Shades Of The Sea

delicious the shades of the sea

the ins, the outs, the clarity

it has an elegance that also soothes me

I think of places I've been, exotic and lush, places I long to go

the sweetness of the fruit in the morning, the glisten of the water

the beat of the sun, the laughter of my family

and that with the color of the sea is how one makes memories.

a favorite of mine

Flutter To

Tell me how you came to be,
your fluttery wings inside of me.
Up and down, you'd roll around.
Waiting for adventures found.








Patient baby, yes it's true.
Many nights, you slept them through.
You'd nurse and sigh, those bright blue eyes,
tiny hands could touch the sky.

Walking, new adventures still.

cuts and bruises, bumps and crashes,

911's - Matt, you were the busy son!

Teenage years were challenges more,
you struggled, stretched and finally soared.

                                                      Manhood has made changes true.

you see the world and I miss you.

I follow adventures as you go,

Nothing changes - I love you so.

                                                                                                                Jennifer Ingram

There's Only One You ..... and a very special woman!

"Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told:

 "I'm with you kid. Let's go."

                                                Maya Angelou

new year - new wishes

new beginnings - new hopes

because there's only one you!

wherever you might be!
and then there's my very special lady...
Maya Angelou

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, 
you will have succeeded."

"Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway."

Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
                                Maya Angelou

Tiny Fingers, Tiny Toes - Our Children Are Our Gifts

On Children

Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might

that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Blessings to you this week.
Doesn't God make beautiful babies?

Her Journey by Jennifer

Her Journey

Her heart was torn
Her life was full
Her bags beside the bed that day

She'd told her friends
She'd cried in bed
So many roads to choose delayed.

Love perfect once
the plans they'd made
She's prayed to God, but couldn't stay

To be alive
She must survive
Strength for journeys began this day.

She let go her fear

Friends would be near

God always there

As she bravely walked away.

by Jennifer Ingram

The Balance of Sisterhood

The Balance of Sisterhood

Matched sets we may not be,

But somehow combine to make a bold pattern.

Varied colors blend our many personalities,

and make a balance of sisterhood.

How is it you love music and art is my heart?

Why do I chat and you hold back?

Bright colors set me free,

Whites and cream release your soul.

Where do you end and I begin?

Sink or swim we need not know.

Friends and sisters, always be.

There is us and there is we.

Jennifer

Tuesday's Thoughts - Simply Green Doesn't God Make Gorgeous!

Moss                                           
by Bruce Guernsey

How must it be
to be moss,
that slipcover of rocks?

imagine,
greening in the dark,
longing for north,
the silence of birds gone south.

How does moss do it,
all day in a dank place and never a cough?
a wet dust where light fails,
where the chisel cut the name.

The sun is out in Maryland today. I smiled on my drive to work. The song "Respect" by Aretha Franklin was playing and I sang my heart out. Things are looking up!  hope you have a wonderful day! Jennifer

Doesn't God make gorgeous?

Thoughtful Tuesday....and a tune by Joni Mitchell

Bows and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air

And feather canyons everywhere, i've looked at cloud that way.

But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone.

So many things i would have done but clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,

From up and down, and still somehow

It's cloud illusions i recall.

I really don't know clouds at all.

Moons and junes and ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way you feel

As every fairy tale comes real; i've looked at love that way.

But now it's just another show. you leave 'em laughing when you go

And if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away.

I've looked at love from both sides now,

From give and take, and still somehow

It's love's illusions i recall.

I really don't know love at all.

Tears and fears and feeling proud to say "i love you" right out loud,

Dreams and schemes and circus crowds, i've looked at life that way.

But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say

I've changed.

Something's lost but something's gained in living every day.

I've looked at life from both sides now,

From win and lose, and still somehow

It's life's illusions i recall.

I really don't know life at all.

Listen to the Warm .... Moments on a Monday

I live alone.

It hasn't always been that way.
It's nice sometimes
to open up the heart a little
and let some hurt come in.
It proves you're still alive.

I'm not sure what it means.

Why we cannot shake the old loves from out minds.
It must be that we build on memory
and make them more that what they were.
And is the manufacture
Just a safe device for closing up the wall?

I do remember.

The only fuzzy circumstance
is something where-and how.
Why, I know.
It happens just because we need
to want and to be wanted too,
when love is here or gone
to lie down in the darkness
and listen to the warm.

Rod McKuen  "Listen to the Warm"

Peeking through the snow....

"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush."

                   Doug Larson

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!

                         Mark Twain

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. Ruth Stout

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.      Anne Bradstreet

The Old Fashioned Chair...Memories

The Old Arm-chair

I LOVE it, I love it ; and who shall dare

To chide me for loving that old Arm-chair ?

I've treasured it long as a sainted prize ;

I've bedewed it with tears, and embalmed it with sighs.

' Tis bound by a thousand bands to my heart ;

Not a tie will break, not a link will start.

Would ye learn the spell ? -- a mother sat there ;

And a sacred thing is that old Arm-chair.

In Childhood's hour I lingered near

The hallowed seat with listening ear ;

And gentle words that mother would give ;

To fit me to die, and teach me to live.

She told me shame would never betide,

With truth for my creed and God for my guide ;

She taught me to lisp my earliest prayer ;

As I knelt beside that old Arm-chair.

I sat and watched her many a day,

When her eye grew dim, and her locks were grey :

And I almost worshipped her when she smiled,

And turned from her Bible, to bless her child.

Years rolled on; but the last one sped--

My idol was shattered; my earth-star fled :

I learnt how much the heart can bear,

When I saw her die in that old Arm-chair.

'Tis past, 'tis past, but I gaze on it now

With quivering breath and throbbing brow :

'Twas there she nursed me ; 'twas there she died :

And Memory flows with lava tide.

Say it is folly, and deem me weak,

While the scalding drops start down my cheek ;

But I love it, I love it ; and cannot tear

My soul from a mother's old Arm-chair.

Eliza Cook

Have you ever looked at the shape of clouds?

CLOUDS

I lay down on the lush, green grass

looking up at the celestial sky

watching clouds perform

as they go floating by.

The sky’s theater sets the stage

as clouds pass through

on their merry way

entertaining my eyes

with wispy surprise

as I journey from earth

on mystical tours of billowy dreams

and marshmallow delight.

A castle that trails a rabbit’s tail

attached to the wings of a butterfly,

a whale and a cat,

a baseball and bat take wing

as they shuttle on by.

A jungle safari with lions and bears

emerge from a cumulus cloud

migrating in motion

to imaginative notions

embraced in pillowy shrouds

Rhapsodies in white

and the fairest of blue,

pre-nuptial visions of tufted preludes

and painting a picture

within the mind’s eye,

I watch clouds perform

as they softly float by.

 Annette Nasser

just a thought