Under a Red Roof

Keep Trying…

April 12, 2021 in Exploring, Loving, Making by Colleen | Permalink

My beautiful, witty, and hilarious best gal, Andie Card! We’ve been friends since we were sixteen, with a giant book of cherished memories under our belts. We hadn’t seen each other for a well over a year, all this COVID misery destroying the best laid plans. Her pup insisted on being in the photo, and I give you more and more of a glimpse of him edging in, which explains my smirk in the first picture. I am trying not to laugh at him doing his best photo bomb! The pictures aren’t perfect, but our love and friendship surely is.

My parents! We stayed a couple of nights at their house, my growing up place, playing Spades, Sequence, Boggle, and Code Names. Eating and eating, all manner of homemade goodness, plus my best prickly pear margaritas and some Popeye’s fried chicken! Not too shabby.

I made my Mom’s necklace!

The park of my childhood universe, Little Dry Creek, through which I ventured to school for seven years in all manner of weather, and played and played and played. Most striking are the trees, all grown up and wise in sunshine and shady ways.

My Mom and I made Vivian Howard’s banana pudding (from Deep Run Roots), which tasted most spectacularly of said fruit, a whopping nine of them in the mix. A true labor of love. WOW!

Shooting for that corner pocket. My Dad won more games than Greg, but it didn’t really matter, all the fun they had playing.

S W I N G ! !

post script

Due to multiple problems with the J & J vaccine, I got my first Pfizer shot yesterday. Much gratitude to ALL the wonderful people who made the process both kindly and dream-like in speed and efficiency at the Broadmoor World Arena. WOOT!

In the same vein, COVID falsehoods and conspiracy theories debunked.

After a While

April 8, 2021 in Quoting by Colleen | Permalink

After a while, you learn the subtle difference

Between holding a hand and chaining a soul.

And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning,

And company doesn’t mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts

And presents aren’t promises.

And you begin to see your defeats

With your head up and eyes open,

With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.

And you learn to build all your roads on today,

Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans

And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

After a while, you learn that even sunshine burns

If you get too much.

So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul,

Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure

That you really are strong.

And you really do have worth.

And you learn and you learn…

With every goodbye you learn.

Veronica Schoffstall

Tags: Quoting

Pastel

April 7, 2021 in Uncategorized by Colleen | Permalink

The sky Sunday evening, beautifully illuminated, casting pastel light all around the garden. A perfect end to two very wonderful and productive days getting ready for this year’s green up.

We also grilled some chicken in a tasty Tex-Mex style, loaded up on salad and beans, and farted plenty afterwards (oh, yes I did!).

Since we’re patiently awaiting our ability to return to restaurants, we haven’t had our favorite beef bulgogi at ShinSaDong since last summer. I remedied the fact with another internet search. Ground beef bulgogi salad success. It’s the small things.

In the BIG things category – Greg got his first vaccine last Friday, and I am on the roster for the J & J this Sunday – one and done. Praise be to science and kindly nurses administering shot after shot after shot.

Oatmeal peanut butter cookie, gilded with peanut butter frosting. Sometimes you need extra.

I bought a Willie mug!! It has Trigger on it, too, plus blue bells and mockingbirds, state flower and bird of Texas, of course. A mighty fine sip, if I do say so.

Sleeping giants….

Lift

April 6, 2021 in Learning, Listening, Making, Thinking by Colleen | Permalink

I am not a religious person, but a very, very spiritual one. And though my Dad has read the bible daily, for as long as I can remember, I have never had the desire or inclination to do the same. I’ve found people’s interpretation of religious texts, and religion, as a whole, to be more dangerous to the general population than not. The Crusades, Islamic terrorism, Hindu & Buddhist extremism, the sexual abuse of priests and pastors on the innocent, the list goes on and on and on.

That being said, there are two very powerful notions of God that are with me daily. That he or she resides within every body and especially that a person can encounter God any place, any time. I always had difficulty believing this when encountering the cruel people of the world. Why would God reside there, when there are far nicer places to be? But then I thought about the awful person being an instrument of teaching for others, for me. God works through that person to show me how NOT to be. What to stand up for and rise against.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about how when I was little and would see a brilliant sun beam, I believed God was shining a light on a person in need. How the thought left me joyful. The sticky bit was in wondering if the person knew it. How often are we aware of that brilliant light shining on us? How often do we take the time to recognize the beauty and love around us? I think it’s time I do more to seek that awareness. That presence.

And a perfect tie-in to the photo up yonder. When my Great Aunt Mary died, my Grandma Tess found hundreds of Catholic medals in her room. I took maybe a quarter of them and fashioned a necklace with a few of them a while back. I liked the spirit of it, of having metal worn by her prayerful hands, but the look wasn’t quite right. I took it apart and made this one, with all my favorites. It jingles and sings, speaking loudest of her, while buoying my spirit, too.