Miss You Mom

What a good woman. What a great role model, mentor, solid citizen, kind, fun and funny, compassionate, gentle, smart and a blessing to her family. Thank you so much dear Mother. 

I know I tried every drop of patience you had. We loved eachother regardless of the missteps and mistakes. Love wins as the most important matter of the heart it keeps us connected to the core with people who have loved us and who we will always love.

You are right here in my heart and soul, Mama.

Marian "Sparky" Ipiotis                                          August 28, 1925 ~ January 30, 2016

 

BABY BOOMERS

Baby Boomers, gotta give 'um credit for hanging in there, through good times and dark times, since there is no choice in the matter, still, credit is due. Time is mostly being kind to aging Baby Boomers who are still active, some working some retired and some still not sure what they want to be when they grow up.

You know you are talking to a Baby Boomer when they start getting sentimental about pay phones, typewriters, encyclopedias, drive-in movies, innocent mischief, fun and games, playing for hours outside and favorite television variety shows like Jack Benny, Ed Sullivan on Sunday nights and Red Skelton. Music was and still is on the forefront and in the background. Music was and is a character in our lives. We could easily recall what we were doing and where we were based on top 40 popular hits being aired on the radio at a given time. The Beatles and Elvis, Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Journey, The Dobbie Brothers, Michael Jackson & The Jackson Five jumped out of the boom box and jazzy hipsters like Ray Charles, Tony Benet and Quincy Jones, always seemed to be there.

Ideology and believing in the possibility of world peace was an important part of life and not just an illusion, although many soldiers who went to Vietnam would disagree. The man on the moon seemed about right and righteous and gave Americans something to be proud of and hopeful about. Politics appeared to be a bit more on the up and up and peoples votes counted. Government has always been a strange and curious animal with extra limbs and sharp teeth, a funny and furious freakish-looking creature, desperate for it's survival as the fittest, wealthiest most powerful predator in control of it's own territory.

To be a Baby Boomer or not to be, is out of the question since that is what those of us born during the era we came along in, are referred to. The establishment now is youthful a new livelier funky version of the generation that preceded us. Let us strut with confidence break rules bend the sh!t out of the norm and continue the struggle for equality and justice, peace and love. Let us grow older armed with spunky, youthful attitudes as we sometimes hobble along a bit more than we used to but not as much as the people we thought were so old and still around blessing us with their own brand of tried true and tested wisdom.

Shadows

Darkness then light, the difference between the variation of grey and black, off white pale and soft. Shadows bounce off the wall and roll on the ground, flutter, lay flat, perpendicular, parallel, inside out, upside down, over and under, surrounding us by the light of day around the corner into the empty space. Shadows in the night like whispers in your ears, a comma at the end of a sentence that continues on it's way until it reaches the end with the appropriate punctuation mark that indicates how the line ends, like a gentle reprieve from one thing to the other.

The angles begin and end in geometric ways in a vague formless subtle manner. The edge of darkness bleeds into a soft illumination or a stark contrasting nondescript color. Shadows are everywhere and created by direct and indirect light, space, form, matter, motion and beyond.

A shadow mimics itself, it duplicates, follows and clings to it's own reflection. A metaphor for life, death, the lively, lonely, lost, large, little or big love. Our shadow in heaven longs to touch our earthliness without disturbance, without, so much as a hint, a shadow makes the connection in such a way, we do not understand but it's neither a good thing nor bad, a shadow's only concern is to be a shadow. No wrong way to go about the business of being a shadow, only to be best of the best that a shadow can possibly be.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Mark Allen Joseph & Mary Ellen!! Wow, what a ride it has been! To think about Mark's physical life, running it's course, at 37.  Now at 55, with most of my life lived, I am older and I hope wiser than years ago or even yesterday.  I used to think people in ther 30s, 40s, 50s & so on, were ancient, now, well, not so much.  Although it is true, there are day's I feel like I am 5 and sometimes 500. For today and the next 365 days & nights, I will be 55, still wondering when I am going to feel like an adult.!

It has been a sweet birthday with love and blessings at the helm. I am humbled, honored, lifted-up and left filled with huge appreciation for such kindness. My heart spills over, all over the ever loving place, it bounces off the walls and skips along the fireplace mantle, it runs up along the wall, up the ceiling and back down again, it dances and prances like a drum major in the Rose Bowl Parade. My heart and it's contents ooze with life's goodness and beautiful vibration.

Thank you good people who make my heart swell so, like the colossal wave as it rises up in the sky further than seagulls fly.  I have enjoyed a deluxe day filled with wonderful surprises and make-me-melt messages. I love each one like a duck loves every duckling. All my love and gratitude precious one's. God bless you now and forever. ~