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...and they lived happily ever after. Smith & Lady: poets, artists, photographers & adventurers.
Our relationship was forged to the soundtrack of Yoko Ono's magic,
frenetic, love-laden song, "Walking On Thin Ice." ( play song )
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Archive for the ‘smith & Lady’ Category
Saturday, May 18th, 2013
Lately I keep thinking about the movie “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” In the movie, they find out that in the future they are worshiped and the whole of future society is based on them. The motto of the society is “be excellent to each other.”
I love 80s expressions like “excellent” and “awesome.” I love thinking about the hearty innocence and doggie gusto of Keanu Reeves. Yeah, he’s kind of bland, but he’s still *excellent.*
I am on a quest. My quest is to be as excellent as I can be in all the little nooks and crannies of the Thomas’s english muffin of my life, the big, most excellent, vegan-butter-and-raw-honey-whole-wheat-toasted english muffin of my life, the english muffin of my life that is delectable yet leaves one wanting more life to live!
So for the past two years I’ve been beating myself over the head with activist efforts without letting myself have the teensiest toe-dip in the actual tangible parts of what it is I would affect positively with my activism.
That’s changed recently. I am working on tangible, immediate results in addition to abstract work.
There are two things we’re picking up: volunteering at the APL doing dog-walking and working on protecting the watershed. So rather than only sitting and talking, Smith and I are out there doing fun stuff and getting exercise and being with each other, helping save the world and being and feeling excellent.
Volunteering at the APL is such a joy–to be with the dogs in the field, being so happy, witnessing happiness. Their walks of temporary freedom also temporary respite for me. It is so nice for the dogs to have the walks–they are treated well and they get out quite a bit, but even so the majority of their time is in the little cages.
I have noticed, though, that some of the dogs who are more shy or who have some physical problems (like Dozer, a sweet, blind dog) have been there for probably quite some time. One dog doesn’t like a leash, so I don’t think she gets to go out very much at all unless someone really pushes her. I’ve been working on a relationship with her and have just sat in her cage to work on keeping her social but she won’t even let me pet her yet.
It makes me think that when I adopt a dog, if that happens in the future, I will adopt one that is shy or has some kind of physical issue, because it will help prevent animals with these problems from having to stay too long cooped up.
This morning we’re going for orientation on the new watershed volunteer gig. This is kind of neat because it’s a new project for the Cleveland Metroparks, a new watershed program in Parma. The more I read the more I read about new programs for reclaiming and restoring the health of land, and I am so enthusiastic about being a part of this, putting my hands into the loam of it, seeing stuff grow and be protected and secure.
~ Lady
Posted in activism, Being, couples, dreams, Environment, ethics, Family, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, Philosophy, Relationships, smith & Lady, spirituality | No Comments »
Thursday, April 25th, 2013
I cannot help my thoughts
I mean, I can help them
but not continuously
not all the time
I don’t have some kind of
thought filter
that works all the time
Mine’s kind of this
wide
open
thing
It lets everything
in
And it operates
by power
of association
Sure, there are habits
Healthy practices
Purification
Grooves I groove
to smoothe
There’s this relationship thing
This relationship thing
I picked up from
Christians
“God is like a husband,” some say, or,
“Take God as your lover…”
I prefer to see my husband
as the worldly manifestation
of my personal interface to
God as fleshly lover
But God is so much more than lover
There’s worldly manifestation
of my personal interface
of God as Mother, my moms and other moms
of God as Father, my dads and other dads
There’s a lot to it
God as friend… I like that…
God as friend.
So I’m hoping this relationship
this friendship with God,
is helping me get through my thoughts
easily
without guilt
just letting them slip by
or using the ones that have good use
We can cherry pick
That’s the thing these aphorisms have
tended to forget
We can cherry pick
We can take the best
from everything
and take the worst cautions
as just cautions
a kind of cautionary scaffolding
as we build the honed reality
everyone would like to see
(There’s discernment
and then there’s discernment
based on new revealed lessons
Don’t forget the new stuff
For me much old stuff
is new stuff
Don’t forget the old stuff
Or forget
only what’s useful
to forget
Or juxtapose
only what’s useful to
juxtapose
What has utility
What lets you
bend
the corners
better)
You know what?
The best thing is
not
just
thought.
The best thing is
how
thought
creates your actions.
Can your actions
create your thoughts?
I mean, that’s where you’ve worked it all out, yeah?
That’s the best way
to express intent,
well-considered action
Sure, I’d like some kind of capacitor
filter, whatever-thingie
to take irritating spikes
out of my mind
But God, ifn we do have this here friendship thingie
I’m-a-thinkin’ that You can be that capacitor-filter
Take this here Advaita
and do some manipulations
so what cascades
is pretty smoothy groovy
Smoothy groovy loving-kindness
~ Lady
Posted in Being, couples, Lady, Letters to the Universe, Poetry, Relationships, smith & Lady, spirituality | No Comments »
Thursday, April 18th, 2013
Adding structure and convention
to my day to enforce
ideals and happiness
Dalai Lama says “bar the door”
to practices that cause one
to feel ill,
make it such that it is not
easily possible to get
caught up in them
I am not a werewolf
but I love them
Men who would be wolfen
scraggly bearded bears
of men
Honey and bread
on the table
Butter on the knife
Crumbs on the floor
The tending of yogurt
Cheesecloth
Fruit in a bowl
These men, their stews &
hermitude
Monks
Barring the door to the
outside world
lest the outside in them
come raging through to meet
the outside out there
knashing of teeth
clashing of bones
In ancient times,
werewolves
sucking the marrow
from sacrificed
virgins
Marrow me,
marry me
Marry me
fill me up
fill up my marrow
am mirror
am wife
~ Lady
Posted in couples, Family, Food, Humor, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, Poetry, Relationships, smith & Lady, spirituality | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 5th, 2013
Skin
Skin is the first thing I think of
when I think of you
your warmth
smoothness
the hearth of cuddle
wrapping my skin around yours
my arms along yours
the big bird bones of our hands
knuckles gently bent around
how calm and warm and smooth it is
and then suddenly
how short–you’re up like that
there are ten minutes of this or so
and then you’re up like that
making coffee
Oh that we would have the luxury
of feeling able to settle into
each other for a whole amniotic morning
a whole one
Hours without time ticking down
to some task
Just in the flow
in the womb flow
Mandy walking on us
walking on top of the blanket
braver when we’re inert
or meowing from the other room
now and then
Birds becoming more persistent
in song and then
less persistent
introspective
meandering with my thoughts
meandering
Even a siren can sound
comforting
especially in the morning
a siren like business being done
somehow elsewhere
juxtaposed
with us relaxed
in the here & now
A siren like rain happening perhaps
the extras on the scene outside our door
should we choose to get up
The siren an anti-siren
saying don’t come out there, it’s other stuff
going on out there, just soundtrack stuff
beyond
the intimate cell of your domicile
Siren, such a weird word
heralding some sad stuff
but also some happy stuff
and poetically mostly happy stuff
in this spool at least
There’s the siren song of now
that siren song of the womb room
that siren song of Mandy plodding on carpet
her feet making oddly heavy sounds
though again she is light like
the birds
our hands are like
the birds
the birds are like
the birds
and sirens
and the sirens are like and unlike
sirens
~ L
Posted in Creative Writing, Family, Lady, Letters to the Universe, Poetry, Relationships, smith & Lady | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 11th, 2013
Smith is getting his eight remaining upper teeth pulled Wednesday, the day before Valentine’s Day. I’m glad that he’s getting this done because it’s been so hard for him to chew properly. When he gets used to the dentures, this will be easier.
I asked how it is he got such tooth problems:
“Number one,” he said, “I have small teeth. Number two, we were poor. Couldn’t afford much dental work unless we had to. Number three, from ’53 to ’60, I was raised on a farm with well water. So I didn’t get the benefit of the fluoride the government started putting in the water ’bout then. Number four, when I went into the Navy, they pulled some bad teeth and said they’d replace them. They lied. Number five: when I finally had some money and started going to dentists, I got stuck with some really bad ones. One dentist even took my straight bottom teeth and made them crooked with a retainer. Number six: since I was a contractor, there were times when I didn’t have any work, yet I had to get teeth fixed. So instead of getting crowns I couldn’t afford, teeth were pulled that shouldn’t have been. Finally, I just had bad luck with teeth. My karma; seems to be.”
“How do you feel about Wednesday?”
“Oh, I think getting false upper teeth is a setback to me. It’s a line I didn’t want to cross. But I’m not worried about it. They’ll pull them, they’ll give me pain pills. The only thing I’m worried about is the temporary upper denture that won’t fit well, won’t feel good, and I have a very high gag reflex. So… it’s not going to be fun.”
I’d not really given much thought to dentures prior to hooking up with Smith. My first memory of them was Grandpa Ireland popping the teeth out at us to freak us out. Grandpa ate anything. He ate salad, he could tear at steak, he could eat corn-on-the-cob. He had dentures most of his life due to having had some kind of illness in his teens.
“I’m not worried about eating,” Smith said. “It’s just a line I didn’t want to cross, losing my teeth.”
As a forty-year-old, witnessing Smith’s tooth problems helps keep me in line brushing my teeth and seeing the dentist regularly for cleanings. Being so much younger than my partner has had some costs but has also helped me to prepare better for the future. I’m starting an IRA, I’m taking care of my teeth, I’m really working on my diet and exercise with my comfort in the long term future in mind.
The downside of being with someone who is so much older is that there is a lot of worry over my partner’s health and sadness over the thought of losing him before I die. And the mysticism of older people is pretty much gone… my parents don’t seem much like parents to me anymore in terms of authority–now they are more like peers.
~ Lady
Posted in Being, Conversations, couples, Family, health, Healthcare, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, life, Relationships, smith & Lady, Smith biography | No Comments »
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