Of a Certain Age

Hello Dear Ones!

This week, 1 of our 3 grandsons had a special birthday. Being too far away to connect with him in person due to the coronavirus restrictions, we were still able to reach out to him by cell phone. Though it was his Dad’s phone, he was allowed to answer it and talk one-on-one with us. It was a delightful treat! We chatted for about 45 minutes. He’s becoming quite the conversationalist!

To answer your unspoken question, Asher just turned 11. He’s officially a ‘tweenager.

How does Asher’s age tie in with today’s topic? That’s a simple story. His Grandy (that’s me!) loves all double digit years. So, of course, I had to tell him about it.

When I was 11, it was the best year ever! Life was glorious: fun, lots of friends, good grades, built a tree fort… Then when I turned 22… 33… 44… I didn’t go into details, in order to spare him. However I got him doing some math by asking him if he noticed a pattern. He didn’t, so I explained that now that he’s turned 11, every 11 years will be another double digit year! That’s when he did the addition and went through those special numbers all the way up to 99. But, smart young man that he is, he realized that the next magical number was 111! Triple digits! Again a question from Grandy, “… and from there?” We figured it out together. Add 111 to each number and you get: 222… 333… 444… And we laughed together when I revealed that I didn’t plan on being around quite that long!

Back to this topic. Asher is now of a certain age. His brother will be a teenager next month. Mike & I also have a grandson who is a toddler, and a soon-to-be first granddaughter due early in July. Each one of them are of a certain category of age. Our sons are both considered middle aged.

And their Grandy? Well, I’m of a certain age as well. A senior. Older than 65, not as old as 99. (Actually closer to the smaller of the 2 numbers, blessings be. Still lots of life in this ol’ gal!)

There. That’s my post today. You may have noticed, there are no major ‘aha’ moments in this share. What I am wanting to convey is the purely wondrous aspects of life in its simplest expression. Generations connecting… love shared… pandemic be damned! (Please pardon my language.) And through it all I am so very grateful to technology! Isn’t life grand?!

Are you, Dear Reader, of ‘a certain age’? Any aspects of this post that inspired you? Please drop a comment below, or send me a tweet:
@tomarciamae
I’d love to know!

In Light & Laughter,

Marcia

Lightbulb Moment

Hello Dear Ones!

What do synchronicity, mathematics, games and poetry have in common?

I certainly found out in an astonishingly delightful way this week! In a rather quiet (insert: bored) moment, I was inspired to begin reading a novel by Kate Clayborn: Love Lettering. What a charming, well-written book! She references mathematician John Horton Conway who was apparently known to play games all the time: dice, playing cards, he even played with the Slinky! According to the novel, Conway’s behaviour was at first considered unusual, even to himself. “People used to think – even he used to think – he was wasting time. But he was really working out math… loosening up his mind for ideas that were on their way.” Interested, I did some research and was pleased to learn that Conway was a real life, 20th century individual, and a prolific mathematician.

So, why was I interested? Reading the quote from Clayborn’s book, I took a sudden deep breath and must have uttered quite a verbal expletive because my husband Mike asked me what was up!

“That’s me! That’s me with my crossword puzzles, my online word games, my apparent obsession with them at the oddest of times! That’s my way of opening up to receiving my poetry! Poems are on their way to me during those times!”

In that very moment I took my first bold step into self-forgiveness for what I had been perceiving, through this entire global pandemic, as being pure laziness. Sure I had been writing and posting poetry every single day without fail since even before the lockdown in our area of the world. But it was just poetry! (What do you mean: “Just poetry?” Mike would ask!).  I didn’t see my poetry as having value. However,  reading that sentence from this somewhat historical perspective, I felt as though someone had opened up a glorious skylight from, and for, my heart… a precious breath of fresh air & sunlight! My lightbulb moment! 💡

Back to my original question: what do synchronicity, mathematics, games and poetry have in common? We’ve touched on all of them except synchronicity.

And yet we have actually dealt with that as well. Starting as far back as J.H.Conway’s ‘extraordinary’ discovery of his own at first perceived laziness in his life, Slinky’s ‘accidental’ discovery & invention, my apparent need to honour the value of my poetry and for the self-forgiveness I needed… all culminated with my husband suggesting I read a book he had just finished.

Then today, my online Twitter #SpiritChat family discussed: The Heart’s Synchronicity. A natural fit, of course!

What synchronistic events have occurred in your life to confirm for you that such a phenomenon does exist? Do share! I’d really love to know!

In Light and Laughter,

Marcia

(BTW: it was sad to learn John Horton Conway passed away just last year – 2020 – from Covid-19.)

 

More Little Wisdoms

Hi Folks:

A few months back I wrote a post called ‘Little Wisdoms‘ because I often get these short insights – sometimes when I awake in the morning and sometimes during the day.  Most of them are pretty short and almost all of them get posted on Twitter, but I’ve started making a collection in a Word file as well.  I’ve accumulated another stack of them so I thought I’d share them here.

Hugs,
Mike.

Continue Reading →

Little Wisdoms

Hi Folks:

Been a little quiet of late here in our little corner of the ‘net…  Anyway, some aspect of my Self has taken to waking me up at 1:40 or 3:30 a.m. or somesuch time and planting these little thoughts in my head, and since they’re mostly very short I’ve been posting them on Twitter.  I also started collecting them into a Word file, and I’ve got together enough now that I thought maybe I’d post them here as well.  If any of them resonates with you, feel free to share them… I usually just sign them as: ‘ ~ MNP’ Continue Reading →

Poetry Corner – Poetry ‘n’ Pics!

Hello Dear Ones!

Today’s Poetry Corner is being dedicated to a new category within M&M’s Musings: Poetry ‘n’ Pics.

Seems that two creative passions vie for my time and attention each day – poetry and fractal artwork. Many of you who know me through Twitter will be familiar with my micropoetry.  Individual tweets of my poems get sent out in that fashion on occasion. Yet there are days – like today – when I write six, nine, a dozen or more! I don’t like overloading inboxes with tweet after tweet of my verse.

The majority of you would be unaware that I also do art work through the computer. Many of my pieces have found their way to our Flickr site (click on Fractals: my work shows up under Marcia’s Apophysis Galaxies). Here are two of my favourite pieces – the Beribboned Buddha plus Mother and Child: Continue Reading →

Poetry Corner – Haiku Galore!

Hello Dear Ones!

If I submitted a tweet for every haiku I write, everyone who follows me would see my smiley-faced avatar umpteen times a day. It also means I’d not have time to do much other than write haiku and enter tweets in to Twitter! I tweet enough as it is without adding an additional load to my followers’ HootSuite or TweetDeck or other such options!

As a result, today’s Poetry Corner will offer a compilation of the haiku and related styles of micropoetry that I have recorded the past week. They are provided here in the order in which they came to me.  Haiku subjects vary moment by moment in topic for me – just the way my mind works and my heart connects to all that is in my life. You’ll notice there is seldom a common theme: with one exception – the Progressive Haiku poems (seen as #progressivehaiku in Twitter) that have an emotional series or chain of thought over several stanzas from sadness to joy.  Enjoy! Continue Reading →

Poetry Corner – One Breath Per Line

Hello Dear Ones!

An dear e-friend and great micropoet through Twitter: Tina Nguyen has recently inspired several of us to get into a more extended style of Haiku – known as Gogyohka:

Gogyohka is a new form of Japanese short poetry, founded and pioneered by Japanese poet Enta Kusakabe. Gogyohka is pronounced go-gee-yoh-kuh (the “g”s are hard as in “good”), and literally translated means “five line poem”. Gogyohka is five lines of free verse on any subject matter. There is no set syllable pattern, however the poem should be short and succinct. The goal is to compellingly capture an idea, observation, feeling, memory, or experience in just a few words.

Gogyohka is a fun and easy form, making poetry writing accessible to everyone, including children. Yet it is challenging as a method of practice for self-reflection, contemplation, and distilling one’s thoughts. Continue Reading →

Being Green – How Green Can We Be?

Hi Folks:

Well, next Monday marks the beginning of what is now ‘Earth Week’.  Forty years ago Earth Day began in the US, largely due to the efforts of US Senator Gaylord Nelson.  Forty years ago being an ‘environmentalist’ was generally looked down on, a title bestowed upon those radical hippie types with whom ‘normal’ people did not want to associate.  How times have changed, and for the good of all of us, too!  Daily Planet for example is hosting ‘Be Kind to Earth Week’ on Discovery Channel, but if you’ve signed up for the Biomimicry Institute’s Great TV Rebellion of 2010, you won’t be watching television, electing to go outside more instead.

The title for this week’s ‘Being Green‘ post comes from a Twitter hashtag – #howgreencanweb from @eight bottles – people are invited to post ideas and methods for being greener with this tag attached.  How green can we be?  It’s an interesting question.  Note the question is not, “How green should we be?” because today the general answer is that we should all strive to be as green as possible.  Continue Reading →

Poetry Corner – Micropoetry

Happy Spring Dear Ones!

At least it is newly Spring here in Canada – especially here on the southern tip of our beautiful Vancouver Island.

May I suggest that you read my post from Monday: Marcia’s Meanderings – Thank you, Twitter! It’s brief and gives you a bit of an introduction to this post today.

Micropoetry is a new term for me, even as versed (pun intended!) in poetic styles as I am. Being relatively new to Twitter, I recognized the standard hashtag (#) defined in Wikipedia as: “Short messages on services such as Twitter or identi.ca (that) may be tagged by including one or more hashtags: words or phrases prefixed with a hash symbol (#).” The use of this hashtag is to connect with people of like minds. If you want to share micropoetry with others you add the phrase #micropoetry into your tweet (your Twitter message) and others can see your poem. Similarly for #haiku or other short poetry styles. This works also for finding people interested in non-poetry subjects such as #hugs or #spring or #photography.

The following are some of the haiku and micropoems I have written recently:

The body slumbers ~ in moonlight spirit dances ~ sips on tears of joy. #haiku

Tulips bloom/ Two lips arch/ Smiles blossom. (in honour of Spring) #micropoetry

Welcoming smiles/ crack the landscape/ of a happy face. #micropoetry

Powdered sugar snow/Dusts the lawn/Sweetening the day. #micropoetry

On the bus a child/Knows her A B Cs song/ Sings to me sweetly. #haiku Continue Reading →

Marcia’s Meanderings – Thank you, Twitter!

Hello Dear Ones!

For a woman who, back in November of 2009, was behind the times in internet technology and who didn’t want to be connected in any way shape or form through the internet (other than e-mail) with others who merely seemed to share their daily activities, complain about the lot of their lives and saw little humour or joy in their daily existence, I’ve come a long way.

A major thank you to my son Nick for his soft insistence that I get involved in this internet technology. He got Mike and I set up and started. Nick’s teachings and suggestions have been invaluable and bang on! He saw this as an extension of what I was (and we were) already doing – journaling and interacting with others of like mind and heart. He was so very right!

A major thank you also to my husband Mike for his technical knowledge and persistence in making all of this come together for us. Nick got us set up and started and Mike flew with all that has pulled together what we have and do now here on our website and throughout the Ethernet.

Today I am a blogger and proud of it. I write regularly and am an active participant in both the Facebook and the Twitter worlds. The Twitter community, for me, has become the central focus of my days – and it is a true delight in my life. Continue Reading →