The Trail Marker: A Magpie Tale

It had been a rough winter and spring, what with the end of a relationship, the loss of a job and the death of a beloved pet.  He felt that after all that, things could only get better.

The summer had been one of healing, with friends supporting him, a new apartment, a job offer, and a new lease on life. Once again, he was approaching life from a place of abundance.  So when he saw some gorgeous photos taken from a 20 mile ridge trail, he vowed to celebrate his renewal by hiking the trail.  It would be an opportunity to travel on his own and contemplate all the good things that were happening in his life.

He left his car in the parking lot at the edge of the forest and set off.  As he approached the trail marker that identified the halfway point, he realized he hadn't seen anyone else during his trek.  The words of Robert Frost came to mind.  It felt like he had definitely chosen the road not taken by others.  But, he had promises to keep... promises to himself.

He looked out over the horizon to savor the moment, then set off again.  It was then that a slight dip in the trail set him off balance. As he tumbled over the ridge all he could think of was the next line of the poem...

Yes, he had miles to go before he slept.  What had started out as an end-of-summer adventure ended as a beginning-of-fall debacle.  "Fall" being the operative word.  Time to start over yet again and put one sprained ankle in front of the other.

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Tess over at Willow Manor has been providing inspiration for bloggers with her photo prompts on a site called Magpie Tales.  Stop over to check out who else was inspired this week.

Moving on Up

I missed the last several Magpie prompts.  Although I'm a bit late, this one spoke to me:

No, I'm not spiraling out of control.  But I am making another change in my life... moving on to a different level.  Whether it will ultimately be going up or down remains to be seen.  I'm confident, though, that it will be a few more steps in the right direction.

Yesterday was my last day of work at my current teaching site.  I'm now on vacation/temporarily unemployed for the next two weeks before joining a new faculty and site.  I'll be doing the same job, just in a new spot, with new colleagues, a new room, a new outdoor classroom and new families.  I'll also be working with a more "mature" staff, (i.e. playing with more kids my own age.) I'm looking forward to the change.  (Not to mention the fact that it feels damn good to still be viewed as a "good catch" on the job market four years short of my full retirement age!)

Seeing what else is out there is always good for the soul.

He's Gone: Magpie Tales

Midsummer Night's Melancholy by Michael Sowa

It had been a week since they cleared out the apartment.  The relatives came and took everything of value, then told the landlord to arrange for cleaners to come and take the rest.  What had once been a loving home was now an empty shell.  The only thing left was the cat, who watched patiently out the window in the hope that he would one day return.  

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Tess over at Willow Manor has been providing inspiration for bloggers with her photo prompts on a site called Magpie Tales.  Stop over to check out who else was inspired this week.

Ma Bell: Magpie Tales

It was a beautiful day for a walk in the meadow.  After a long week at work, the quiet of the pastoral scene was revitalizing.  The birds called to her overhead and the wildflowers provided a fragrant welcome. She could feel her body relaxing and her mind invited healing thoughts in.

Suddenly, her reverie was shattered by an annoying electronic noise.

Damn cell phones!  Interrupting life wherever she went.  There was no place to hide anymore.

There weren't any cell phones when she was growing up.  She even remembered when her parents got their first rotary phone.  Ancient history, now.  Before that, they had to ring up the operator using a little crank on the side of the phone.  Yes, she was that old.

The two young people coming across the meadow chattered away loudly on speaker mode, crushing wildflowers as they came closer and causing the birds circling overhead to flee.

She found her serenity fading away as the teens came closer.  Still, she smiled at them, hoping to at least get a friendly smile back.

They ignored her.  Just as well.  She didn't trust herself not to beat them to a pulp.

She began to giggle hysterically as she imagined what the handset of an old rotary phone could do to a person.

The two girls who had just passed her looked back and then looked at each other.  "OMG!  What a crazy bitch!" they said to the invisible person inside the phone.

"Just call me Ma Bell!" the old woman muttered to herself.  I may be old and I may be crazy, but at least my imagination is still in fine fettle.  As she looked out at the vista in front of her, she laughed out loud and once again found peace.

Image by Sarolta Ban

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Tess over at Willow Manor has been providing inspiration for bloggers with her photo prompts on a site called Magpie Tales.  Stop over to check out who else was inspired this week.

Still Afloat: Magpie Tales

How often life has left me adrift in a sea of bewilderment, not knowing how I got here or where I'll end up.  Yet somehow I know all will be well, so long as I just breathe.

There's a certain elegance in simply staying afloat.

photo by Toni Frissell

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Tess over at Willow Manor has been providing inspiration for bloggers with her photo prompts on a site called Magpie Tales.  Stop over to check out who else was inspired this week.

Moving On: A Magpie Tale

She'd been hanging her hat in the same place for a long time.  So long, in fact, that her thoughts had become as worn as the hat.  It was time to move on.  Picking up her carpet bag and umbrella, she donned the hat one last time as she closed the door on her past.

Still Life, 1907 by John Frederick Peto 

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Tess over at Willow Manor has been providing inspiration for bloggers with her photo prompts on a site called Magpie Tales.  This week's image was perfect for me as I set up a new blog site.  Stop over to check out who else was inspired this week.  

Welcome to the Crap Shack

I've never been a tidy person.  Perhaps it's a reaction to having been forced to clean the house and do the laundry, including ironing, every Saturday when I was growing up.  My sister and I were also the dishwashers in our house.  (I could only hide in the bathroom after dinner for so long before the rest of the family caught on to that ruse.)  My mother said the reason she had children was so we could do all the chores.  Ugh!

To make things worse, my older sister was a neat-nik.  She not only kept her side of the room clean, she created an Excel spreadsheet of where everything went.  And this was years before Excel was even thought of, let alone invented.  When I was in middle school, she went to my parents in tears and said they needed to call up E-Z-Way Refuse Service and have them back their truck up to the window to shovel all my junk out of our shared bedroom.

Anyway, I grew up and got various apartments that ranged from hovels to grown-up style abodes. And somehow I managed to keep them fairly tidy, if not pristine. Then I lowered my standard of living by buying a house.

That was 30 years ago.  The house has three closets, each 3 feet across by 1 foot deep.  When you have no decent storage, there's only one thing to do.  Make piles of crap.  Fill the attic to the brim. Excavate the basement to throw more crap down there.  You get the picture.  30 years of living packed into one small house.  Believe me, it's not pretty.  Small children can disappear for weeks at a time.

But, there's an up-side.  It's paid for.  Yes, I'm a home owner who actually owns their own home rather than renting it from the bank.

It may be a crap shack, but it's my crap shack.

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Thanks to my old college friend, Jim Raife, for providing the background photo for this new blog.  I kept it on my desktop for about a year, thinking it would make a great writing prompt.  When I decided to revamp things, it was an obvious choice for my site's theme. An amazing photo taken by an amazing person!