tao1776

Old friends are the best of travelling companions. I'm sure that familiarization is the key. There's a sync which makes traveling easy ; Just like Sunday morning :) We left for Raleigh, NC from North Central MA on Thanksgiving Day. We theorized that most people would be off the highway and having Thanksgiving dinner at home. Traffic would be light which would allow us to arrive in near record time. Our theory was proven wrong. The Jersey Turnpike proved to be a slow moving parking lot for almost two hours. But we flowed; easy... We left home at 8:30 a.m. and arrived for check    in about 10:45 at night. Just in time to share some  beer and wings with some of the locals. We were in Raleigh for a wedding. It was scheduled for late Saturday afternoon so we set Friday aside for exploring and getting a lay of the land. Mid afternoon we went to visit the groom and soon found ourselves roped into a dinner party for all of the out of town guests. We w...

Not that I'm an amazing writer or the most rapturous teller of tales, but I've shared a narrative or two that could be listed on the level of sharing a wordsmith's proportions.  Yet I've recently noticed many things about my story telling, my blog writing, and my bearing of tales. They've become stale, seemingly unedited, and frankly downright boring.    Perhaps its my lack of audience. My children and grandchildren once enjoyed my tales; the grand-kids hearing a different version from the adults of course. We don't get together like that much anymore. Perhaps its the lack of angst driving me towards the salvation of a siren past, seductively wooing towards the shores of regret, tales of adventure, lost loves and old friends. Where I used to live or work or play. Things I used to do or places I used to go.    Success, failure, abundance, loss. Where in life's puzzle do I now stand?    Whatever it is, I am feeling stagnant. My creat...

The earth is home to over 7 billion people. 7 billion!  Look at it! 7,000,000,000 It is beyond comprehension.   Estimates are that over 100 billion people have lived and died on our little slice of Terra Firma. Looking at our planet from the vantage point of mars, if no one was there to point us out we would appear as nothing but another light in the sky. Pull back further, much further, and locate our place in the galaxy. What in the hell are we doing way over there? If you had to guess, where would you expect to find us?  Imagine the violence and blood that has poured out over so many tiny pieces of ground. The battle of Hastings, Agincourt or Waterloo.  Spend some time imagining the bloodshed that this little patch of ground has seen.  War. Plague. Religion.  How much time has been allocated for love, redemption or peace? Always the talk, the dream, seldom the reality. Like ants we busily bustle an...

Everyone who knows me, knows that I love babies. Holding them, tending them, quieting a restless baby. I owe it all to my parents who were foster parents for over thirty babies. Newborns to two years old shared our home - and not all came without their own share of problems. Bittersweet is too small a word to convey the heartache and joys we experienced by serving as a respite from their harsh beginnings. I had four children and doted over them all. It was a happy time. Mostly. What a thrill when my oldest daughter seemingly cloned herself. I was lucky enough to have hours and hours with my grand daughter and continue to do so, but not so much since my divorce. She is a precious jewel in my life. My youngest daughter is awaiting the return of her husband from Afghanistan with plans for starting a family in the next few years. I can't wait. Meanwhile her peers are having babies and I finally got to hold another sweet little girl and calm her to sleep. It's the mother in m...

   The day is young and the sun is slowly burning off the haze that captured the morning sky. I can feel it. It's going to be a beautiful day. Mourning Doves are mating on the neighbor's rooftop. Barking dogs dot the neighborhood as people stroll the crumbling sidewalk walking to and fro the center of our small downtown. Seven chickens line the birch tree perch and watch the remainder scratch and peck below. It is almost idyllic save for the ever increasing traffic outside my door. I haven't written a thing for some time now. Nor do I feel compelled to meditate. Riding my bicycle came to a temporary halt over some minor health concerns and now that I am cleared to ride no push is on for me to do so.    Like the Honey Badger , "I don't give a shit."    I've become aware of the absence of angst that once filled my sails. Similar to noticing that something has changed but you can't seem to put your finger on it. Like a building that was torn down wh...

I was on the inside looking out. What others saw they in all politeness kept to themselves. I like everything there is about the institution of marriage. A commitment of love between two people who pledge to stand by each other through the good times and bad. It's like the song says, "What's wrong with peace, love and understanding?" And then suddenly you realize that you're one in a pack of lemmings running off the edge of a cliff into the sea. How did I get here? For the past few weeks I've been having ex-wife nightmares. She is back! Assuming control while I seek to keep the peace until I at long last explode. It is more traumatic than it sounds. Coping with my divorce was made all the more difficult due to the level of grief that I carried for the two of us. Her demands, her anger, her manipulation was cute when we were twenty. I would go about crying for her and her suffering, knowing that she was destroying us. As her mother said over thirty years ...