that's mrs. mediocrity to you

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Describe a moment of beauty that you witnessed this year.

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so much

of life’s beauty

can be found

dancing

in the

shadows.

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{reverb11} check it out here

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Post your best photo of the year.

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This was a tough one, requiring judgment
and singling out and paring down
when there were so many lovely things
to look at this past year, so many favorites.

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But in the end, I had to choose this one.
First, because it took days and days of hiding in the bushes
and waiting patiently to get the shot.
Bluebirds are very shy.

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And second, because when the bluebird of happiness
lands right in your backyard,
well, it’s the best.

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{reverb11} check it out here  {resound11} check it out here

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Take us back to a moment this year when you experienced
pure, unadulterated joy.

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after months

of knee pain and

then surgery

and then recovery,

the first time

i headed

down this path,

running.

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{reverb11} check it out here

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Who have you forgiven this year and what was
the journey like that brought you to forgive them?

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Forgiveness is such a tough one. For most of my life, I was really bad at it. I was one of those people, a grudge-holder. A thorn-in-my-side kind of person. It’s true.

In the last few years, I have shifted away from that. I think it started when I was ill, and the old cliche that life is too short started whispering itself in my ear. Tapping me on the shoulder. Tripping me when it thought I wasn’t looking.

But it’s true, you know. Life is too short.

And I have too many things I want to do to waste time holding grudges. To take up space in my heart and my soul with hatred and anger. To fill my days with looking back when all I need is right now.

More cliches, I know. Still, these are the realizations I came to. I’m not claiming to be good at forgiving just because I have reached this point. Forgiving is still a hard thing to do. Especially for the big hurts. But I am better at it now, because I’m willing to forgive. I don’t stand in the black or the white, I keep my feet in the grey. Well, at least I try.

So the answer to the question, who did I forgive this year?

Everyone. Including myself.

I let things roll off my back and on down the hill. I allowed myself to be less than perfect. I stopped clinging to the hope that I could do it all and chose the things I really wanted to do.

And I stopped holding grudges. Well, okay, I stopped holding them for such a long time, there may have been a moment or two that still managed to take hold of my senses. I’m only human, after all. But I forgave myself for that, too.

And my life is better because of it. The older I get, the more I learn to embrace humanity. Because we really are all in this together. There’s a whole fabulous spectrum between dark and light. I want to keep moving forward, and I am drawn to all that color, that green and that violet, that blue.

And besides, everything you’ve ever heard about forgiveness…

is true.

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{reverb11} check it out here

there are worse things to be
than slightly worn
rough around the edges
used up
dried out
splintered

.

there is green
and just beginning
starting over
fragile innocence
curling up
towards the sun

.

there is the burn
and the tear
scabbing over
forming callous
swallowing
bitter

.

there is the waiting
the always
waiting
and the brief
shimmer
of possibility

.

there is
the growing
and the living
and the knowing
and the dying.
there is always

this

.

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this post is part of dVerse poets Open Link Night join us!

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What made you laugh this year?

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this.

365 days.

times 5.

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and i

still miss

george.

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{reverb11} check it out here

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Think about this past year. Is there a song that you’ve heard that
has really struck a chord, one that has spoken to you?

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This year, there was a song.

I fell in love with it the first time I heard it, and then I played it
over and over and over again for months.

I do that sometimes. I’m weird like that.

My husband and son got tired of hearing it.

But I didn’t.

I suppose you could say that it is a sad, melancholy song.

But to me, it is laced with hope.

And as you probably know by now, I’m big on hope.

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Lines like:

Hello, hello, there is no place I cannot go.

Look at the stars beneath my feet.

Said he’d seen my enemy, said he looked just like me.

And my reflection troubles me, so here I go.

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James Blunt. Same Mistake

I’ve never embedded a video here, and
I don’t think I’m going to attempt it now.

But here’s a link if you want to have a listen.

(I tried to find a version that didn’t force you to watch a commercial first.)

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Happy Monday.

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{reverb11} check it out here  {resound11} check it out here

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What have you let go of this year and how has it affected you?

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it’s not so much

what i let go of

as it is

what i started

reaching for.

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{reverb11} check it out here

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Tell us about one moment that you lived in 2011 that you will never forget.

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In amongst the chaos, it was a year filled with snatched moments. Breathing them in the way I would if I had just run six miles and was gasping for breath.

Appreciating them all the more for the way they filled my desperate mind with bits and pieces of beautiful.

In general, I share those moments of beauty here, but there was one that I didn’t, mainly because it was impossible to photograph.

In August we went to the Adirondack mountains to camp at one of our favorite lakes, one that is a favorite because it is small and because it feels like home.

And after we had been there for a day and half, the park ranger came by to tell us that we had to leave the next day, that all the parks in the mountains were being closed because of Hurricane Irene.

As he said this, there was not a cloud in the sky.

That night, we made a roaring campfire, the way we always do, and we made s’mores, the way we always do, and we wished we didn’t have to pack things up so soon.

Later, we walked down to the lake, to say goodbye.

No one was at the beach, it was quite late. Technically, I suppose we weren’t supposed to be there, either.

But what a sight.

The lake was perfectly calm, and in it, a million stars reflected back at themselves.

If it weren’t for the slightly darker silhouette of the mountains ringing the lake, it would have been impossible to tell where the sky ended and the lake began. A tiny crescent moon hung low in the sky, smiling back up at us from the water.

We all stood there for minutes that felt like hours, just soaking it in.

It was the kind if moment that I knew I could never photograph well enough, or describe well enough, to convey its magic.

But now, when I close my eyes, I can still see it.

I am there. On that beach, surrounded by darkness that is not dark but glittering, loons calling out love songs in the distance, and mountains looming as sentinels in the background, strong and silent and unseen.

I am there breathing in.

And I am smiling.

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{reverb11} check it out here

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If you could choose one thing that your children
will do or experience in a different way than you have,
what would it be and why?

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life.

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each one as unique,

individual,

magical,

as a snowflake.

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{reverb11} check it out here