Soul Sunday

Good morning. Sundays are devoted to poetry on the blog. Poetry is a mixture of what is said and what is unsaid. Poetry can be riddle-like. Like an interesting piece of artwork, poetry requires you to bring a lot of “you” to the interpretation of what you are reading and experiencing. I witnessed a poetic moment on television this week, that has been playing on rewind in the back of my mind a lot. The dictionary says that for an experience to be poetic it has to have this quality:

“having an imaginative or sensitively emotional style of expression.”

The poetic moment I noticed was on the latest episode of Yellowstone. It was an exchange between an environmental activist, Summer, and a young cowboy, Carter. This is the scene. I consider this to be “the poem” of the day on the blog.

She (Summer) asks about the fire in the distance.

“Is anybody going to put it out?”

“They can try. Only thing that can put it out is God,” Carter replies.

“God puts out the fire?”

“God brings rain. God puts out the fire.”

Nature puts out the fire, kid,” Summer laughs.

“That’s what I said,” Carter offers sincerely.

*** (synopsis by Outsider.com)

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Friday Smells Great

I Can Smell The Weekend

Happy Friday!!! Happy Favorites Things Friday!! On Fridays, I try to keep things light and on the surface. I typically list three songs, products, TV shows, books, etc. that have brought intrigue into my life and I strongly encourage you to tell us about one or two of your own favorites, so that we all have new fun experiences to explore. Please check out previous Friday posts for more favorites. Here are my favorites for today:

Yellowstone – If you haven’t gotten hooked on this series, get hooked this weekend. The character development, the scenery, the love stories, and the incredible writing (see this article for some amazing quotes from the show: https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/news-entertainment/a37211255/yellowstone-quotes/ ) make this a television show that is hard to stop watching after just one episode. Get caught up on all four seasons before season five (hopefully) arrives this fall. I have to admit that it took me watching two or three episodes to get captivated with Yellowstone. Watch a few episodes before you make up your mind about the show. It gets better and better as it goes along. (Fun fact, the writer of the show, Taylor Sheridan, also has an acting part in the series, and he also wrote one of my favorite movies of all time, Hell or Highwater. I think that Taylor Sheridan’s greatest gift as a writer is creating multi-faceted fictional characters who are deeply flawed, yet totally lovable despite all of their flaws. His characters have depth. They are all interesting and intriguing, in each of their own unique ways.)

Wordle – If you haven’t gotten hooked on this game yet, get hooked now. (Supposedly it’s all of the rage, even with celebrities, like Jimmy Kimmel.) Go to wordle.com and play the game. You get six chances to get the five-letter “mystery” word correct, and there is only one word to guess, each day. A great hint is to start out with a word like “adieu” or “audio” to get a feel for what vowels are in the word. This has been an excellent way to keep my hyper-competitive brood in touch with each other on a daily basis. We report (there is a share feature) our scores to the family chat almost every single day. Since you, my readers, love to read and to write, I think that you’ll be excellent at this game. I (sheepishly) have to admit that I am pretty good at it, myself.

Light-Up Flamingo Floats – I bought these hilarious floats at Christmas-time because my son said that our backyard Christmas decoration game, was sorely lacking. They are floating flamingoes with solar lights, so at night, they’re all lit up. We’ve long since put our Christmas decorations away up in the attic, but I haven’t had the heart to stop the flamingoes from floating away in our pool. The flamingoes have a festivity about them, that still brings a smile to my face, every night. I purchased mine on Amazon. Even if you live up north, I think that these pink flamingoes would look hilariously ironic in the snow, if you are wanting to make your neighbors giggle.

Have a great weekend! See you tomorrow!

“Your grandfather used to say you can’t fix a broken wagon wheel, but you can use the parts to make a new one.” John Dutton, Yellowstone

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Conversation With Trudy

Me: Oh hi, Moody Trudy. I see that you are back in the mix. Great.

My “moody Trudy” side: (big sigh) Yes, I’m here. But barely.

Me: So what brings your Debbie Downer, blah, negative energy to my otherwise even-keel psyche, in order to, in no way at all, in any sense of the word, brighten my morning?

Moody Trudy: Do you even have to ask? Coronavirus. Quarantine. The Economy. The boys headed up to their college campus to collect the last of their stuff to bring home for the long term of the unknown future. It’s sad and depressing for the boys and of course, who knows what the amount of all of the nasty, disgusting spiky round germs that they’ll bring home, stuck to all of their stuff. Just saying.

Me: Right. Well, I’m trying to stay “up” here. The good news is that I finally get to have a Zoom meeting with my mentees today and tomorrow. I haven’t had contact with them for about a month and the red tape is finally broken. I’ve been worried about them and I want them to know that I care about them and that I am here for them.

Moody Trudy: Well, let’s hope Zoom works. You computer could crash, theirs could crash. Also, I hope you don’t get too emotional and cry. That would really wig the girls out. Speaking of crashing, I hope the boys stay safe. This would be a terrible, horrible time to have to go to the hospital.

Me: True, but there is thankfully, a helluva lot less traffic on the road.

Moody Trudy: In other news, I was reading about what could go worse in 2020. Some have suggested that Yellowstone could erupt. And the post office may come to an end . . .

Me: Okay, you are really too much for me today.

Moody Trudy: What are you making for dinner? I’d start rationing the meat. Just saying. You will all probably end up becoming involuntary vegetarians and that’s when all of this “togetherness” is really going to wear thin.

Me: Do me a favor and make yourself scarce for the rest of the week, Trudy. I’m really doing my best to make the best out of this situation and you are just not very helpful.

Moody Trudy: Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow, or maybe I’ll check in later tonight.