My World With Words

April 9, 2016April 4, 2017

Caturday Night’s Alright for Snugglin’

Alright, alright….. Caturday Night

“Caturday Night? I’m all dressed up and ready to go!”

April 7, 2016April 4, 2017

Signs of Spring

So many of you are such wonderful photographers, I feel a little foolish posting these pictures, but I was challenged by a fellow blogger, Laura, from her blog, The View From My Window, to “bring out the beauty of what nature means to me” through my photography. She caught me at a weak moment, and I’m giving in to the challenge.

Sort of. I’m cheating here, and pulling out some favorite photos from a year or two ago, taken at the bed & breakfast I work at here in Bella Vista, Arkansas. It’s a wildlife preserve in addition to being a great place for a little getaway, and we have birds, oh my, we have birds…

Bill, one of the Inn owners, fills the bird feeders with various forms of gourmet bird meals (I’m sure they’re gourmet, Bill serves nothing but the best) just about everyday. Of course that means there are a number of plump squirrels waddling about, plotting their next move. Despite their girth, those squirrels remain very adept at climbing, leaping, swinging and other acrobatic feats necessary to get The Food.

goldfinch 1 I sometimes wonder what my cats would think of this wonderland of flight right outside the kitchen window. I’ll never know, since cats are discouraged from the area around the bird feeders. They should be, for their own safety as well as the birds, because coyotes also frequent the neighborhood. Or so I’m told — I’ve never seen one, but I believe I’ve heard a few. (And after all, who brings their cats to work?)

Any of the rest of you interested in taking part in this challenge, check out Laura’s site. My approach admittedly is a little on the, how shall we say, quieter, side, but you avid photographers may want to make a more full-throttled job of it!

(Laura is only one of my blogging buddies whose photography I enjoy, in fact, she’s only one of my blogging buddies named Laura whose photography I look forward to seeing! Thank you all for your work and for bringing your visions to us. I’m so often inspired by your photos.)

April 3, 2016April 4, 2017

Forgive, Forget, Phooey, Finally

I really want to forgive you. Maybe. Frankly, that’s a gift you don’t deserve. You turned a blind eye to even the possibility of the truth, and instead chose to believe weak stories given to you by others, people who had a clear motive to convince you of falsehoods. You used unprofessional conduct and gross abuse of power in an effort to raise your profile before others. You preyed on my weaknesses, and I’ve paid a high price for it.

Who are you to do this to me?

Justice is blind ( ... or maybe not )

The problem is, all that my anger is doing is making me unhappy. Yes, I revel in the thought of your undoing, but that’s not likely to happen. Is there karma at work in this world? Is it true “what goes around, come around”? As comforting as those thoughts are, I’m not sure the world is that equitable.

And if it is, what did I do to deserve what happened to me?

You’re not worth my thoughts, my passion anymore. Forgiveness isn’t a matter of grace from me, it’s a matter of moving forward. Of course I have constant, in-your-face reminders of what you did. It continues to jolt my life today.

It minimizes my life, and my future. It puts me at risk. That frightens me, and now I’m angry again at your arrogance in thinking you had the right to do this to me. Then I remember the people I respect think the same thing of you I do. They know who I am, and they know who you are.

I hope I’m truly able to forgive you soon, for it’s the best thing for me. It gives me back my power, and I plan to claim it. Soon. But by the same token, I hope you’re held accountable by the ones deemed proper to do so.

Since originally posting this I’ve come a long way. Yes, there’s still some anger, but it’s a tiny pest now, not a hulking monster. Time and a desire to move forward help. I won’t say forgiveness is easy, especially when the unwarranted damage has such serious and long-term consequences. And I stand by my last sentence above.

Image Credits: (lady justice) © Kanvag – Fotolia; (key to forgiveness) © Ksishchenko – Fotolia

March 31, 2016July 10, 2017

In Memoriam: Patty Duke

Where Cathy adores a minuet,
The Ballet Russes, and crepe suzette,
Our Patty loves to rock and roll,
A hot dog makes her lose control –
What a wild duet!

Patty Duke, aka Anna Pearce, died earlier this week at the age of 69. Many of you know of her early struggles in life, her three failed marriages, and her battles with mental illness. What you may not realize (I certainly didn’t) was she lived the last thirty years happily married, her bipolar disorder under control, and her relationships with her sons, actors Sean and MacKenzie Astin, intact despite their admittedly tumultuous upbringing.

That’s a lot more than a lot of celebrities with even some parallels to her life can claim.

Patty_Duke_in_The_Patty_Duke_Show_-_ABC_Television,_September_18,_1963_(The_French_Teacher) I loved her show as a child. I thought Patty and Cathy were incredibly fun, her parents were wonderful (near-perfect, but of course they were fictional) and her brother, while pesky, was tolerable. And of course there was that goofy, good-natured boyfriend.

A friend of mine in college told me he thought all families, except his, were like Patty and Cathy Lane’s. How many of us believed that same myth? Certainly Patty Duke’s family life wasn’t anything like what she portrayed on TV. Oh well.

In the last 20 years she valiantly worked to lower the stigma associated with bipolar disorder, and I believe she was successful. Thank you, Anna.

My sympathies to her husband, children, grandchildren and many friends as they grieve their loss.

March 25, 2016March 29, 2017

A Grown-Up Fairy Tale or Two, Please

No one had greater belief he could slay dragons than my late cat Montero when he was a mere six weeks old.

So brave was he I gave him the nickname “Mighty Montero.” It stuck, even when he mellowed with age and stopped facing obstacles seemingly too big to overcome. At some point, his greatest concern was getting prime position on the sofa. No dragons there.

Anyone who’s spent much time with kittens will tell you they’re fearless. Their little tails fly high, until they think all humans are out of sight, when they relax and let down their guard. But they never doubt they’re in charge. And thus they are.

Fearless in the Face of a Dragon — Now, if you think the dragon is going to win this showdown, you don’t know kitties.

Of course harm can come to kittens, and so we protect them. Harm can come to children as well, and we do the same there. In centuries past part of protecting your child included telling stories of danger in the woods such as Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel & Gretel. It doesn’t take too much imagination to figure out what those tales were really about.

I still take that kind of danger to heart, but now I’m responsible for protecting myself. I’m cautious, perhaps overly cautious, in some areas. Unfortunately, in other areas, I don’t always know when it’s safe to take risks, when the dragons can be slain without chance of them rising again and quenching me with their fire.

I weary, at times, of getting hurt, of making the same damn mistakes over and over again. I tire of gathering the courage to do what I need to do, only to have it whip me back into solitude. I need an old-fashioned grown-up fairy tale, one that tells me dragons can be vanquished, to believe in happy endings again.