The Little Words Mean the Most

The dragonfly on her perch

 

Which is a pointy thing

a defrocked garden stalk

she's seated on a stool at dragonfly diner

 

she's

still for minutes surrounded by

insurmountable food

 

then she springs to the sky

to nab a snack too small

for clumsy human eyes to see

 

munching

still again

atop her towering stalk

 

Debbie

 

tropical storm Debbie

became porch sprinkle Debbie

 

this may be the most beautiful place on earth

for me right now, this porch

 

racing above and wetting one shoulder

triple-decker squalls

and sharp gusts "What do you think, Bob?

30 miles an hour?" Bob was

a professional fisherman from way back. He could judge.

> "More."

 

the trees play a rough rugby match

power stays on though

always a blessing in the country

the "quit it" bird signals and scolds for an interval

then another tapestry jumps in: tree frogs and cicadas

 

I'm sitting on the porch

rain on my right shoulder

dry on my left

 

 

Dinner

 

Swindles of swallows

bellies gilded when they snap and swoop

abetted by our friends, the dragonflies

feasting on what might feast on us

the nasties

horse flies. deer flies. green heads. mosquitoes

tick control we leave to the wild turkeys: 2 hens, a dozen chicks

Behold in the butterfly gardens

a pair of monarchs jive WE ARE HERE!

Sadly said: that same dance floor

was crowded once upon a time;

now we're down to 2 or 3 animals a week

despite vast reserves of nectar

Swindles of swallows

2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 in a burst through the trees

slicing the air for food backdropped by

an exploding hydrangea

hundreds of coconut-sized blossoms

all named for friends of ours

They're haying the field next door

sounds like a heartbeat

 

Who told you this shit was easy?

My Las Vegas love....

As you say, "words are hard." And unexamined, place-holder, endlessly-repeated, jargon-ista words have the dangerous life-span of radioactive waste. "Well, they said it that way ... so we should say it that way, too!" Blah, blah, blah, etc.

The industry's been through this ... more than once. It's a BIG reason (IMHO) why average donor-comm performance (and US household giving) is in decline ... because new practice unwittingly copies bad practice.

My latest real-life example? A good, beloved, award-winning, life-saving nonprofit community hospital system that got ZERO response to a massive email appeal. Hey?!? Me, too! Been there, done that, once upon a time ... before I gulped down 2 decades of training re: "words are hard."

Who told you this shit was easy?

 

The witch and I: Grief therapy is complicated, turns out

This is a Sheela na gig, defined as a "naked woman displaying an exaggerated vulva."

My witch brought Sheela up today, for loads of healthy reasons that said nothing good about the Roman Catholic church (my upbringing) and its focus on original sin. (As noted: therapy is complicated.) Sheela was a good thing. Every Irish door had one ... until the priests arrived and ripped her away.

I mentioned to our nephew Dave that I had 2 psychotherapists ... and a witch.

"Witch?"

"You know: broomstick."

I learned about Kat from a Ph.D. psychologist whom she'd helped get through an assortment of crises. She calls herself the "helpful witch." That and more. In our hour-long chats, as she flips through her designer Tarot cards, revelation after revelation waft ... and I feel my heart softly padding toward a real future eventually, both with Simone Internal/Eternal and without her physically by me in bed and across so many tables. And yes there will be pain. A fucking lot of it. Thank you, Hillary C.: it does take a village. The lucky ones have a good witch.

 

She wants to know why, me, loud athiest, listens to Christian rock....

 

????

 

I dunno.

 

Good rock is good rock. Great musicians? Half the time I can't understand the lyrics anyway.

 

I'm moved is all. And you know what's the amazing part? I learned this from Alan Clayton in Slovakia. He started his workshop by playing some hard-rock song. He told us to get up on our feet ... and dance. And then after a minute or so he shut off the music; we settled back into our chairs. He said, "That's how fast you can change someone's emotions."

 

Now that's teaching.

 

love

 

dad

 

 

 

 

Ashley & Amy's new chair, made cat-claw-proof (once felines learn to read and obey); creepy Roger Williams; Andrée Joy-Ox

Barb & I went hiking in RI last week

 

One of the worst arguments I've seen

How's your email feed?

Mine feels like an untreatable mental hemorroid, whipped to a fury by idiots.

Got this e-message today: "Biden is likely to cancel student debt, but there’s a catch."

OK! Ready!

Whom should I hate? The REAL assholes? Or my very-own party's assholes ...and their bleeding hemorroids. Apparently I should hate Biden, according to screamers trying to raise money. (I don't disagree. America's 2-party system now seems like a yard sale.)

This incoming email's offensive bottom-line: Shun our own! You're not nearly pure enough.

Untrustworthy liberals cling to power. By the way: ignore those shiny, scrubbed new boats in the harbor. Quaint vessels, sturdy? Late-breaking news: the Puritans have landed again. Sigh.

You want to be perfect?

You want to be useful?

 

I vote useful.

Exactly one thing matters this November 2022: How many of you self-identified Americans will vote?

 

The numbers matter.

Either side? Doesn't matter. Raw numbers matter.

The better the turn out, the fairer the 2022 elections.

 

Sim One & I run/ran global businesses off a small brown cable lying on the ground. Then a shovel severed it....

 

Wednesday: the incredible Sam was here, trying to turn some of our acreage into meadows (for bird and deer support and amusement) ... and so she excavated a pest shrub (wild fake-olive takes over if you don't control) ... and with one foot-propelled slice of her pest-popping shovel (a.k.a., the shovel of death) she severed my fiber-optic feed.

Sam knew about this danger. It was danger #1 for me/us to carry on a global consultancy from this obscure rural nest. But a momentary ... some lapse ... and I was done; machine says: "can't find the router" ... >>> [timing is everything] thank goodness this calamity happened an hour AFTER I'd presented a smokin' 40-minute webinar on cases to the Nashville AFP.

Sent a request for repair into Verizon immediately.

After navigating an hour's-worth of "customer service" artificial (QUITE artificial) intelligence, I finally reached a responsive human ... who scheduled a fix. And then that scheduled repair person never showed.

So another 24 hours without phones and Internet fluttered out the window. Tried again this morning (I'm learning how to play the artificial intelligence customer "not-real-service" game)  ... & miracles!!! (yes, prayers work) >>>

I once again reached a human! (Saint Sim One, resident in existentialist heaven, be praised) ... a superior being who checked on everything and rescheduled a repair visit. A visit that arrived early!!! And featured a genius.

And now I'm back online. Thank you, St. Sim One.