After Mary Oliver

By Peggy Coquet
June 3, 2017

Setting the table,

I place each item carefully

To make it pleasant for the people eating at my table.

The more intent I put in the task,

The more I focus on those who will share food,

The more pleased I am with the result.

Good conversation, honest friendship

And a true sharing of the gift of life.

Making the bed

Whether I am making the bed in the morning

Or making it up fresh with clean bed clothes

I try to honor its importance

As the place where we open to each other

Share secrets, laugh and remember

All the love that has grown

In the garden of our bed.

Comments

Youngest Sibling

Youngest Sibling There is (or was, a few years ago) a thing called “the youngest sibling effect” – or something like that. The idea is that the oldest is smart: he has to teach the second, and the second has to teach the third, on down to the last. * They all learn, because you have to put your thoughts in order to explain things. The last one has no one to teach, so doesn’t learn so well. The nuclear physicist Richard Feynman touched on then this when he said that if you couldn’t explain a concept to a fairly bright high school student, you didn’t understand it yourself. It’s an old concept. Heinlein uses it in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The protagonist hires a teacher whose first question is, “Well, what are we going to learn this time?” I Have also had it happen to me. I was with this fairly bright administrator at work and commented that it was pretty neat that you could just look at heavy equipment axle assemblies and know how many planetary gears each one had—large ones...

The Rain

The Rain by Vern Schanilec In a 50's movie Gene Kelly danced and sang "I'm Singin' In The Rain". Apparently he didn't live the Pacific Northwest in the winter. I wonder who said "Into each life a little rain must fall". I'd settle for "a little" but a parking lot full of puddles or an overflowing eave filled with needles is not a little. Complain, complain, complain. Guilty. All right then, how about the other end of the spectrum. 31 years ago my wife and I looked at each other and said no more Minnesota winters. Thereafter we left MN behind the day after Christmas, headed west during which we appropriately encountered a blizzard in Bismarck ND as if an ominous sign saying "You'll pay for even thinking of leaving MN". The blizzard ended through the night after which we encountered Montana followed by the Rockies and the Cascades. Upon descending into Seattle on New Year's Day we saw green grass...

Jesus: Messiah and Lawyer

Vern Schanilec January 13, 2018 Willie Nelson and Waylan Jennings both recorded the song Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys . The lyrics advise “Let 'em be doctors and lawyers and such.” Joseph and Mary may just have taken their advice, anachronistically of course, judging by their observation of their son Jesus and how he later matured. “You’re a bright boy son, why don’t you go to the Temple and pursue doctorates in Messiahship and Law." He followed their advisement, submitted to Temple teachings, and upon returning to Nazareth hung out his shingle (metaphorically speaking) and began a career as an itinerant spokesman for God which would test both his ecclesiastical and legal knowledge. How do I dare speak of Jesus in such earth-bound and mordant terms. The evidence will sp...

Washougal Writers

Search This Blog