"I Sit on the Porch" - by Bob Dahl

I Sit on the Porch, 0919/2011 - by Bob Dahl

I sit on the small, open air, cedar porch with glass slats for a roof, leaving the door into the great room open to hear the outcome of the golf tournament. 

My wife sits inside under a lamp sewing one of her fabric sculptures on a quiet Sunday 

afternoon.

I set down my wine glass on the wood floor away from where the dog will be and look up to see rain drops on the slats.

My Chocolate Lab wakes, slides off the couch, follows me out of the house and faces me, tail wagging fiercely.  

He barks his whiskey bark, a bone collapsing in his old throat. 

He gags and coughs, courteously turning his head down and away.  

He turns back, looks directly into my eyes as if challenging me, “Come on, buddy. Let’s rumble.”  

I wipe a sleeper from his eye left again by a busy sandman and pat him on his head. His tail swings rhythmically.  

He squints approval and lifts his bony, football player’s knees into the house looking

for his mistress. 

Keep on Dancing

A good friend sent this to me ... one of those good pieces floating around the internet. I enjoyed it, and I think you will, too.

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This was written by an 83-year-old woman to her friend.

*The last line says it all. *

Dear Bertha,

I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting in the yard and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the  garden. I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time working.

Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experiences to savor, not to endure. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them.

I'm not "saving" anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, or the first Amaryllis blossom.

I wear my good blazer to the market. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out $28.49 for one small bag of groceries. I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties, but wearing it for clerks in the hardware store and tellers at the bank.

"Someday" and "one of these days" are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now

I'm not sure what others would've done had they known they wouldn't be here for the tomorrow that we all take for granted. I think they would have called family members and a few close friends. They might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend fences for past squabbles. I like to think they would have gone out for a Chinese dinner or for whatever their favorite food was.

I'm guessing; I'll never know.

It's those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew my hours were limited. Angry because I hadn't written certain letters that I intended to write one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn't tell my husband and parents often enough how much I truly love them. I'm trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, tell myself that it is special.

Every day, every minute, every breath truly is a gift from God.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance

"The Green Thing"

From a good blogging friend ... http://ninure.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/the-green-thing/ The Green Thing

In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment." He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. ………. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. ………. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. ………. We didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. ………. We didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. ………. We didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. ………. We didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad that the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

huithiang!: THE CANTOR AND THE CLANSMAN

THE CANTOR AND THE CLANSMAN: "One sunny Sunday morning in June 1991, Cantor Michael Weisser and his wife, Julie, surrounded by half-unpacked boxes in the kitchen of thei..."

Love changes the heart of a hateful man ... because hate grows where love is denied, and he was a man reared in home with too little love, and so hatred entered in, until love came a-calling.

Faithfulness - Over the Long Haul

Just finished reading a newsletter from a church I served many years ago.

Along with new names I've never known, lots of old names still working, serving, loving and sustaining, and their children, too.

Commitment, faithfulness - can these words mean anything less than the Long Haul?

I don't think so ... anything less than the Long Haul is likely to be at our pleasure or discretion. The Long Haul requires something bigger than momentary interests or personal desires.

As I read the note, I felt a great sense of gratitude well up within me. After all, I know some of these stories, and I know that servering over the Long Haul isn't always easy, and not always rewarding. But these servants of the Lord have discovered one of the great secrets of life - giving is always in season, even when it isn't.

And in such serving, the soul is shaped into something grand.

The image of Christ.

Basic Advice for the day!

Be of good cheer; watch your tongue; be alert to one another; pay attention to your soul; don't worry about how you pray, just pray as you can; read your Bible a little bit every day, or most every day (just five minutes: no more or no less - and it'll add up); count your blessings; give at least three compliments a day; stop now and then and say, "I'm really glad to be here!" ... savor your food; stop, look and listen; don't be nosey; trust the people around you - they're doing their best, and let them know you appreciate their labor; don't be in a hurry all the time; look at yourself in the mirror and pull a few faces and have a good laugh at yourself; eat a good breakfast; and remind yourself to trust God a little bit more every day!

"The Tao of Touch" by Marge Piercy

The tao of touch by Marge Piercy What magic does touch create that we crave it so. That babies do not thrive without it. That the nurse who cuts tough nails and sands calluses on the elderly tells me sometimes men weep as she rubs lotion on their feet. Yet the touch of a stranger the bumping or predatory thrust in the subway is like a slap. We long for the familiar, the open palm of love, its tender fingers. It is our hands that tamed cats into pets, not our food. The widow looks in the mirror thinking, no one will ever touch me again, never. Not hold me. Not caress the softness of my breasts, my inner thighs, the swell of my belly. Do I still live if no one knows my body? We touch each other so many ways, in curiosity, in anger, to command attention, to soothe, to quiet, to rouse, to cure. Touch is our first language and often, our last as the breath ebbs and a hand closes our eyes. "The tao of touch" by Marge Piercy, from The Hunger Moon: New & Selected Poems, 1980-2010. © Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. Reprinted with permission. From Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, May 5, 2011.