 Do you see Wesson? Wesson the Bobtailed Cat.... ...he is walking toward you in his brilliant camo. Do you see him? Dressed in his best gray suite.  He loves to hunt for whatever moves. He blends easily among the leaves and trees.  Bye for now he says. 
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The Figures of Tellico Lake
I love to go at dawn to the edge of Tellico Lake. On the way, I can see the blue haze of Smoky Mountains. However, it is the gathering sight down on the east Tennessee water that I seek. As the sun sneaks upward over those soft-looking Mountains to my east, fog figures rise from Tellico Lake. I watch them as the sky silently pinks and little wisps of breeze come and go. The white risers remind me of the native people who once inhabited the bottomlands. Until recent times this was a river. I can only imagine it winding within the valleys of grasses now covered by water. I stare at the steamy vapors lifting from the depths, phantom-like images dotting the surface of the dark green glassy stillness. It is an amazing sight at dawn. The tiny blond hairs on my arms stand at attention. Is it the chilly air or the sight? I do not know. They space themselves apart, but yet together... as warriors gathering, arranging for the day’s hunt. They are silent, lifting upward, drawing toward the lightening and inviting sky. Whether anyone notices or not, they appear. The fog figures cover the flat and shiny mirror of lake until the sun’s heat burns them away until tomorrow. You would think it to be an eerie sight. It is not at all. Beautiful and peaceful they flow smoothly upward slowly in columns of cloudy steam. They dissipate into the brightness of the day. I sometimes wonder if others can see them. Cars speed by on the bridge, but none stop. The cows on the far bank seem unaware of the ghostly presence. A couple of huge crows argue a paragraph of crow talk and are gone. A train rumbles in the distance. A squirrel violently shakes the farthest limb of an oak tree. The dew wets my shoes and soaks into my cool feet. I view the apparitions, noting this is something both special and awesome. The specters of Tellico’s waters stretch skyward with their vaporous toes hovering and tickling the water surface at dawn, oblivious to the swarm of feeding bass driving a school of escaping shad to flip into the air. I watch. The people of the fog grow taller and taller, wispy arms linking upward to the growing blue. I am mesmerized as their touch with the lake narrows, thinning, as the heavens free them of the water. They glide lightly into calm dissipation. As the world awakes they slowly vanish before my appreciative eyes. Another day begins. An attitude shift is like a change of clothes..."Talk Positive. Think Uplifting Thoughts.” “I wish that wasn’t like that.”
I love positive attitude shifts; they change my days for the better. The negative ones do just the opposite. An attitude is something a person wears, or ‘puts on’… lasting until you change it or wear it out. However, a paradigm shift is an alteration all the way to the cellular level....every bit of us is changed. While the inspiration of an attitude can wear off and dim with time and circumstance, we cannot UNSEE a paradigm shift. It is like having New Eyes. And at the point of a paradigm shift it no longer matters what attitude we wear…. underneath our whole life is different. A paradigm shift will often radically shift the attitudes attached to it. Alternatively, attitudes will rarely or barely affect the paradigm a person holds. To illustrate this relationship to My Self, I think about the Earth and the Weather: Earth being the paradigm we live on….in the big scheme of things it changes very slowly and very little. Kansas is still where the bulk of Kansas was, from a thousand years ago when it was yet to be named Kansas. Weather being the mood or attitude of the atmosphere where it touches the Earth…it changes minute by minute. In Missouri it can be nearly uninhabitably hot and dry in August, and so very cold in January. And it can even exhibit all four seasons in a single day. <><> It would seem that paradigms would not often shift for us humans. I am thinking most people have very few in a lifetime. Although some people have paradigms shifts at regular intervals. Both types of lives are great in different ways. For those who change paradigms a lot, it confuses other people trying to keep up with them or figure them out. It is as if they are swapping planets all the time. And, of course, how they adapt themselves to the new ways of thinking makes a difference as to how well life turns out for them. For those who are mostly the same every day, it is restful for others to hang with them. You know where they are today, because they were there yesterday and will be there tomorrow. And that is great too. We all have different purposes, and were and are being made special to fit those purposes. When our nation was being settled there were people who stopped somewhere by a river and created a town. Alternatively, there were those who moved and roamed all over the continent. Our ideas and dreams are the same way. Some find what they need early and stick with it. Some are always looking toward that next horizon. So, I say to My Self, be the best you can be within your paradigm today and everyday. And if, or when, it shifts - Learn the new one and do your best in it too. Don’t be condemning to other people for the choices they make. And don’t hold regret for your own wanderings and stayings. Regret and condemnation are negative attitudes, and a waste of time. We all are where we are. A positive attitude may not change where we ARE today, but it can make ‘where we are’ better until ‘where we are’ shifts. Just because another person’s path is different does not mean they are lost. What is writing?
It is about communicating an idea. It is about putting forth an intent or hope. It is an art to work within the grammar To make plain a molded clearly-defined thought. And yet the rules that bind it, Should not imprison it so much as for it to die. While less than raw, And not so well done to turn to dust and ashes. Art, Words, and Communication. What is writing? More than scribbling, crossing T’s, Or adding a Dot. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Well, I just hit the APPROVE BUTTON.....
and they gave me this link: https://www.createspace.com/5919480 CSP is telling me it will be 3-5 days before the paperback version becomes available for order on Amazon. CreateSpace.com has it already at the link above...of course, they are the ones printing it, so it makes sense that they would have it first. I am excited..and a little scared too. I have worked and re-worked it, used critique from the pre-readers, reviewers, and kindle readers...it is the best I can do, today. I suppose a person is never satisfied with their own work, except you have to stop somewhere and take a snapshot. Here is the snapshot. Thank you for giving it a look. Pj Date: January 18, FUTURE Dear XYZ Clone Administrator: RE: Questions about Cloning in response to your advertising. It has come to my attention that there is not enough of me, and your advertising promises to solve this problem. My questions are as follows: My right hand does not know what my left hand is doing NOW....so how will I keep my clones in sync? Is there a separate app for this? Or will that be an add-on later? In addition, can you guarantee that one of the clones or myself, possibly synced or unsynced, will not introduce more work for me and my clones? I envision multiplied problems to which I assume you have original answers. Can you insure the clones to be efficient problem solvers? How much do clones eat and are they picky about their food? Please advise. Thank you kindly, Original Me It is annoying, even frustrating to weave along a highway and find out it leads nowhere. All of us have made a turn or continued going straight Ending up at the end of a road... SOMEWHERE? There exists an abundance of Dead Ends in this world, Both on maps and in our lives. And if you are of any age at all, You know, It happens to everyone. You are not alone. No need to let it be a surprise. We learn to turn around and head back to the main road, Whatever main road that might be. But often we are frustrated and annoyed For wasting time on those paths Which to nowhere lead. Have heart my friends, Do not despair when this happens again. I learned from watching the kids play Mario There is often a jewel, a key, or a helpful bit of information In the cul-de-sacs and turnarounds that halt us suddenly At a wall around a bend. Now you are laughing, or crying perhaps At the silliness of this verse. But tell me is it not the truth That from everything we can learn? And if we cannot learn, what is worse? Even if the only purpose is to guide another by saying, “That’s a Dead End, a no-outlet path.” We might as well, when we are present anyways Look for that hidden jewel or nugget of gold tucked carefully away for us as we pass. You might be surprised, as I often am At how Dead Ends are good for you. If Mario and Luigi can find them, turnaround, and then go on. You and I can too. <><><> Ever beautiful, even in winter clothes....I present to you: The GREAT Smoky Mountains of Graham County N. Carolina.... near the Appalachian Trail. I have no other words today...just this picture. I think the picture says it all.  Life is a Mirror.
Life is a REALLY tough mirror. You make a mean face at it, It makes a mean face back at you. You throw a rock at it, Let me tell you because I know… It will not break, It will not bow, but it will sling a stone back at you. Sometimes the projectile is just a pebble, Often though, A hot lava rock, Sometimes a boulder. Be aware. Ask me how I know… How each hurts a little differently. How each teaches you some thing. SOME THING you need to know Further down the road. Life is a Really Tough Mirror. Yet, If you smile at Life, The rebound tends to be much better. And the more regularly you smile, The better the reflection appears. And if you toss it sweet roses, Even better still. To every push, There is a push-back. For every thrust, A parry. Much as bouncing a ball off of a wall. The harder you cast it, The more forceful it comes “Smack!” Don’t let it rebound into your head, or whack you in the back. A ripple in a pond, A tsunami in the sea. Going out knowing it will return. Be wise now, Knowing this is how it will be. Not saying there is NEVER occasion to put a shoulder to a task. To give a push, A shove, Or launch an arrow. Or unleash an grand avalanche. You know. Sometimes it is the season of standing and fighting. A time for brawling and biting. Just know the fight comes back. Sometimes now, sometimes far away. Don’t just clap your hands and turn about, or in your back you will feel the blade. Perhaps the “at odds” will end in a dodge, spin, or twirl. We all hope for forgiveness, mercy, grace. Sometimes we are given them, More often in the world of humanness, we take one to the face. Forgiveness, grace, and mercy, the most blessed gifts we may obtain. Often first as a deflection of our meanness. Maybe later, As we learn, A reflection of our same. <><><> “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:7-9 A person can fall off of either the low or high sides of the path… don’t worry about falling, just keep getting back on the path when you do stumble… grab onto a scrap and heave yourself back onto the roadway.
Don't overemphasize the being in the ditch, everyone runs off into the ditch sometimes. Life is about the GOING ON ANYWAYS. Go on; minimize the time spent in the ditch. GO ON. Get up. Walk the path. Live like your life depends on it. You can do it. Come on. :) :) |
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