Stain-glass Eyes

The lunar eclipse tonight is better than all the fireworks I've seen in my lifetime. At first, when I was watching, the clouds were making the moon look like it was moving instead of them.  I didn't think it was going to be a good sighting of the eclipse. But, when there was about a quarter of a moon showing, the clouds got lost and it was mostly clear sky except some low clouds, not obscuring the view. The orangish glow made the moon look squishy. When I saw the all-orange glow I thought of the moon in Maurice Sendack's book "In the Night Kitchen". As the moon darkened I saw a face.  There's wisdom in the Native American culture about Grandmother Moon.  That was the face I saw. (Except it was orange, not white) Good night all who are sleepy and weary-eyed from watching the moon for so long. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsu2SmNMX7c   (For my cousin, Jim Ryerse) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcnd55tLCv8      (Billy Joel) ...

ELizabeth's Pack on Bench Ellie the Hiker My Favorite... Elizabeth and Ellie Snorkling Here Would Be Fabulous! A week ago my daughter Elizabeth made a decision to go to Catalina Island to hike.  I totally understood.  She needed time be alone, think and rid some of the stress accumlulating over the past few months.   Elizabeth is doing her doctoral program at Irvine, in California, and is leaving for Turkey in a few days to establish her groundwork to do research and for a year or more.  She received the Fulbright-Hayes Scholarship about a month ago and I can hear the excitement in her voice when she talks getting started on her project in Turkey. So, you probably can imagine the compounding stress studying, reading, presenting, writing, teaching and completeing her oral candidacy exams.  That’s all on top of preparing her travel plans, visa and packing for Turkey.   I was excited ...

Have you wondered who I am?  I doubt it.  But, I believe you’ve probably wondered who you are.  So, I’m hoping in writing my quandaries of who I am,  it will seem less me being self-centered and more a type of thinking we all do. How we all perceive ourselves. I usually start with the present.  Who am I now?  But my thoughts don’t stay there long.  It’s hard to think of who I am without thinking about who I was in the past. I have to fight my natural instinct to go back to the past.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKY-smJ6aBQ      I Am a Rock Truthfully it would be much easier to think about who I was in the past.  The past is done.  I couldn’t possibly change anything.  I could think back and make excuses for myself, blame other people and the situations.  I’d be free of any responsibility.  Free to make the same mistakes, be involved in the same situations and wouldn’t have learned a damn thin...