Saturday, January 7, 2017

Isn't That Just Ducky!



























Hello!

Hello Everybody!

I am so happy to see you again!

Do you see this dancing light? It looks happy and it is warm, too!

I like to sit in front of the warm, happy, dancing light.

I like to sleep near the Christmas Tree, too.

Mama says that the Christmas season ended yesterday on Old Christmas Day.

Nanny says that it was also Three Kings Day and there is a song!

A song for Three Kings Day!  Yay!

I will listen and you can too!

Isn't that just Ducky!!


We Three Kings of Orient Are

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to reign

O Star of wonder, star of night                            
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Prayer and praising, all men raising
Worship Him, God most high

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia
Earth to heav'n replies

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light.

- Rev. John Henry Hopkins, New York City, 1857



Friday, January 6, 2017

Thank Gods It's FreyaDay!





























Good Evening, Humans.

I have had a trying few days.

My humans left me to look after the twins while they traveled to visit family over the holidays.

Those two are incorrigible, as you know. I did my best, and I will say no more.

Yes, of course my Human arranged for another human to also look after us, provide food and so on.

But let us be frank; without me, this household would devolve into chaos.

I managed beautifully, as always. And I am happy now that they are back.

Thank gods it's FreyaDay!



The Year of the Cat

On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time 
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime 

She comes out of the sun in a silk dress
running like a watercolour in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations 

She'll just tell you that she came 
In the year of the cat 

She doesn't give you time for questions
As she locks up your arm in hers 
And you follow 
'till your sense of which direction 
Completely disappears 

By the blue tiled walls
near the market stalls 
There's a hidden door she leads you to

These days, she says,
I feel my life Just like a river running thru

The year of the cat 

Well, she looks at you so cooly
And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea
She comes in incense and patchouli

So you take her, to find what's waiting inside
The year of the cat 

Well, morning comes and you're still with her
And the bus and the tourists are gone 
And you've thrown away the choice
and lost your ticket
So you have to stay on 

But the drum-beat strains of the night remain
In the rhythm of the new-born day 
You know sometime you're bound to leave her 
But for now you're going to stay 
In the year of the cat

- Al Stewart, Peter Wood



Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Starfish Are A Beautiful Thing


























While walking along a beach, an elderly gentleman saw someone in the distance picking something up and throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young boy, picking up starfish one by one and tossing each one gently back into the water.

He came closer still and called out, “Good morning! May I ask what you are doing?”

The boy paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”

The old man smiled, and said, “I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”

To this, the boy replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the elderly observer commented, “Do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile. It can't possibly make a difference!”

The boy listened politely. Then he bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it back into the ocean and said, “It made a difference for that one.”


I'm not sure what this post is about, really.  The post-holiday, pre-inauguration gloom is setting in and it seems like a good time for a little more beauty in the world.

Making a difference one starfish at a time is a beautiful thing.  We can do this, America.


Tuesday, January 3, 2017

The Secret Of Life - Perspective


























As we inch our way into 2017,  a year that many fear may be even more challenging than the annus horribilis we just booted out the back door, it might help to entertain some fresh perspective.

Sure, the 2016 election and all the ugly, brutal months that preceded it, may have been the beginning of the end of the United States as we knew it, but from a universal perspective 2016 was an infinitesimal blip within the infinite expanse of existence. The universe, the earth and even these divided States we still hope to call America will survive Trump. They will even survive the band of sycophants and opportunists known as the Republican congress.

Life will go on and in a hundred years - still an infinitesimal blip of "time" - things may very well be better for this horror show. People may have learned from this catastrophic mistake and the study of civics and history may even be valued again. Who knows? Maybe the principles that our liberal and enlightened founders hoped to enshrine in the founding documents of these United States will at last be restored as our guides.

That's the hopeful idea I leave with you tonight - and for your Tuesday Tonic,  here is James Taylor crooning his thoughts on the secret of life.



Monday, January 2, 2017

New Year's Resolutions



















Everyone is talking about New Year's resolutions and for once, I am making one, too.

I resolve to write more. (The secret real resolution is to write daily and post here daily - I'm on the fence about publishing that part for obvious reasons. Ha. We will see if this aside will make the final publishing cut, thus committing me to keeping the resolution or slinking away in self-induced public shame. Double ha)*.

An online friend posted some words of wisdom which I think is appropriate to share (with permission) at this juncture:

"Here is the trick to sticking with resolutions. They involve either making a new good habit or breaking an old bad habit. Research has shown fairly consistently that habit forming and breaking takes roughly 3 weeks to take hold, so if you make it 3 weeks you have a pretty good shot at keeping your resolution. But this is also part of why January 21st is widely regarded as the most depressing day of the year!"  lily cd re

So, there you have it, NiftyUniverse! Don't worry about sticking with your resolutions for a whole year. Simply resolve to do your new thing for three weeks, and the rest will take care of itself!

Isn't that just ducky?  Yes, faithful followers!  Here comes a Ducky photo!

 


                             2017


The New Year comes quietly

puppies sleeping, comfort and joy

Keep on, with courage and love.







And one more poem since I am in a philosophical mood! Remember, kids:


Burning the Old Year

Related Poem Content Details

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.   
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,   
transparent scarlet paper, 
sizzle like moth wings, 
marry the air. 

So much of any year is flammable,   
lists of vegetables, partial poems.   
Orange swirling flame of days,   
so little is a stone. 

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,   
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.   
I begin again with the smallest numbers. 

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,   
only the things I didn’t do   
crackle after the blazing dies. 



















*(There, I did it.  Ha Ha Ha)

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Happy New Year!
























New Year's Morning

Only a night from old to new!
Only a night, and so much wrought!
The Old Year’s heart all weary grew,
But said: “The New Year rest has brought.”
The Old Year’s hopes its heart laid down,
As in a grave; but, trusting, said:
“The blossoms of the New Year’s crown
Bloom from the ashes of the dead.”                          
The Old Year’s heart was full of greed;
With selfishness it longed and ached,                          
And cried: “I have not half I need.
My thirst is bitter and unslaked.
But to the New Year’s generous hand
All gifts in plenty shall return;
True love it shall understand;
By all my failures it shall learn.
I have been reckless; it shall be
Quiet and calm and pure of life.
I was a slave; it shall go free,
And find sweet peace where I leave strife.”
Only a night from old to new!
Never a night such changes brought.
The Old Year had its work to do;
No New Year miracles are wrought.

Always a night from old to new!
Night and the healing balm of sleep!
Each morn is New Year’s morn come true,
Morn of a festival to keep.
All nights are sacred nights to make
Confession and resolve and prayer;
All days are sacred days to wake
New gladness in the sunny air.
Only a night from old to new;
Only a sleep from night to morn.
The new is but the old come true;
Each sunrise sees a new year born.

- Helen Hunt Jackson