Magpie Tales-Siren Song

Long Island Sound was like a blue green mirror frosted on its edges. An azure cloudless sky the ceiling of a vast room framed by land as we sat talking and laughing. Three friends recently graduated from high school and celebrating the first day of summer and freedom.We had always been together since kindergarten.

My best friend, Gwen, who was everything I was not, tall, blond and rich, was off to Brown. Meghan, a redhead, who could curse like a sailor much to her mother's dismay, would be going to SUNY. I would be waiting tables for the crowds at Southampton working for my cousin's catering company hoping to earn enough to pay my way to county college.

We were moving at nice clip when the wind suddenly died down and Gwen noticed the clouds coming over the horizon. Life vests on, we moved into position, just as we had been taught. Meghan stood to look for the shore and I pushed her down, shouting to Gwen to point us home. We sat in the boat as it rocked, manning the sails as the sky grew dark, the hail raining down as a curious song rang in our ears. Cold and shaken, we finally docked the boat in Port Jeff. The dock felt different when our feet hit the wood this time, hands clasped and staring out into the horizon, soaked, lightning flashing and thunder rolling across the sound.

We meet each year, twenty-five and counting, but rarely talk about the song we heard that day.

This siren song is courtesy of Magpie Tales!

If You Believe

This weekend the winds picked up Lena and brought her straight to heaven. May her voice always be heard.

PSA-This is your body

This is what I heard whispered to me one night as I was sitting at the computer ....This is your body...


Ten years ago...

Ghost Ranch New Mexico 2000

This is your body today...

Ghost Ranch New Mexico

Ok, I get points for wearing a hat and protective SPF clothing, however, I must acknowledge a certain zaftig thing bordering on chunky going on here...so what's the answer? So what am I going to do about it? Here we go...

Five miles a day to start --pedal to the medal yesterday, I  was going 15 miles an hour and it wasn't down hill hah!--I am happy to say that I can use more than two of the 24 speeds and haven't crashed yet--My bike has a cool shock absorber so pot holes mean nothing! This is phase one of the plan--stay tuned.

Magpie Tales-Magic

She carried it with her always.
A silver tube encased in black
Which with a twist could
Catch the eye of a handsome man,
Hold back the tears that didn't deserve to be shed,
Impress a room of pinstripe suits,
Make her presence known when or where appropriate
or perhaps not.

A silver bullet slaying hearts while shielding hers,
A shade of red known as Paris
She could be anyone or anywhere
Making her pretty, wise and powerful
when she was not.

And so it goes, the Magpie Tales continue here...come join in the fun as Willow , prompts us to new writing adventures!

Theme Thursday-Traffic

Experience is by far the best teacher. You know, ever since I was a little girl I knew that if you look both ways when you cross the street, you'll see a lot more than traffic.” Mae West

Mae had it right. There's traffic where ever we look on this ever smaller globe of ours. It is how we choose to deal with it that makes the difference. I choose to imagine the images above when I am caught in midtown NY ---horns blaring and taxis moving ever so close to my bumper.

So much time is spent getting somewhere, what if we just took the time to be, to learn and look beyond the car in front of us---lead rather than follow, take the exit we pass every day just because, take a train so we can read another chapter of that book, ride a bike, motorcycle or a vespa. It is about living and experiencing. Mae had it right. I will try to do better.

Take this job...

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."
Walter Winchell

Last Thursday I attended a retirement party for a woman who worked for me as an assistant for nine years. She went on to work with another three or four more people for an additional five years. She is a mother, a wife, a grandmother and raised her hand when it became apparent that the company I work for would begin to make cuts saying, “Pick me.” She saved another woman’s job.

The party was small and exclusive, mainly all of the women who work in her position. These women are the support and the machine that gets it done. I was honored to be invited and in their presence. They have brought me through many tough times and always are there to give me the push, the smile needed to make it to where I wanted to go. They have a strength and sense of humor that comes from dealing with ‘type a’ personalities on a daily basis.

She completed my sentences before they were spoken and made my day. It's been almost five years since we worked together, I still and I will miss her.