A moment of warmth

Sitting here in the living room listening to their laughter and just enjoying the change that life has brought me. Thinking how lucky I am. You can't argue with these faces! The road has twisted and turned in directions I couldn't have guessed, but for all the pain, the joy in these two angels is never ending.

Still waiting

It is most troublesome, not to mention tiresome which is not to forget irksome, when the thing that you want out of life always seems just out of reach. You can taste it, smell it, even feel it, its shape is recognizable in the mist of the horizon. You want it so bad your spit becomes sour with the bile of anger and depression at not being able to take hold and make that thing yours! It seems an affront to your very being knowing that which you long for remains in the distant future. It is why the lottery does so well and why Vegas reared it’s ugly head up out of a parched and desperate land, to feed off of the dreams and hard earned cash of desperate people. It is why the blues exist and why I enjoy playing them so much! It is the sorrow in the wind and the tears with the rain, it is the essence of striving, the urge to gain that promised land! It is that hour after eating Chinese food when you cry out for more!

I of course am referring to our return to Italy and how I would like to make it permanent this time but of course will not be able to due to the damned Euro and it’s refusal to crash! I think sometimes when you start to lose sight of your goals other things take on importance in the immediate and the original idea starts to move toward the back of the bus as it were. We started off this house project all gung ho with swords drawn and steeds mounted, armor all shiny and ready for battle, but the fight wasn’t what we thought and time has caught us up. So much red tape has been unraveled and many mountains moved in order to get us where we are that the horses have done died, the armor is rusty and I wouldn’t trust this sword to open a letter let alone take on the fierce battle of renovating a farmhouse in Tuscany.

I know I am starting to sound petulant and whiney but I can’t help it. I remember when I first went to Florence Italy, the exchange got to almost one dollar for 2 thousand lira. Now that was an exchange rate! Even an equal exchange would be ok, I just don’t understand how it is that this great nation is trailing behind a group of nations who are struggling to keep their heads above water! What the hell are they going to do when it comes time for these countries to pay back the debt and they can’t? They’ll drag all of us down with them!

Here I go, singing the blues again ‘though it’s less black and blue and more blue chip!

Ahhhhh it comes with age I guess.

Just some of the road getting there!

It has been a while........................

Haven't been here in a while, life is doing it's thing. Here is a poem I wrote a while ago, let me know if it holds up!

Wander in a desert

Bending in the wind

Got the moon above as my only friend

The sand is harsh

On burnt and cracking feet

Don’t know where I am

Ain’t nothing left to eat

A mind that’s become fragile

Torn by thoughts old and new

By the black of night

And a sky burning blue

Body that’s wilting

In pain of hungers might

Stretched to my limits

Eyes blinded almost white

A dream does come

While I shuffle through sand castles

Painted Indian red

And golden as the sun

A figure appears to me

Dressed in ancient splendor

These are the things she says

The things you must remember

A heart that’s big and a mind that’s strong

These two things

They will help you get along

I stumbled and was given

A gentle helping hand

But how can they

I moaned in a purple daze

When I don’t have the water

To help me cry out loud

And I lack the food

That will help my damaged feet

A chill wind does blow

And maddened creatures

They stalk me in the night

I swam in warming clouds

Speckled with colored life

And she was beside me

As gentle as can be

Just remember she whispered

In shades of yellow

It is not what you take

But what you can give

This will bring you happiness

This will make you live

With a cry of doves

And breath upon my face

My vision was gone

Leaving me in this place

Not of sorrow and filled with pain

A place of grandeur to be visited

Once again

My aching body that once dragged me down

Is filled with vigor

The moon shines bright

Smiling in the night

And this desert does sing

With all who have been this way

I know where I am

And who I must be

For those two gifts

Have set me

Set me free

©