Shades of Another Color – Page 6 – 50 Shades of Gray Hair

Fridays with Murphy and Me

I’m sure this image spoke to me the day I snapped it

Was it the flowers the drew my eye?

Was it a feeling of being on the outside looking in?

Vice versa?

Getting my head caught in the ropes (a.k.a. arghhhh)?

Swiss cheese being what it is…I’ve forgotten it or lost it or maybe I just thought it was pretty at the time

However you look at it…I’m damned if I know now

😳

So…as I often do when this happens, I just sit and stare at it.

Sometimes I fuss around with it…change a filter here, contrast there, funk it up a bit to see if it yells something out.

The funk didn’t help, as it is not telling me what it wanted to say, but it did put me in mind of something…

Murphy

Don’t ask…as I haven’t a clue

Just Murphy

You know…that fabled and famous guy that no one seems to be able to say exactly who or where or when or why…

There are as many stories as to how Murphy came to be associated with the worst luck ever as there are variations of the language of the law itself

Anyway…Murphy’s Law as I know it

“Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong”

Okay…well, if you think about it, it’s not so bad really

Without things going wrong, we wouldn’t use our noggins to figure shit out

Right?

Even those folks for whom everything seems to go wrong (ahem), it’s still not always a bad thing if those ‘wrongs’ turn into learning opportunities.

Learning to do things a different way, a better way, an easier way, the ‘right’ way?

Seems so to me anyway…and I consider myself in a good position to say so, considering the shit storm my life has been the last couple years

But hey, that’s Life and Life comes with just one promise…

Your Life promises to be your greatest adventure

Yes, it does

Where else can it be said that every minute of every day has the promise to be different from the one before?

If it isn’t, it’s not because it’s Life’s fault…it’s ours

We have the choice…sit in one spot, don’t move, don’t think, don’t eat, don’t drink, don’t sleep…die

Get up, move around, go up, go down (sure…that way too), get outside, go inside, walk, drive, sing, love, laugh, cry, pout, clean, drink, eat…

Need I go on?

Every single one of those things is part of the adventure promised with each new second

Every promise can be fulfilled if we choose to make it happen

So…Murphy?

Sure, why not

But let’s go one better…

How about adding some new laws?

Just to keep us on the ‘that’s Life where every second promises a new adventure’ track

And to absolutely keep us on those ‘things on our feet that help us find furniture in the dark’….TOES

So in keeping with that…

Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.
The things that come to those who wait, may just be the things left by those who got there first.
If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine
A day without sunshine is like, well, night
He, who laughs last, thinks slowest

Got more?

Good, I was hoping you did

Share them here so we can all add them to our ‘Today’s Problems are Tomorrow’s Opportunities” catalogs

And now…I’m venturing off to enjoy this second’s adventure and it involves a date with a certain “John”

haha

Happy Adventuring…xo

No time to be alone

Spending your oldest child’s 30th birthday alone (if you don’t count wine and Adele) is NOT a good idea.
Geesh!

Then again…it can be quite a ride on the Mommy Memory Train

Happy 30th son…it’s been quite a ride so far.

Adapt

We begin as seed
    the idea of life

Aided by elements essential to thrive
    we become what we are meant to be

In times of stress, turmoil, and destruction
    we adapt, if only to survive, but still hoping to grow

The inevitable of life is death
The key to living is change
The joy is in making the most of it

Damsel Shadow

We are never alone as long as the sun shines

That is what I see.
What about you?

Time to Jump

I’ve racked my brain these last couple weeks trying to figure out why the muse has left the park and the carnies have picked up and packed away the games whose prizes used to fill my virtual toy box with fun and imaginative bits and bobs, but are now just cheap trinkets and sad, stuffed critters gathering dust.

Have I gone deaf? Or have the barkers stopped barking, the ringers stopped ringing, the poppers stopped popping?

Why can’t I smell the smokey, the sweet, the salty aromas that used to make my nose smile and my mouth run with meaty ideas and sweet and savory anecdotes?

Has my mind’s eye gone blind to the flash of the Ah Ha light bulbs, the story weaving fabrics of the neon rainbows, or the strange and beautiful oddities on two legs and four, that once teased a tale worth telling?

Yes, these last 6 months (plus the 12 before that if I’m honest) have been some of the weirdest of my life.
And yes, most of that time was spent in The Heartbreak Hotel or The House of Horror or for that matter, The Halls of Magic Mirrors.

While I did share those tales from the crypt, once the telling was done, the park went dark.
The tent spikes pulled, the manure cleaned up, the coming attractions came and went.
And once loaded, the train hit the rails and headed for someone else’s parking lot.

So what’s next?
Do I stand by the side of the tracks like a hobo with my life filled bundle-on-a-stick?
Do I then jump on the next box car that passes by, hoping to find “it” down the line?

Or…do I drop yesterday’s bundle, step over the tracks, and begin a new leg of my journey?

I believe so.

I’ve been standing here waiting for too long now.

Time to scrape what’s left of the elephant shit off my shoes and get moving.

Synchronize: 6.1.2014 at Now O’clock
Starting Point: West of There ~ North of Then
The New Heading: East to Here ~ South to Now
The Destination: Unknown ~ Anywhere ~ Everywhere

Take a walk with me…let’s talk

First Step…trading shit-kickers for walking shoes.
Next Step…trading four walls for open space and the keyboard for the camera.
Each Step Thereafter…we’ll see what we see and share what we feel.
I want to know…and I want to hear it.

Snap. Crackle. Pop.

I see it…SNAP
You see it…CRACKLE
We tell it…POP

A word, a sentence, a poem, a memory, a feeling…
No matter how short or how long…
Be it funny, sad, truth, lie, fact, or fiction…
I want to hear about it.

This is the path for now…
The idea is Show and Tell
The questions are…

Do You See What I See?
Do You Feel What I Feel?
Do You Hear What I Hear?

It’s where I’m going and it’s how I’m hoping to re-open the amusement park that once thrived in the ordinary and mundane being anything but.

I look forward to welcoming you along.
And who knows? You may just find a junction of your own.
An inspiration that leads you to hop on a new train, or off the one you’re on.
Anything’s possible on the road to Anywhere.

See you soon and I’ll bring the ordinary…

You bring the extra.

Do you know why?

In preparation for Memorial Day, May 26th, I’d like to share with you an event that happened in September 2013.

In France.

An event that was not overly (if at all) publicized in the US, though it should have been.

Thankfully, we have friends here and abroad who believe we need to see.

To visualize…just what it is we are memorializing.

Excellent History Lesson

A large percentage of our country doesn’t know of (or therefore, care) about Normandy during WWII.

Has it been removed from the History Books? Do they still teach about D-Day?

British artist Jamie Wardley, Andy Moss, and nearly 600 volunteers, took to the beaches of Normandy with rakes and stencils in hand to etch 9,000 silhouettes representing fallen people into the sand.

Titled: The Fallen 9000 [http://thefallen9000.info/]

The piece is meant as a stark visual reminder of those who died during the D-Day beach landings at Arromanches on June 6th, 1944 during WWII. The original team consisted of 60 volunteers, but as word spread nearly 500 additional local residents arrived to help with the temporary installation that lasted only a few hours before being washed away by the tide.

9,000 Fallen Soldiers Etched into the Sand on Normandy Beach to Commemorate Peace Day on September 25, 2013

A visually stunning reminder of why.

Don’t you agree?

Save a moment during the upcoming ‘Holiday’ to say a word of thanks to all who have, do, and will…serve their countries with one thought in mind…

Our Freedom

God Bless and Godspeed

The Latest FuZZy BuZZ on Spring Fashion?

**Does this color make my ass look fat?**

There I just needed a bigger size — **There**
**I just needed a bigger size**

Fair Weather Friends

I have a new guy in my life.

Yup.

His name is Lenny and he visits me every day the sun shines.

He likes to laze around, sunning himself on the porch steps while I putter in my pots.

Pots, people…flower pots.

Yeah, he’s not much of a talker, but that’s fine. If I want noise, I’ll listen to the voices in my head.

He’s a bit shy of strangers. To be honest, he can be down right rude when my neighbors pop by to ooh and ahh over this spring’s bounty.

He turns his back and wanders off without so much as a ‘howdy do or by your leave’.

I really should talk to him about that; he’s ruining my street cred. I’ve heard the whispers…

‘Why does Rhonda spend so much time with Lenny the Lug, he’s so rude!”

See what I mean? Yeah, it’s time for a good chin wag with my fair weather friend.

The sun’s in and out today, so I’ll have to keep an eye out in case he shows up.

I’m running out of refreshment ideas though. (I wonder if that’s what keeps him coming back? The num nums?)

Well, I suppose I can mosey on down to my mailbox, which seems to be THE spot where the local buggaboos hang out.

I’ll just have to find a way to entice that crowd onto my porch steps; introduce them to Len so he can have them ~~over~~ for dinner.

So, let me introduce you…

Friends…Lenny Lenny…Friends

Leapin’ Lizards…isn’t he cute?

One stop on the memory train

I read a post today that transported me

That happens quite often doesn’t it?

To all of us?

We’ll hear a tune drifting out the open windows of a passing car and no longer are we standing on a hot sidewalk in line at the ATM, but magically taken to an ‘out of school for the summer’ beach trip with our best girlfriends, laughing and flirting while sand filled our shorts and Sun-In made us all one shade of blonde or another.

Or we’ll catch a smell in the air that immediately takes us back. Maybe to a warm and tiny kitchen in the back of a house shared with the post office; where a grandmother is frying donuts in a big cast iron pot and where too, the back porch isn’t just a place to take off your muddy boots before tramping into Gram’s small but tidy nook…but a place where Gramp sits grinding fresh horseradish, tears rolling down his stubbled cheeks as easily as the sweat pours off his shiny bald knob.

And there are times, we’ll read something, like Tink’s post today, that’s like peeking into that too-long forgotten toy box in your mind’s attic…the one where you keep all your found treasures and best memories of childhood…waiting for a day like today.

Sometimes, these trips down memory lane can cover us in a cloak of sorrow or pain, bringing us back to a time and place we’d rather not go back to, for one reason or another.

Other times, happily I think most times, the places we go in our mind are…

…the places we want to be and in the company of people we want to be with.

This is where I went today, when the toy box opened…with thoughts of long candy counters and a shop owner with the patience God gives older folk…

It sits there still, where it always did.

Across the road from my where my grandparent’s lived, and up two from where I did.

One of two one-room shops in our town of less than…

where one holds the memories of a barrels of chocolate drops, returning bottles for a penny, wood smoke, and men laughing.

while the other is made of children’s dares and double dares to see who’ll go buy the ice cream from the ‘mean old lady’ behind the counter.

And this is who joined me in today’s trip…Gramp in his engineer’s cap and Gram looking the same as everyday I can remember.

And though this is where they are now…

Their permanent home is here…always here…

I thank Tink and her Crazy Train for the ride today. It was welcome and reminded me that I have enough in my heart and my mind to get me through whatever life wants to throw my way.

And maybe someday, when he’s older or I’m gone, this one will hear or see or smell something, some small thing, that will take him back to a time when he knew he was cherished.

The Cowboy Way

Is it the green of the grass or the warmth of the sun?
The freedom he feels when he can just run?

Or the sounds of his family, the music of laughter
that tickles his fancy? Is that what he’s after?

The joy he exudes when brothers play ball
Tears and then laughter when one of them falls

He’ll often be seen, his tongue tasting air
settled on the stoop, pondering there

What is he thinking, what treats are in store
for this legend in training, this blessing and more?

As Grammy, I’d tell you, “he’s deep like his roots”
But honestly his passion is only his BOOTS!