It is Good to be Merry

"I don't think its' necessary to always put on a grave, solemn air." Erwin Wurm (from the video on Sarah's blog) 

 

son,Todd

















son, David

son, Mark

daughter, Mary Ann

It Falls To Me...but I can hurl it back...(on my blog)

Before I start in on the things that "fall to me" (as suggested by Elisabeth's latest post), can I just say that I love my blog?  I think you know that I love reading your thoughts and seeing your images. And it's obvious I like organizing all my randomness into blah, blah, blah. But what I mean is, I really love my blog. As in, it's the last thing I want to see before I go to bed at night, and the first thing I want to see in the morning kind of love. After I write a post, I narcissistically gaze at this thing I've created - this wonderful one-of-a kind expression of all that is me. But it's not the same gaze I reserve for new babies in my life. No, that's the normal me.

I can probably blame the stresses in my life right now for this abnormal attraction to my blog. I've received a few comments about my obsessional need to talk about my mother's failing health and I have Rachel to thank for reminding me that this is not fiction I'm writing here - it's my life. And this is what's happening right now, so I'm compelled to write about it and photograph it (new picture of Mom's hands on sidebar). And this brings me back to THINGS THAT FALL TO ME:

It falls to me to care for my mother. I'm the only daughter who lives in town. It fell to me to organize her finances after an unscrupulous trustee invested a huge portion of her money in worthless junk bonds. It involved a law suit and thousands of hours of understanding things financial and legal. There were times I half-seriously looked around my house for convenient places I could toss a rope and quit 'hanging in there' by hanging there. After lawyer's fees, we recovered about a tenth of what he'd lost, so I am more philosophical about what money can do and what it can't do. It's kind of a good thing there were no exposed beams in my home, though. 

When I was married, it fell to me to do a lot of housework. Like I said to Elisabeth - Yeah, things fall, but why do we women think we have to catch it all?

Byron Katie, author of the revolutionary concepts in The Work, talks a lot about things that are our business and things that are not. If we are the ones that want an organized house, then we do what is required to keep it that way. Trying to badger a mate into having our values is pointless. She goes through 4 simple questions about the truth of any matter and how it all goes back to our choice in how we think - concepts so mentally healthy, it makes me shake. I highly recommend it. I know I resist doing things that are healthy because I'm a little addicted to drama. Choices, it's all about choices.

Which brings me back to things that fall...

...and people who scoop things up. I am wondering if any of you are scoopers and if you've managed to deflect some of the falling debris. Stories?...Successes?....Failures?

Update On My Neice, Elaine Bradley, and Her Band, Neon Trees

The band's first album came out March 16, 2010. 
The single, Animal, is being played on rock and alternative radio stations. They were interviewed last week on MTV. 
Watch them (or record it) Jimmy Kimmel Live - Tuesday, March 23rd.
CD: Habits, both CD and mp3's of the tracks at Amazon.Vinyl: Can you believe it is also out in vinyl, Habits

iTunes:
Single, Animal -  Free download!
Neon Trees - Habits (Bonus Track Version)  choose any single or the whole album with bonus tracks.
Spread the word!

der Frühling kommt

I need to tell you how my heart feels about Spring.

My heart has labored, long and hard, 

to love men who were wrong for me.

The love of my children and grandchildren
has pushed my heart right to the breaking edges of my skin.

I have flung my heart out in songs and poems 
and midnight utterings that go unanswered.

Yet when Spring comes, I am willing to fling it all out there again. My heart gets most hopeful and malleable in Spring. I think about my literal heart and the lifeblood rushing in and out, in and out, every moment of my life. I  think about the other things that occupy my heart. My heart is full of hopes, dreams, music, stories, art, friends and children. Is it silly to hope that my very worth is the stuff of the universe; that I have the power to transform sorrow into joy, darkness into light and destruction into new life?  I feel foolish sometimes to list on the sidebar of my blog that I am an irrational optimist, but it's true, as true as SPRING.  

Disordered Words

Blogging friend, Leslie did a wordle today and I liked it. So here is one of my poems wordled. I almost like it better than the original.