start here, pause there, and onward....

I was headed to the blog, but got stopped by a lengthy telephone call... then I thought I'd check one of my email boxes and got further sidetracked.... and finally wound up here after reading a quick couple of things including:

For a few days I’ve been peppering some of the smartest people I know with this question. Here’s what they said. You’re a grownup when…

* You know there are many things much more important than yourself.
* You’re willing to say “I was wrong.”
* You’re attentive to the footprint you will have left on the world.
* You forgive the carelessness of the young, regret the thoughtlessness of your own youth.
* You finally realize you have no one to complain to.

Growing up is a choice. The journey begins with the simplest of steps: identifying your values, then acting accordingly. This means jettisoning the excuses that have previously blocked your path (“I’m too tired,” “I don’t have the time,” etc.). And then the tricky part: doing all this while retaining your sense of humor. Few accomplish these goals. (Total success would mean being something on the order of a saint.) But the important thing is to point yourself in the right direction and start marching.


Steven Slon, Editor, AARP The Magazine
"What is a Grownup?"

Yeah... taking responsibility and retaining one's sense of humor is definitely right at the top of the list....

More grownup stuff: 50 Things You Need to Know by 50


# # # #

Unconscious Mutterings Week 232

1. Situation :: self created


2. Theme song :: still searching for one


3. Kelly :: green


4. Club :: sandwich


5. Swerve :: car


6. Couch :: potato


7. Bigfoot :: lives in the really old forests ;-)


8. Arbitrary :: rules; too many of those


9. Inventor :: wish I were an


10. Blazer :: silk and wool tweed

Weekly word list can be found at Unconscious Mutterings

#

wandering on a Saturday noon

How on earth did I miss this by Mary Oliver? I notice it was referenced by Sacred Ordinary in an entry dated May of 2006 and in Panhala at some point...

The page at Panhala is beautiful... Messenger, by Mary Oliver

The poem begins:

"My work is loving the world." ...

and later....

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.

..."

"Messenger", by Mary Oliver; Thirst: Poems, 2006 Beacon Press

Completely unrelated, I'm off to see a matinee of the latest Harry Potter film.... I'm sure it will be good.. and I'm just as sure I probably won't write any review of it..

#

wandering paths

"Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate." Henry David Thoreau, Walden (The Portable Thoreau, edited by Carl Bode)

I haven't figured out the way to return to blogging with any flourish or even a decent explanation of where I've traveled in the months behind. But with a telecommute day and a few moments in between reports and telephone calls, here I am. Back regularly or intermittently, only time will tell.

Of course, when I say "traveled" I didn't mean the physical, outward sort, rather the inner journey. However, in concrete terms, I'm also just back from Massachusetts (4th of July week), and next weekend (20th) I'm off to Indiana for two days, maybe for the last time in my life. I'm taking the camera and perhaps there will be a few pictures. My photos from Massachusetts are still being reviewed and processed, but they were almost all of family and friends and chosen for the people, not for art projects. Should that be the same? hmmm... perhaps if I were talented, they ought to be, but since I'm not...
nah...

Journeys and tangents... ongoing.. always.... and once again a stumbling resumption of a path from which I wandered....

#