fulgent lighthouse beam
fling your beacon far across
fog-enfettered shores
F is for fog.
#AtoZChallenge: 26 posts in April, topics to proceed alphabetically. Theme optional.
My theme: a three-line poem each day (5-7-5, haiku form) with the first letter of each line the same as the letter of the day.
It’s International Day of Forests today. Here are some of my favorite forested areas. Enjoy:
Lacamas Lake, Camas, WA
Cathedral Tree Trail, Astoria, OR
Mill Creek, WSU campus, Vancouver, WA
Ochoco National Forest, Central Oregon
They say you can’t
get There from Here,
and yet Here
is the only place from which
you can begin.
The most assured way to not
get There from Here
is to not set out at all.
However, There
may not turn out to be
quite as it appeared from Here.
The most assured way to not
be disappointed with There
is to not define it
until There has become Here.
The Daily Post weekly photo challenge: The Road Taken
#WeekendCoffeeShare is graciously hosted by Diana at ParttimeMonsterBlog.com.
Women’s March in Portland, OR
If we were having coffee I would tell you it hasn’t been a very productive week. My kitchen is still completely torn up from my DIY remodel. The rest of the house looks like a tornado passed through; a tornado with lots and lots of white fur. And I’m tired of subsisting on frozen dinners because my range is covered by a drop cloth and a grand array of hand tools.
Of course, all of that is totally under my control to change if I just managed to get up off my derriere and do something about it. Okay, I admit I’ve been binge-watching Haven on Netflix. And going to visit my grandkids. Oh, and then there was that little march thing on Saturday. Maybe you heard about it: the Women’s March?
For someone who even has trouble being in a crowded grocery store (no joke), it was a bit daunting to be walking shoulder to shoulder among 100,000 people in the streets of Portland, OR. But in a last minute text, my daughter asked me if I would go with her.
I wrote back, “No. I can’t,” and as I paused to consider how to phrase the notion that I wouldn’t be able to handle the crowds and it would be too overwhelming to be out and about like that, I looked at what I had written. “No. I can’t.”
And I thought to myself, “Yes. I can.” It would be difficult and challenging, and maybe even completely overwhelming, and I might have to leave as soon I got there. But yes, I could at least try.
So I deleted those two words, and instead wrote, “Sure.” And we went. And I survived. And I’m glad I showed up. And I’m glad the other 99,999 people showed up as well.
Portland PD monitoring the Women’s March 1.21.17
Did we make a difference? Yes, I think we did. It made a difference for me. In me. It made me challenge my “no I can’t” beliefs, not only about my anxieties, but about my ability to help effect positive change in a country that so sorely needs that right now. I’m glad I went. I’m glad my daughter extended the invitation, even though she probably expected my response to be, “No, I can’t.”
I still don’t plan on going to the grocery store, at least not until my freezer full of entrees needs replenishing. And I don’t know if I will ever join another march. But I did it, and – dare I say – I’m proud.
Now I just need to apply my “can do” energy to house work and kitchen remodeling tasks. But first I’m going to nuke something from the freezer for lunch, and then play with my dog just in case he hasn’t shed enough fur on the furniture. Oh, and then I’ll be visiting my grandkids this afternoon.
Seems I’m just too busy to be productive! Maybe next week…
“After arriving from China my dad took a year to save enough money working in San Francisco and he then walked to Astoria.” [ 718 miles ]
“My grandfather brought home salmon cheeks, a delicacy to the Chinese but a waste to the cannery owners.”
“He was a veteran of World War 2 and the Korean war and he filmed breaking stories on the coast for news stations and he was the official photographer for the Miss Oregon pageant.”
“We went to American school in the daytime and Chinese school in the evening.”
“My mother graduated with a college degree but Chinese women seldom had job opportunities so she…”
“Grandma said dad was so sick on the boat from China that he would have been fed to the fish if he had died. Now a seafood lab is named after him for the fish feed that he and his team developed.”
“The tongs formed in the 1870s and grew to as many as nine but began to disappear in the 1930s. Remaining tongs were known more for their…”
“Chinatown was like a playground. We had no…”
These photos were taken at the Garden of Surging Waves, a city park in Astoria, Oregon, which was built to honor and celebrate the Chinese heritage of that area. The Story Screen in these photos is an iron structure that includes the entry gate, and these large panels that tell about the hardships, struggles and contributions of some of the Chinese immigrants in Astoria as well as their descendants who remained in the area and who continue to be vital components in the fabric of the community.
The Daily Post weekly photo challenge: Resilient
Clatsop Plains Pioneer Cemetery (est. 1846) in Clatsop County, Oregon USA
I grew up playing (respectfully) in this cemetery. It doesn’t look too scary now, but as a child, I had all sorts of imaginings about what might be lurking in the trees, or about stumbling across — or into — a sunken grave, or hearing otherworldly rustlings and voices just behind me.
And while it looks innocent enough by day, you still won’t find me going there after dark.
I wanted to get away from it all, even though
I didn’t know what “it all” was exactly.
I just knew it wasn’t where I was,
and it wasn’t
sitting within the same walls and
looking out the same windows and
thinking the same thoughts and
falling into the same rutted patterns
of my daily existence.
I searched for someplace remote
but near civilization,
rustic
but with amenities,
in the wilderness
but not too wild…
and I found it:
a cabin
in the woods
in a forest
that I had thought only existed
in my dreams,
and it was
sitting on a porch
with my closest family members
looking at wildlife and tall trees and mountains in the distance,
thinking more expansively in the vastness of the forest,
falling into new patterns of peaceful companionship,
and while getting away from it all
I discovered that “it all”
is actually a matter of perspective and
is always
exactly where I am.
The Daily Post Discover Challenge: Designed for You
The Daily Post daily prompt: Learning
I am reposting my thoughts from last year’s World Oceans Day. Now more than ever, our oceans are in need of protection.
“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean.”
~ Arthur C. Clarke
Expansive and deep,
beautiful but volatile,
ample force to turn
vessels to splinters.
Teeming with life,
ceaselessly churning,
an indefatigable
dynamo.
Kissed by the sun,
caressed by the winds,
extolled by poets
and sailors alike.
Sustainer of life
as we know it on Earth,
yet with all its
grandeur and might…
still fragile.
What Rhymes with Stanza? 