Sunday 26 May 2013

I Heard a Robin Sing

I Heard A Robin Sing

The sun is shining brightly
Its rays are welcome, warm
White clouds are drifting in the sky
With no raindrops falling down
No thunder do I hear today
Though we could use the rain
So I sit and bask in perfect calm
And I hear a robin sing!

The cherry trees are blooming
And the apple, berry, plum,
Their petals keep on floating down
Like confetti  tossed around.
It smells like heaven's come to earth
Boundless blessings on the wing
Life so wonderful and grand
Cause I heard the robin sing!

The roadsides are a blaze of yellow
Amid grasses lush and green
The dandelion is the sovereign here
It's reign is full, supreme
And over and above it all
I hear the robin sing!

The gardener busily mows lawn
In anticipation of some rain
A bunny watches warily
And I hear a robin sing!

The geese are honking overhead
As through the heavens they roam
The sparrows gather moss and twigs
To build somewhere a home
(They've given up on nesting in
A birdhouse not meant for them.)
They scold and squawk and make a fuss
They're too big to fit in
I smile at their frustration
And I hear the robin sing!

All spring is in its glory
Nature's bounty and its whim
I've waited for so long it seems
To hear that robin sing

I've planted all those pansies
Their blooms are smiling now
The sun caresses each new face
As in the breeze they bow
God's beauty's all around me
For I hear the robin sing.

I thrill in the perfect solitude
As I sit, survey, the scene
My wish came true today it seems
Cause I heard a robin sing!

Wednesday 22 May 2013

A Summer's Dream

A Summer Dream

I've waited with wistful patience
For summer's warmth and sun and rain
I've searched the heavens for the showers
But clouds just promise rain in vain

If I were out in prairie woodland
Beyond  spongy marshland gates
I'd be listening to the frog songs
Croaking love songs to their mates.

But a city confines nature
To these busy numbered streets
It sets limits on our pleasures
And it rations all our treats.

 I still recall all those spring sounds
That brought pleasures long ago
 So I adjust my expectations
To the delights I now know.

It's been a long cold dreary winter
And we're due for summer's glee.
I've got most of my wishes granted
Now I'm happy and care free!

Friday 17 May 2013

Dandylion Time

 
They have to go!  
Yellow Intruders!
Pleasures of Summer

Those dandelions have to go!  This lawn is going to get green when the fertilizer gets put in but that will be after those intruders are eliminated.  I will be collecting alot of sunshine while I send these invaders packing.  These harbingers of spring will soon be replaced by pansies, petunias and other invited smiling beauties. While I am working on this, I will be enjoying the company of a welcome friendly admirer and companion.
 
My companion
Admirer and Companion
 

Sunday 12 May 2013

Opportunities Lost

Recording Precious  Memories

I was going through my collection of video tapes the other day and I came across a treasure that becomes more precious with each passing year.  It's an amateur movie I had "commissioned"  of a casual "Family Reunion" of relatives and family back in July of 1996.  It was an impromptu reunion.  My sisters Nellie and Helen and my brother John from  Ontario, had come to visit me  and my brother Mike in Manitoba so we had invited cousins, aunts, and uncles from the surrounding area to join us for a dinner and get-together.

On a stroke of  inspiration, I had asked a friend, who owned a movie camera, to film the event.  He was not a professional photographer, nor did he have the best equipment on the market.  And we hardly had a decent setup for the event.  Our mobile home did not provide enough room for a huge gathering nor did it offer the conveniences for it, but it had a roofed-in deck twelve by twenty feet. There, we set up a couple of long tables and chairs that we had borrowed from the parish hall. Our guests squeezed in as best they could on that crowded deck around those tables piled high with festive food. George, our video man, set up his camera on a tripod in the carport at the far end of deck and set it rolling.  He did not have much choice of where to film from, but he did the best he could with the equipment he had and with the limited space and setup available to him.

We have about  four hours of video of that glorious afternoon.  There are only  a few of us left of that big group of thirty-five-plus that laughed and enjoyed that wonderful afternoon of family camaraderie.  Watching that tape now tears at our heartstrings to watch the antics of that carefree group on that most memorable day.  Little did we know that that silly amateurish movie would immortalize those very dear and unforgettable folks for very appreciative generations for years to come.  That tape was made in VHS. It has now been copied onto a CD.  Already many of those people are gone but their voices and their laughter will remain with us, and our descendants, forever!

Those get-togethers were so precious.  Many of them were at my place.  Why had we not thought of taping them all? Or at least, more of them!  What precious opportunities we missed!
 

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Happiness Is

The Power of "Positive"

This is a quote from an email "forward" that I received the other day.  I thought this message was worth repeating.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance

This  almost sounds fatalistic if you wish to take a negative slant on it.  It implies that we must accept the unacceptable, perhaps even grudgingly.  However, I have always said that if we look for the negatives in our life we can always find them, but the same thing can also be said for the positives as well.

For now, we have finally arrived at summer and I, for one, am a happy camper. As soon as I get the chance, I am going down to my daughter's place where I will sit myself down on the lawn with a big sturdy  screwdriver.  I intend to bask in the sunshine as I gleefully dig out each and every dandelion that dares to poke its pretty yellow head out from among the grass roots.  Happiness is where you find it!!!!

Thursday 2 May 2013

A Visit to Yesteryear




Sweet Surrender
I visit a sweet little old lady in a  nursing home.  She is my "Jessica Tandy" (for those of you that have watched the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes"). This adorable lady does not have the kind of dramatic background that Jessica Tandy relates in her story but she is certainly no less captivating or any less lovable.  

She sits  in her padded armchair     
Swaying gently back and forth
Frail, fragile, and pathetic
As soft moans haunt each breath 
She pleads not to be left alone .
Alone in a bleak world.
Alone with her memories

“No, don’t leave yet,” she implores me 
Her feeble voice quivers, weak, 
A poignant mixture of sadness, hope
Forlorn, forgotten, forsaken
Her eyes are pools of aged longing
And her plaintive pleading spears my heart.


“But you look tired, you need to rest Dear.”
I search to find the gentle words
To dispel  rejection, disown indifference 
And I make a promise I aim to keep
“I’ll come back later, when you have rested.
It won’t be long, so rest my dear.”

Slowly, painfully, but with resolve.
She moves her head from side to side
 “Oh I’m just fine, I'll rest later.”
She strains to raise her sagging form.
A valiant effort of ageless endurance
Against the onslaught of weighted years.

Declining health has sapped her vigor
But age has failed to quell a spirit
That just won’t falter or be stilled.

So I sit back down and we reminisce
Of carefree days so long now gone.