It’s Fall Again

It’s Fall again.   When I get up in the morning it is void of natural light outside.  I drink my first cup of coffee and read the newspaper, occasionally staring out the window into a world of nothingness.

One by one, the lights from morning traffic begin to disturb the void.  Lights around the neighborhood reflect off the clouds as the sky brightens.

The tiny new branches on the silver maple across the street dance playfully in the early morning breeze.

Autumn leaves detach and quietly float to the ground turning the lawn various shades of yellow and gold.

The sun climbs revealing blue sky between the clouds.  Dark silhouettes appear in the shadow of pink clouds and the Olympic Mountains peek through the branches of the tree.

By the time I finish my second cup of coffee, all traces of darkness have left, the pink is gone from the sky and I know that today there is no other place I’d rather be.

 

 

What if?

What if we lived in a world where men didn’t have to be weaker for women to be stronger;

where men can have soft edges

and women can become stronger without losing their soft edges?

What if we lived in a world where courtesy, compassion and compromise were valued

 and leaders lead based upon principles, not popularity?

What if we lived in a world where the only four letter word

 we heard in daily conversations was “LOVE?”

Bizarre, Strange, Yet Wonderful

The winds howled as only the winds on the plains of South Dakota can howl.  At first we drove through terrain reminiscent of a mars photo.  It was void of life, or so it seemed.   Deep crevices and ashen soil reminded me of the volcanic ash after the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in Washington State.  I’ve been here, in the South Dakota Badlands, before, many times.  But the wonder of this part of our country still intrigues me.

This is a bizarre land of erosion created buttes and pillars, canyons and spires, and pinnacles and gorges.  It is a true example of how something so very desolate can also be something very beautiful.  As the sun changes position the colors change from reds to sandy grays and lavender.  Around each bend in the road the terrain changes, from tall and spire-like, to deep and canyon-like.

Just as you think there is no life possible here, you come upon an example of a fossil, a patch of grass, or a sign that says, “beware of snakes.”

 

I am back.

Stay tuned, I am back and will be updating my site soon.

A Drive Across Highway 410–Washington State

You can’t see the tiny snowflakes, but they were falling.  I guess that means summer is really over up here.

This is all I was able to photograph, but the wild flowers on the trek  across the pass  looked like spring.

Not quite so close.

Three Word Wednesday — May/December

The difference was not as obvious now as it had been 26 years earlier, but once in a while someone still noticed.   Evan held her hand just as he had the day they married.  Martha cherished every moment they had together.  There was no guarantee then that they would have more than a quarter of a century together.  And although Martha smiled feeling blessed, it still made her nauseous when she heard the woman at the next table ask, “Obviously he has money or why would she be with someone who is that old?”

“Maybe he needs a trophy wife,” was the reply.

Martha squirmed in her chair and looked at Evan.  “Why is it that a May-December relationship always makes others think that the reason for the relationship is selfish,” she asked?  

Evan  squeezed her hand, his love for her  obvious by his gentle expression. “It’s their loss.  Don’t let it bother you.”

 Her anger slowly mounted. As they got up to leave, she looked at the offenders, smiled sweetly and said, “Maybe you have it all wrong.   Maybe he’s my trophy husband, and now you will never know. “    Evan and Martha both laughed as they walked away.

This is a piece written for a writing prompt called Three Word Wednesday–cherish, guarantee, nausea