Everyday Words - Everyday Thoughts

Your thoughts don't have words every day
They come a single time

Like signal esoteric sips
Of the communion Wine

Which while you taste so native seems
So easy so to be

You cannot comprehend its price
Nor its infrequency

[~ Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, Poem #1452]

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DEF: "esoteric" Adjective: Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.

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In this poem, my Maternal Cousin EMILY Elizabeth Dickinson (10 Dec 1830 - 15 May 1886), says to ME that there are NOT words enough to describe every feeling and emotion that float through my mind every day. Moreover, that the meaning of some thoughts is confusing to some who do not know my circumstance or me. In addition, some 'words' when said or written have a 'price' that is a toll paid by the author for their effect on the emotions and attitude of self and others.

EMILY did not follow the typical path of a woman of her time for she never married. She lived a solitary life in her parent's home taking care of the household and her parents during their lifetime and illness and after their deaths living alone in the homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts. She spent many hours in conjugating the mental processes and writing down some of her feelings and thoughts about her life, nature, faith, love, death, and other topics. In over 1700 poems and writings, that are known about, she recorded on paper by hand (no computers or MSWord) her thoughts in 'words'. Today she is considered a genius with the use of words, and there are college course, books, museums, and historical societies that are dedicated to reading her 'words' and analyzing each punctuation, phrase, topic, and nuance.

For myself, I believe EMILY'S 'words' and her poetry and writings can be best enjoyed when applied to my own life and experiences. In this way, I am internalizing her whispered words that murmur to my heart and that put a 'period' to my feelings and thoughts. Sometimes, I find that by reading something she has written, I am better able to gain clarity on a point in my life. Clarity helps remove the confusion and shadows that intrude and hinder the 'walk of life'. There are enough 'boulders' and 'rough seas' that make the journey difficult!

I am reminded of a time that a DEAR FRIEND helped me to reach clarity at a time, a couple of years ago, when I was baffled and confused. My friend listened to me describe my status and said that it sounded like I was experiencing DEEP GRIEF. This was a welcome realization and helped me put into perspective the many confusing feelings and thoughts that floated through my mind and heart and fell softly on to my wet cheeks. Grief is a personal process that no 'words' can explain, but 'words' in a Poem, a Prayer, or from a DEAR FRIEND can help the healing process through the solitary feelings from loss of loved ones.

[~ DOROTHY HAZEL TARR, dht-2011]


[PHOTO SOURCE; GOOGLE online images]

LOVE -- Whispers

(I wrote this as a tribute, 25 Jun 2011, to my BELOVED daughter on her 47th Birthday. LOVE you sweetie !!)


Sometimes the threads of LOVE are a silent gesture, a bold token, a thoughtful gift, a sacrifice, a prayer, or whatever ... Woven together, these LOVE threads become a strong bond that can withstand the rigors of life and the tests of time. The bonds become the fabric of our life with all the texture, flourish, whimsy, faith, and strength that make our life rich and full.

Family Lore has many colors and patterns made from these fabrics and LOVE threads that WHISPER IN THE EAR of generations, reminders of our bonds to the past, the hopes of the present, and the promise of the future.
[~dht-2011]

[PHOTO SOURCE: My Photo, My Camera, My Maternal Gram's Peddle non-electric Singer Sewing Machine, that I learned to sew on -- GREAT MEMORIES !!  NOW, the machine is silent and unused; I miss my Gram every moment of every day!!]

                             [PHOTO SOURCE:  GOOGLE online images - quilting]

Penguin -- Another Day, Another Nature

                         [PHOTO SOURCE: National Geographic online images]

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SOME OF MY FAV QUOTES

My grandmother used to say, “If you can't change something, change the way you think about it."

[-Maya Angelou]

**"GRAMs always 'know' best!"  [dht-2011]  **

 

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”

[-Maria Robinson]
 

“Even though we've changed and we're all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends.”

[-unknown]

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.” 

[-Flora Whittemore]

“Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” 

[-Keri Russell]

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”

[-Pericles]

“There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.”

[-Winston Churchill {Sir Winston Leonard Spencer -Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, DL, FRS (30 Nov 1874 – 24 Jan 1965) was a British politician and statesman} (my Maternal Cousin, THAT's right!) ]

“Life can either be accepted or changed.  If it is not accepted, it must be changed.  If it cannot be changed, then it must be accepted.”  [-unknown]

“You've changed so much.  I guess that's what happens.  I wish you knew how much you changed me.  I wonder if I changed you, if your life is different because of me.  Because mine's different."

[-unknown]

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” 

[-Reinhold Niebuhr]

“Change is the essence of life.  Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become.”  [-unknown]

“Everything in life is connected somehow.  You may have to dig deep to find it but it's there.  Everything is the same even though it's different.  Somehow, everything connects back with your life.  The faces in certain places may be different, but the situation is the same.  Irony is a hidden factor that creeps around us in life, letting its presence felt only after it has left.  Picture back to a year ago and the situations you were in.  Look at how things are different yet somehow everything is still in some way cognate [alike].  Everything connects together to form the balance of life, to maintain structure.  Change is and always will be inevitable, but everything is relative, and all the moments and times in your life will come back around again, you just might find yourself on the other side of the coin.  Things are always changing, as fast as everything stays the same.”

[-unknown]

“Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret, and depression.  Do not repeat them in the future.”

[-Swami Sivananda]
 

“Life is change.  Growth is optional.  Choose wisely.”  [-unknown]

“We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love.  It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.”

[-William Somerset Maugham]

“It is always the simple things that change our lives.  And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen.  Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so.  You feel like running, but life is on a stroll.  This is how God does things.” 

[-Donald Miller]

 

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SOME OF MY WORDS
 

TODAY, 26 Feb 2011, was a life-changing day for me.  So I am posting these sayings that seem to 'fit' my new perspective with a photo that seems to pair with the 'new' !!!!

MY FAV saying and the one that most 'fits' me today is the last quote by Donald Miller!

 

THE PHOTO illustrates to ME in its imagery ---

ALTHOUGH I may look different on the outside while among you, IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY, you will see how much we are the same—IF YOU TAKE THE 'TIME' TO LOOK CLOSELY!

[dht-2011]
 

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A LEGACY -- FAITH, FAMILY & FRIENDS

[PHOTO SOURCE:  Church of Christ, Delano, California, about 1942.  A photo from my box of family photos given to me by my Beloved maternal Aunt Gladys Iona Scott Dunlap (1892-1968).]

Family Short Story


In the 1950s (I was about 6 years old), I was living with my Maternal Grandparents LAUREL FLYNN SCOTT and (BETTY) MARY ELIZABETH BENNETT SCOTT on a tenant farm in the rural Township of Pond in Central California.  The first Church I remember attending was with my wonderful Maternal Grandparents at the Church of Christ in Delano, California.  The Church did not have a children's program or Sunday School, and the children stayed with the adults during services, so I sat with my Grandpa and Gram during the Church Service.  Sometimes I would fall asleep with my head in the lap of my maternal Gram Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Bennett Scott (1897-1980).  Many times, I sat on the floor at their feet and quietly played with coloring books. 
 
Going to that Church of Christ was not something we did every Sunday, for Grandpa worked VERY HARD on the tenant farm, and making time to travel the long drive to town was NOT always possible for a farmer.  (A photo of this Church of Christ taken about 1942 is posted here above.)

After Church service, everyone would leave the Church and assemble by the front door near or on the front door steps of the Church of Christ.  IF THOSE STEPS COULD SPEAK, how many stories would be heard!!!  While the grown-ups visited, I played with the other kids on the front lawn.  It seemed to me that the grown-ups took FOREVER doing their visiting and talking!!

 It was not until I was a grown-up, that I learned that my Grandpa Laurel Flynn Scott (1896-1979) and his older brother Raymond Cyril Scott (1894-1961) founded that small town Church of Christ, and that I appreciated the firm basis the Church was built on -- FAITH, FAMILY, & FRIENDS.

When I think about it now, I can almost "feel" how it felt to be a part of that Church and its close community!!  The testimony of FAITH, FAMILY, & FRIENDS that was the life of my WONDERFUL GRANDPARENTS is their legacy!!


Grandpa and Gram, I LOVE and MISS you both every day of my life!

Special Note

I used GOOGLE maps to see where the Church is now.  There was only one Church of Christ and it is located at 804 Jefferson Street, Delano, CA; (661) 725-3314.   

The "original" Church building -- in the above picture -- is no longer used by that Church.  When time permits, I am going to write the Church a letter and enclose a copy of this photo of the original Church of Christ; maybe they will have some interesting comments for me to add here!!

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