Unbelievable. Today is our 30th anniversary. We're too broke for a restaurant, but D is fixing us a luscious meal of scallops in garlic butter with one of his phenomenally delicious lightly sauteed vegetable mixes. Champagne, of course, and a not-too-expensive cabernet which is my current fave.
To those of you younger in your marriages, I would say that if you can battle your way through the tough times with respect, it only gets better. The last 4-5 years have been some of the most loving of o…
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Added by Judith on October 27, 2009 at 5:08pm —
31 Comments
THE PROPS ASSIST THE HOUSE
By Emily Dickinson
THE PROPS assist the house
Until the house is built,
And adequate, erect,
The house supports itself;
Ceasing to recollect
The auger and the carpenter.
Just such a retrospect
Hath the perfected life,
A past of plank and nail,
And slowness,—then the scaffolds drop—
Affirming it a soul.
Got a ways to go on the concept of a "perfected life" of course. And given the diabolical whimsey of The D, I think the house is built for the rest of our lives. Bu…
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Added by Judith on September 26, 2009 at 4:04pm —
8 Comments
Dear All....Just coming back slowly from the first serious Fibromyalgia Flare-up I've had in almost 3 years. Have lurked benevolently a little bit each day, but too pooped to pop, as my Mom would say, and the shakeys and the cognitive impairment that goes with such an event makes it difficult to process info, much less form a coherent response......
I stupidly stayed up too late working on a project. Rest and sustenance are the only rules one should never break with this particular scourge. I d…
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Added by Judith on September 17, 2009 at 3:20pm —
16 Comments
We in the NW could use some help coping----it's an endless string of days in the 90s and 100s. Records being broken daily, both for highs and lows. Some of us are also breaking records of highs and lows in those nasty little diabetes log books we have to keep! Take pity on us, all you folks who know about the heat, and share some coping strategies.....
Anybody got any cooling stories to distract us all from our Misery? Post them at our NW Group page or here so we can all try to put ourselves in…
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Added by Judith on July 29, 2009 at 12:39pm —
11 Comments
So. My son would be 37 today. It is also the day he died in 1972. He was 8 months in my womb and growing well. He was blue at birth and weighed 4.4 pounds, with all his fingers and toes and everything else perfectly formed. I’m quite sure he would have been saved today. I was later told by a rather clueless doctor that he drowned in my womb when the placenta abrupted. This a difficult image to carry through all the years of my life.
I do not remember what awoke me that night. I remember standin…
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Added by Judith on July 22, 2009 at 2:49pm —
29 Comments
So much I wanted to share with you all before leaving for two weeks of caring for my mother. but then came windstorm and debris, raw sewage in the basement and a serious mess and then my computer died for 36 hours. But my valiant sweetie got it running and I will take it with me and try to hook into a VooDoo network from Minnesota.....Please know I'll be thinking of everyone here oh so fondly.....Debb--5/19 I'll be thinking especially hard of you.......Patti, as soon as I get back, I want to vis…
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Added by Judith on May 12, 2009 at 1:13pm —
5 Comments
It seems that a couple of old tornado-savvy Midwesterners had to move to Oregon to experience a cyclone at last. What do you know, just as I always suspected, it was scary as hell!......
Four minutes of a morbidly thrilling downpour/lightening and thunder storm went in seconds from a straight vertical drenching to a South wind near 100 mph that we thought at first was straight-line. But after spending a day with a first-round of clean-up, the debris pattern is clear-----a cyclone that didn’t qu…
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Added by Judith on May 4, 2009 at 6:38pm —
7 Comments
My daughter is home from South Africa with her students now. Here is her last post from Africa. It sounds like an incredible time and I thought many of you might be as moved by this post as I am.....
18 April 2009 @ 09:26 pm
Meeting Day
The experience in Khyataletsia took the students to the very core of what I’m trying to teach them. I did not know when we arrived whether we’d simply unpack the bags of clothing we’d brought and leave, or whether we would be cleaning an empty daycare center…
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Added by Judith on April 21, 2009 at 6:57pm —
4 Comments
Hello All----A quick time-out from my Welcome Committee work to give you interesting info on my daughter's trip to Africa this year with her students. You remember that last year they took solar cookers and loaded laptops to Nigeria.
This year they are spending 2 weeks in South Africa where they will deliver 30 suitcases of infant-4 year old clothing and educational toys to an organization working with HIV ravaged communities in Johannesburg and Capetown. They will spend time working there them…
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Added by Judith on April 3, 2009 at 8:50am —
7 Comments
I was asked for a teaching about compassion awhile ago and remembered some things I came across when I was researching Mythmaker in 1990.
"To the extent that this world surrenders its richness and diversity, it surrenders its poetry; to the extent that it relinquishes its capacit…
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Added by Judith on February 9, 2009 at 6:30pm —
6 Comments
Added by Judith on February 5, 2009 at 12:00pm —
3 Comments
"See, sometimes when I'm busy at my noticin' and listenin' and talkin' and singin', what I notice is I got me into a place that's just all filled up with Dark---Dark so thick it feels like there be no room for air. The kinda Dark that eats you up. Oh yah. And see, when I come to a place like that, I figure it's time for some special kinda tales---tales that flash and flow and stir up that old Dark. And in these places now, they call me Lightweaver. Yah. Lightweaver....Mmmm. See he's the kinda pe…
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Added by Judith on December 27, 2008 at 7:30am —
20 Comments
Wednesday night at 10:27 PM (CST), Sebastian James was born to Helena and Daniel in Minneapolis.
His middle name is for my father. All are doing well now, albeit exhausted. He's my sister's first grandchild; my mother's second great grandson. All three granddaughters are five years apart and now two great grandsons are five years apart. Of course we will be teasing my second niece, the third granddaughter and unattached yet at 25 years old, that she's got five years to produce a son, by whateve…
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Added by Judith on November 29, 2008 at 2:30pm —
24 Comments
Hello All: Got home via Amtrak on Thursday. Am studying discussions and slowly catching up. It was an emotionally draining trip, but I will be more Present soon. I look forward to reading how you are all doing!.....Be well.....Judith
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Added by Judith on November 2, 2008 at 2:30pm —
5 Comments
So. Today is the one year anniversary of my stumbling into this Haven of Help and Support. It feels at once longer and just yesterday.
I honor the practical assistance: From how to test in public for the very first time (jury duty) to how to deal with the Dawn Phenomenon.
I honor the emotional support: From the struggles to re-stimulate my creativity which took a hike at diagnosis to all the kindness on those inevitable Dark Days that we all experience.
I honor the shared joy…
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Added by Judith on September 10, 2008 at 2:00pm —
12 Comments
Hello There Friends of Mine. Just got home from a crazy busy trip. I see I have a lot of catching up to do----you have all been having waaay too much fun without me! But delayed gratification techniques require that I go unpack and then clean the cat boxes before I reward myself with an extended session of visiting you all.......More soon, for sure!!
Be well....As ever.....Judith in Portland.....
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Added by Judith on August 28, 2008 at 1:02pm —
5 Comments
Hey TuD Friends-----I'm off to Minnesota via Amtrak today. I'll try to check in from my sister's library account. Back on Thursday the 28th. Just wanted to wish you all well. I look forward to catching up on my return. Now don't do anything I wouldn't do while I'm gone---which gives you a lot of wiggle room!!!
Be well all. I will miss you!.....
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Added by Judith on August 19, 2008 at 12:00pm —
3 Comments
My 40th high school reunion is happening this weekend. Here's a telegraphic profile I wrote for them. Stories and memories are shaped by varied starting points, aren't they?
That's my grandson, The Pothead. It seemed an appropriate image for a high school reminiscence abou…
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Added by Judith on August 17, 2008 at 12:05pm —
7 Comments
My Good Old Mom came through with an excellent birthday card this year. It pleases me that she tracks the date, as well as that her humor lives on at 87!
On the cover of the card is a photo of a sleek, albeit very pudgy cat. Looking righteously smug, I would say. Around him it says:
"This is Murray. Murray loves to be treated, pampered and be the center of attention."
On the inside of the card:
"So on your birthday.....Eat, Drink and be Murray."
Hooray for Moms everywhere!.......
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Added by Judith on February 20, 2008 at 10:10am —
2 Comments
On the Edge of Time
an old woman sits
her legs a-dangle
swinging gently
the map of a
moving life
traced on those legs
regal purple bursts
of exquisite webwork
delicate and strong.
the largeness
…
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Added by Judith on January 31, 2008 at 2:23pm —
4 Comments
Manny Hernandez
Andreina Davila
MelissaBL
Kristin
Scott
Teena Swager
Welcome Committee
Content Committee
DHF Ambassadors