Hail, Poetry!

It's National Poetry Month AND prom season!

Here'a a little something to honor both:

Hail, Poetry,
My high-falutin’ friend.
You dress the ordinary in organza
Like a tomboy at her first prom,

Bedazzled by her beauty.

Challenge:

How does poetry enhance your life? What would you compare it to?

Happy Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month. To T.S. Eliot, April was "the cruelest month" but around here, we are rejoicing in the first spurts of spring.

Here is some ancient poetry from the Song of Songs celebrating spring:

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of the singing of birds is come,

and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

Live in the Moment

“Live in the moment.” Surely you’ve heard that before and discovered living in the moment is easier said than done. Our pasts color our present and future with memories and experiences. Our futures are unknown, leaving our presents fraught with anticipation or anxiety. If we think too much about the past or future, we will miss out on the here and now. Yes, memories can give us joy, and experiences give us lessons. Planning for the future is good and responsible. But thinking too much about either leaves us without a present.

Karina Sabac http://www.karinasabac.com/, a concert pianist, says that music is one thing in the moment. If you think about anything else for a second, you miss playing or hearing the note, detracting from the piece as a whole.

Stop right now and notice the sights, sounds, and smells around you. During what activities do you concentrate solely on the activity and nothing else? What activities make you feel most alive?

This year’s Easter sermon reminded the congregation that because of the resurrection, we need not fear death. The pastor’s main message, though, was that we need not fear life.

Dare to live in the moment—one moment at a time.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

An Irish Prayer
May God give you...

For every storm, a rainbow,

For every tear, a smile,

For every care, a promise,

And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer.

Celebrate!

It has come to my attention that adults don't celebrate enough. The nitty gritty details of life get in the way, I guess. Bad news bombards us from multiple sources, chores must be done, and life turns into one big, bad to-do list that does not contain fun.

People are surprised that I celebrate my birthday--at my age! This year, I invited several friends and threw a dinner party--no gifts, just food and fellowship. (Well, ok, they brought gifts anyway, but that wasn't my intent.) Since then, I've attended two other friends' birthday parties, each in the style of the hostess. One greeted me at her door wearing a pink feathered tiara. She celebrated her life's journey with humor, confidence, and elan. The other wore a spring dress in a tropical setting (our local botanical gardens) on a wintery day. Her party warmed our bodies and spirits (see above. The candle flame on the cupcake is the same color as my friend's dress!)

Birthdays come but once a year. Holidays are sporadically sprinkled through the calendar. How about finding something to celebrate everyday? Even a little thing? Today, I am celebrating the yellow and white crocuses blooming in my otherwise brown backyard!!

An embroidered sampler sums up this kind of celebration well:

"Catch the simple and the ordinary

and turn it into the happy and wonderful

--You can do it everyday"

What are you celebrating?

Those Incredible Animals

The next time you're tempted to call someone a birdbrain, realize it may not be an insult! The March 2008 National Geographic has a fascinating feature on animal cognition.

Western Scrub Jays, often maligned where I live, can recall the past and plan for the future. They move their food caches if they realize another jay has seen them, and they store more food than they need in case of scarcity later.

The African gray parrot featured knew colors, shapes, and size. It was able to point out which of several items was different. It even invented its own word for "apple"--"ban-erry"--as the apple tasted like a combination of apples and cherries to the bird.

Other animals also display amazing intelligence, such as the border collie with a toddler's vocabulary, sheep that can recognize and remember faces (human and animal), and octopus that may show emotion by changing color.

And we think we're so smart!

See the photo gallery, video, and feature article at:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/animal-minds/musi-photography

Word Puzzler

See if you can figure out what these words have in common.

Banana
Dresser
Grammar
Potato
Revive
Uneven
Assess


Are you peeking or have you already given up? Give it another try . You will kick yourself when you discover the answer. Go back and look at them again; think hard.

OK . . . Here You Go . . .

Answer: No, it is not that they all have at least 2 double letters. In all of the words listed, if you take the first letter, place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word. Did you figure it out?

I didn't get this until I read the answer, but I enjoy such puzzles and rarely miss the Sunday Puzzle on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4473090 . Sometimes I even get the answers!