Category Archives: joy

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mysterious

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: speculate.

We walked North Beach yesterday, 2 or 3 miles out starting at high tide 1:30 pm. There was a very large dead octopus on the beach. There were three bald eagles in the trees above and then more in flight, arriving for a chance at this meal. There was a pair of bald eagles flying in tandem and then this bird. The white wing tips are the clue. I can only find one very large bird in North America with the wings with white feathers at the ends, and it’s not an eagle.

Do you care to speculate? If I am correct, it is a long way from the Cornell Bird Lab map of where it is supposed to live.

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taking turns

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: diametric.

I am trying to think how I’ve seen diametric used other than “diametrically opposed”.

Here are diametric robins. Maybe they are discussing politics. At any rate they are facing opposite ways. Look at how polite they are, taking turns singing and listening to each other speak with such attention. Diametric to our current politics, I think.

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many flags

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: language.

I spent three days with the Rotary President Elect Training this past weekend. I am part of District 5020, which stretches from the end of Vancouver Island, BC, Canada down the Olympic Peninsula, WA, United States. There were people from ten districts.

The Rotary’s Polio Plus program is working hard to eradicate polio. This year the match from the Gates Foundation will be 2 dollars for every dollar the Rotary brings to end polio.

The flags from all the different countries and people working together: that speaks the language of peace and hope to me.

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winter bird

Our snow is gone, but I heard on bird note how the Anna’s hummingbirds survive. One morning the temperature here was 14 degrees F, and then the hummingbird was out as soon as it was light. Dive bombing me as I brought out the feeder after thawing it. Bird note says that they can slow their metabolism, like a mini hibernation, during the freezing temperatures. This helps them expand their range and get a jump on the humming birds that go south.

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needle and thread

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: needle.

The Great Port Townsend Kinetic Sculpture Race takes place every fall. The costumes and the sculptures, human powered, on land, in the water, through mud, are amazing and fabulous. I think the racers are mechanics, seamstresses, engineers, divinely silly, skilled in wheels, gears, needle and thread, glitter glue, duct tape and teddy bear placement. The costumes are amazing and the mobile sculpture transports are even more amazing.

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Mundane Monday #200: crop.

For Mundane Monday #200, my prompt is crop.

My subject, this hummingbird, has a crop. But I also cropped the photograph. And are we planning crops for the spring? There are other sorts of crops.

Tell us and show us a photograph that uses crop. I will list them next week.

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Last week’s prompt was portal.

A new contributor bushboy adds a beautiful portal.

The Photo Junkie also joins with a portal in stone.

KLAllendorfer has photographs that are an Edinburgh portal.

I wondered last week if I should end this version of Mundane Monday with number 200. But I had not given warning, nor asked if someone wants to take over and anyhow, I thought, it gives me joy on Monday. Maybe it does for others too and isn’t one enough? So many thanks to the people reading and the old and new entries.

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new again

I get to start again

I have always seen the monsters under the bed
I have to
to survive

you don’t tell people about their monsters

I learn that early

they get angry hit punish send away
and anyhow they leave you even if they love you

when I am alone
we play
the monsters and I

they are so happy to be seen

they cry often
why doesn’t he love me?
why won’t she hold me?
why does he throw me out?
why?

I hold them
dry their tears
cuddle them
wrap them warmly

they cheer up
and play

they never forget
they alert
their person is near
they rush back

sometimes one rejected
returns with seven friends
hoping to storm the person

that doesn’t work

the monsters never lose hope
never

sometimes I see
a person see their monster
let it be conscious
the person is grown enough
to love

I am so used to the monsters
I work with them in clinic
visit after visit
the monsters weeping on my lap
while the person refuses refuses refuses
and sometimes a crack opens
like a portal light blinding
and the monster
is loved

that’s why I am here
what makes it worth staying
Beloved

now I think
I am new again
it’s hard to date
when the monsters are yanking at my skirt
crying howling distracting
and I am hopeful
but it is not my role
it’s not ok
it’s antisocial
to ask about the monsters

I am new again
I won’t date anyone with monsters
that I can see

they must love them first