Lazy Summer Days

Dear Reader: I am re-publishing this short
piece I wrote last summer. I hope you enjoy it...





I write this post from my rambling front porch in small-town America.


The afternoon winds down and I spend it lazing on my wicker rocking chair, my feet propped up on the edge of the porch.
The temperature is a perfectly pleasant 78 degrees.
The sky pale blue laced with filmy ribbons of white.
In two days summer will officially arrive.
And I am in hog heaven.


This is my season, folks.
The three months when I revel and roll and rake in the pleasure.
The pleasure of sunbathing and capris and my daisy patch and ice tea.
I drink in every moment.


This year, in the Northwest, there was a clear threat summer might not arrive.
We've still got the portable heaters on in the house in the evenings and even during some days.
Cold and rainy days have been followed by more cold and rainy days.


After thirty years of living here I have adjusted in many ways to this clime.
But when June arrives, I expect the weatherman to pay up.
With some warm weather and sunshine.


So I've struggled a bit this year with the lack of summer and sun.
Finally I just made peace with the clouds.
Not much I can do to shoo them away anyway.


So no more hissy fits when I wake up in the morning to find the sun obscured once again.
And when a day arrives like today - when the sun does show up in all its glory - I treasure every moment.


I know how fortunate I am.
I realize others in the world are facing disastrous weather.
I try to be grateful and send up a little prayer for them.


I have so much.


Jlo

Weeds, Untreated

Have to think that weeds, untreated,

Serve a purpose. . .

In referencing my own weeds of soul and mind.

Think of that each time I pull one,

Encroaching on my garden:

The wild, swinging moods that chemicals

Could not contain or bind.

Only 40 years of digging up the roots

And taming memories, raw and unrefined,

Could, at last, create the peaceful border

That lies around my house and clime.



Judith Quinton
June, 2009
(All rights reserved.)
Photo courtesy of BobbyLawn.com

This Morning I'm Dissecting...

Well, after all, that's pretty much what I do 24-7. Dissect my life, dissect other people's lives, dissect the world, dissect God...and the list goes on.

This morning I've been busy dissecting my personal theory about fiction.

This long-standing theory resurfaced in the lab or labyrinthe of my mind (whichever you wish to call it) on a recent trip with my book-cover designer, to the biggest independent bookstore in the world, Powell's.

Our mission: To scout out arresting book covers for inspiration for my upcoming book.

In the process of browsing the entire fiction section, from A to Z, if I heard it once from my friend, I heard it 50 times: "Oh, that was a great book. Oh, I loved that book."

Mind you, I had not read one of these "great" and "beloved" books!

That set in motion this newest dissection: Why don't I read or like fiction? (Along with the implied question: For Pete's sake, what is wrong with me?)

This morning, on the first sunny day in June, on my way out to sunbathe, I actually pulled out a collection of stories - yes, fiction - and told myself, "I'm gonna give it the old rah-rah try."

Blazoned across the top of the book cover: "International Bestseller" and "Pulitzer Prize Winner!"

Already intimidated, I think to myself, 'If I can't get into this book, what will that say about me?!'

But, courageously, I dig in...and read almost the complete first story.

And then, as usual, I put it down.

The writing, full of picturesque details and lovely, short sentences, was indeed meritorious.

But could I get into it?

Nah!

I'm beginning to think there's something really out-of-step with me.

Is there a support group out there for a condition like this?

Until I hear from someone who can address my plight, I shall go back to my current reading: The 700-pg tome Mystical Phenomena Compared With Their Human and Diabolical Counterfeits.

I know...there's no hope for me.

No hope.

Love,

Jlo

Why I Love Being "Old"

A quote by Victor Hugo (in his eighties at the time), author of Les Miserables:

"I feel in myself the future life. I am like a forest which has been more than once cut down. The new shoots are livelier than ever. I am rising toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. The earth gives me its generous sap, but Heaven lights me with its unknown worlds.

You say the soul is nothing but the resultant of the bodily powers. Why then, is my soul more luminous when my bodily powers begin to fail? Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. I breathe at this hour the fragrance of the lilacs, the violets, and the roses as at twenty years. The nearer I approach the end the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me. It is marvelous, yet simple."

Couldn't have said it better myself,
Jlo

Photo by Amelia PS, whose photos can be found at flickr.com

Thanks for the Memory, PBS ~ Guest Post By Barbara McNeese

If you haven't had the chance to watch the Memorial Day Concert on PBS, you will have missed the chance to be moved, through song and testimony, by the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform throughout America's history. I often watch it, and I often cry, but last night was especially touching. I am always mysteriously moved when I hear "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." It is originally a Christian song, but the words call to me from both battlefields: the work for Jesus and the honor of our war dead.

I always remember the soldiers on Memorial Day because my dad served his country on several fronts in WWII. I am very proud of him now, and I know the war was the defining event of his life. As a child, it seemed that all I ever heard him speak about was his time in the war. I grew weary of those episodes and impatient for him to speak of contemporary things. But now I understand how his entrance into that great conflict, at the tender age of 18, shaped him and his world for the rest of his life.

Luckily for me, my dad didn't lose his life in the war but was one of the fortunate ones to return home. I've never had any connection with anyone who has lost someone in a war. I can't imagine the pain and loss. My heart goes out to all the grieving mothers and wives and lovers throughout the century who have lost someone in war. What a noble and painful loss. I put my flag up this morning, as I always do on this day, and have a special time of thought and prayer for them.

#

The Hungries

How many of you watched 60 Minutes last night...about the new pill that promises long life, weight loss, glossy locks, and boundless energy? Needless to say, I have already ordered my Free Trial bottle of the magic elixir this morning!

Along with the plug for this new wonder pill, Morley Safer introduced us to the RCI club. This would be a group of people so intent on living longer they Restrict Calorie Intake. And they're darn proud of it, too.

I prefer to call them the Hungries! As one woman said, "When I'm hungry (which is apparently most of the time) then I know I'm doing something right!"

I continued to listen to several people extol their daily hunger pains. And then Morley interviewed a man who claimed his goal is to live to the ripe old age of 100. I wish I could have been on the other side of the mike at that point.

Because I would have quipped, "And exactly why do you want to live to 100? So you can be hungry for 30 more years?!

I'm sorry, folks, but living to 100 has never been a goal of mine (guess I'm too short-sighted). And living an additional 30 or 40 years hungry somehow just doesn't appeal.

I'd rather eat, drink, be merry, and die soon.

Than starve, limit liquids, be hungry and die much, much later.

Guess I won't be signing up for the Hungry Club anytime soon!

Love,

Jlo

PS: No need to write me and point out that Restricting Calories makes you healthier - I'm aware that the RCI club is clearly preferable to America's current and largest (in more ways than one) club: Stuffing Tons Of Calories In Your Mouth Non-Stop! I'm just saying...I prefer to eat, and in moderation, which will also make you healthier!

Silent 'Son'day

"Be still and know that I am God"

Psalm 46:10

Photo by Jeanette Marie Mayhew, 2009