Two days in a row, I’ll tell you.  If I have much more fun, I don’t think I will know what to do with myself.

This afternoon, we went to see Wicked…. AGAIN.  Now, this is at least the fifth time.  Confirmed by those who were with us tonight.  Once on Broadway, twice with my brother & sister-in-law, once with the grandkids, and now…. today.  Makes five.  I think we had another one in there, with friends… but I can’t remember who.  None-the-less.

That was WAY too much information, simply to tell you, I love the play.  But, but, but….. when you see something on Broadway, the “bar” is set pretty high from there on out.  The “traveling Broadway” series have been very good in the past.  Very good.

But today, was the best one ever.  Of ALL of them.  It was absolutely magnificent.  To me.

I laughed.  I cried.  And when it was over… I said… “Ooooooo.  Let’s do that AGAIN.”  Yes, high praises for that one.  A big Bravo.  A standing O.  A happy dance.  I am in awe of the talents that those performers possess.

But what really made the day, were the people in our group.  I love each and every one of them so much.  And today felt pretty spang-dangly to be with them.  Afterward, we ate at Jay’s Fishhouse… which serves  the slowest swimming fish East of the Mississippi.  But even still, it was all good.

I feel such a true life appreciation for each one of these “loved ones” of mine.  My heart fills up with it.  Things feel true with them.  Genuine.  There is a shared virtue, and worthiness, and tenderness there.  Kindness and Caring.

There is a song in Wicked called For Good, and the lyrics really sum it up.
Especially about some very certain people in my life….

Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?
But because I knew you…

Because I knew you…
I have been changed for good.

Yep.  I am a better person for having know certain people in my life.
I have been changed for the good, because of them.

I am eternally aware, and grateful for this gift.

When the day begins in the company of chickens, it seems almost probable that I would write about the earth-shattering facts I learned about baby chickens…. all before 10 a.m.

Apparently, it is a necessary thing for the life of a baby chicken, to keep its butt clean. Now… I write this with apprehension.   You see, I am a city girl.  But I am keen on the whole cow-tipping / snipe-hunting traditions.  Yet, this morning, as I was cleaning baby chicken butts… of course the suspicion entered my mind that this was some kind of big City-Girl-Joke.

But alas,  Mary led the way in the poultry hygiene endeavors.  And for those of you who don’t know…. if baby chicken butts get all covered in the crusties.. it becomes impossible for them to poop like a chicken ought to.  And if this goes untreated, the baby chicken will die.  And we can’t have that.  Therefore, we were the proud participants in the laundering of the hen heineys.

But I SWORE I was not going to write about that… so I won’t.   Nope.  No way. No how.

Instead, I will talk about another significant event of the day.  The warmth.  Oh what a joyous and wonderful thing the heat is.    It feels miraculous to me.  I can’t help but to recollect the days of the cold winter, the gray, the ice, snow, the freeze-your-butt-off-feeling every morning when I walked outside. This warmy kind of weather is so much easier on me. It just feels good to be outside, and to basque in the sun; to feel the breeze on my face and on my arms. It feels good to open up my shoulders and breathe, instead of  hunching over and pulling up tight…. in a cold little ball.

This sun-a-shining is what dreams are made of.  We had some very good friends over for dinner.  I cooked.  I made 4-Js Pizza from Camden appear on our table.. thanks to the best pizza maker EVER… Denise Richards. (You Rock)

Anyway… our friends.  We walked around the property, fed the chickens, and the fish, looked at a large nest, had a little campfire, asked the 8-Ball all sorts of questions, and ate outdoors.  Lovely.

Now imagine how difficult this would have been at -10 degrees F.  Not nearly as good.  Not good at all… in fact.

Yes.  Summer in the City is good.  Summer in the Country is even better.  The fish are fed, the air smells of burning campfire wood… and the chicken butts are as clean as The Tidy-Bowl Man’s Swimming Pool…. all of this in the warmth of the glorious sun.

Even better, all of this…. in the warmth of glorious friends.

Some days.. ….. Life Is Good.

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”
― Elbert Hubbard

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh?” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s hand. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

I can be a little fickle. I am in the middle of the road most of the time.  Sitting on the fence.   I have trouble say something is for certain.  Dang it.  For crying out loud, Fickle-Face… Make up your mind.

But I often think about that one.   What does that truthfully mean, “Make up your mind?”  Decide on something and stick to your guns, no matter what?  Stand firm! Once and for all.  This is the way it is and always shall be…

“I have made up my mind.”  And there is no doubt about it.

Here is my little deal of deals.  It also means there is no give.  I have come to find out, at least for me, it just doesn’t work out that way.  And in times, when I HAVE “made up my mind” and wallowed in the stubbornness of it… well…. most of the time… I find resistance of some sort.  Truthfully, it is a bit obtuse.

Holy smokes. Everything in this entire world is in a constant state of change.  Right down to the little electrons which whirl around the protons in the little time atoms.  OF EVERYTHING.

So how is it I can really make up my mind about anything?  Certainly, I can have an opinion, a conviction, a certitude.  As long as I accept them as beliefs, and not necessarily the Commandments written in Stone.  Even then….

I think things are possibilities. I believe in the possible.  It could happen… is what I think most of the time.  Who’s knows…..  so very, very much…… that they are so certain “for” or “against” something.   It is a little peeve of mine when people unequivocally say… “There is no such thing as….”

Granted…  I am always look for proof.  For substantiality.  Like Trolls.  I just have this sneaky suspicion one REALLY is living underneath our bridge.  But I can’t seem to spot the little fella’.  Yet.. there could be magic everywhere.  (Or whatever you want to call it…..)

We all know things for sure, I guess.  Like 1 times 1 equals 1 (and isn’t THAT the craziest thing?).  And we all know water is made up of two molecules of hydrogen and one oxygen.  But what about the likes of psychics, intelligent life in other galaxies, and pet rocks suffering with depression?

Who knows?  It could happen.  And.  It just might.  I’ve heard stories about the unexplainable, like magical feathers, and mystical lights….
Be on the lookout…. there could be magic in the air tonight.

“We all seek for lost things within us.” ― Toba Beta

“I go to seek a Great Perhaps. That’s why I’m going. So I don’t have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.” ― John Green

I decided to give this blog thing a rest, once and for all.  So this time… I figured I would just stop without the long “goodbyes”… which never manifest anyway.  But in two days, I’ve had a lot of people ask me to reconsider.  So, Kid Wednesday is back on a Friday.  And here is what we missed….  a big DANG day I’ll tell you.

Yesterday, I got my first farm animals ever.  Now, imagine my joy and ultimate exuberance.  You see, as I just mentioned….this is a first for me. A brand new day…. with FARM animals in my life.

Which has given me cause to reflect on a couple of things.

When I was a kid, I used to tell people we were pig farmers.  I have NO clue in my little brain…. as to the “why” of this.  We lived in the city of Dayton, Ohio.  House by house by house.  Sidewalks, streetlights, and traffic. The only popular pig of the time was Porky.  And he was really none-too-popular.  (I think it was the stutter… coupled with his obesity.)

So why did I fabricate this pig-curly-tale?  I just don’t know other than the fact it was a precursor.  A foretelling of my future in the Land of the Famous Pork Festival, Farmers, and Field Corn.

Psychic Child?   Well, I doubt it.  I couldn’t see the nose on my face most days.  And as it turns out, the prophecy was upended.  We are not currently pig farmers at all.  On the contrary, we happen to be chicken farmers at this point in our lives.  Yes, yesterday morning, 15 Orpingtons came to us in the mail.  Chipping and a-chirping and pecking and scratching.   We have named two.  Nellie and Tawny.  This name selection could prove to be quite the arduous process.  How do you put a name on “cute and fluffy?”

But here’s the thing that hit me.  We are new at this game.  Beginners.  There was a time, when I didn’t like being a beginner at anything.  There is that whole “awkward period” of making mistakes, and letting the ball roll through your legs, or slamming the oven door shut and deflating the souffle’. The faux pas.    The blunder, the gaffe, the mishap, and the falling up the altar steps in your wedding dress.

Yet, there is a beautiful thing about being a beginner.  It is your big chance to learn, and grow, and find something new, unique, and unknown.  It is a time when your brain is allowed to explore new heights, where your senses are widened.  It is your fresh chance a developing some mad-skills in life.  I love having mad skills.

But isn’t this each day?  When our eyes open?  We are beginners every single day, with new opportunities.  New possibilities.  Each morning we are given the gift of life.  And we, in ourselves, are miracles.  We have conscious minds, and bodies which work without any help from us.  We are marvels.  And each day, we can make choices to begin again, and again, and again, and be marvelous.

Each day.  As chicken-scratching-corny-on-the-ground, as it may sound… today, is in fact a new day for us.  Beginners.

This world is filled with one thing after another.  The good, the bad, and yes, even the butt-ugly.  And I notice, dag nab it.

Here are some things I have reckoned upon.

The Good.  The Beautiful.  As you very well know….there are some crazy-good-talented people out there.  Some of them are so incredibly creative, it just astounds me.  Yesterday, I was watching Sunday Morning on CBS.   One of the stories was about an artist named Johannes Stoetter.  He sounds like he might be from Germany, with the peanut-butter-thick accent.

At any rate, he is about as creative as they get.  He creates this camouflage-people art. For instance, he makes people disappear in his photos, with bananas, or feathers.  There are photos of frogs, and lizards, and birds, and on… but it is really a person or people.  It was amazing.

But here is the deal.  The reporter asked him, what the heck he could possibly do next?  And he deftly responded… “I want to create hotdogs which….”

WHAT?  HOTDOGS?  What is this guy talking about?  Like what in the world could he possibly do with hot dogs?  I didn’t hear one more word of that interview.  I just kept thinking….. Hot Dogs????  That is a step in the wrong direction Johannes.  I can see that from sitting here.

The rest of the day it bugged me. Off and on.  Hot Dogs?  I am always trying to figure out what make those creative-types tick.   Was he related to Oscar Meyer?  Or was he starting from scratch… and switching careers to be a Pig Farmer?

Last night… I still thought… Hot Dogs?
Maybe he is going to open an Alaskan Husky Breeding Farm at the Equator… and create Hot Dogs.  Or… did he land a job as a Food Vendor at Fenway Park?  So today, I had to ferret out the video online.  I listed to it again and again.  Finally, I figured out he wasn’t saying “hotdogs” at all.  He said “artworks” in his very dense accent.

And there you have it… Ye’ Of Little Hearing.  HE said ARTWORKS.  So… …. busy brain of mind…. never mind about the hotdogs.

Sometimes… I just have to shake my head at myself.  At any rate….

Guess what we are having for dinner tonight.

I am pretty sure she said Hat Bogs.  Or maybe it was Cat Clogs on Buns with mustard and latched up.  Or something….

This day was full of it, I’ll tell you.  The good full of it.

First and foremost, it is days like these that make you want to do something that makes you happy.  I for one, feel so incredibly glad for the warmth and beauty of Spring.  The birds were not only singing, they were rapping.  Heck, the geese were a laying, the maidens were milking, and there were seven swans a swimming.  At least that I could count.

It makes me wonder what the heck is wrong with those people who say they prefer the bitter, cold, nasty, frozen weather over a day like today.  You know the ones… you see them on the news when it is minus 20 outside, and we have grimy snow piles and ice up to our butts… and there they are on camera saying… “Well, Mark, I actually prefer the cold weather.”

Clearly, they do not get outside on days like today.

There is just something about feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin.  The longer days.  Daylight for all.

Maybe those cold-loving people are a cross between Vampires and Abominable Snowmen.  Yeti-Vamps. That has to be it.

Anyway.  Back to the birds, and the bees.   They were all out today. Flying high in the friendly skies.

But part of the goodness today was taking my first swim of the year.  It felt incredibly good to get in the the pool today. I splashed around, did some laps, but most of all… I was in water.  I love to be in water.

I can only guess that is the feeling of having a different molecular density around my body. It is that feeling of being in another world.  Gravity seems different.  There is no breath to be had underwater.  The body is weightless, and sound is completely distorted.  All of our senses enter into an altered state.  And I like it.

It seems I have been preoccupied with gravity lately.  I think it is because I am reading a book on anti-gravity.  It is impossible to put it down.

Any way… back to the pool.  I invited a friend over to swim today.  She is a Psychic I met recently.  She knew I was going to call and invite her.  (See what I mean).  But she really loves to swim too.  Her name is Claire Buoyant.

One of these days, I am going to visit all the pools on my list.  Every time I hear a Sportscaster say that a college has a really big talent pool, I write it down.  I want to swim in all the talent pools, and see if any of it soaks in.

Finally, the most important lesson of the day was this:
Start somewhere.  And whatever your decide to do… make sure it makes you happy.

“You cannot change what you are, only what you do.” ― Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

Here’s the thing about me.  I always wonder if I am doing it right.  This thing we call life.  There are somedays when I walk around, with my feet stuck to earth by that old gravity… and my mind in the sky… a million miles away.  I probably look like Mrs. Incredible when she gets all stretchy from here to there.

Yet….I go to places which are everywhere but where my feet are currently touching the ground.  Not necessarily day-dreaming places… like when I was a kid.  Nope.  I go to past experiences; situations where I have already been.  Most of the time, they are those incidents which are bothering me somehow.  And I say in my head what I certainly SHOULD have said in that moment.

But dummy me.  That moment is gone for good. It serves no purpose to revisit that instant again, and again, and again.  Instead… I should be looking out for the wonder right in front of me.

Other times my head goes to those far off places in the future.  The events of the day which are coming around the bend.  Or the week, or the month… or just any old possibilities.  And I worry about them going right, or how I am going to fit time in…. to do this or that.  Again… all that worry serves no real purpose.

I am getting to the point that I think what really does matter, and matters the most…. is…. that we do our little bits of goodness right where we are. It may not be saving the world, but it is taking someone’s grocery cart back to the corral for them, or smiling at the Slurpee-Meister behind the counter.. and telling him what a good job he is doing.

I think those little gestures of kindness may start to add up.  And… as Albert Schweitzer said…”Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.”

As it is, I know some truly beautiful people.  They are the ones that radiate goodness, and wholeness, and strength. My guess… is that they have gone through a crap-storm or two.  And as such…. because of their struggle, and endurance…. they have this keen appreciation for life.  It fills them up with compassion, or concern, or genuine love. They do not discount anyone, it seems.

Those are the beautiful people I am talking about.  The ones who have nurtured their beauty like a prize-winning flower at the Fair.

I want to imitate them.  Just like Albert said.

I can only hope to keep my feet on the ground… and my head in the clouds.  But in those particular clouds…..  which remind me that the world is full of magic things.  And the Universe is just waiting on me.. and my dull senses… to finally sharpen up.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” ~Albert Einstein

“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.” ~A.A. Milne

We live in infinity.

Do you believe there are other civilizations, elsewhere in the Universe?

Higher Intelligence?

What about the unknown things right here on the planet?

Scientists finding “newly discovered” species of fish at the bottom of the ocean, which are tens of thousand years old.

Or new movements in medicine?

Smaller particle schematics are unraveled under microscopes as we speak.

What about animals?  Deep thinkers?  Or nothing there?

I have my guesses on all of it, I’ll tell.  As the world continues to unfold around us, there are new discoveries, and advanced information every single day.  The amount of energy which interconnects everything is…. well… infinite.

The all of it is fastened together, yet independently enduring.

Perhaps you are drinking a cup of coffee right now.  Think about  that.  How it got to where it is in front of you.  And all the people and energy which went into its creation?  What country did the bean grow in?  Who picked it?  Think about the farmers, the drivers, the workers in customs, the captains of ships, and postal workers, the box makers, the truckers, the shrink-wrap companies, the water-treatment-plants, the city planners, the heat to warm it, the ceramic makers, coffee-pot factory workers, CEOs, and air-traffic controllers.  All that “energy” working in tandem, in co-existence, in all the necessary steps to get that cup of hot coffee in front of you.

And that is just ONE little part of your day.  Of ONE little you.

Oh, it is a wide, wide, world.  And even a wider universe.

I can’t really doubt the possibility of anything, when you consider just that.  The possibility of anything.

Today, maybe we should try to look at it all with a fresh eye.  And consider… the possibilities.  Of the infinite.

Oh the wonders of nature.

Oh the wonders of the world.  There are way more than seven, I can assure you.  Some Jack, somewhere in time, just thought it would be keen to name “The Seven Wonders of the World.”

But if you ask me.. .that ListMaker sold the world WAY too short.

Heck, every time I turn around, I can see a wonder.

The magical design of a dandelion.
The sense of engagement in the eyes of a ferrel cat.
The leftover body print of a bird who hit a glass window a little too enthusiastically.

Blame it on the Windex.

But as history goes here are some of the Sevens.

The historian Herodotus (484 – ca. 425 BCE), and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca. 305 – 240 BCE), made early lists of seven wonders. Their writings have not survived, except as references.  As such, the classic seven wonders were:
•    Great Pyramid of Giza
•    Hanging Gardens of Babylon
•    Statue of Zeus at Olympia
•    Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
•    Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
•    Colossus of Rhodes
•    Lighthouse of Alexandria
The only ancient world wonder that still exists is the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Since that time, many “other” Wonders lists have been formulated.  The most popular being….
•    Stonehenge
•    Colosseum
•    Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
•    Great Wall of China
•    Porcelain Tower of Nanjing
•    Hagia Sophia
•    Leaning Tower of Pisa

Similar to the other lists of wonders, there is no consensus on a list of seven natural wonders of the world, and there has been GREAT debate over how large the list should be. One of the many existing lists….
•    Grand Canyon
•    Great Barrier Reef
•    Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
•    Mount Everest
•    Aurora
•    Parícutin volcano
•    Victoria Falls

So again, I go back to my opening thoughts.  Don’t get me wrong.  There is a whole big whopping heapful of crazy-goodness in the Grand Canyon.  They don’t call it Grand for nothing.  But.  A few moments ago I cut a Honey Dew Melon in half.  You should have seen the inside of that thing… it was wondrous.  AND… don’t EVEN get me started on Chicken Eggs.

I’m simply saying that wonder is everywhere.  And as the old saying goes… “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”  If you care to find it… the formula is simple.

The Wonder is in our Hearts.  And all the wonder that WE can SEE in the world… starts right there.  From our hearts. As such… we see it everywhere we look…. if we care to.