For Chaco — Dust & Bones

Sweet Boy Chaco, February 22nd, 1996 — June 25th, 2009, Minneapolis, Minnesota, BlackBerry Shots, December 2009, photo © 2009-2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. Sometimes you mark the passage of time by the death of a beloved pet. It’s been a year since we made the tough decision to let Chaco go after a brave [...]

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Children In Vietnam

                                                          Here I am, crouching in front of a temple in Hue, surrounded by children. They squeal, I smile. They tug at me, I hug them. When my guide enters the courtyard and sees me, he marches toward me, beside himself. He pulls me up from the spot where [...]

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June Moon

June Moon, BlackBerry Shots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2010, photo © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. tall, green month of June holding Summer’s pale, blue face — the Strawberry Moon -posted on red Ravine, Summer Solstice, June 21st, 2010 -related to posts: Strawberry Moon, haiku 2 (one-a-day), Baby Eagles At Summer Solstice, 15 Hours, 36 [...]

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Got (Soy) Milk?

Got (Soy) Milk?, morning fix of soymilk and coffee, photo © 2010 by ybonesy. All rights reserved. I picked up my milk habit in Granada, Spain, in 1986. There my morning ritual was to walk out the door, hop the narrow cobblestone road to the bar across the way, and order a tall glass of [...]

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haiku for the IX of Wands

IX Of Wands, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2010, photo © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. point your chariot in another direction weary IX of Wands -posted on red Ravine, Sunday, June 13th, 2010 -related to posts: PRACTICE — Don’t Take Anything Personally — 15min, haiku 2 (one-a-day), WRITING TOPIC — THE FOUR AGREEMENTS

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PRACTICE — Don’t Take Anything Personally — 15min

I pulled the IX of Wands this morning. Holding a single stave in front of me, eight more forming the wall behind, the line drawn in the sand. Mr. Stripeypants jumped from the window to the couch, setting a perimeter around Kiev so he would not have to confront her, threaten her. It’s instinctual for [...]

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PRACTICE: Don’t Take Anything Personally — 15min

This assumption lets us off the hook. “Nothing others do is because of you.” You’re not the center of the world. You’re not the cause of others’ anguish. You own what you do; they own what they do. That sounds easy. Do I take things personally? I like to think that this particular agreement is [...]

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Uncle Howard At The Cemetery

By Bob Chrisman Allen Cemetery on the outskirts of Gower, Missouri serves as the final resting place for my mother’s parents and some of her aunts, uncles, and cousins. Names like Patton, Divelbiss, Pogue, and Williams mark the plots of family members. Every Memorial Day we decorated those graves. As time passed and more relatives [...]

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Fourteen Dozen Roses: The World As The Jungle It Is

By Erin Robertson I wish I could say I was closer to my grandfather, but as the years went on and his Alzheimer’s progressed, it began to get harder just to see him. We watched him suffer so his death was something of a relief. In a time of mourning, I wrote this piece: Fourteen [...]

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rosedrops in the rain haiku

Rosedrops In The Rain – 156/365, BlackBerry 365 Project, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2010, photo © 2010 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved. roseheart pouring out left me warm and dripping wet standing in the rain -posted on red Ravine, Sunday, June 6th, 2010 -related to post: haiku 2 (one-a-day)

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PRACTICE — Don’t Make Assumptions — 15min

It’s hard not to make assumptions. I make general assumptions about the way I think people should live every day. I expect honesty, forthrightness, that people are generally good. I expect people to honor their word, and want to believe they are telling the truth. These are all assumptions. Then I start thinking about values, [...]

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PRACTICE: Don’t Make Assumptions – 15min

I’m sitting on the patio, the last of the cool morning air hanging on here with me. I listen to the energetic gurgle of two waterfalls in the pond. Notice that I don’t make assumptions about nature. I don’t assume anything about the water in the pond, well, except that it’s not potable. The mosquito [...]

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