tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336Sat, 05 Oct 2024 02:43:38 +0000http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)Blogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-9065975667479703674Sun, 18 May 2014 20:43:00 +00002014-05-18T16:43:21.152-04:00 I had to butt in. The conversations had been swift-changing and lively at Tommyknockers Tavern, as Kelly and I had lunch and a couple of beers. Amid all the retelling of San Juan Mountain life I wanted to tell of my experiences that day. “We were up around the Rio Grande National Forest, near the reservoir, and saw this herd of mountain sheep.” (Actually, I said “flock” and everyone laughedhttp://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2014/05/who-is-that-behind-those-foster-grants.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-3615161149824537801Sun, 10 Oct 2010 12:54:00 +00002010-10-10T08:55:35.344-04:00I have been reading Rainer Maria Rilke's elegies this weekend. I never had before. Such a loss not to have found him before. Throughout these poems he wonders and grieves our transience and the indescribableness of our interior life. We sweep through life that is filled with the solid and concrete but that which seems to be our core leaves no mark. How can something that is so real to us pass http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/10/see-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-7869058919590301157Sun, 12 Sep 2010 23:29:00 +00002010-09-13T01:11:02.909-04:00There is chaos And yet we dare to measure it But only as shifting probabilities Structure made of space and energy But subject to mathematics. The chaos made comprehendible. From expansion and space More empty and alone than anything else From pockets that coalesce Perhaps from asymmetrical chance Arises mind and comprehension Embracing chaos in dancehttp://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/09/embracing-chaos.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-8798532839669785898Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +00002010-08-29T19:01:55.055-04:00You don't get to have the feelings while ignoring what love does. And I must not be flattered by mere tales of your heart.http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/08/tall-tales.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-6643308928781556254Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:55:00 +00002010-07-15T01:57:47.337-04:00It was not trivial, that love. But, the lie? It was. Why is it so important to you? You do not express regret. You do not even acknowledge A lie in itself. If you strive to defend the trivial, If they are so worth preserving, What of ones that carry weight? Could you lie for any reason, For none at all Never admit to any? It is not trivial, love - - An exchange of vulnerabilities given and http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/07/tokens-false-and-true_15.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-574788027447990046Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:10:00 +00002010-07-15T08:43:33.100-04:00Beneath the crusted brine and shutters, nothing enters, nothing leaves. Doubt, perhaps, but nothing more. Swollen clapboards, mildewed and mossed, deny any exchange, save an occasional breath of caution or stale indignation if one should test their integrity. Well protected from transactions with the sea, the house rests, secure in its own personal deceit of participation with the shore. Yet, http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/07/exchange-of-trust.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-1305959140277467135Wed, 07 Jul 2010 23:46:00 +00002010-07-15T01:59:36.119-04:00Years ago, my grandfather, took me skating on one of the many rural ponds around our neck of the woods. Those rural ponds always have crazing. You know. Small cracks scattered all over, and even below, the surface. They could make you cautious, if you hadn't learned better. They certainly made me cautious. I wouldn't venture far from the edges. I would keep my head down to watch for imminent, http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/07/danger-thin-ice.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-850790206023746346Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:52:00 +00002010-06-29T18:58:06.228-04:00Truth and love are notAs would seem.One would think that of the twoTruth would be more solid,Love the fleeting mist.Truth, after all, is the unseenRealitySupporting our perceptions.LoveThe capricious imp.But who has seen truthExcept through perceptions?Love We see and know.Is the underlyingTruthBut a deceit of ourFlawed perceptions?Love,Is it not theTruth That belies our heart?http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/06/truths-deceit.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-3399018415145449566Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:38:00 +00002010-07-01T00:28:38.430-04:00 Strong myths are created by gifted artists striving to describe essential personal truths. If done well, those essential truths described in the myth will be recognized by others whose experiences are similar. Each one who looks upon the myth sees a nearly exact rendering of their own experience causing them to be drawn close to the myth maker and to others who recognize the truth but it also http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/03/myths-reflection.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-2485745732269738884Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:29:00 +00002010-03-21T11:14:46.218-04:00Most Americans don’t realize that our preoccupation with individual rights (expanding or contracting those rights) makes us all liberals. The Enlightenment was liberal in its approach advocating the individual above the king. Americans took it to heart and overthrew their King and established a country ruled by law and by a representative democracy of individuals. This is all liberal; it is http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/03/rights-of-god.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-4995568445835307347Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:23:00 +00002010-03-14T15:49:00.499-04:00I see you. In image after imageyou are looking down. I imagine you look at the earth rather than see the eyes of your beholders. They seeyou are afraid. They imagine something missing in you.Or was itthat you were too young yet to imagine a smile?http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/03/looking.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-5592720088212337118Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:31:00 +00002010-03-13T05:31:54.410-05:00Hinkey pinkey jibbelty jyeEver play catcher in the rye?No, not ever. Why would I?Lost my way in jibbelty jye.http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/03/jibbelty-jye.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-6528139190588623253Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:07:00 +00002010-03-13T05:11:20.533-05:00I am not ready yet. I may never be. How can I draw close? I see it is as metaphor; You do, too, but do not realize it is so. Without recognition you immerse yourself in it, It fills you and sustains you. It defines who you are. My drawing close would change me in your eyes. I would lose my metaphor. You would lose nothing.http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/03/too-close-to-flame.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-1057330748697195091Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:48:00 +00002010-03-13T04:50:00.996-05:00Pebbles on a drumheadRacing in a swirling slurry to reach the perimeter:“Here! Over here! Get here quick!”“No, there, go back, all of us now.”Wind-driven rain upon the hide.http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/03/happenstance.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-6180745267450646691Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:28:00 +00002010-03-12T11:45:29.813-05:00Same houseSame fleshSo similar But yet deformedOne by pain and the other by hurtOne seeking escape the other seeking redemptionWho was whole?Who was damaged?http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/03/chimera.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-4336845874793157189Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:28:00 +00002010-03-11T23:30:46.651-05:00The subject of our contented happy life in the US at the expense of many in the world is one I have thought about quite a bit. I don't think we realize how much of our life styles are artificially supported by underlying inequities that cannot continue. I don't necessarily mean "inequity" in the sense of unjust, though in many cases, it is that, too. I mean mostly that there has been an inequity http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/03/our-next-war.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-2353229802369307488Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:10:00 +00002010-02-21T12:25:30.448-05:00There was a time when I came to visit almost daily, the old intriguing the very young.But mistaking the past for permanence, I squandered the present,missing the chance to know. Though weathered to a shade that from a distance was gray, closer conversation revealedthe hues of earlier years. Within the reach of a child’s arm, I saw the glimmer deep in the grooves between the joints and swollen http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/02/coal-shed.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-1384311704387908135Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:04:00 +00002010-02-01T12:08:33.546-05:00When I was deeply involved in the church, it frustrated me to hear what many accepted as prayer. It seemed to me that most public prayer was more of an affirmation of shared belief or a recital of vows and doctrine than it was prayer. Often, when listening to pulpit prayers, I felt that I was doing nothing more than sitting through a sermon except with my head bowed and my eyes closed. I thoughthttp://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/02/atheists-prayer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-8503587744499957612Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:17:00 +00002010-01-31T23:41:21.132-05:00The President, in his State of the Union address sympathized with the country by bemoaning the “longer hours for less pay” that Americans are working.We have been spoiled.Most of the rest of the world has been laboring under depressed wages that barely sustain and in some cases are not enough to do even that. We should not be surprised that a just leveling factor has started to impose itself. We http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/01/wake-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-4412811037472661942Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:10:00 +00002010-01-11T01:35:09.275-05:00I commented recently that Twitter, Facebook, and other internet applications are the new unifying media in a time when television is becoming more fractionalized. I called these applications culture, noting that they give us “a much thicker commonality” than television ever did. I think, though, that my characterizing FaceBook as “culture” struck some as profane. Alongside the great arts of http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/01/culture.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-647337941407673828Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:20:00 +00002010-01-07T21:39:37.730-05:00Have you ever come up short, surprised by how people see you or, maybe more to the point, how they don’t see you? I am a person whose faith has become stronger and stronger over the decades. I see myself that way. I was an ardent and whole-hearted Baptist, convinced of the truth that God, whose attention went to the smallest sparrow, was also intent on me. I was convinced of my sinfulness and http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2010/01/faithless.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-6859476867700755602Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:39:00 +00002009-03-29T21:50:52.138-04:00Wolfgang Puck has said, “Don’t worry about making mistakes in the kitchen. The biggest mistake you can make when you entertain is not spending enough time with your friends.” Ain’t it the truth? I just had one of the best times entertaining with dinner and it was because so much of the preparation was done in advance. But there is something about hard preparation that also makes the time http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2009/03/paella-mandala.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-1575973748117648807Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:01:00 +00002009-05-14T20:08:27.809-04:00Isn’t it remarkable how self-recrimination, or the lack of it, can make such a difference in our ability to cope and succeed in life? Think of Disney’s Dumbo buying into the recrimination of his peers who saw his ears as freakish. And think again of his soaring accomplishments once he discarded those views and perceived himself as capriciously capable. What if, rather than having huge ears Dumbo http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2009/03/speak-to-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-5631241271745455895Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:26:00 +00002009-02-19T19:30:04.468-05:00It probably was never painted. A rough, vertical plank structure, five feet square and eight feet high, including the foot of clearance it had from the ground, it probably was golden at one time but now was weathered to the shade that, had you been driving by would have appeared to be gray. Standing next to it, though, you could see that each plank was rich walnut brown highlighted with deep http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2009/02/coal-shed.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5953489388570332336.post-7776190873923875108Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:32:00 +00002009-02-19T08:38:19.722-05:00It is passed by, passed over, passed under, its cool dampness caressed by the wind. It is pushed and filled by the wind but, unlike a sail, does not contain it. It billows, dragging its corners through the air until they overrun the bodyand, in an instant, reverse its concavity with a snap and a “thwop”. In the briefest of moments the sheetpasses from resistance to acceptance, in a flip, from http://jlpinklings.blogspot.com/2009/02/sheet-in-breeze.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Joyce Patterson)0