A to Z Blogging Challenge · Life

Z is for Zig-Zag

There once was a life full of twists
Opportunities taken (some missed)
Zig-zagging around
Fulfillment was found
[can you finish my limerick for me?]

Those darn zig-zaggy roads of Ethiopia
Arial view of the switchbacks in Ethiopia
Another view of the Ethiopian roads

I was startled awake in the midst of a dream last night.

In my dream, I was at an event, a concert of some sort. I was distracted by some severely handicapped people there — not in a bad way, just wondering where they would sit and how the music would affect them. I was seated near the front so I had close-up view of the performers. I watched them usher three of the handicapped people down to the front and seat them — one at a grand piano, one at a keyboard, and the third at a drum set. A handler placed the man’s hands on the keys of the piano and he began to play. It was beautiful, until he lost his place on the keys. The keyboardist began playing. The drummer began playing. The pianist was growing more and more discordant as he banged his hands on the keys; he had lost his way. I couldn’t tell what triggered it, I feel like it was the pianist listening to the others, because suddenly the music of the three musicians blended into something beautiful.

Then I woke up.

I had been thinking about this post — my zig-zaggy road post– but couldn’t come up with a focus. I think the dream helped me.

Sometimes we lose our way, and life becomes discordant. The switchbacks on the roads cause us to lose our sense of direction.

But then we arrive somewhere — it may be the destination we started off for, or it may be someplace totally different.

Regardless, life is beautiful if we look for the beauty.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

Y is for Young

There once was a couple quite young
Who together their fortunes they flung
Handsome husband, lovely wife
They had a great life
[can you finish my limerick for me?]

1953
My dad and mom –2008?

I did not imagine that I would get emotional writing this post about my parents. I went back and found a post I had written in 2011, They were young, and started to tear up.

My mom had dementia. I started this blog while I was trying to unravel that knot. The name of the blog is based on something she had done — put marmalade on my dad’s hot dog for lunch. She went through a whole marmalade phase, putting marmalade on everything.

Gosh, I’m so emotional looking at those photos, remembering.

She died in 2015. He died in 2019. There’s a huge lump in my throat.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · family

X is for X-mas (and other holidays)

There once was a family who posed
Each year in their holiday clothes
Christmas, Easter, and such
It was never too much
[can you finish my limerick for me?]


1963?
1965?
1966?
1967?

My family faithfully took posed family pictures. We suffered through them as kids.

Then those group photos morphed into pictures of birthdays, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and family reunions.

I know X-mas was a stretch for this A-to-Z Challenge. I’m not sure exactly when many of those photos were taken, but here’s a posed family picture that was clearly Christmas:

1966?

My mother painted this picture of our family on plywood and it stood outside our house in Fort Devens at Christmas time. I marvel that she did that.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

Nazareth

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? — John 1:46

It’s a speck
On the map
Nazareth
Let’s recap:

It was home
To a mere
300
(so I hear)

Nothing big
Nothing key
Just a spot
Zilch to see

Yet from there
Came the Christ
Who for us:
Sacrificed


This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · Faith · poetry

Many

What are they for so many? — John 6:9

A few loaves?
And two fish?
What are they?
Futile wish

That somehow
These would feed
A crowd? Ha!
No, indeed.

And yet once
Broken, they
Did just that —
“How?” You say

Magic? Was
It Divine?
I don’t know –
Yet, I dine


This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

Love

“Simon, son of John, do you love me…?” John 21:15, 17

Oh, the ache
To be asked
This question
Three times! Cast

Your net! Catch
Some fish — these
Were easy!
Yes, a breeze

Compared with
Do you love
Me? It hurts
To think of

Peter — so
Brash, headstrong
Impulsive
Sometimes wrong

Forced to think
And reply
Yes, yes, yes —
You know I

Do. You know
Ev’rything.
Follow you?
Anything!


This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

Confession: I got stuck on K. It sits in my draft folder, half-written. I’ll circle back — but, for now, I’m moving on with L.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · Faith · poetry

Judge

“Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” — John 7:51

people are
quick to judge
then often can’t
even budge

when they hear
facts that tell
another
tale. Lord, quell

my judgment
change my mind
let me be
open, kind.


This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

Identity

Who are you? John 1:19

Who are you?
Who are you
Really? What
Do you do

That makes you
You — unique
Distinctive
So to speak

Why are you?
What is your
Purpose? What
Are you for?

Who are you
Really? Know
Yourself. Be
You. Now go.


This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

How

How can these things be? John 3:9


Don’t explain
Don’t even
Try to — Just
Believe in

Mystery
“The wind blows…
You hear it…”
But who knows

Where and why
It begins
And ends, or
How earth spins


This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.

A to Z Blogging Challenge · Bible Study · poetry

Grumble

 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves...”
John 6:42-43


When something
Doesn’t make
Sense — grumble,
Complain,  take

Offense. Right?
Life revolves
Around you
And involves

You even
If it does
Not. We’re so
Blind because

We can’t see
We can’t know
We think we
Do — but no

Take a breath
Take a sec
Think a bit
Doublecheck

Open eyes
Open heart
Grumble not
That’s a start


This year for the A-to-Z challenge, I’m challenging myself to write a Cethramtu Rannaigechta Moire every day. I can’t pronounce it, but I can tell you that it’s an Irish poetic form that requires 3 syllable lines in quatrains. The second and fourth lines rhyme.

Additionally, I’ve been collecting questions for a few years — specifically questions from the Bible. I have a big problem with people who think they know everything, especially religious people.

The more someone thinks they know God, the converse is true. I know less about God today than I did last year or five years or twenty-five years ago. I have so many questions.

Turns out the Bible is full of questions.

So, I’m using questions from the Gospel of John for this challenge.