There are no great people in this world only ordinary people who rise to meet great challenges.

The power to tempt

Temptation unlike opportunity will always give you a second chance.

Random 8

Players start with 8 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them that they have been tagged.So here are 8 random facts about yours truly:

1.I take pictures of my feet when I visit somewhere new or if my feet are in or near something disgusting or interesting.
2.I don’t believe in a divine being/”god”
3.being on rivers and/or trails occasionally moves me to tears
4.I love sleeping on cool sand around a driftwood fire (even though you get the occasional bug bite)
5.My second marriage is much better than my first
6.My son has slowly become my most trusted companion and counterpart
7.I have four webbed toes two on each foot
8.I sometimes fantasize about having my own harem

Remeber, that not to be Happy is to not to be gratful.

It's all or nothing now

I watch the two of them be foolish
I watch them displace blame
I watch them make fools of them selves
I watch them aspire to the unattainable
I watch them expect the unacceptable
I watch them act out
I watch them make excuses
I watch them pretend to know
I watch them and I remember

I remember when I was foolish
When I displaced blame
When I made a fool of myself
When I did not reach my aspirations
When I behaved unacceptably
When I acted out
When I made excuses
When I pretended to know


I watch the two of them and my heart breaks with the inevitable.
I watch them and my heart swells with hope.

What does for better or for worse mean?
What does in sickness and in health mean?
What does for richer or poorer mean?

Your lives will never be what you expect.
The dreams and goals that were never attained
can not be blamed on anyone but yourselves

You may be looking for inspirational words
Words of peace and complacency
Words of kindness and charity

I do not have those words for you
Because the journey you are contemplating starting
Has nothing to do with all things great and wonderful

To the male, I ask:
Is this divine order?

To the female, I ask:
Do you have a right?

Good luck on your tumble I hope you both land on your feet.

The hike of life

The trail is more than simply a path.
It is a metaphor for life.
It has all the ingredients

A beginning
Painful challenges
Ecstatic accomplishments
Rocky up hill struggles
Flat smooth strolls
Controlled descents
Unfortunate mishaps
Exercise and down time
Opportunities for enlightenment
Hard won drudgery
Long-term goals
Short-term goals
Successes
Failures
An Ending

I felt my heart’s blood
Slam
Into all four chambers
So loud
I heard nothing else

I rested in stillness
So calm
My skin responded
With the goose bumps
Of a ghost’s presences

I revel in companionship
Of shared experiences
All of us repeating
It is only pain
There to be overcome

I became an observer
To my thoughts
Moving in and out
Of conversations
With myself

I explored answers
And questions
Hidden in the chaos
And monotony
Of real life

I sang songs
Real and made-up
Created completely new lives
For myself
My friends
My family

I let the wild places
Surround me
With unpredictable circumstances
Centered its potential to kill

I found answers out there
I recharged my spirit out there
I felt worthy out there
I felt powerful out there
I felt vulnerable out there
Most of all
I felt ALIVE out there

The trail is more than simply a path
It is a metaphor for life

The emptying

We emptied my Grandmother’s room today
Her heart
Mended and still

Her things:
A towel
Hand lotion
Dirty Clothes

Slowly disappeared into bags

Her wheel chair
Her walker
Silent and lonely
Sat illuminated
In a soft shaft of light
Tiny flakes of her skin
Suspended and only visible
Within the beam
Drifts in the tiny space

Her things:
Tissues
Creamers
Fake sweeteners

Make my chest hurt

Our sad dance
Of forced laughter
And restrained heart ache
The room becomes vacant

Her Things:
An old photo of Grandma and Grandpa
Fifty-seven cups of vanilla pudding
A cordless phone

All her life
Sits within this room
It was her stuff
But it has been transformed
Into temporary artifacts
That quietly announce

“I was here once and now I am gone.”

An Irish past is home

So easily did we meld
Our families
Whole at last
Finding the past
We did not know
Was missing

He cried for the joy
Our patriarch
Tom
He cried for the loss
Of hundred years
He cried for time
That blows from his home
Ireland

Pregnant with hope
Two mothers
Met
As modern day immigrants
Finding our truth
In the haze of our Pasts

He cried for the joy
Our patriarch
Tom
He cried for his life
As it turns into fall
He cried for the beauty
That he creates in us all

I drifted away
as I listened to his songs
Of sadness and warriors
And life over all
I cried for the joy
Of meeting this soul
A heritage found
In an old Irish man

So easily did we meld
Our families
Whole at last
Finding the past
We did not know
Was missing

A Communal Death March

And so the song of death steeps into our lives
A privileged opportunity to touch immortality

A life spent
Is never wasted
It holds us
In check
Like judges
Of
Human Kind
A grand jury
Quietly conveying
From generation to generation
The truth
Of our
Existence

“We're all in this thing together
Walking the line between faith and fear
This life don’t last forever
Many cry and no one tasted the salt of their tears
It’s slow road to freedom”
(Inspired by the song “were all in this together”
By Old Crow Medicine Show)