Saturday, October 18, 2008

Fall is certainly in the air today, beginning with wet dew on an  early morning chill. Mike is off early to help with the harvesting of corn and soybeans out on the farm, and I have the luxury of sleeping in late, reading the newspaper over a good cup of coffee and then deciding what to do with my day. Ah, such a joyous luxury with infinite amounts of choices, some more enticing than others. I could, for example, clean out a closet or rake some leaves in the yard, or make some soups to freeze, or continue the good book I am reading, or go shopping to begin the never-ending search for just the right present for Christmas that doesn't cost too much. Or I could do the load of laundry that is sitting in my laundry room, or call a friend and chat.....or get out my second novel to continue work on the next chapter, or make some of my cards which I love to do. So many possibilities, so little time. What I will certainly have to do is make a good dinner for tonight for my weary husband who will be sitting on a tractor or combine all day going back and forth through the fields. The least I can do! But in the meantime, I will snail through this day at my leisure, trying to enjoy every minute...it may not come again! 

October 9, 2008

Today was a day for doctor checkups, and a flu shot. I feel so fortunate that I can go and get these things, and that I have good reliable doctors. How many people in this country do not have this luxury, I am wondering, and also hearing about. So many things I take for granted; things that I just expect to be there for me, or just show up in my life. At times, I do question how I got to be so fortunate. I was part of a class at the college where I work the other day where students were deciding on goals, and three people struck me over the head with the goals they had vs. goals that I would have. One wanted a car just to get around, and get to school and work; another person wanted to find a person to date that was not on drugs, or had been in jail, and also one who had a valid drivers licence altho, given the other two, she was willing to forgo this one. The third one wanted the means to move out of his mama's house which he could notimagine being possible in the near future. Just how far out of touch am I from what so many Americans are faceing these days, I wonder. I am trying to stay grounded and in touch. 

October 6, 2008

I am sitting at my desk wondering what I might write about this morning  as I hear the honking geese flying overhead out my open window. Several entries ago, I talked about the geese flying south when the frost was on the pumpkin and cool air was in the wind,  and wondered why I could not also, just up and fly south. This poem came to me as I sat here wondering.  

ESCAPE by Gretta Barclay

The geese are gathering

Out my office window

This morning

Honking and hollering

As they fly overhead

Across the cool autumn sky

Summer is over, they scream

to their V lined mates

And I want to scream too

Cold weather is coming

The seem to say,

And we must be gone

To a warmer place

When winter comes

"Can I fly along?"

I cry

"Yes you can

If you can fly..."

Oh my

Why them

And why not I ?

*******************************************************

I was also thinking about my mother this morning who would have just celebrated a birthday if she were still alive. How important mothers are in their children's lives, I think, as I watch my daughter Kerri, and daughter Michelle struggle to be the best moms they can be to their children, and for Michelle, the children of her significant other. It is such a 24-7 kind of committment to be available to them even if you work out of the home. They are always number one, and always on their mother's minds. I often wonder how Sara Palin is able to travel so much in pursuit of the vice-presidency with the nations troubles having to come first for her right now, and how hard that must be for her as a mother especially having an infant with special needs at home. Years ago I wrote a poem in honor of my mother who stayed home and raised seven children pretty damn well, if I must say so. O.K. I did just say so, and now for the poem....

MY MOTHER, MARY HELEN

I remember my mother

In the basement

In front of the washing machine

With loads of wash

Darks, whites, and in-betweens

For seven children

And one very meticulous father

Who wanted everything very clean

I remember my mother

Behind the ironing board

Pressing Peter Pan blouses

For brown school uniforms

And sewing on lost buttons

And oh, what she couldn't do

With left-overs

And mystery stew

I remember my mother

Behind the wheel of our ol station-wagon

Seven kids packed in tight

Day and night

Off to art museums, skating rinks,

horse-back riding and tennis lessons

Doing it all

At her suggestion and direction

But mostly,

I rember my mother 

Telling a story

And laughing heartily at her own joke

My mother loved a party

And any reason to celebrate

She seemed always to be happy

No matter the weather

Or problems of the day

She would always say,

"Life is what you make it

It's really up to you...."

What a legacy she left

For all of us alive today.

October 5, 2008

Today, Mike and I helped to move our daughter and significant other to a new home in St. Joseph, Illinois, a small midwest town 20 minutes from the  home of the University of Illinois. As I was driving there with my car packed to the roof, I was wondering about the name of the town...St. Joseph. Having grown up Catholic, I do not remember a Saint Joseph, so I was curious about the name of this town. Of course, I knew that Joseph was the father of Jesus so I guess, St. Joseph fits. But when I looked this up on the Internet, I was also surprised to find that statues of St. Joseph sell like hot-cakes when you are trying to sell your house. As the legend goes, since the 1970ies, burying a St. Joseph statue upside down in your back yard while trying to sell you home, works like, well like magic. So as my husband and I slid home after moving day with aching muscles and limbs, we felt happy that if my daughter and her beau want to sell their home in St. Joe...well, they just might have a "leg up." And we also agreed that we were going to be out of town on the day of the next move!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

A picture perfect day here in Central Illinois where I have already been out to gather our ripe tomatoes that my husband and I will "put up" and perserve for the coming winter. There is nothing like the fresh taste of tomatoes in chili, speghetti, and other tomato dishes throughout the cold winter months. The frost is not yet on the pumpkin, but it is getting closer as I enjoy cool crisp mornings. The geese are flying, already feeling the chill of early frost, and the coming winter. I am always a little envious of these flying geese, and wonder why I too cannot just up and fly to a warmer climate. I guess in the overall plan of nature, we did not get everything, did we!!! In the meantime, we will remain here in the midwest, perhaps to live and survive on our farm out in the country if the economy continues to "go south" with the birds. We are already envisioning a very large garden, and wood enough to keep us warm. It has a nice nastalgic ring to it, but then again... 

Sunday, September 6, 2008

This is the Sunday to begin our year-long "slug fest" on the porch. Every Sunday, friends come over with The New York Times, and we sit around on our screened porch, drinking coffee, and reading the newspaper. We usually fight over the book review section, and avoid all things sports. We are more interested in the latest writer than words from the newest politicians, and love to see artists of any hue written about for us to savor. Today, along with the Tanzanian coffee that my brother sent to me, I will serve waffles with fruit. The weather is 70 plus degrees beautiful with a slight breeze. Could heaven be any more wonderful? We certainly can find these heavenly spots here on earth, can't we.

September 4, 2008

On Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, reality hit home with a hammer as we maneuvered our way south from Michigan, through Gary, Indiana, the home of the worst traffic in all the U.S. As we were just exiting Michigan (of course), we were stopped dead in a three mile one lane line of cars, trucks and semi's inching their way along. Mike and I had a good "book-on-tape" and also our stash of candy that we only allow ourselves in these situations, so it was not too bad. Ninty plus degree heat hit us along with one hundred percent humidity when we walked into our house, and the dream and image of the cool, breezy porch in the woods at Portage Lake was just a memory for another year. Darn! But, packing up and going north again next year is what often keeps us going day to day here, so we carry this image in our minds like the Irish poet William Butler Yeats in his poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" when he writes the famous lines,

"I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear the water lapping with low sounds by the shore
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray
I hear it in the deep heart's core." (1892)

I too hear the waters of Portage Lake and Lake Michigan lapping gently along the shore, and knowing that I can return again is what keeps me happy all year long.