Wedding thoughts: All I know about love

/ Janna Hill / 2 Comments

I recently came across a poem [yes poem] by Neil Gaiman. Not only was I pleasantly surprised, I was deeply touched.

The piece struck a chord with me because (sniff. snort. sigh.) our baby boy is getting married this year. Yes, the one I reminisced about a few years ago… pondering,

Where did the years go… Why won’t he let me rock him to sleep any more…or comb his hair… or at least find him a wife so he doesn’t have to live alone…

As a mother there are so many things I want to tell him… to prepare him… and then I realize I cannot. In  Wedding thoughts: All I know about love Neil says it so well I just had to share it with y’all.

 

May your smiles forever sparkle in the prisms of your stone.

Wedding thoughts: All I know about love

Neil Gaiman poetry

This is everything I have to tell you about love: nothing.

This is everything I’ve learned about marriage: nothing.

 

Only that the world out there is complicated,

and there are beasts in the night, and delight and pain,

and the only thing that makes it okay, sometimes,

is to reach out a hand in the darkness and find another hand to squeeze,

and not to be alone.

 

It’s not the kisses, or never just the kisses: it’s what they mean.

Somebody’s got your back.

Somebody knows your worst self and somehow doesn’t want to rescue you

or send for the army to rescue them.

 

It’s not two broken halves becoming one.

It’s the light from a distant lighthouse bringing you both safely home

because home is wherever you are both together.

 

So this is everything I have to tell you about love and marriage: nothing,

like a book without pages or a forest without trees.

 

Because there are things you cannot know before you experience them.

Because no study can prepare you for the joys or the trials.

Because nobody else’s love, nobody else’s marriage, is like yours,

and it’s a road you can only learn by walking it,

a dance you cannot be taught,

a song that did not exist before you began, together, to sing.

 

And because in the darkness you will reach out a hand,

not knowing for certain if someone else is even there.

And your hands will meet,

and then neither of you will ever need to be alone again.

And that’s all I know about love.

I’m Baaack (As the World Turns)

/ Janna Hill / Leave a comment

I’m baaack and damn glad too.

I say that with a smile.

The adventure was certainly enjoyable. It was entertaining and enlightening…  and what’s another word that starts with e? 

Equilibrium.

Yeah! Well, that’s all screwed up. Can you say Mal de debarquement syndrome ? MDDS is a type of vertigo that [rarely] occurs after stepping off a cruise ship

Whew! It is hard to type while hanging onto (or on to) the arm of a chair — it feels like a fun-house up in here!

So as the world turns I have summed up my trip with a poem and pictures.

I love water…

 

and sunsets…

and leisurely trips.

And I love being on land

0 it is good to be home (673x1024)

 more than  living on ships.

Let the Good Times Roll

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Remember the Summer Blowout sale we did in August?

I can’t believe how much my hair has grown and changed since then. (I’ll share pics when we get back from vacay.) Nor can I believe ‘somebody’ failed to inform Google of an end date for the sale so guess what?

Yep! All of the titles are still at crazy low prices. How low, you ask? So low it’s a good thing the awesome daughter is picking up the tab for the cruise.

Oh well, let the good times roll and Happy Fall Y’all.

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Fall in love with reading Happy Fall Y'all.jpg

Look at this Cat

/ Janna Hill / 4 Comments

Look at this blasted cat. This is reason #17 for not getting anything done today. 😀

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I’m falling off my stool here. Would you just look at this cat!

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No, seriously, look at him. Look. At. This Cat.

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Celebrating More than His Music

/ Janna Hill / Leave a comment

As you all know Tom Petty died Monday.

I was going through my playlist and realized his music was more than just music for me. (Hang on while I get a tissue)

Snort.  Honk.  Sigh.

I sat up late last night burning through my hard-drive and YouTube videos– singing along and remembering…

So many memories were made with Tom Petty doing his thing in the background.

The song that strums my heart strings even this morning and makes me have to blow my nose [again] is Built to Last. It is not in the top ranks of his repertoire but… sniff, sniff.. 

I can’t tell you how many times the husband and I have drank to it, danced [our own dance] by the water and watched the sun go down to the beat of that tune.

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Each time the song subtly reminded me that I … that we are in this for the long run… that we are built to last.

So here’s to you honey: animated-gifs-drinks-068 You don’t have to say anything — I know you’re there.

Here’s to us: animated-gifs-drinks-061    and to sunsets and Tom Petty – all things I love more than I knew.

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Who’d a thunk it?

/ Janna Hill / 2 Comments

I don’t think I knew Cecilia was a Roman martyr (2nd or 3rd century) until I moused over the name while reading Cloud Wrangler on Kindle. Who’d a thunk it? 😉

Check out the free Kindle preview and then buy Cloud Wrangler at your favorite store.

Florida Dew

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Florida Dew

(from Getting Me Back)

Three flights of stairs leave me winded

Still I light a cigarette, lean against the railing and look out over the salt ponds.

The Florida dew is still wet on my soles, mingled with imported white sand.

The grit clings to my swollen crooked feet like scared children.

It is early February and another spring like day at the southernmost point.

Roaming tourists’ cheerily fill the parking lot

A timeworn man with white hair tells a joke, refers to himself as a snowbird and the crowd cackles like the game fowl that live on the key.

Inside, the black girl from Jamaica pushes a cart loaded with towels and toiletries and yells toward the ceiling of an empty hall

Do you see my sweat!

I want to tell her yes,

Yes, I see your sweat!

Yours and every other soul’s that has bled life into this place! I see their tears and perspiration that filled the salty oceans and the ponds that surround us… that hold us here.

Instead I stare at my swollen gritty feet still wet with the Florida dew.

Remember Florida in her time of need... in the wake of Irma.

 

 

The Bidding has Ended (Sold!)

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The painting Texas Flood sold for $212 to Anonymous Stevie Ray Vaughan fan.

Thanks and congratulations to “Anonymous Stevie Ray Vaughan Fan from Texas”.