“One good thing about being wrong is the joy it brings to the others.”~ unknown
“A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life, to be thankful for a good one.” ― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
I’m truly happy I found my guy.
We’re approaching our 12th anniversary on Halloween.
The Crain’s Wedding
Hear ye Hear ye, the wedding is today Pumpkins, gourds, scarecrows, bales of hay Spread out in such colorful array Orange and yellow festive bouquets A raven on his perch studying the fray
Town crier “let us begin this Halloween wedding, Yay” We gather in a circle and hold hands without delay Our dear Robin Hood and Marion vow love this day Crowds of well- wishers yell hurray! Hurray! Knights swirling their swords in mock play
Fair maidens tease with their fan sway Knights hoping the party will soon get risqué Arthur proclaiming lets partake of thy fabulous buffet Friar Tuck toasts Drink up, be merry, pass the cheese tray Let the music begin, get this party under way Because soon it will be somber All Saint’s day!
My album choice came about because I was going through another box of papers. I uncovered my mother day letters that Amanda emailed while she was in college. They were summaries of her year from each Mother’s day to the next. I cried and laughed as I re-read those printed out emails from so very long ago. Which led to me to recalling her unusual entrance into this world and what was happening in our lives.
I had stage 4 cervical cancer and it had spread to my uterus. She was supposed to be delivered by c-section so they could remove everything at one time. Except, she decided to come earlier than her due date by eleven days. And when we were at the hospital, the doctor discovered she had flipped so her entrance was feet first. Her breech was kind of like a foreshadow of her life, she’s off and running once her feet hit the floor even forty years later.
Bet you’re trying to figure out what this album has to do with my story. My first husband, her dad was a huge fan of Waylon and wanted his daughter named Amanda. I agreed because knowing she was definitely going to be the light of my life.
She was indeed a force to be reckoned with our Amanda, with white blonde hair and blue eyes that sparkled like raindrops on a sunny day.
The letters I read earlier were also signed, the light of your life, always Amanda. That hasn’t changed much but than that’s always true of a youngest child in a parent’s eye much to the chagrin of the older siblings.
“I may be crazy, but it keeps me from going insane.” Waylon Jennings
I’ve held it all inward, God knows, I’ve tried But it’s an awful awakening in a country boy’s life To look in the mirror in total surprise At the hair on my shoulders and the age in my eyes
Amanda, light of my life Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife Amanda, light of my life Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife
It’s a measure of people who don’t understand The pleasures of life in a hillbilly band I got my first guitar when I was fourteen Well I finally made forty, still wearing jeans
Amanda, light of my life Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife Amanda, light of my life Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as one of the founding pioneers of the Outlaw Movement.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with one of the darker periods of Waylon’s life. It happened like this. “In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings’s first recording session, and hired him to play bass. Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight in 1959 that crashed and killed Holly, J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and Ritchie Valens.
Before their performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered a four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza airplane from Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa, for himself, Jennings, and Tommy Allsup, to avoid the long bus trip to their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Following the Clear Lake show (which ended around midnight), Allsup lost a coin toss and gave up his seat on the charter plane to Ritchie Valens, while Jennings voluntarily gave up his seat to J. P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper, who was suffering from the flu and complaining about how cold and uncomfortable the tour bus was for a man of his size.[30][31]
When Holly learned that his bandmates had given up their seats on the plane and had chosen to take the bus rather than fly, a friendly banter between Holly and Jennings ensued, and it would come back to haunt Jennings for decades to follow: Holly jokingly told Jennings, “Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up!” Jennings jokingly replied, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes!
Later that morning, Jennings’s family heard on the radio that “Buddy Holly and his band had been killed.” After calling his family, Jennings called Sky Corbin at KLLL from Fargo to say that he hadn’t been aboard the plane.[34] The General Artists Corporation promised to pay for first-class tickets for Jennings and the band to attend Holly’s funeral in Lubbock in exchange for them playing that night in Moorhead.[35] After the first show, they were initially denied their payment by the venue, but after Jennings’s persistence, they were paid.[36] The flights were never paid,[37] and Jennings and Allsup continued the tour for two more weeks, featuring Jennings as the lead singer.[19] They were paid less than half of the original agreed salary, and upon returning to New York, Jennings put Holly’s guitar and amplifier in a locker in Grand Central Terminal and mailed the keys to Maria Elena Holly. Then, he returned to Lubbock.[38]
In the early 1960s, Jennings wrote and recorded “The Stage (Stars in Heaven)”, a tribute to Valens, the Big Bopper and Holly, as well as Eddie Cochran, a young musician who died in a road accident a year after the plane crash.
For decades afterward, Jennings repeatedly admitted that he felt responsible for the crash that killed Holly. This sense of guilt precipitated bouts of substance abuse through much of Jennings’s career. ” ~
Later that morning, Jennings’s family heard on the radio that “Buddy Holly and his band had been killed.” After calling his family, Jennings called Sky Corbin at KLLL from Fargo to say that he hadn’t been aboard the plane.[34] The General Artists Corporation promised to pay for first-class tickets for Jennings and the band to attend Holly’s funeral in Lubbock in exchange for them playing that night in Moorhead.[35] After the first show, they were initially denied their payment by the venue, but after Jennings’s persistence, they were paid.[36] The flights were never paid,[37] and Jennings and Allsup continued the tour for two more weeks, featuring Jennings as the lead singer.[19] They were paid less than half of the original agreed salary, and upon returning to New York, Jennings put Holly’s guitar and amplifier in a locker in Grand Central Terminal and mailed the keys to Maria Elena Holly. Then, he returned to Lubbock.[38]
In the early 1960s, Jennings wrote and recorded “The Stage (Stars in Heaven)”, a tribute to Valens, the Big Bopper and Holly, as well as Eddie Cochran, a young musician who died in a road accident a year after the plane crash.
For decades afterward, Jennings repeatedly admitted that he felt responsible for the crash that killed Holly. This sense of guilt precipitated bouts of substance abuse through much of Jennings’s career.” ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waylon_Jennings
Do you remember the Dukes of Hazzard? My son’s used to beg to stay up later on a school night to watch that show. Waylon was the narrator or balladeer as he liked to be called. Shortly after that time In the mid-1980s, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Nelson, and Jennings formed a successful group called the Highwaymen.
Welcome to August 14, 2020 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.Today’s word is “verbal.” Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Verbal irony is a figure of speech. The speaker intends to be understood as meaning something that contrasts with the literal or usual meaning of what he says
Verbal abuse (also verbal attack or verbal assault) is the act of forcefully criticizing, insulting, or denouncing another person. Characterized by underlying anger and hostility, it is a destructive form of communication intended to harm the self-concept of the other person and produce negative emotions.
My initial thought when it comes to verbal is thank Morrighan I escaped his onslaught of cruel and hateful spew. I was married to a verbally and physically abusive man for 31 years. I’m not glutton for punishment, but I was raised to believe marriage for life. I had children and they needed to be safe. Our court systems in Maine always gave joint custody so allowing them to be alone with him was risky and toxic. So I stuck it out and was able to diffuse a lot of the crap. Once my youngest graduated college, I divorced him and haven’t looked back. Thankfully, I met and awesome guy who is verbally delightful.
He’s encouraging, and very loving.
I wrote a poem demonstrating what I endured with his verbal tirades.
So this day has just officially gone to crap. I reached over in the flower garden to straighten the decorative flag pole the wind had blown over. That got my left ear, head, a couple places on my neck and arm stung by yellow jackets. Arm, neck and head hurt but the ear is ridiculously painful. Meat tenderizer did help some once Vic was able to find it. Wegmans no, Target no, ShopRite yes. I’ve iced my ear several times thus far and taken the benadryl as advised by my daughter-in-law and Dr. Lee. Bee stings are so much easier in places that have some fat involved, my little ears don’t. 😞
Tonight those nasty creatures are going to regret stinging me.😞Game on!
Why are grocery stores so f-ing behind on stocking their shelves? Wegmans has epically failed on so many levels since COVID 19. They seem to be able to restock their product but not the competitors for one, two the amount of vacant shelves compared to other stores is not acceptable. For the life of me why are spices, teas, and condiments like ketchup and mustard so difficult to replace. I have never been one to go to multiple grocery stores but since this crap has unfolded it’s becoming the new norm.
The dirty deed is done with minor setback one of the yellow jackets stung Vic while I was spraying in between the patio pavers where I had seen them earlier going in and out.
I told you yesterday about my appointments getting changed. Annoying but not impossible. It feels more like a Tzu moment especially since there is forward movement.
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”― Lao Tzu
The wall reminds me of Pink Floyds, Another Brick in the Wall. I had a teacher like that back in high school that mocked my early poems. She didn’t succeed I still love poetry. I write poems almost everyday. Mrs. Davis should have listened to Nelson Mandela and encouraged me to write instead of embarrassing me because her droning was so boring I escaped into poetry.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
― Nelson Mandela
This is one of my favorites about the lake I lived near at my old home. I have so many positive memories of that lake. My children and I went there from the time they were born until they each had left home.
I used to go there after I finished the night shift when I worked stocking shelves and swim alone before going home. Once the weather got to cool to swim I would simply sit there with my coffee I had grabbed at Dunkin when they were still 24 hours and contemplate my future. That lake was my haven.
The long rocky shoreline had rough water tonight
this breezy spring twilight in April.
I came to watch the evening sun set on the water.
I heard the loons crooning to their mates.
My tranquility was disrupted by a child’s screech and
two young people paddling hard in a canoe.
An elderly man fished on the opposite shore while
a woman read a book in her chair on the dock.
I shivered as the waves swished against the beach
and the cold spray hit my leg as I sat on the rock.
I struggled to regroup my thoughts, to close this day
The peace in my world was jeopardized so
I sought the calm of my beautiful beach haven.
I ached to find my composure once more
As I immersed myself in the beauty at the lake’s edge.
My mind rambled to the times when I brought my children
to swim and play in the chilling water in the summer’s heat.
Those moonlit nights on my way home from work when I swam
successfully working out stress in my own way.
I committed to memory the reasons why I must pick me up once more,
I need another sunrise, to gaze at another sunset on the lake’s edge.
The troubled emotions, I felt when I arrived have dissipated because
the lake’s rippled water refreshed my essence.
I heard the soft call of a loon, the woeful song was
a gentle reminder of my lover who waits for me
Good night, my lakeside haven!
Thank you for giving me sanctuary,
I am okay now because of you.
For some frigging reason every time I go to cut and paste the link into my blog Wind of Change by Scorpion appears instead even though I cut and paste the right one.
I’m too tired and uncomfortable to keep frigging around with this tonight. It’s easy enough to google. My ear is throbbing intensely. Apparently wordpress has a lot of quirks not worked out as Marilyn Armstrong pointed out.
Tomorrow’s a new day and hopefully a less painful one.
This quote so fits this letter-c journey. “Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.”― Ernest ShackletonI couldn’t agree more. The letter-c doesn’t define me, it doesn’t control me nor will it ever be the end of me. Positive outlooks are key for any health battle. “Superhuman effort isn’t worth a damn unless it achieves results.”― Ernest Shackleton
On that note, I’m going to take you to my song choice for the day by Pink, A Million Dreams. I think all the time about all the dreams I haven’t accomplished yet. I look at all the things I’ve collected a long the way but there’s still those missing elusive ones I want. Letter-c won’t deter me.
Writing has always felt elusive to me because I was guilty of looking at myself through the eyes of others, judging instead of appreciating every word I did put on the page in spite of the situation. Many of you aren’t aware of the darker times of my life, the demon aka my first husband, who took great pleasure in undermining me. He wrote his name on everything I wrote. When I’ve told people that, they looked at me like I have three heads but then when I hand them my journals they hang their heads because they had no idea what kind of man he was. It took a lot for my muse to gain the confidence to break free of the toxin. Now, when I look at these journals, I see documented proof I wasn’t diminished by his actions instead I became stronger.
I put the words on the page. They’re not perfect but they’re mine. I said to a good friend, “Art isn’t clean… if it is then you have a blank canvas, you haven’t painted yet.”~ Lyn Crain. Occasionally, I have gems. Or in my case, my pages aren’t written yet. I know how destructive that self-critic is, but thankfully the letter-c has given me a nudge. Writing the vignettes isn’t always fun but then I’m reminded of Hunter S. Thompson’s quote, “writing is the most hateful kind of work, I suspect it’s a bit like fucking, which is only fun for amateurs. Old whores don’t do much giggling.”
I didn’t understand love when I first began writing poetry but I knew it offered me a means to express my fears, my dreams even my anger. This one is from 2003 when I was feeling conflicted about the direction life was unfolding.
I’ve never chosen a name for it. There are times when I simply think Reality Check works as the title but the less skeptical me knows love exists but at that time I didn’t believe it was possible.
lyncrain 