A Hummingbird Morning!

A friend of mine in Portland took this

photo of a hummingbird dining off their

deck ! I love it!

Have a lovely Sunday!

Happy Saturday!

I know it's not Sky Watch Day, but I was out playing with

the camera and had such fun that I thought I'd share some

from Seattle on a gorgeous day! Enjoy the weekend! Can

you tell I'm looking for things other than Nov. 4 to think

about?

Reflective Musings for a Sunday Afternoon

I began blogging fairly recently – in early July. I had never even thought about doing it, had no real interest or even any curiosity, until a friend gave me an article about and written by older bloggers. It did prick my curiosity at that point primarily because I’ve always loved to write and have since I was a child. It had always been my escape from unhappy times, a way to sort out feelings, as well as just for the sheer fun of it. It offered a creative outlet that was important to me. I have published a few things, articles on parenting when my kids were growing up, some children’s stories, but I never really pursued publication for the eight books that I have written over the past forty or more years. Why? Because I was assured by nearly everyone from parents, to well meaning friends that it would just be a futile effort that would leave me frustrated, would eat into the time I needed to – depending on the stage of my life – concentrate on my studies, on my job, on my family. So, I put thoughts of writing for publication pretty much behind me and got on with my life. But I still wrote whenever I could find a few extra hours.

I never felt that I was missing anything as my life was busy, with college, with jobs, more college, teaching, raising a family, getting back into the work place and then suddenly I was retired – well, not suddenly I was sixty seven, but it was retirement I hadn’t planned on, but as those of you who’ve read my blog for a while know, the company was caught in, yes, another of those financial disasters and I found myself without a job. I was devastated, but decided I’d take a year off and then start looking for another job. You see, I didn’t really believe that age discrimination would have any effect on me! I was healthy, active, I had just learned to snorkel, I danced a wicked tango, I spoke Spanish, a little German and a little Japanese and figured I could learn more if I needed to. So, after a year in Mexico, I was ready to tackle the project of finding a new job. It took nearly three years for me to finally concede that there was indeed age discrimination and that regardless of how I felt and thought and/or believed, I was still getting ready to turn seventy!! Me?? Seventy?? Surely not!!

The next four years were difficult, painful, destructive in some ways because I let it all get to me and I felt much of the time that life – or at least an interesting one was pretty much over for me. Oh, I’d get it together much of the time – I took swim classes, I took short trips, went river rafting over class four rapids, jet boat cruises up the Columbia River to Astoria. I took poetry and life writing classes, got to California to spend holidays with my youngest daughter, and to Texas to visit my oldest son, made new friends – good stuff. But there was always that occasional dark night of the soul that led me to wonder what in the hell was I going to do with whatever time I had left.

Then my youngest son, who lives in Seattle, decided that I needed a keeper, built me a lovely space at his house and finally, after three years of talking it up, I was persuaded that perhaps it would be a good move – for both of us. It’s had its difficult moments – we had both lived on our own with only our dogs for company for a lot of years, we both accustomed to having our own space and sometimes the dark clouds would make it difficult to see the light.

And then I found blogging! What started out as a casual glance, was soon occupying most of my days and I had to make myself stop and take time to go my Tai Chi classes, do the volunteer work with the Jump Start program. Suddenly, my life was and is full, exciting, challenging, stimulating and, yes, fun! Even at seventy-five!

So, I’d like to thank my friend, Linda, for opening the door to blogging, and thanks to all the lovely, interesting, fun people that I have met through my blog site. It has become my voice, my place to vent the frustration with, not only growing old, but these days – politics; it’s a place to exchange ideas, to challenge me mentally and emotionally. It’s the best reason in the world to get up early and stay up late, for reading and learning, for sharing laughter and frustrations, for meeting new people, discovering new ideas and best of all providing me with a whole list of new friends.

So, we blog on Elders, just think how much worse off the world would be without our combined wisdom – whether anyone listens to it or not!

Colorful Collage to End the Day

In spite of all the political frustrations, worries and concerns

about our country, as night falls I want to remember

the beauty that is always there.

May you all have a lovely evening.

Dahlias in Canby, Oregon

And another weekend is here, time to pause and take a deep breath, and enjoy, although that's not as necessary as it was years ago when I was still working and the weekends were sometimes divided between enjoying some down time as well as in preparation for another week.

Politics are the big thing tonight and probably through the weekend, but I don't want to talk politics tonight -- I'll do that tomorrow. Right now I just want to look at some lovely pictures, beautiful clouds and flowers. Listen to some beautiful music -- Gustav Mahler tonight, one of my favorites. A good friend of mine once said, if God could speak, he'd sound like Mahler. I think he was right.

It is beautiful here in Seattle with clear skies and the promise of lots of sun and warm temps for the weekend, probably the last kiss of summer. I had dinner out on the deck and watched the clouds gather over Puget Sound -- not storm clouds, just big, puffy marshmallow clouds. The sun was warm on my face and it was easy to push all the ugliness of this campaign to a remote corner of the yard -- the one the dogs use as a bathroom -- seemed appropriate all things considered.

To all of you out there in blogland, I wish you a beautiful, refreshing and peaceful weekend -- a time to renew our energy and our enthusiasm -- for what is life without those? Stick your frazzled nerves, the anger, the frustrations and fears into a closet somewhere and smell the roses, that other stuff will find us again soon enough so take a trip here through the fields of flowers.

I wish you pleasant dreams.

Lots of flowers.

Lots of sunshine.

Lots of laughter.

Want a Breather?

This has been a really difficult day for me as it seems everywhere I look,
everything I read, everything I hear is angry and negative and hopeless, in some cases. It's hard to see that brighter day coming; the one all politicians are so fond of talking about.

When I stop for a moment and make a real effort to look beyond the gloom and doom, when I try to find something beautiful to read, to look at, to listen to, I can always find it. But sometimes it seems harder and harder to let go of the negative and I'm not sure why that is. So, it was time to open up my web albums where I keep all of my photographs.

Today I found these in another bunch from my friends Dale and Nancy who travel a great deal and are kind enough to share their adventures with me through photos. These were taken in Alberta, Canada. The first one is the Moraine Dock, the second is the log bench at Moraine and the view is so awesome, so inspiring, so magnificent that it suddenly became easier to see how small and unimportant so much of what we hear day in and day out really is in the wider and longer view.

We'll get through this. And if everyone could stop for just a bit and take a look around, take a deep breath, see the beauty in nature, in a loved one's face, in the faces of our children and grandchildren, I believe we can find the courage to do what has to be done to reclaim our country, our government, our personal lives.

So, I leave you with that thought and these photos!

Peace!

A Peaceful Place

A quiet cove, calm water and blue sky and just what I'm
ready for this evening. It's been a busy day -- too much
politics, time to put it aside and look at what really matters.

But before I turn out the lights I want to thank Bobbi of Almost There

for giving me an award, and for the intent with which it is given: building solidarity among left-of-center bloggers. Thank you, Bobbi, let's all Blog On!

Pink Flowers and Late Night Thoughts

It's been a lovely weekend -- well, as long as I stayed away from the TV, which just got easier as we cancelled our service. I can keep abreast of all that I need to know on my computer without having to listen to the media talk and talk and say very little. My trip to the Black Diamond Coal Museum was really fascinating, great lunch at the local bakery.

Now that summer is definitely on it's way out, I've enjoyed again all the photos from the dahlia festival and thought that I'd share a couple more. There is such a variety of dahlias that I never knew about and that discovery has made the pictures all the more special. I guess during times like these it is so important to be able to focus on the small and beautiful and rewarding things in our lives rather than the nightmare of politics and finances. I don't mean we shouldn't face the problems and deal with them in the most effective way that we can, but it's important for our own sense of serenity and peace that we be able to find, to see, to touch the precious things in our lives and not just focus on bad things -- many of which are beyond our reach as far as being able to solve them -- at least for the whole country. But it is so important for our own peace of mind to be able to move our focus from those things, back to the beauty that is always there for us if we can take the time to look for it. And those are the things that can nourish us during the bad times. Hopefully, we will see a new day begin to dawn in our country and soon. And that new day is what I am focusing on tonight.

Surf Gulls

Surf gulls enjoying the beauty of a day off the Oregon coast
at Lincoln City. How grand to be so free! We should all be
so lucky! So I wind down the day with a beautiful image.

Evening Thoughts

And so another week is well underway and it's been so beautiful! with lots of sunshine and a cool breeze off the Sound. We may have to wait for summer, but it is well worth the wait!

Even though I don't get out and run around as much as I use to, I love sitting at my desk where the sunshine pours through the window and I can see the fruit trees, the bushes and shrubs -- everything has luxurious amounts of green and different shades of many colors.

And if I try, with just a little effort, I can, for a few hours put aside the darkness of our political landscape, the horrors the woman in New Mexico went through that I wrote about yesterday and updated today. Hopefully, calling attention to this criminal negligence will force some kind of change where others won't have to suffer the same cruel neglect and abuse.

So, this evening, as with many, I try to catalog the good things, the beautiful things, the laughter, the pleasure that are there for me to enjoy each day -- as there are for all of us, we just have to take the time to look. All it takes really for me is to focus on those things rather than the headlines of the day. Not that we ignore them, that will only mean they'll get worse, we have to speak out, we have to stand up, but in order to do that we have to take some time to feed the soul, nuture the spirit. I try to do that every day. I use to just run around like a mad woman, pulling my hair and screeching at -- for want of another audience -- my two faithful dogs, Mojo and Sam. They would just close their eyes and try to ignore me, it always surprised me that they didn't put their paws over their ears. But, hopefully, now I've found better ways to deal with the good and the bad and the ugly, and that's by writing about them -- all of them, because there is the good as well as the others and we need to give that equal time.

So, I turn on the music, pour my one glass of wine for the evening, enjoy the magnificent sunset and look forward to tomorrow.

Mother Nature at Her Finest!

A beautiful way to remember the summer! These pictures were taken at the Dahlia Festival near Hillsboro, Oregon.
Thank you, James!




It's been a lovely spring and summer and while fall has it's own beauty, I'm a little wistful as always as the summer draws to a close.

Come Fly With Me to the Oregon Coast!

I love the Oregon coast! It has it all! and is almost too breathlessly beautiful to be real, but it is. This is where I use to go whenever possible and the one of the thing I miss about living in Oregon. We have some awesome coasts in Washington as well, but maybe I'm prejudiced because one of the best times of my life was spent there and I miss it!

I spent a wonderful Christmas holiday with all of my family on one of the Oregon beaches a number of years ago. I belonged to a writer's club and they owned a beautiful house on one of the really lovely beaches and they would rent it to members when it wasn't being used for classes and seminars. It was a great place! We walked, and talked and laughed and relished a wonderful holiday, together, all of us for the first time in many years. It's one of those memories that I'll always treasure.

It is an awesome and inspiring place!

Summer Perfection

It's been a lovely weekend, beautiful weather, having dinner with good
friends, sharing beautiful photos like this one! What a lovely way to end the weekend, the preface to a new week!

As I sat down to write tonight and looked at the notes I had made off and on during the day, it seemed that most of what I had in my hands was just more ugly politics and I didn't want to think about ugly politics. So I simply pushed them into a folder for later and focused instead on these exquisite flowers. How rich the colors, how totally perfect! This was the beauty that I wanted to share, to wind down my weekend.

The ugly stuff will still be there tomorrow, as much as I would like for it to go away, there doesn't seem to be much chance of that. And I'll dig out my notes tomorrow and I will write about it because we need to keep challenging the politicians, the political parties and those that are determined to orchestrate this election. And we need to challenge ourselves, not to give in and/or settle for business as usual. It's time to take back our country.

But it is late and right now I just want to enjoy a glass of wine and some beautiful music and take comfort from the vision of these beautiful, flawless flowers. I guess I take comfort in the fact that I can still see beauty in the world today. Tomorrow good friends are coming from Portland and we're going to Pike's Market for lunch, good conversation, lots of laughter and fabulous food. The comfort of knowing how many beautiful things there are to treasure and experience make it possible to see a new vision for the future even when it seems so many are determined to hang on and to perpetuate the nightmare of the past eight years.

Yes, I'll be ready to deal with the ugly by tomorrow night.

Cathedral Rock Plus

Exquisite beauty from Arizona is always a joy to view.

And I'm also grateful to have good friends who are fabulous photographers and keep me supplied with beautiful photos like these.

And pardon me if I "should" on you, but we do have so much to be grateful for and we "should" take time to recognize that, as well as the need to preserve it for our children and theirs.

Now, having said that, I hope you will vote for Obama

so that we can preserve what we have

and take back our country.

Big Horn Sheep

DSC00937
Originally uploaded by sylvia.kirkwood

Relaxing among the stumps.