bar, or any unexpected presence where it clearly doesn’t belong.

I know, I know — it’s 12 lines, not 10 — but I was on a roll.