E aster, time for new things.
A t last, winter is over, the
S un is shining and
T here is promise in the air.
E verything is  new, our
R esurrection is near!

End the old ways,
G o and sin no more.
G od is with us.
S halom.

Ah!

My sweet darling,
How often I come
to you, hoping 

That
somehow just being
with you will erase
all my cares.

I
am captured by
your scent; dizzy
with desire,
lost in forever moments.

Re
member me, make me
hard and strong, be
a bulwark against my foes.

Your
love rises, a dove –
white, fluttering;
silent in the evening,
raucous with the dawn.

Do
not wake me. Let me
dream in your arms,
‘til in your kindness …

swooning I die.

     Well, I guess the truth is that a lot of people treat life like a poker game. You take what you're dealt, you master the rules of the game, you play your cards close to your chest, and there is only one winner - and that's going to be you.
     That's one way of looking at the world, I think. But when you choose to work with those who view life this way, it can be very difficult to stay in the game - for many reasons. In corporate America, it seems to be fairly common to withhold information from others as part of game strategy.
     The less others know about your cards, and how you intend to play them, the less likely you are to get in their way. The less others know about your needs and commitments, the less likely it is that you will know when and if they change, or need to know why.
     But the result of all this card holding is that people learn to trust you less, do not take your statements or requests at face value, and begin to hedge their bets. After a while, it just gets tiring and some perfectly good 'players' just walk away from the game.
     There are many ways to view life. And our view of what life is about affects the way we live from day to day, moment to mement, and the way we treat or use others. 
     I prefer to see life as a journey of exploration and adventure. I meet a lot of wonderful and weird creatures along the way, and it's all about the journey, the experience. True companionship, warm and honest friendship and cooperation is what I value. For me, it's not a game at all.

     Oops, 4 days since my last post. Doing some serious avoidance here. So many things to do, promises to keep, people to please. Funny how some things become habits and others don't. I've got into the habit at least of always finding an image to go with my blog post. Yea!
     On the other hand, actually blogging has not become as much of a habit as I'd like.
     Ran across this image on the web, and find some truth in it for me. But how to be sure that what I am doing, which may not sometimes look like work, or like what I "should" be doing, is actually the right thing for me to do.
     Like watching Downton Abbey tonight, for instance. Instead of working on our next book. Hmm. However, I did cook a boiled ham dinner tonight, and do the dishes! And write this post. And do some retirement planning. And food shopping, and a good day's work at DP.

I've decided to start posting whatever I read at the CWC Open Mic here on the blog. I read this one last night and someone asked me for a copy. I gave them my reading copy with last minute edits. That's OK, but I'd rather have pointed them to my blog and kept the last minute edits. Also, it's easy to forget exactly what I've read where, so this might help in that regard as well. So ...

     OK. Nothing real profound here. Just a random image I grabbed off of Google Images. Typed in the word "random."
     Had a great evening working on some of my poems for The Second Book of Truth. Getting closer. Thanks to Tina for her editing assistance!
     Also completed a second draft of a new piece of Flash Fiction, which I may read at the open mic tomorrow night. Maybe. It's a little weird. Not sure it hangs together quite right yet.
     Do you know what "Interactive Generative Art" is? If you're curious and have a little time to kill, check out the following sites - 

http://www.pointerpointer.com
http://new.weavesilk.com/?3yer
http://www.subblue.com/projects/guilloche

     Today

I can tell,
today is going to be
just one of those days
when little things get done
and no matter how hard
I try, I can't seem to get to the
larger more important matters.

Sometimes it feels as though
I must wade through the quicksand
of interminably tedious tasks,
in order to perhaps reach that
far-off firm ground of some solid work
on "the big things" in my life.

Do the dishes, sweep the floors,
let the cat out and back in. Make the bed
comb the hair on my head, get dressed,
making a living, eat, go to bed, and then
rise up and do it all over again.

But still I look to the stars, navigating
by the promises made to friends and strangers,
toward often nearly invisible treasures I've
read about, heard about, and thought about
until they've become my own obsessions,
hoped for possessions, deepest confessions,
most fervent transgressions and very nearly
my profession.

I strive for my own balance, between the oughts
and the wants, desire and stasis, running and stopping,
breathing and giving my all to each moment
as they in turn are given to me.

This is life, at least for now, and the future is yet to come.

     Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 satirical science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with—and eventual transformation of—terrestrial culture.
     I was eleven years old when this was published, and probably in my early teens before I actually read it. It had a profound impact on me--as well as I can remember--since so many things have had a profound impact on me during this long journey.
     There were three things about the book that made a lasting impression  -

1. The ability to imagine a better, completely different way of interacting with one another, and a kinder gentler society
2. The concept of "Waiting is."
3. The introduction of the term "Grok," the explanation of which I will leave to you and your curiosity - Google it if you want to know more.

At the moment, waiting is an important part of what I am doing right now. Though there is much going on in my life at the moment, there are also a lot of things set in motion that will just take some time to come to fruition. Waiting is--hard, frustrating, tedious, exciting, anxious and a whole lot more. Waiting is the willingness to not end something just because the results are not immediate, or seem to be different than what was expected. Waiting is keeping my goal in front of me when there are many interruptions, distractions and obligations that intrude on a daily basis. Waiting is.

     Another quick test of the Weebly iPhone app. This time shooting a video. Not quite what I expected. I had hoped to be able to save it as a draft, then go onto the computer later, add some text, and then publish it to the blog. 
     However, after I shot the video, it looked like my only choices were to publish it live or cancel, which I expected would delete the video I had just shot.

     Anyway, here's the video of a quick stroll out my back door and a walk around the pool.

Just a quick test of Weebly's iPhone app, which allows me to create a blog post from my phone. I'm not a very good thumb typist so not that convenient but it might come in handy for short posts like this.