Posted in Family, Haiku, Holidays, Love, Photography, Practice, tagged fathers and daughters, Mother's Day, parenting, the practice of haiku on May 12, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Waiting for Dad, self-portrait of Jim with Em at school, photo © 2008 by Jim. All rights reserved.
my best mother’s day:
my mother, my daughter, and
a father who shares
-related to post, haiku (one-a-day)
Posted in Family, Gratitude, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Practice, Relationships, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged siblings, the power of birth order, writing about birth order, youngest child on May 8, 2008 | 9 Comments »
I’m trying to remember how it was. I see myself skinny on the concrete driveway, dirty knock knees, a striped t-shirt, tiny bumps for boobs. Not only the youngest, but a young youngest.
I didn’t develop until I was 17, didn’t know about Kotex or tampons, although my older sisters told me about starting periods and [...]
Posted in Culture, Family, I Don't Remember, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Practice, Relationships, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged firstborn child, middle child, mothers and daughters, superheroes, the power of birth order, the practice of writing, writing about birth order on May 8, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Yes, I’m a firstborn. With all the flaws, rights, privileges, and responsibilities that go with being a firstborn. “With great power comes great responsibility.” Hmmm. JFK? No, it was Peter Benjamin Parker. Spider-Man.
Maybe it should read, “With great responsibility comes great power.” Either way, there is an ethical piece, a balance between burden and privilege.
Firstborns [...]
Posted in Family, Growing Older, Life, Love, Personal, Photography, Practice, Relationships, Writing, tagged aging parents, caring for aging parents, red Ravine Guests, Seeded Earth, writing about growing older on May 5, 2008 | 37 Comments »
By Bo
Growing old? I can handle my getting older. I barely notice the days sneaking past. But then I barely noticed the days creeping past my mother, either — she lives 300 miles away and has always maintained her independence. Then there was a death in the family – a dear aunt who was the same [...]
Posted in Art of Rebellion, Bones, Culture, Death, Essay, Family, Gratitude, Love, Memoir, Photography, Place, Relationships, Spirituality, Travel, tagged Beverly Donofrio, Catholicism, cemeteries, grandmothers, honoring the dead, honoring the past, Looking for Mary, mothers, New Mexico, Raton, religion, Virgen Maria, Virgin Mary, visiting graveyards on May 3, 2008 | 35 Comments »
Mother Mary as in a Dream, Raton, NM, photos © 2008 by
ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Last Wednesday afternoon I found myself in one of the best spots I could imagine, with my parents and oldest sister, and in the company of my beloved grandparents and best-ever uncle. We were in the cemetery in Raton, New Mexico, [...]
Posted in Art of Rebellion, Culture, Death, Family, Gratitude, Memoir, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Place, Poetry, Relationships, Skies, tagged Bear, Bearhug, Cielito Lindo, death of an uncle, honoring death, Mary Oliver, Michael Ondaatje, The Cinnamon Peeler, Why I Wake Early on April 28, 2008 | 12 Comments »
In Bloom, wisteria blooming in the mid-April spring before
the hard freeze, photos © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
My Uncle Bear died yesterday. I was at my daughter’s horse show when I got the call from Mom. Dad was crying too much to tell me himself.
I wonder what it’s like to lose a younger sibling. [...]
Posted in Doodling, Family, Life, Relationships, Writing Topics, tagged birth order, birth order traits, firstborn child, middle child, The Birth Order Connection, the power of birth order, youngest child on April 25, 2008 | 14 Comments »
Birth order. Does it matter?
That was the headline, more or less, of a CNN article that came out last fall, which said that birth order may, in fact, matter a lot. That same month TIME ran its own take on recent hard evidence demonstrating “The Power of Birth Order.”
For example, firstborns are more likely to go [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Art, Doodling, Family, Haiku, Poetry, Seasons, Writing, tagged children's poetry, images of dogs, images of pugs, limericks, poems about dogs on April 23, 2008 | 40 Comments »
Sony Pepperoni, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle © 2008
by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Em, my youngest daughter, has been reading and writing poetry all this month with her third-grade class. She wrote two limericks and one haiku, and she carried in her Poetry Book a poem called “My hobby” by Shel Silverstein. She read all [...]
Posted in Art of Rebellion, Culture, Family, Personal, Practice, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged confessional, confessions, motherhood, the Catholic church's view on birth control, writing about sins on April 22, 2008 | 6 Comments »
All day long I put off writing about sin. I wonder, would I think more about sin if I were sinning? I’m not kidding. I believe that if I were plotting to murder, sin and sin’s consequences would be on my mind.
I wonder if murderers really do confess to priests. And if they do, if [...]
Posted in Body, Family, Growing Older, Life, Practice, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged the practice of writing, writing about growing older on April 11, 2008 | 11 Comments »
I look in the mirror before I start writing but I can’t hold my own gaze. My nose is red from crying, eyes small. My skin is blotchy, and I am critical of my hair. It seems to get pulled straight by its own weight. I want my curls back.
Dad tells me this morning that [...]
Posted in Body, Bones, Death, Dreams, Family, Growing Older, Life, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Personal, Place, Politics, Practice, Topic Writing, Vision, Writing Practices, tagged cemeteries, honoring the dead, Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou, mirrors, the practice of writing, the process of aging, visiting graveyards, writing about growing older on April 11, 2008 | 22 Comments »
I’m looking at my ruddy face in a small, round, silver mirror. I look older than I remember. Thick eyebrows, salt and pepper hair; it looks the grayest to me right after a haircut. There is something about the way it lays across the black plastic smock, and falls in shredded pieces on to the [...]
Posted in Architecture, Art, Culture, Family, Fotoblog, Laughing, Nature, Personal, Photography, Place, Seasons, Skies, Structure, Vision, Weather, tagged Art Shanty Projects, David Pittman, Medicine Lake, Peter Haakon Thompson, The Art Of Ice, winter in Minnesota on April 6, 2008 | 10 Comments »
The Face Of Winter, Medicine Lake, Minnesota, February 2008, photo
© 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
When photographer Peter Haakon Thompson came up with the Art Shanty Projects in 2003, he never meant for it to become a huge event. The original plan was to take a break from work, build his own ice shack, and [...]
Posted in Family, Life, On the Road, Photography, Place, Seasons, Skies, Things That Fly, Travel, tagged airplane shots, California, cell phone photography, family vacations, Hotel California, Santa Monica on March 29, 2008 | 14 Comments »
We buckled in Colby Jack.
(Monkey also came.
So did Wally the Platypus.)
We saw snow on the mountains.
(But where we were going,
there was no snow.)
It was down there somewhere.
Underneath all the smog.
Finally, we could see something.
Ah, yes, an airport parking lot.
We got our Ford Escape.
Look, the underside of a plane!
We drove our car to our [...]
Posted in Body, Death, Essay, Family, Gratitude, Jugular, Love, Personal, Photography, Practice, Relationships, Writing, tagged Bob Chrisman, death of a mother, hands, honoring death, red Ravine Guests, writing through pain on March 27, 2008 | 28 Comments »
By Bob Chrisman
I took a photograph of my mother’s hands before the visitors arrived at the funeral home. When she was well, she cared for her hands and nails everyday, but that stopped in the nursing home when she lost the strength in her hands and arms. Her nails grew long and dirty. That bothered [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Growing Older, Laughing, Life, Nature, Personal, Place, Practice, Relationships, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged bugs, doodlebugs, humans & nature, insects, memories of bugs, the practice of writing, writing about bugs on March 25, 2008 | 10 Comments »
There is a lot I don’t know about insects, spiders, and bugs. I do know they are connected to memories, sometimes traumatic memories. I had no idea my family had so many connected memories about bugs and creepy crawlers until this Writing Topic was posted and I started reading their comments. Memories are part of [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Nature, Personal, Practice, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged arthropods, bugs, insects, writing about bugs on March 24, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I don’t know much about bugs. Not their scientific names nor which ones are considered to be insects and which are not. I think insects are a subset of a larger group called arthropods, of which spiders are also a subset. And I think there is something about a bug’s body — how many sections [...]
Posted in Family, Growing Older, Life, Personal, Practice, Writing Practices, tagged writing about mess, writing as a practice on March 18, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Something about Mess nags at me. I can’t put my finger on it, although I know it has to do with control, wanting a perfect life. Wanting nothing to get out of hand.
It’s not me, I’m not a tidy person. Although there is something there as I age. A desire to finally and at last [...]
Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Family, Growing Older, Laughing, Life, Memoir, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Personal, Photography, Place, Writing Topics, tagged ancestors, cemeteries, epitaphs, excavating memories, family history, names, researching memoir, Shirley Ellis, the name game, what's in a name, writing about names on March 13, 2008 | 42 Comments »
I continue to pore through photographs and tapes of my trip to Georgia and South Carolina last summer.
“What’s taking you so long?” Monkey Mind yells from the wings (grabbing every opportunity to scratch his haunches).
“It’s a slow process, excavating the past,” I soberly reply. “Don’t rush me.”
Family history rises from the rich, black compost - memories, stories, [...]
Posted in Art, Body, Bones, Family, Maps, Practice, Silence, Skies, Spirituality, Structure, tagged Bliss, circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, mandalas, Marija Gimbutas. Goddess energy, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, Wheel of Life on February 28, 2008 | 17 Comments »
These are our February mandalas for The Great Round: Stage Two - Bliss. Again, we used Crayola markers and colored pencils. The feel of coloring the Stage 2 mandalas was very different than The Void mandalas of January. I pay attention to the colors I am drawn to when I sit down with the circles. My [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Animals & Critters, Family, tagged pug dogs, pug owners on February 17, 2008 | 46 Comments »
Sonia Wise Eyes, Sonia adjusting to her new home, February 11, 2008, all photos © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Her full name is Sonia.
She came to us via a friend who loved her but couldn’t keep her; the friend’s father was dying.
Sony is 10 months old.
She doesn’t come when you call her. She forces [...]
Posted in Family, Nature, Practice, Things That Fly, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged feathers, writing about feathers on February 15, 2008 | 6 Comments »
The last time I saw a feather was a few hours ago. I pulled into the driveway after running an errand, and I noticed two turkey feathers stuck into the edge of a foamcore poster board advertising LIVE HERITAGE TURKEYS FOR SALE. All caps.
Turkey feathers are big and plain, at least these ones are. I like [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Family, Holidays, Love, Personal, Practice, tagged Valentine's Day on February 14, 2008 | 9 Comments »
Valentine’s Day is almost over.
I meant to say how much I love the simple act of acknowledging the day.
I meant to talk about how it seems that when we were little, the cards we gave to our classmates were so much bigger than the cards my girls bring home today. How much I loved coming home [...]
Posted in Body, Essay, Family, Growing Older, Memoir, Practice, tagged hair, memories of hair, red hair, redhead, writing about hair on February 8, 2008 | 26 Comments »
By Robin
There’s a story about my birth that was told fairly often when I was growing up. It’s a short story, and involves hair.
When my mother was pregnant with me, my father was asked by a friend what his preference was: a boy or a girl? His answer was that he didn’t care if it [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Practice, Random, Seasons, Things That Fly, Topic Writing, tagged dogs, dogs who kill birds, No Topic, roadrunners, writing on No Topic, writing without prompts on February 7, 2008 | 17 Comments »
Sitting here with my down jacket on. It’s lilac-colored, the wrists dingy and the patch on the sleeve coming off. It will be years, though, before I buy another. My desire for fashion as far as coats are concerned – long gone. Melted with the snow.
That was cliché. Melted with the snow, and here I am [...]
Posted in Body, Culture, Family, Film / TV / Video, I Don't Remember, Personal, Practice, Topic Writing, tagged curly hair, hair, memories of hair, writing about hair on February 1, 2008 | 13 Comments »
I have brown curly hair. I am the only one in my family with curls. Not just waves, but corkscrew curls. People asked throughout my childhood: Who has curls in the family? The answer to strangers was: Her grandmother had wavy hair. To friends and one another, we joked: Her father was Zorro.
Zorro is what [...]
Posted in Body, Culture, Family, Growing Older, Life, Personal, Practice, Secrets, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged hair, hair phobias, hairstyles, memories of hair, writing about hair on January 31, 2008 | 18 Comments »
I can’t stand loose, grubby hair on the bottom of my socks. I either go barefoot, or wear slippers around the house. But I rarely go barefoot (tender feet). So we’re back to the slippers. My slippers are (were) Minnetonka Moccasins I had for the last, oh, probably, 20 years. They finally wore through at [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Essay, Family, Love, Personal, Practice, Relationships, tagged black widow spiders, love of spiders, totem animals on January 29, 2008 | 36 Comments »
By Sharon Sperry Bloom
QM and YB got me thinking about what my totem animal might be.
I’ve always had cats, my whole life, and I’m uncomfortable without one in the house right now. I think we probably have exchanged a few traits along the way, like a love of solitude and sleep.
I love dogs, especially the [...]
Posted in Art, Body, Family, Maps, Practice, Silence, Spirituality, Structure, tagged circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, mandalas, playing with color, quality time, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, The Void, Wheel of Life on January 27, 2008 | 25 Comments »
We finished up our January mandalas for The Great Round: Stage One - The Void. We used Crayola markers and colored pencils with names like Tomato Red, Inchworm Green, Pinky Pink, Little Boy Blue, Small Potatoes, Sunwave Yellow, Green Sprout, Coral Orange, Gnarly Purple, Pipeline Green, Black Shades, Chocolate Chip, Blueberry, and Hang Ten Purple. [...]
Posted in Art, Body, Bones, Family, Labyrinths, Maps, Photography, Practice, Quotes, Spirituality, Structure, Wake Up, tagged circles, coloring as practice, Coloring Mandalas, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, mandalas, mandalas for kids, Ouroboros, Sacred Circles, Susanne F. Fincher, The Great Round, Wheel of Life on January 26, 2008 | 47 Comments »
Coloring Mandalas, A Few Snapshots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 2008, all photos © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Relaxing Saturday winter night. Liz and I are coloring mandalas and watching a documentary on Beat Generation poet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Liz bought a book on Coloring Mandalas by Susanne F. Fincher. It contains 48 sacred circle [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Nature, Personal, Practice, Writing Practices, tagged prayers answered, Raven the wolf, Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, Wolf Moon, wolves on January 24, 2008 | 8 Comments »
I didn’t notice the moon last night, too busy being sick, too busy eating coffee ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery, too busy looking on the internet for a chair.
Reminds me. Dad said his brother called with a story the other day. His brother, N., had wanted a new pair of Dockers but not tan [...]
Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Food, Laughing, Personal, Random, tagged mouse in the house, Mr. StripeyPants, totem animals on January 20, 2008 | 42 Comments »
Mr. StripeyPants bolted off of his gentle resting spot, purring and catching some z-z-z-z’s on Liz’s side this morning. I knew he’d heard a noise. With the frigid, stony, -24 degree skies, and all the creaking and popping ice on the roof this weekend, I got up to see what the fuss was. The kitchen cabinet [...]
Posted in Family, Laughing, Life, Relationships, tagged child's hair, hair, long hair on men, tangled hair on January 8, 2008 | 26 Comments »
What do you get when you cross
a rhino knot with an orangutan butt?
A rhino butt, says Em.
Peas in a Pod, Em and her dad watching TV.
Posted in Animals & Critters, Family, Photography, Things That Fly, tagged novelty pets, pets, tiny turtles, turkeys on January 4, 2008 | 24 Comments »
Azul in the Corner, the turkeys strutting in the new year and Azul giving Jim the eye, photo © 2008 by Jim. All rights reserved.
I remember spending Easters at my grandparents’ farm in northeastern New Mexico. My cousins who lived nearby invariably got among their chocolate rabbits and Peeps those live pink, blue, and green dyed chicks and [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Art, Doodling, Family, Gratitude, Love, tagged making a Gratitude List, reflecting on the past, the ABC's of Gratitude on January 2, 2008 | 14 Comments »
A art, all things Art and Artist, absolute passion for Art, artsy-fartsy
B billies, that’s what I call the Boys in my life: Jim, Otis, Rafael
C children, my girls, chattering sitting in the same chair
D daylight growing, Dad
E evenings, eating dinner with my family more often than not
F friends, family, fields (of dreams, of birds, of grass)
G [...]
Posted in 25 Things, Bones, Family, Family Recipes, Food, Holidays, Personal, Place, tagged black-eyed peas, end of the year rituals, family traditions, Good Luck rituals, history of black-eyed peas, New Year's Day, Southern cooking on January 1, 2008 | 27 Comments »
It’s New Year’s Day. And it wouldn’t be New Year’s without black-eyed peas. Black-eyed peas aren’t peas at all but legumes, a member of the trusty bean family.
My family makes Traditional Black-eyed Peas every New Year’s Day for good luck. And black-eyed peas are also the prime ingredient in Hoppin’ John which spices up the [...]
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