Category Archives: Life Lessons

January 17, 2025

Day 17

Sometimes glimmers are gold! Last summer our feeders will filled with goldfinches. So we did a little research an learned that they love thistle seeds. So…as we do for the variety of wild visitors to our property, we set up a dedicated thistle seed tree for our new friends. You can see how popular that became in the photo below…

Then in September Hurricane Helene came roaring through! After days of a dangerous winds and massive rain here in the Blur Ridge foothills, our beloved little golden friends disappeared. 😟 I left the feeders up for months. No goldfinches came. We were heartbroken thinking they may have perished in the storm. We never gave up hoping they might return but I put away the seed to protect them from the weather. And then this week…

So…I set up the thistle seed feeders once again and they are back! A good number of them. And I am so happy and encouraged and reminded that we should always hold on to hope! Never give up!

Here’s another little one peaking around the seed bag… makes me smile, reminds me to breath…a big deep breath.

And finally a poem… peace and glimmers to you!!! Golden glimmers!!!! ✨

golden homecoming

finches have returned 
gold flutters at the feeders
bellies thistle full
we thought they’d perished last fall
when the hurricane raged through

~kat

12 Comments | tags: digital photography, Glimmers, goldfinches, hope, Poem a Day, Poetry, Tanka | posted in 2025, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Tanka

January 11, 2025

Day 11

By Kat Myrman

Bramlett Mountain Hills on a snowy morning ~kat 2025

snowscape at dawn

i could be, should be
with so many chores to do
but i’d miss this view
the sacred morning stillness
of a night’s snowfall, at dawn

~kat

We’ve been iced in for a week now. Last night a new layer of snow topped the ice. A part of me might be panicking a wee bit. Even if we needed to, we can’t get to the main road. I could be panicking, but I am choosing instead to embrace this respite from the world. We are safe and warm. We have a secure roof over our heads, electricity, water, food in the cupboards and toilet paper. 😉 The sun, and temperatures above freezing are forecast over the next few days. For today and maybe even tomorrow, I am going to do my best to break from the busy-ness that has dominated me for years. I may even stay in my pj’s for two days. Imagine that! If you know me, the thought of doing nothing has been an unthinkable proposition for a long, far too long a time, I’m sad to admit. Taking my cue from this detour from the race…thank you winter snow for the grace to just be… 💚

Peace and glimmers to you,

~kat

10 Comments | tags: digital photography, Glimmers, morning snow, Poem a Day, Poetry, Tanka | posted in 2025, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Tanka

January 11, 2025

Day 10…Delayed

By Kat Myrman

when hope is just a glimmer 

there will sometimes be days
just like this one has been
a long twenty four hours 
that drags on without end
a bleak, languishing dirge 
I assure you my friend
it won’t last, it just won’t 
because dusk’s round the bend
and the night, and sweet dreams
you can hang on ‘til then
just remember to breathe
a deep breath slowly in
then sit for a moment 
while remembering when
you have been here before
find your center of zen
exhale all your troubles
repeat, do it again
until you feel peace
and calm settling in 
please don’t fret, you’ll be fine
it’s a lot to take in
when the world’s spinning wild
no beginning or end

there will sometimes be days
just like this one has been
it won’t last, it just won’t 
I assure you my friend

peace and glimmers to you…

~kat

6 Comments | tags: Glimmers, hope, mindfulness, Poem a Day, Poetry, Rhyming Couplets | posted in 2025, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Rhyming Couplets

January 4, 2025

Day 3…KISS

By Kat Myrman

KISS

it was an ordinary day
nothing special, but it was good
I wouldn’t change it if I could
I kept it simple you might say
nothing special, but it was good
it was an ordinary day

~kat
(Keep It Simple Stupid)

Sometimes a glimmer is realizing you don’t need an over the top, amazingly, magnificent, spectacular kind of day to feel alive. You just have to be…alive…and remember to breathe. 💚

Poetry Form: The Biolet

The biolet was invented by the Brazilian poet Filinto de Almeida and first appeared in print in his book Lyrica in 1887. It is a six line poem where the first two lines are repeated as the last two lines, however in reverse. The rhyme scheme is ABbaBA (with the capital letters representing the repeated lines). Most of Almeida’s original biolets in Portuguese were in iambic tetrameter (8 syllables), but you could also try iambic pentameter (10 syllables), iambic hexameter (12 syllables), and unmetered lines of random lengths as well.

5 Comments | tags: 2025, Biolet, digital art., Poem a Day, Poetry | posted in 2025, Biolet, Digital Art & Photos, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

December 1, 2024

A ReVerse for This Time of Uncertainty

By Kat Myrman

A ReVerse for This Time of Uncertainty

I expected to feel magic
how tempted am I to lose myself here
with pieces of you and you and you
I don’t mind
when the unknown looms just beyond
we humans are a cruel race
how weary she looks

in another lifetime
time steals away before you know
surrendering to the whirlwind 
justice buried alive under the heap

but…her roots run deep
we cling to hope as winter closes in
it’s hard to ignore the elephants
when the tempests rage

rest deep sweet seedling
dare to dream.
breathing light 
dares a blue-sky world
hey, what if?

~kat

It’s been a minute since I dared to look back to chew on past musings. So much has changed, or at least presents the threat of unwelcome change. At least to me and roughly 74+ million souls. But it felt like time for another ReVerse.

While I am not sure, as none of us truly can be sure, what the future holds, I am sure, as a daughter of light and love, as a survivor, and a fierce fighter for justice and truth, as a mother, as a warrior, as a crone…I am sure, I am steady, I am a safe place, I am a light in the darkness. No matter how things might change, no matter how fierce the coming storm might try to break me…to break us…I am not inclined to change who I am. Who I have always been. I am. Yes, I am. Nothing can change that.

Peace, Love, and Light. Seize this day. This very moment and breathe a deep breath in…and slowly exhale while taking it all in, your surroundings, the stuff of life in your tiny corner of the world…and feel how beautiful it is to be. ❤️

A ReVerse poem (a practice I started many years ago) is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the ReVerse features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week…or in this case, over the past several months.

11 Comments | tags: digital photography, Poetry, ReVerse | posted in 2024, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Reverse Poem