On Having a Seizure

This was one of those days when I wish I'd had my camera with me. If I had, I could show you the image that sent me into a metaphorical seizure.

I imagine what I'm about to describe has been plastered all over television, flickr, youtube, myspace, etc...but since I'm intentional about not watching TV and mindlessly surfing the web, you'll cut me a little slack.

So, we're driving through a picturesque neighborhood in West Nashville. Along the winding road, I see yard signs for Candidate A and Candidate B. Excellent, the two party system seems to be equally represented. Then, we approach a house that has a yard sign for Candidate B that is approximately 50 times larger than regulation size (no, I don't really think there's a regulation size, but you know what I mean) and below it is a color photograph of Candidate B's running mate decked out in camo, holding a semi-automatic weapon on her hip (okay maybe it was a rifle, but I was having a seizure...deal with it).

WTF?

Someone please explain this to me.

In Search of...

One of my daily reads is Hahn at Home. Lori is re-entering the dating scene and asked her readers for assistance in composing a personal ad. The entries are in and #5 contained the best question I've ever read:

"Will you drive out in the dark of night to find me a pain pill/ice cream/thesaurus?"

If she finds a woman who can truthfully answer 'yes' to that question and do it without being asked, she has hit the jillpot!

Good luck Lori.

Snooty Snapdragons

Three Wee Bees

My Jubilee

The phone rang this morning a little before eight o'clock, it was my mom singing Happy Birthday, the same call she's made every year since I moved away from home. God she's sweet.

I get pretty psyched about birthdays, subscribing to the concept of the birthday month. Some people find my enthusiasm a little off-putting. To the naysayers I proclaim, "Shut up and have a cupcake!" Maybe it's because I witnessed an entire generation of people die very young that I appreciate having a birthday, you know, versus NOT having a birthday.

Today marks the beginning of my year of Jubilee...my 49th birthday.

Here's a little poem that speaks to a year of emancipation and restoration.

make a pilgrimage
to the center of your soul
along the way
forgive others

forgive yourself
whose hand alone
spreads a healing balm
on open wounds

what is owed
spills from the urn of forgiveness,
broken at the foot
of the altar

labor only
to lay the bedrock
of the road
leading you to Jubilee

Fall is Coming

Morning mist obscures the surface of the lake, but your eyes are not deceived. Among columns of green is one lone tree leading the march toward Fall, a season of change, color and noisy leaves underfoot. Hooray!

Hunker Down

Houston Skyline from Eleanor Tinsley Park

It seems the media has latched on to a familiar Texas phrase, "hunker down." I don't know if, in fact, it's origins lie in the rich Texas soil, but in talking with my family and friends over the last two days, that is in fact what is going on. Here are a few anecdotes to ponder:

1. The pelicans left Galveston Island several days ago. They effected their own evacuation without benefit of the National Weather Service, FEMA or the Mayor's Office.

2. My friends on the force (HPD) don't have the option of evacuating. They have been activated and are leaving their homes to begin 12 hour shifts until order is restored.

3. The mayor of Houston had the following advice about preparing for the approaching storm, "Run from the water, dodge the wind."

I'm still trying to make sense out of how one dodges the wind, especially when it's hurling uprooted trees, broken glass and debris at you. Maybe ruby slippers would be of help.

4. "This one is big and scary."

Texans are accustomed to everything being on a large scale, so when they describe this storm as big, you can be assured it is HUGE.

Right now, my heart is in my throat for friends, family and neighbors who call Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast home. May you wake tomorrow to the glint of sunlight bouncing off majestic skyscrapers and an intact skyline.

Summer Reading Wrap Up

Even though summer's not officially over for 20 more days, I'm calling it finito to my summer reading list. Stoved up over the weekend with a creaky back gave me a chance to add another book to the list: The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin . It was a well-crafted read with some sublime passages.

It wasn't my intention to graze through books this summer like a bag of Frito's, but graze I did. From the thousands of pages, myriad of characters and settings, carefully crafted and edited books, one paragraph tucked in a 30 year-old book by Canadian author, Gilean Douglas is going to stay with me like the memory of this summer's perfect peach:

Every conference, church service or significant chat should take place in the outdoors or, when weather worsened, where a sweep of beautiful landscape could be seen. There would be silence first and just looking. Then you would see the neck unstiffen, the shoulders lower and go back, the hands open, the foot still. Then irrevocable things might not be done out of weariness, impatience, prejudice or greed. Then the benediction of beauty sweetened with compassion might flow around and through us, to save all that is worth saving.

The Protected Place