Isabella Bird Miscellany

attire Oh my little Converse, I put you on today.  It was a morning that called for faded jeans, a t-shirt with two white axes sprawled across the front … and you my lovelies.  Alternative music tuning the air, is my inner hipster wanting to dance? converse:  american shoe company distinguished by a star insignia – worn by basketball players, celebs, skaters … and me What we put on says a lot about our quirks and  idiosyncrasies … at least for that day.  This guise might convey that I’m comfortable, relaxed and enjoying stuff around me.  Coffee is my drug of choice and I eat piles of vegetables, but adore cheese.  Tomorrow I might have a slim black skirt and heels, at least short ones since I gave up my beloved tall heels – sigh.  Would you expect me to have a salad, with the dressing on the side and a glass of Chardonnay; which, by the way, I do not like? We read people by their appearance, but is that who they really are?...

heady cotton-candy blossoms It’s kind of weird, how you can be out walking on a drizzly day; hood pulled up to keep your head dry, because no self-respecting Portlander totes an umbrella, when out-of-the-gray you are blown-away with color.  Grape Hyacinth, with their heady aromas, stately tulips in painterly hues.  Crocus petals have faded since they debuted earlier than daffodils and obviously before the showy blossoms clinging to the flowering plum and cherry trees. Now, living in Central Oregon, the color-timing is different; there's very little  gray since the sun reigns absolute 300 plus days a year. Even so, I’m amazed by what a puff of wind can do – scattering clouds and drops of rain that have been captured in the creases of leaves and pine needles.  The best treat is when you pass under a tree whose branches are weighted with blooms looking like confections and you find yourself in a shower of pink snow.  Petals tumbling and drifting on...

lead me to the cross lately i've been, i've been losing sleep dreaming about the things that we could be but, baby i've been, i've been praying hard  said no more counting dollars, we'll be counting stars  One Republic Yep, this is what I’ve been doing … praying, wondering, dreaming during Lent.  Now, it’s Holy Week and the question that keeps running through my cluttered head is from the old bumper-sticker, “WWJD?”  -  What would Jesus do?  Mixed with that little phrase are a lot of other words that have been written in my notebook. in the notebook clarity-confidence -   fierce and intense -  a love that defies logic -  rules are tangible, faith is unseen  -  places we don’t expect -   the bare foundation mocked -    dissipation - eager-waiting  - what condition is my condition -  you are in the everyday -   a world of opposites -   and everything else -  responding...