Category Archives: Random Thoughts and Musings

January 24, 2016

Sunday’s Week in Re-Verse – 24 January 2016

By Kat Myrman

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Happy Sunday! Well now…what an interesting look back in verse and prose. This week’s re-verse truly captures my favorite thing to do! I love watching the world go by. I get lost in the beauty and the quirkiness, the drama and the joy. Not that I don’t also participate. I do. But I am truly fascinated by what makes this world tick. Everyday offers opportunities for a front-seat view and there are always lessons to be learned.

This week I studied the odd behavior of my pets playing fetch and chasing their tails, but I also stumbled upon the realization that my dogs are also observing me in a very unique way. Apparently we see the world in this way too…a bit of a left gaze bias…which affirms my own trust in the reality of intuition while also reminding me of my animal nature and the ancient mysterious connection I have to all living things.

Where I live we had our first snow of the season (a real doozy by all accounts!), coinciding with the Full Wolf Moon. Mukluks and parkas are the new black. There is something to be said for comfort and warmth. And there is also something to be said for the many modern conveniences and innovations that we take for granted in the 21st century. We’ve come a long way, while remaining intrinsically connected with the universe at our core.

And so it was a week spent in observation, anticipation, nostalgic recollections, revelations and exhilaration in the realization that where I am in the here and now is right where I am meant to be! Life is good!

On then to this last full week of January 2016. I do hope your week presents you with an abundance of spectacular “-tions” (-tion – a suffix occurring in words of Latin origin, used to form abstract nouns from verbs or stems not identical with verbs, whether as expressing action ( revolution; commendation), or a state ( contrition; starvation), or associated meanings ( relation; temptation) from dictionary.com.

Though I started this bit extolling the virtues of passive observation, life is best lived when we move from the abstract into an active state of of participation. That is living!

Sunday’s Week in Re-Verse – 24 January 2016

Dogs fetch…
…guilty pleasure
Watching paint dry…
brimming with stardust
hard-wired to perceive…
mukluks and parkas
sashaying about en vogue
all the rage on store shelves
Silly me…I watch!
Well I guess we’ll never find out unless we try.
But I have noticed this strange light…
Our days are numbered
Time will pass though I won’t care
I am quite happy in my little corner of the world
as I sit here grinste wie ein Honigkuchenpferd
…water cooler powwows
With teeth made of wood
luminous.

~kat

If you’re new to this blog, a bit of background to explain the verse above. It is a line from each poem or prose from the previous week. Lifted and placed in the order written. A snapshot review of the week. It helps me to prepare for the upcoming week with a clean slate.

4 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Essays, Life Lessons, Random Thoughts and Musings, Spirituality, Week in Review

January 23, 2016

Full Moon Glow

By Kat Myrman

Fair
Luna
hides behind
snow laden clouds
painting the night sky
in crystalline
luminous
dabs of
pink.

kat ~ 23 January 2016

18 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

January 22, 2016

Sitzmark – Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku

By Kat Myrman

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Happy Friday to you! I love the German language! So many German words are colorfully descriptive when used in English context. Today’s word of the day fits that bill. According to Dictionary.com, Sitzmark derives from the German sitzen meaning “to sit.” Merriam-Webster adds the English “mark” (as in to leave a mark) to round out the original meaning of the word. It entered English lanquage in the 1930s.

I am not a skier, so this word is new to me. I skied when I was much younger. These days the idea of speeding down a mountain gives me pause. I am sure I would struggle to remain upright. Were I to take a fahrt (Trip) down a mountain I doubt I would simply make a sitzmark upon tumbling, but rather a quite lengthy skid mark! I’ll leave you to your own imagination on this English word picture…keep your schadenfreude (pleasure at someone else’s misfortune) to yourself, thank you!

An exploration of the word “skid mark” in Wikipedia reveals that it is an important forensic tool providing evidence that helps investigators with accident re-creation…(once again, consult your own imagination!)

Okay…I’ve completely lost it at this point, as I sit here grinste wie ein Honigkuchenpferd (Iiterally translated: “grinning like a “honey-caked horse”!) Or if that doesn’t make sense to you…honigkuchenpferd can also mean “Cheshire Cat”. I’m not exactly sure how one makes a connection between a horse-shaped cookie and a maniacal cat…but that’s German for you…how I love German words! 🙂

So without further ado, kugelschreiber (literally, ball scriber, or in English, pen) to the paper, (or if you insist, fingers to the keyboard…I just liked the word kugelschreiber that literally means “ball scriber”…BALL scriber! … I am grinste wie ein Honigkuchenpferd at this very moment!) here is this week’s Haiku!

Sitzmarks – The Haiku

Skiers make sitzmarks
When tumbling on the slopes
Me? I’d make skid marks!

kat ~ 22 January 2016

(Or a snow angel, in my attempt to convince you that I planned to stop, drop and roll, arms and legs flapping just so. Let’s get real. You will most likely find me on the ski slopes safely tucked inside the lodge experiencing blissful Gemütlichkeit (the feeling of comfortable/cozy)!

 

30 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Haiku, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Word of the Day Haiku

January 21, 2016

Echoes of my Neighborhood

By Kat Myrman

BRMEA

Happy Thursday! And another installment of Echoes of my Neighborhood in response to the challenge from my friend Jacqueline of the blog, a cooking pot and twisted tales.

I have worked in Admin for my entire career (decades…though I won’t mention how many!) and for the most part my working space has been located in a dark corner cubicle…or in an office with no windows. During the winter seasons it was not uncommon for me to spend an entire day never seeing sunlight, because I would leave before sunrise and return home after sunset. I have always packed my lunch as well, so I would often eat in front of my computer screen while catching up on emails or the news of the day.

So you can imagine my delight to now have a window seat of the Blue Ridge Mountains each day. My current office setting is still a cubicle (in that I am partitioned from other staff members by temporary walls), but an entire WALL of glass flanks my left! Floor to ceiling windows! I love, love, love my new digs! (well actually not new, new…been here for almost 4 years now). It doesn’t matter to me if the sun is shining or if it is raining or snowing. I don’t even care anymore that in the winter I still leave at dawn and return home after dusk. At any time during the day I can glance to my left and see that there is a beautiful world out there with trees and clouds and a sky. It has made a huge difference in my life resulting in less stress. I suppose after decades of dedicated pecking at keyboards and answering phones I have earned this esteemed spot. 🙂 At any rate, I am quite happy in my little corner of the world and happy too, to share it with you! 🙂

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

January 18, 2016

A Failed Six Word Story Turned Haiku

By Kat Myrman

So, Sometime Stellar Storyteller’s challenge this week was to write a six word story based on the prompt word “Amusement”. I came up with a few. You can read the proper Six Word Stories HERE.

But there was one idea that I could just not hone down to six words. It features my dog and his dizzying happy practice of chasing his tail. He is so amused with himself and so proud when at long last he catches said tail.

I shake my head thinking, “It doesn’t take much to make a dog happy!”…and then I realize I’ve just sat their watching him spin over and over. Apparently, it doesn’t take much to make me happy either! 🙂

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This is Maxwell’s happy face.  You can stop laughing now…I’m not amused! 😉

A Failed Six Word Story Turned Haiku
Happy Dog

Chasing tail, spinning,
My dog amuses himself
Silly me…I watch!

kat – 18 January 2016

24 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Haiku, Humor, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings