Category Archives: Ruminating

Ubiquitous

Posted on June 1, 2026 | 1 comment

So many ads EVERYWHERE!

What about this? What about that?

This? Or this? Buy it. Believe it! Act now!

How about now? Now? Now?

TV, radio, phone, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Amazon, and on and on…

Too many people claiming that only they care and only they will help you because the competition is just trying to scare you (but fair warning, if you don’t do what they tell you, terrible things will happen to you; let us scare you instead).

It is infinite and a true barrage of unrequested and usually unhelpful information.

Enough! Basta!

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Posted in Commentary, Photos, RETIREMENT, Ruminating, Thinking out loud, wondering and pondering

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Obsessively Seeking Certainty

Posted on February 2, 2026 | 2 comments

Obsessively seeking certainty

When a problem barges in

It’s what I do

again and again

Especially regarding a medical threat

I research to see

How bad it could get

And the fact is

certainty does not exist

Even if I stomp my feet

Or shake my fist

No matter how much reassurance I find

There is no way to convince my mind

How about trying to stop the fear

Let go of the future until it’s here

Instead of singing WHAT CAN HAPPEN blues

See what condition actually ensues

Over-thinking only makes it worse

The brain is funny that way

so I’m told

Can always freak out later

Try letting it unfold

without the guarantee I seek

At least I can give it

a try for a week

Like it or not

It’s worth a shot

2 Comments

Posted in Groundhog Day, Health, Life, NaPoWriMo, Poems, Poetry of sorts, RETIREMENT, Ruminating, thoughts

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Second Guessing

Posted on January 28, 2025 | 1 comment

Second guessing

Once again

All my consequential inconsequential choices

Yes, I am

Spend more money?

Get a job?

Get a haircut?

Some sort of bob?

Drink coffee or let it be?

Take a vitamin B or D?

Take a trip?

Or just stay home?

Worry about health

Or leave it alone?

Today I choose

To let it be

Accept my choices

Trust myself

Inner voices

on a shelf

It all works out

until it doesn’t

No point in suffering here

over something that wasn’t

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Posted in Life, NAPOMO 2024, NaPoWriMo, Photos, Poetry of sorts, RETIREMENT, RETIREMENT RIFFS, Ruminating

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Caught on a Thread

Posted on April 23, 2024 | Leave a comment 





Thoughts that go bump in the night





The feeling that something’s not right





Can keep me distraught and awake





There’s not much of that I can take










When thinking gets caught on a thread





It’s a sure sign to get out of bed 





Focus on something substantial instead





And shake off that incomprehensible dread










Interruption seems for me the solution 





To unending conjecture and confusion 





For unspecified unlikely stuff 





It’s enough





















							

	
			

				
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						Posted in NAPOMO 2024, NaPoWriMo, Poems, RETIREMENT, Ruminating					

								
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Bound Towards the Future


			

				Posted on April 17, 2024 | Leave a comment
			


				

				

In childhood summers lingered
It seems so anyway
A day would last a long time
With hours and hours to play

Now seasons are in a hurry
It seems so anyway
Some moments take forever
but the years just slip away

We’re locked towards the future
I heard Cat Stevens sing
Bound to get there quickly
Wonder what I'll bring






							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Life, NAPOMO 2024, NaPoWriMo, Poems, RETIREMENT, Ruminating					

								
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Rambling


			

				Posted on April 4, 2024 | Leave a comment
			


				

				

I would like to eat food that's nutritionally dense
I would like to be sure and not sit on the fence
I would like to speak truth with uncommon good sense

I would like to develop a whole lot of grace
Take in all the colors and keep up the pace
At seventy one I am still in the race

With more years behind me than those up ahead
I would like to be grateful and joyful instead
      of rattled and rambling and ready for bed











							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Life, NAPOMO 2024, NaPoWriMo, Poems, Poetry of sorts, RETIREMENT RIFFS, Ruminating					

								
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Fact-checking Galileo


			

				Posted on August 27, 2021 | 3 comments
			


				

				

May I be enlightened by Wednesday
And relaxed by tonight
May I be unfrightened by headlines
And calmed by the sight
Of clouds in blue sky
And stars in the night

Pressures to conform
Can be harsh yet defied
At times truth is hidden
At times someone lied

Galileo wasn’t wrong
In his time and in his day
With proud claims and accusations 
the collective got their way

May we keep an open forum
as we strive to make our case
Seeking truth ahead of power
as we run this human race

















							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Life, Photograph, Photos, Poems, RETIREMENT, Ruminating, Thinking out loud, wondering and pondering					

								
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Sleep per Chance


			

				Posted on December 27, 2020 | 2 comments
			


				

				

Say Good Night Gracie





Insights abound





and perspectives are found





and still I find myself thinking around





       in circles and tangents in more than one bound





Awakened abruptly mid-sleep in my bed





and wondering where all the insights have fled





and why do I still get these feelings of dread





with unwelcome thoughts that pop into my head?





Ah, well, it’s a cycle, it’s a pendulum swing





Last night I was laughing a lot in a dream





An optimistic upheaval; a paradigm shift?





A chance that I’m finally catching the drift?





Look at these thoughts that give me no clue





and the awful imaginings that have seldom rung true





See them clearly for the imposters they are





Seemingly logical, yet impossibly vague





Midnight meanderings are usually wrong





That’s a real thing that some scientist said





Not at your best in a bed lying down half asleep 





Counting back from a hundred with some rag-taggled sheep





Practice relinquishing future prediction





What a collection of unvarnished fiction!





This is a welcome and pure benediction





Say goodnight and give way to sleep’s jurisdiction

							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Life, Poetry of sorts, Ruminating, thoughts, wondering and pondering					

								
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Growing


			

				Posted on November 5, 2020 | 3 comments
			


				

				
A growing trepidation

and unwelcome dread

have taken up residence

inside my head


If I allow it,

these crashers will stay

take a place at my table

and not go away

inflict endless reminders

that things will go wrong

and all of the good 

won’t be mentioned at all


The mind likes to focus

and fix and prepare

Be cautious, be wary

look out and take care


Imagined catastrophes

harsh words without sense

unbearable acts

and cruel events

even if they occur

even if they are true

they cannot be resolved

by thinking them through


So stop for now

it’s what I must do

less frantic options

are there to pursue


If I allow it,

I can dismiss the dread

and let visions of sugarplums

dance in my head

							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Depression or Anxiety or What?, Gratitude, NaPoWriMo, Poems, Poetry of sorts, RETIREMENT RIFFS, Ruminating					

								
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Spring of Hope


			

				Posted on June 3, 2020 | 2 comments
			


				

				
It is my nine year anniversary for my blog on WordPress.  Seems like I should recognize and celebrate that by writing something amazing.  


Well, that’s not going to happen.


 


In these idiotic times, I grow weary.  Old girls they do get weary.


It is  the best of times.  It is the worst of times.


How about this:  Plant your own garden.  Plot your own peace.  We have the illusion that we can control way more than we can.  Could be time to focus on tending to the life that is right here and focus on the things over which we do have some semblance of control.  Maybe stop trying to convince people to stop doing something or start doing something.  Seems like as individual humans we demand other people to be a certain way, when we can’t even get our own self to be a certain way.  Maybe that’s why people look to make the whole world change – seems easier than changing yourself.  Start where you are and fix that; might ripple into bigger changes than the ones shouted about in the form of accusations and threats.  I am weary of my own outrage.


“…so you plant your own garden


and decorate your own soul


instead of waiting


for someone to bring you flowers.”


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						Posted in Depression or Anxiety or What?, Ruminating, Thinking out loud, thoughts					

								
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