Sgeulachdan

of this life ... na Bhain

 

I must be part Orchid

as I seem to be thriving in this weather.  It will come as no surprise to anyone that this year is among, if not the warmest on record.  Yeah. Hot. Sticky. See the air kind of weather.

With all the humidity though, comes thunderstorms and massive lightning.  Loads of cloud to ground lightning - damaging homes, trees and just about anything not grounded.  Pretty to watch - deadly to faff about with.

And Butterflies.  Loads of butterflies.  I haven't seen the decimation of summers past, the drive speckled with the blues, yellows and greens of the newly departed, but I expect that will come soon.  I thought more carnage would be apparent after the last few storms, but they must have found a good hiding place away from the slashing winds and torrential rains.  Granted the storms have lasted no more than a short bit; 20 minutes at most, but the turbulence created by the winds must wreak havoc on their little bodies.

I always thought they went to hide in the trees, and perhaps they do.  But, I notice the leaves seem to flip over, exposing their veins to the elements when the storms crop up.  And, the brightly coloured butterflies should easily be visible against the paleness of the leaves.  Of course, the evergreens here are all top heavy, with few or no low branches, so spotting anything smaller than a cardinal is nigh on impossible.

I'll just have to keep my eyes open, following the fluttering circuitous paths.

posted by: Ceiladgh at 08/05/10 19:46 | link | comments |
immediate rambles

It's been transitions

of late.  Lots of transitions.  I'm trying to not get discouraged with the employment situation here - but it is a struggle.  It's also one of the hottest summers on record worldwide, and Atlanta is not immune.  Yeah - I love the heat and humidity - but the levels and the near constant barrage of heat indexes about 103 F are wearing thin. 

On the upside - there has been some amazing thunderstorms and lightning shows....lighting up the skies and creating interesting patterns against the velvety dark backdrop.  Since stars are comparitively rare here (as opposed to NH skies because of the light pollution) the change from a few sparkles to a bright flash, or several, is welcome.

And, there is a phenomenon that I had never before seen - horizontal lightning.  Actually traveling from cloud to cloud - across a large piece of the sky in my view. Someone told me that circular flashes are also rather common, with a start and end point in the same cloud - but that I have yet to see.

It is more a matter of wading into the writing ocean after a long absence.  The water is inviting, but my skills are rusty, so this will be a slow trek into the depths,  rather than just diving straight in. 

posted by: Ceiladgh at 08/04/10 06:43 | link | comments |
immediate rambles

Starting over from a new place....

I thought I had lost this forever.   Having moved, and forgotten passwords, gained and lost computers and information - you get the whole thing. 

And it has been a long while, sometimes too long.  So, I will dust off the thesaurus, open my eyes to find inspiration and begin anew. 

Or, perhaps it is simply just stepping back into new old shoes - surprised at the comfort.

posted by: Ceiladgh at 07/16/10 19:42 | link | comments |
immediate rambles

Spring Cleaning

I started spring cleaning today,
opened up my emotional closet and
began from within...

first i started with pain,
removing hurt and mistrust,
dusted the disappointment around
carefully..
not allowing it to settle..
on me..

next came anger and remorse..
this took much longer
for anger allowed to fester
becomes...
madness..
bitterness...
giving birth to the implants
that will spore the storms...
raging within...

from there broken promises
and shatterd dreams were eradicated..
pent up emotions that were allowed to roam freely
were slowly and painstakingly rounded up..
branded..
and sold to the highest bidder...

see...
before one can love one has to be hurt..
therefore the realization that the opposite is what we seek..
sort of like seeing the mountains,
climbing them..
to only see more mountains that conceal the distances...
and the clouds which conceal more mountains
which conceal the distances..

look within..
start there..
realize that many can't read your mind..
don't know your pain..
that your whispers in the dark
can become the thunder before the rains..
don't expect any one to love you..
unless you have been forced to love yourself..
NOW hurts but time heals..
blinded by the mist of lies
how can you see???

So...

Many moons will pass before the grass becomes greener..
in the meantime..

I started spring cleaning today,
opened my emotional closet and
began within...

posted by: Ceiladgh at 01/17/09 09:48 | link | comments |

By the Hands of Man ......

In this season of brutality
Where some have taken leave of their sanity
While many pursue frivolity
And others face impending calamity

In this space where callousness and violence abound
Like good seeds sown in fertile ground
Where seemingly solace can't be found
As bodies continuously fall all around

Surely this can't be some divine plan
Just the results of man's inhumanity to man
As we continue to deface this borrowed land
With things wrought by the human hand

This space cries out for civility
Where the strong are cloaked in humility
And the weak are treated with dignity
Only then will we acheive true unity

We all have a duty to awaken from this nightmare
As this space was intended for all to share
So by our actions let's show we care
And leave this space better than it was when we got here

..not too much to hope for..i hope..

(all love and credit to Emmanuel who allowed me to steal his words ..... )

posted by: Ceiladgh at 12/16/08 07:05 | link | comments |
immediate rambles

A day of Change

It's election day here in the USA....
Perhaps a change for the better - for a more thoughtful, intelligent, respected and respectable man in the driver's seat.

Historic, no matter who wins.... the first man of colour ... or the first woman.

I'm hopeful that the result will place change and issues over gender and colour.

Perhaps tomorrow will bring the answer.... and the world can stop laughing at the renegading cowboy with his gun slinging veep.....

1/20/2009 .... The End of an Error

posted by: Ceiladgh at 11/04/08 20:08 | link | comments |

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over.....

she became a butterfly.  Some old proverb that I found on a card, and later a magnet.  Somehow it speaks to me ....

The best is yet to come..Every time a door closes a window opens.....You never know what lies around the next corner.

I think they are as prolific and clichéd as is possible, and yet - to become a cliché does it not require a grain of truth hidden within?

I think I am probably caught in this circular obsession because it's coming to a landmark of sorts for me.  I will have been here, in my new space and new life, for a year at the end of next week.  And, I think I am feeling a little uncertain, unsettled, and reflective. Part of the whole tumult is definitely due to the news...the uncertainty of the economic situation, the presidential race, the daily grind.  But - it's a year (almost) later and I really am thinking that I should be more solid in my footings here.

I have a job .. it's not a bad job - not my heart, but it pays the bills and I can even manage to send some extra to the offspring to help her offset some bills in her last year of university.  I have a couple of good friends, and some other acquaintances..... somehow along the way I pared my close associate list down... I love my space and the man whom I share it with.

It's just that little nagging voice that still asks in that monotone singsong chant.....what do you want, what do you know, what do you have, where will you go from here?

I guess that I should just take one step and question at a time... and work out the answer. Until then - I just need to remember that butterfly -- and put myself in that spot. Sure, the wings are still a bit damp - but the colours are starting to show out on the edges. Soon we will be airborne.

posted by: Ceiladgh at 10/08/08 20:35 | link | comments |
immediate rambles

I thought that only monkeys

were fond of throwing poo.  Looking at the current spate of attack adverts from BOTH sides of the political spectrum, in the face of record turn-outs for registration for voters....

It is beginning to look like the outer walls of the zoo enclosures around the primate house.. when the monkeys are tired of humans pointing and making strange faces... they resort to tossing poo at the stupid people who want to gape, tease and stare.

Has something so important... and just look at the state of the world economy now that the house of cards in the financial backrooms and boardrooms are toppling here in the US ... become nothing more than a spectacle to see who can hit harder, faster, nastier ?

I'm almost afraid to watch the "debate" tonight for fear of the sewage and sniping will over-run any real issues and possibilities.  Are they going to forgo the "you said this, he said that" mentality and truly answer questions that people want to hear and get answers to?

The political process as it is practiced in the primaries - and I come from watching the whole focus in New Hampshire -- where the candidates get questioned, talked to , talk with and actually start to formulate real responses to real questions posed by those people .. who are a part of the famous "We the people, in order to create a more perfect union.... " .  Once it becomes a part of only winning or losing - just putting YOUR agenda and YOUR party first... it seems as though the people get forgotten in this all in scrum to prove something.

Are there goods and bads about both candidates ?  Of course... neither is perfect.. neither is always right nor will they always be. But.. please give US the chance to see WHAT you are really about and are really thinking .. without prevarication, without snarking, without justification.

Now... to watch the debates.

posted by: Ceiladgh at 10/07/08 19:52 | link | comments |

Lest you think

That I am not horrified at with the presidential election and the choice put forward...

I am wholly NOT in support of the lipsticked pitbull chosen by the codger that fancies himself a 'maverick' and overtly pandered to the Hilary supporters by choosing a running mate with ovaries. About the only good thing that I can see coming out of this move is that Jessica Simpson and the Miss Teen South Carolina now understand that they too can be president ! Who in their right mind thinks that a man - of that age - with his anger issues is really going to make it through 4 years .. let alone 8 (even though he says he will need 2 terms to make his plans work) ?

I had thought the American voters were going to focus on the issues : economy and a way to plunge it out of the toilet; healthcare; corporate restructures which move jobs out of the US; gas prices and alternative energy development; forgo the crusade to bring democracy to people and countries who want no part of it because their tribal governance is what they know and democracy upsets it - and does not allow their stated preferences to function under Koranic law.

I was wrong.  I was very wrong.  I thought that the women of this country would see the Palin pick for what it was - a half-assed attempt to pander to the female voter upset because Hilary was beaten soundly and roundly - and NOT chosen on the Democratic side.  Instead.. they donned lipstick, showed up in record numbers and resent anyone pointing out her obvious shortcomings...
She had NEVER left the United States until 2007.  I mean, really .. she could WALK to Canada.. and in her own words.. can "see Russia".  Didn't she get curious?

I will be watching tonight's debate.. hoping to see the air pressure inside her head expand to such a level that the top of her head blows off .. but am afraid that she has been coaxed, trained and prodded to such an extent that she will only spout off pat rehearsed answers... and the travesty will continue.  Another presidential election set to rival the pregnant chad issues of Florida and a supreme court decision upholding the wrong election results. 

*sigh*

I am so sorry world.

posted by: Ceiladgh at 10/02/08 06:22 | link | comments |

Just a lil confused here .....

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you are 'exotic, different.'

Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers you are a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become the chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and
Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.

If your husband is nicknamed 'First Dude', with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now!

posted by: Ceiladgh at 09/17/08 18:42 | link | comments |