I planted zinnia seeds on April 12 – an invitation accepted by the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.
Here and now.
The heart is the only place to live.
The hands are busy shaping
this outpouring of love
while the feet keep dancing to the beat.
We’d been on the road about an hour when my dear driver said, “I found the tallest waterfall in Mississippi for you.”
If you know anything about Mississippi, that should give you a moment’s pause too.
Small highways and backroads are the only way to take a proper roadtrip as far as I’m concerned. The roads less traveled are full of surprises. One such surprise that flashed by my window frame too quickly to photograph was two semi-truck tires about 30 feet in the air on the limb of a tall tree.
My dear driver delivered on his claim about the tallest Mississippi waterfall. Dunn’s Falls was built in the 1850s by John Cooper Dunn on the Chunky River. The 65-foot waterfall was the power source of a gristmill and cotton mill.
I’ve arrived at these 10 ways to induce a sopoforic state through introspective science.
- Work hard daily mentally and physically.
- Follow nature’s rhythms – get up with the birds at sunrise, let skin absorb sunshine, and wind down under the moon listening to the frog and bug songs.
- Limit coffee, tea, chocolate and other carriers of caffeine.
- Read physical books at night. When too tired for the mental effort, listen to relaxing music instead.
- If all else fails, turn on Seinfeld – it works like a charm.
- Listen to a 20-minute meditation in French.
- No doom-scrolling. The world will just have to end without me knowing about it.
- Nervous or excess energy? – Sew or knit in bed.
- Count blessings.
- Breathe and know it.
Daily writing prompt
What’s a book, movie, or TV show that you wish you could experience again for the first time?
There are several books I would like to experience again for the first time: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) for the darling character, Lord of the Flies (William Golding) for the language, Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov) for the cognitive dissonance, the entire Dark Fever series for the monsters and humor (Karen Marie Moning). If I had to choose only one though, it would be The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) because there were so many passages that made me feel seen and understood:
“It’s true, I do not speak as well as I can think.”
“As long as I kept moving, my grief streamed out behind me like a swimmer’s long hair in water. I knew the weight was there but it didn’t touch me. Only when I stopped did the slick, dark stuff of it come floating around my face, catching my arms and throat until I began to drown. So I just didn’t stop.”
“When I want to take God at his word exactly, I take a peep out the window at His creation. Because that, darling he makes fresh for us everyday…“
“I prefer to remain anomalous.“
“This is what it means to be very slow: every story you would like to tell has already ended before you can open your mouth.”
The only TV show I would love to watch again for the first time is Breaking Bad. I enjoyed the plot’s twists and turns, how it spiraled, and how the characters developed. The darkness combined with the shock of unexpected funny was just sublime! Some episodes were so disturbing I had to chase them with Big Bang Theory just to balance out my psyche.
Honey, it’swarming up in here
‘Cause I can’t help pollen in love with you.
Bee puns, I have a buzz-illion of them.
How do you build loyal subscribers?
dailyprompt-2785
Have good web presence.
Daily writing prompt
Share a proverb you think is completely wrong and make your case.
Many years ago on a back porch swing, after several minutes of deep, silent contemplation and observation, a 5 year old asked me:
“What about spiders, do they poot?”
I certainly had no idea, but it was a damn good question and one that continues to haunt me to this day.
Side note: WordPress spellcheck keeps underlining “poot” with a red dotted line every time I type it, as if I’m the idiot making a spelling mistake. You don’t know me spellcheck! “Poot” is the word, and I know how to spell it, thanks.
Anyway, according to Google’s dubious AI Overview results, spiders don’t poot. I don’t think the bots can be trusted with this information. Regardless, it’s fun to imagine a hoard of scientists out there publishing government-funded work on this topic. In this fantasy, I am on the peer review panel and I have questions, starting with the operational definitions….
….ahhh, but I digress.
The point of all this is to share a proverb I think is completely wrong, and that is:
“Children should be seen and not heard”
-John Mirk, Mirk’s Festial*
I wonder if the pastor who first penned this proverb lived a lonely life or if he was just a humorless man. Mirk may have been an expert on scripture, but did he ever have the opportunity to read the testament on a questioning child’s face?
There actually is a great deal of scientific evidence out there that shows the Littles have considerably more neurons than the Grown-ups (granted, maybe not in those terms). It seems to me that we all could benefit from listening to someone with way more brain cells and a fresh perspective about life on this planet. If you aren’t listening to children speak, play, and laugh on a regular basis, then you are missing out on a delightful mix of curious musings, deep questions, surprising wisdom, and comedy gold.
~~*~~
*According to phrases.org.uk, the proverb, was first written by John Mirk, author of Mirk’s Festial in the Middle Ages.
Also: poot, poot poot, the word needs to be in the digital lexicon.
Also: Today is Mylittlespacebook’s 16th year anniversary! Feel free to leave me a present in the comments. 😀
The first bloom on the first nasturtiums I have ever managed to grow from seeds in my 14 years of failed attempts has finally made an appearance. Is it the years of anticipation? Is it the curious little dragon’s head bud? Is it the unexpected and delicate capuchon? I’m not sure, but something about it has the look and feel of magic. Every time I walk past it or glimpse it from the window there is a little thrill of frisson.
The finicky borage has also arrived on the scene. I have to do more research on that one before I’m ready to write about what’s going on there.
Put googly-eyed finger puppets and alphabet robots on the shopping list.
Daily writing prompt
Go on a walk today and share a photo of something that catches your eye.
….and when I looked the moon had turned to gold.
My Little Spacebook 