Category Archives: Essays

July 22, 2016

Woolgathering – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku

By Kat Myrman

woolgathering

Have you been woolgathering lately?  Today’s Dictionary.com Word of the Day entered the English vocabulary in the 1500’s, literally meaning the gathering of the tufts of wool shed by sheep and caught on bushes. It is also associated with indulgence in idle fancies and in daydreaming and absentmindedness.

B.A. Phythian explains the connection between the word’s literal and figurative applications in A Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1993): It was an activity for poor people hoping to gather enough fragments to weave together, entailing a certain amount of haphazard rambling among hedgerows and fields by women and children. This rather random wandering has been a metaphor for dreaminess since the 16th century.

For additional understanding, here is Merriam-Webster’s definition:

Woolgathering once literally referred to the act of gathering loose tufts of wool that had gotten caught on bushes and fences as sheep passed by. Woolgatherers must have seemed to wander aimlessly, gaining little for their efforts, for in the mid-16th century “woolgathering” began to appear in figurative phrases such as “my wits (or my mind) went a-woolgathering” – in other words, “my mind went wandering aimlessly.” From there, it wasn’t long before the word woolgathering came to suggest the act of indulging in purposeless mind-wandering.

I don’t know that I have ever heard this word used, but most of us are not exposed to the literal activity of woolgathering in this day and age. Perhaps a better metaphor for 21st century woolgathering could be TwitterTrolling. Hmmm…I like it. “Her twittertrolling caused her to miss the boarding call for her flight.”

Woolgathering and twittertrolling, are considered indulgences in this modern era where time is money and we are constantly working to do more with less to satisfy some shareholder’s bottom line. If you do engage in occasional woolgathering it is a good idea to do so with one ear open and your wits intact so you don’t miss something important.

Here is my Haiku then…playing a bit with the sheep reference. Have a great Friday!

Those who are naive
minds adrift, woolgathering
are easily fleeced.

kat ~ 22 July 2016

9 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Essays, Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Word of the Day Haiku

July 21, 2016

D-Day Memorial – Echoes of my Neighborhood

By Kat Myrman

Happy Thursday and welcome to my neighborhood. It’s been a few weeks since my last post to Jacqueline’s Echoes of my Neighborhood Challenge. To be honest I ran out of micro, macro, oddities to show you…and it is likely very clear that I do not get out much! 🙂 Besides my day job and taking care of my critters, I rarely wander past my front door. But this past weekend I had the honor to visit an historical site to hear a concert. With all the unrest in the world today, it is good to reflect on the past to realize that we have the capacity to come together, nation to nation to defeat a common enemy. Even when the price is great, good eventually overcomes evil. And that gives me hope!

From the National D-Day Memorial Website: On June 6th, 1944 United States soldiers, in one of the most pivotal battles of World War II, invaded the French coastline in order to propel German soldiers out of Western Europe and lead the way for victory against the tyrants of that era. Dedicated on June 6th, 2001 by president George W. Bush, the National D-Day Memorial was constructed in honor of those who died that day, fighting in one of the most significant battles in our nations history.

It is located in Bedford, Virginia (about 45 minutes from where I live). Why Bedford? Here is a second excerpt from the Memorial’s website:

Bedford, Virginia… 
Like eleven other Virginia communities, Bedford provided a company of soldiers (Company A) to the 29th Infantry Division when the National Guard’s 116th Infantry Regiment was activated on 3 February 1941. Some thirty Bedford soldiers were still in that company on D-Day; several more from Bedford were in other D-Day companies, including one who, two years earlier, had been reassigned from the 116th Infantry to the First Infantry Division. Thus he had already landed in both Northern Africa and Sicily before coming ashore on D-Day at Omaha Beach with the Big Red One. Company A of the 116th Infantry assaulted Omaha Beach as part of the First Division’s Task Force O. 

By day’s end, nineteen of the company’s Bedford soldiers were dead. Two more Bedford soldiers died later in the Normandy campaign, as did yet another two assigned to other 116th Infantry companies. Bedford’s population in 1944 was about 3,200. Proportionally this community suffered the nation’s severest D-Day losses. Recognizing Bedford as emblematic of all communities, large and small, whose citizen-soldiers served on D-Day, Congress warranted the establishment of the National D-Day Memorial here.

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All photos by Kat Myrman – July 2016

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Random Thoughts and Musings

July 19, 2016

WanderLost – Three Day Quote Challenge – Day 1

By Kat Myrman

Happy Tuesday! My friend from “down under” Elsie,  kiwinana from the blog Ramblings of a Writer nominated me for the Three Day Quote Challenge. It’s been a while since I did one of these. Thanks Elsie!

I like to choose a theme for each day of the challenge. Actually, today it picked me, lured me in actually when I was drawn to this quote:

anonQuote

I love this one. It is so true and speaks to my gypsy soul!

Did you catch the theme? It has to do with wandering…and even getting lost, or what I like to call WanderLost! 🙂 This, of course led me to my next quote…a favorite of mine. In fact I have this tin plaque over the door in my room:

lost

This is soooo me. Life is an adventure! I really don’t worry when I get lost.  Sometimes I even linger for a bit. You never know what treasures you might find in a strange new place!

Finally, I will leave you with this little gem I found with the help of my friend Google.

heartmind

I have to say, this is a new favorite now. I need to post it somewhere I can see it the next time I am laboring over a decision. My heart knows the answer. I just need to pay attention.

Have a great day! I know the rules say that I need to name three people every day to play along. But true to my wandering nature, I think I will throw the invitation out to everyone. This is a fun challenge. Doesn’t take a lot of brain power. Actually, I consider inspiration brain fuel. So if you do want to give it a go…Three Quotes/Three Days, all I ask is that you ping me back so I can be inspired by the treasures you find!

Blessings and Peace! 🙂

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Essays, Life Lessons, Random Thoughts and Musings

July 17, 2016

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 17 July 2016

By Kat Myrman

What does one say about such a week? Our world witnessed another round of tragedy. As I reflect on this my mind is spinning. Was it just one horrible event this week or were there others? Or was it last week? 

The weeks have started to run together. We barely have time to recover, or to make sense of it, before another wave of sorrow swallows us, slamming us relentlessly into the crumbled shards of normal we once took for granted.

It is hard to catch one’s breath in times like this. How important it is to breathe! I forget to sometimes. And yet I know that breathing, consciously, deliberately, is the only thing that saves me. Breathing quiets my spinning head and centers me in the moment flooding me with calm, with peace. Mindfulness does not mean noticing the chaos around me. Mindfulness means focusing my attention on the moment at hand…on simply breathing. Slow breath in….hold …slow breath out.

No matter what the next week brings, I only need to remember to breathe…

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 17 July 2016

If only they believed
Sun light and moon beams
A storm
relentless, inescapable
it was every soul for themselves
growing befuddled
those silly quirks you hated
Only time will tell
Yep, the joke’ll be on them
How do you live with something like that?
I fear we’re all mad!
We Weep For France.
Winter was her favorite time of year.
Behold the Wild Rose
Life can’t be contained
In truth, he had grown accustomed to the weeds.

~ kat

The Shi Sai, (formerly known as a ReVerse) is a form created by Kat Myrman in April 2016. It is a poem created by taking one line of verse from several poems of an author’s own collection. The shi sai is done as a review of a series or collection of poems and therefore, each line should flow in chronological order of the dates the poems were written (from oldest to new). The lines chosen should be the author’s favorite from each poem. This form works best if the author resists the temptation to read the full new poem before all the verses have been added. (It helps one to resist the impulse to change a line to make it “fit”.

16 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Essays, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Week in Review

July 10, 2016

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse ~ 10 July 2016

By Kat Myrman


I look forward to Sundays. I truly do try to pause, reflect and recharge. Especially on weeks like this when the world felt chaotic and nightmarish. I remember thinking to myself, as I wrote lines of poetry and prose throughout the week, that today’s ReVerse would likely evolve into a chaotic, incohesive jumble of randomness. Living through this past week was a chaotic mess with raging summer storms that sent us all seeking shelter and raging civil unrest against a backdrop of political firestorms that sent us seeking answers.

In retrospect, I wonder why I had a hard time imagining that this week’s Shi Sai would somehow make sense, because surprisingly it does. I don’t know how or why it does. But it does.

I could say, likevi always do, that I’m hoping we all have a great week, but that would be rude considering the elephant in my peripheral view. They say elephants never forget. Not forgetting for me means acknowledging the elephant. It’s not that I’m not hoping that you have a great week. I hope you have a spectacular week. I hope we all do. Including the elephant. Once he catches your attention he’s hard to ignore.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse ~ 10 July 2016

Forgive me for not giving you a proper goodbye
I am feeling slightly grounded right now and not in a good way
steamy sapphire sky
So…what do you think about all this rain we’ve been having?
tender waves, exquisite bliss
dreams flood the gray void
from endless nights of terror’s rage
What are you thinking Lady Blue?
they are afraid
desire growls in their belly like poison
hoping for love’s bliss!

~ kat

The Shi Sai, (formerly known as a ReVerse) is a form created by Kat Myrman in April 2016. It is a poem created by taking one line of verse from several poems of an author’s own collection. The shi sai is done as a review of a series or collection of poems and therefore, each line should flow in chronological order of the dates the poems were written (from oldest to new). The lines chosen should be the author’s favorite from each poem. This form works best if the author resists the temptation to read the full new poem before all the verses have been added. (It helps one to resist the impulse to change a line to make it “fit”)

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Social Issues, Spirituality, Week in Review