Meri's Musings

There is some kiss we want with our whole lives, the touch of Spirit on the body. Seawater begs the pearl to break its shell. And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild Darling! At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come and press its face into mine. Breathe into me. Close the language-door, and open the love-window. The moon won't use the door, only the window. - Rumi               

Being in the world, eyes wide open, the magic is in the details. Subtle gradations in light and shadow, in texture, in sheen. Take it in. (And to take in all the lovely mosaics posted in today's meme, visit hostess Mary at L ittle Red House. )

Last night, my dear friend Gail got married. The bride and groom's adult children, her son and daughter and his daughter, all participated in the ceremony, attended by a few dear friends and family. "Sweet Spot" © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian At times like that, when people are pledging their lives to each other and picturing shared dreams and growing old together, it makes you think. And so it was really distressing in the conversational time after the cutting of the cake and all the food munching and champagne sipping to hear the story of one of the guests, a nice man whom the groom has worked with for some three decades. Mr. X had a bone marrow biopsy  to confirm or rule out  multiple myeloma only two days before the wedding. His wife decided she'd vacation in Hawaii rather than be there for the test. And when the doctors began to mention treatment protocols to him and he called her to talk about it, she told him he should move to his childhood home to be with hi...

The photo today is grainy and blurry, the result of scanning and trying to enlarge  a tiny photo taken by my paternal grandfather  Lloyd Arnett when he was a teen. The man with the horse and buggy is John James Madison Biggs. Lloyd's mother was Mary Biggs, daughter of John and his wife Dicy Reed Biggs. John James Madison Biggs was born March 5, 1837 in McCracken County, Kentucky to Elijah Biggs, Jr. and his wife Mary "Polly" Brown, the fourth of eight known children, though there were said to be ten. The family moved to Illinois when John was a boy and his father Elijah died when John was only 12. About a year later, Polly Brown Biggs married Larkin Cantrell. For whatever reason, shortly after her marriage, she farmed out the boys to a local Williamson County family, J.W. McCreery and his wife.  All the Biggs boys were said to have served in the Union army during the Civil War, but I've never found John's records.  John married Dicy Caroline Reed  in...

So I need to tell you six more little known things about me. 2. I got to attend a film makers' breakfast hosted by Robert Redford a few years ago. (and his Levi's were 30/30s if I remember right  and yes, ladies, he had a great tush). 3.  I have an addiction to books and should never be let loose at Amazon.com or Powell's Books in Portland. 4. I made my living writing for six years, though at the time I considered it "practicing law." I did legal analysis and wrote decisions and orders for the Department of Energy's Office of Hearings and Appeals in Washington, D.C. (No clients, except pro bono ones, and possibly the world's most boring set of legal regs.) 5. Right now I have two malfunctioning HP printers. 6. I was really bummed when Dreyer's discontinued Ultimate Caramel Cup ice cream. 7.  I sometimes dream of things before they happen.

I haven't seen a self-portrait post on anyone's blog for a long time, but I always loved them. Most of us hate to be the subject of a photograph, captured for all time the way someone else sees us. Bloggers, especially, at least the ones I know, vastly prefer to be the one seeing through the lens. But I told Relyn of Come Sit by My Fire that I'd take up  the challenge to tell at least 7 things about myself that aren't widely known. So here goes, complete with a self-portrait from last August before those journeys of discovery that were supposed to transform me. 1. When I was a 20-something and a feminist activist, I won ribbons for my cooking at the State Fair of Texas. A third place ribbon for salad (potato) the first year. A third place ribbon for drop cookies, a second place ribbon for spectacular desserts (puff pastry), and a first place ribbon for salad, the second year. One of the salad judges came and told me that it was an outrag...

I usually go for a thematic or color mosaic when I do them, but I got some great shots of this guy and wanted to share. To see the mosaics of some wonderfully creative folks, go to Mary's Little Red House . You can wish Mary happy birthday while you're at it.