today’s Musing written and published from Cranston in south- east Calgary, near the Bow River valley
[note about music/video links – I find on Saturday and Sunday mornings I have time, and perhaps my readers do to, to listen to some music. I choose pieces I like that connect, in some way, to the subject matter or to my mood… hope you like them]
Morning walk: 4C/39F, a promising day – grass drying out, Gusta enjoying the sunshine, it will be a lawn-cutting day for me (must assemble new mower first) …
Music selections: Laura Pausini .. Non C'è , Fast Car by Tracy Chapman, Touch Me by the Doors, Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine , Lenny Kravitz - Can't Get you off my Mind , some Sting .. Every Breath You Take and finishing with some classic Peggy Lee … Fever!
I once heard a joke: Q: ‘What do you call a monkey sitting in a tree all day?’, A: ‘A Branch Manager’.
The proof of anything is in testing, experimentation – steps to prove what something is not, is the way scientists confirm (or try to) that something is true, real and in keeping with some theory or formula. Testing continues until a theory is disproved - then they start over.
I made a scribbled note .. something for this column; last night I did it after reading some wild poetry. But I mis-typed / mis-spelled it.
Branches form the tree. I meant to type branches from the tree.
Easy to fix, right? Hold it …. ‘branches form the tree’, maybe that is how it should be.
In my attempt to focus my thinking, meaning to say branches from the tree – my thought connected to images I saw yesterday. How diverse the directions/connections are, the ones we make in life, when so many possibilities are considered, it is totally random.
Consider my typo for a minute – the branches form the tree.
Without branches, a tree is just a trunk, and it would never grow to be anything without its leaves and those leaves live on the branches. Critters and birds – they don’t live on the trunk, they live on the branches. Photos of beautiful trees are about leaves and branches, not trunks.
I like my typo.
It has me thinking about possibilities, to meaning-change when we chop words or mistype them, much as we would mis-read our expectations when we mis-type people.
But back to my branches.
Is life about more than branches, or less?
Our bodies, and our lives too, I suppose could be likened to the tree trunk and its branches; we reach out, stretch out and go out into the world …. from that stretching come ideas, actions, adventures and experiences unique to our life, unconnected to our family tree or our parents who originated us.
On this day, in 1923, baby born – little girl tree, Norwegian/Swedish cross pollinated, more shrub than a seedling tree. She lived, grew up, met and married my dad. They added one branch to the tree, me. I’ve added two.
The branches form the tree; maybe that is how it should be.
~~~
POEM - archived poetry
AWAKE WAITING
I
am
alive
not much
more really
matters for
I know I need
remind myself
there is blue sky
above, beyond those
clouds, always there, even
on darkest of nights, sometimes
to be seen by straining the eyes
or by taking a new vantage point or
by simply waiting for the imagination
of experiences yet unlived to come true
but only because they weren’t left undreamed.
~~~
Mark Kolke
321,820
RESPONSES/COMMENTS ALWAYS WELCOME; send to: dailycolumn@markkolke.com
June 11 Comments
June 11 - HOME-FREE – the throat tickle - My response is denial, denial, denial. I call it something it clearly is not. and then ---- It takes over, the aches make denial impossible, so I do the only think left, I succumb, I submit to the viral invasion in my body. For a normal person, it would be time for rest, cozy, restorative rest, warm broth and mindless television.. you, will probably work even harder until your body revolts and takes over your day. and then, only then, you sleep for 18 hours. Hope your feel better soon, FO, Kaunakakai, HI … ps: thanks for today's musing. so true, so true.
June 11 - HOME-FREE - I enjoyed this mornings column. The analogy of buying /selling a home compared to starttng/finishing a relationship does have many similarities. Must get back to work.....however I will be pondering over your words once again. How has your week been? Sounds like it was quite hectic. Later, PE, Calgary, AB
June 11 - HOME-FREE - Interesting! Didn't we talk about profiles and I said "ya just never know till you meet eyeball to eyeball"? Sort of like thumbing through a catalog and you see a wonderful dress, rug, shirt, whatever. You go to the store to buy it (whatever) and doesn't fit, colors are off, didn't look like you thought it would. Your analogy is similar but not the same. A house has no feelings.....the person brings the house, the dress, the rug, the shirt, the whatever to life. It's a one-sided proposition unless of course you are the sales rep! What a way with words you have, SK, Dallas, TX
June 11 - HOME-FREE - Good morning Mark, thank you for the call yesterday, I was busy at work and not able to pick up the phone. Ahhhh, yes the Blackhawks, how they did us proud. Today there will be a parade and quite a party downtown for the Cup winners 49 years in the waiting. Chicago loves their teams even though it is rare that we get a winner. Everyone has been following the games even those that never watched hockey before. I have been reading your musings every day, however just haven't had much to say. I am having a rather rough time, worse than I ever thought with being alone. Ever since my daughter moved I have been unsettled, it seems to be getting worse with time. I have made an appointment with a therapist so that hopefully I can work through this. I am usually a very strong person but I think my menopausal hormones are getting the best of me along with so many worthless first dates. Have stopped the dates for now. I am happy for you that you think you are interested in someone, I hope you will find your love and that she will find you. I'm sorry that I am on the depressing side right now that is why I haven't bothered you, I tend to stay by myself so as not to burden anyone when I am like this, it is just my way. I think of you everyday when I read your column, MM, Arlington Heights, IL
June 11 - HOME-FREE - Surprised to see some of my ramblings yesterday ended up in your musings.. fortunately edited. Guess I need to be aware that anything I email can show up there! These were just spontaneous thoughts I felt like sharing and thought appropriate to YOU. I really liked your expressing in the "Thought" section, "A galaxy of beauty in unlived imagination." The goal is to morph these unlived imaginations to those lived. To me, dreams are the spice of life and when they become " real", that is the prize. SY, Honolulu, HI
June 10 - WILD HORSES - ...Could look at it as... not "another failed attempt" . Instead... another "opportunity to experience", DG, Edmonton, AB
June 11 - HOME-FREE - Aloha Mark! We met, via "plentyoffish.com; We both agreed that I was not...and, am not the 'woman that you want, for romantic purposes...and, nor, are you, the 'man that I have been searching for' since 1981...however, I have continued to try to follow your musing ways, which I sometimes find amusing...and, sometimes quite depressing...and, I was already quite depressed from watching my own son, Mark, 'die' from kidney cancer...however, wanted to move on, with my own life; and had just viewed a profile of a man, more like the man that I have been searching for...so, I joined Plentyoffish...to communicate and search all over America...and, it turns out, Canada, as well...and, found you...and, liked your profile...except that I want an older and more mature man, who will appreciate me, just as I am. I forward your musing to my other email address where I can read it with ease, So...I just re-signed up to receive your musings, and, YOUR WONDERFUL SELECTION OF MUSIC VIDEO CHOICES...AND, WILL 'UNSUBSCRIBE' MY YAHOO ADDRESS, AS SOON AS I RECEIVE YOUR MUSING DIRECT TO MY OTHER ADDRESS. SO...FOR NOW...I WISH YOU SWEET DREAMS, AND BEST WISHES N FINDING THE SOULMATE, WHO WILL 'RING YOUR CHIMES'; AND, WANT TO TURN YOU EVERY WAY, BUT LOOSE. OF COURSE, I HOPE THAT YOU WILL FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT HER LONG ENOUGH...AND, WILL HAVE LEARNED ENOUGH ABOUT YOURSELF TO REALLY APPRECIATE AND LOVE HER, JUST AS SHE IS...AS YOU WANT HER TO FEEL ABOUT YOU... WHICH IS WHAT I AM STILL LOOKING FOR...FOR STARTERS, IN THE MAN THAT WILL 'RING MY CHIMES! , SM, Hawaii …PS: take lots of vitamin C... and get lots of rest and drink lots of water, besides, trying to make an appointment with your doctor, if you don't feel reMARKably better, over the weekend.