All I really need to know I learned at Jin Jins

I love me a good quote. I have several that have special significance for me. One, a stunner from Friedrich Nietzsche, follows me wherever I go… literally, and has an Irish accent.

“What does not kill me makes me stronger.”

While I identify with being a Christian, I would more accurately say it’s with ambivalent reluctance. This Gandhi quote says it better than I can:

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

These speak to my philosophy of life, but don’t describe who I am, what I do.

I’m both a mom and a blogger, but don’t call me a “Mommy Blogger.” My children inspire me, but I don’t poach their lives for my content. I ask permission if I ever tell any part of their story… which usually involves unabashed bragging on my part.

Today, writing and photography fill my life. Here in my Thin spiral notebook is where I show off my Inklings. My tagline, my site slogan, up there under the title, describes this place, but again, not entirely me.

“My journal of big words and pretty pictures.”

What would a tagline about me need to say? What would it say about when I’m lost in my make-believe world of pen and paper, keyboards and computer monitors. When I’m traipsing through the woods or sifting through sugar-fine sand looking at the world through my camera lens? What would it say about how I approach my writing, and how also apply those attributes to my photography?

I found my muse in a take-out sack of General Tso’s Chicken, in a fortune cookie specifically. In keeping with the literary, arty vibe here, I wrote my personal tagline in haiku form:

Crucial writing skills
Learnt reading fortune cookie
Adages… in bed

Submitted to Daily Prompt. The theme is “Tagline”

Submitted to Haiku Friday at LouCeeL

Lights in the attic

The treehouse club was his refuge. It wasn’t really a treehouse, but he could see trees through the attic dormers. He figured that was close enough.

It wasn’t really a club either. He was the only member, there were no dues required, no rules to follow. The only prerequisite for inclusion, he testified later, was a contempt for life.

He hid there unnoticed, watching and waiting. The voices cajoling him to take another.

His victims, even after years of therapy, continue to believe in things that go bump in the dark.

Demolition of the now abandoned tenement begins at daybreak.

The Trifecta challenge this week is: Club [noun \ˈkləb\] 3b: the meeting place of a club

The 100 Word Challenge is to tell a story in only 100 words. This week’s theme is “Required”

Thorns and vines

“She’s human kudzu, a smothering parasite choking the life out of you.” He asked for my honest opinion, and I wasn’t holding back. “It’s a mystery to me why you’re with her.”

I agreed to meet him for coffee after cutting him out of my life for the past three months. His girlfriend was the issue, and I was an issue for the girlfriend. She couldn’t, or wouldn’t accept, that we were platonic friends, more brother and sister than our own siblings.

There was no ultimatum, I told him that I needed to take a break from our friendship.

When he called, he said me missed me and wanted to talk, what could I do? He was my best friend. So far, the conversation wasn’t going too well in the reconciliation department.

“I like to think she’s more like a wild blackberry vine.” He smiled his roguish, little boy smile. The one that was impossible to stay mad at. “Delicate, but plump and juicy.”

“Wild berries have some wicked thorns,” I countered, blowing on my scalding latte. “I didn’t come here to diss your girlfriend. I don’t like her, that’s not up for debate. She doesn’t like me, or like you hanging out with me. Why am I here?”

“Have you ever wondered why we never, you know?” Taking a sip of his cappuccino, his question drown in his mug, muffled through the froth coating the surface. “My wild berry isn’t the only person who’s asked if we’ve ever hooked up.”

“I never thought about it,” I lied.

“Think about it now.” His voice took on an almost angry tone.

Putting down my mug, I pushed away from the cafe table, scooting my chair around so I was directly facing him and took a deep breath.

“The things that make you a great friend, don’t necessarily make you a shoo-in candidate for a lover. You know you can drive me bat-shit crazy over some of the stuff you do. Stuff that would be a deal breaker if we were a couple, but can be simply annoying as a friend.”

“You’ve never asked me to stop, to change.” He shifted in his seat, but kept his head down, examining the filigree heart floating in the foam of his drink.

“And, I never would have.” I leaned forward and laid my hand on his knee. “I didn’t want you to change anything about yourself for me. You know what those things are that I don’t like. You could have made changes in your behavior any time you wanted, on your own, because you wanted there to be a more intimate ‘us’. Not just because I asked you.”

He shook his head, jaws clinched.

“Maybe, I just wanted you to ask.”

His words slammed me back in my chair.

“So Kudzu was your way of making me ask?”

When he didn’t answer, I knew the truth, and got up to leave the cafe.

“You don’t have anything else to say?” He stayed in his seat, twisting around to watch me walk out.

With my back still turned, I flipped a parting gesture. “Deal-breaker.”

This week’s Studio30 Plus prompt is “Plump,” and/or “Mystery.”

To all the men I’ve loved

I sent out four Father’s Day cards this weekend, to four different men, for four different reasons.

The first card went to my dad. Even though we’ve had our differences, had our troubles, the past 15 years or so have been great. We mended broken fences and have become not just dad and daughter, but friends. He’s been a great source of comfort and support, and I think I’ve been able to give that to him too.

I also sent a card to my step-father. Married to my mom for the past 32 years, he has played a significant role in my life. Our relationship wasn’t always easy either. I was barely out of high school when he came into our lives. He had to navigate not just a new relationship, but a ready-made family. He survived the storms of teenage angst and dodge the arrows of “I don’t have to listen to you, you’re not my REAL dad.”

As the years past, our relationship matured as we did. I saw what a good man he was, and that he made my mother very happy. That, in its self would be enough to endear him to me, but that he came to love me as much as his biological children, cinched the deal.

When Mister and I married, my dad walked me down the aisle, and my minister step-dad officiated.

The third card went to my father-in-law, the man who helped shape the man my husband is today. A retired Air Force master sergeant, my father-in-law is a force of nature. He accepted me into their family since the first time my husband brought me around to meet his parents. Not always the easiest man to understand, he is still someone who has had a major impact on my life, and I am better for knowing him.

The last card went to my husband. I don’t believe I could have found a better father, a better man, to help me raise our two children. From day one, he was involved and engaged in their lives.

Mentor, coach, advocate, co-conspirator, he is the “go-to” guy in good times and bad. He is there to offer advice, a strong shoulder, or enable sophomoric shenanigans. (When she was in high school, he supplied our daughter with bulk packages of toilet paper and industrial-size rolls of plastic wrap… I won’t elaborate, so when asked by authorities, you can honestly say you don’t know what those were for.)

He was the fun dad, the smart dad, the “don’t mess with my kid” dad. I can’t wait to see what a phenomenal grandpa he will be.

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful fathers in my life.

Hiking companion

The Mister and I marked our 27th anniversary Friday, so… on Saturday, when I typically head out alone on my photo hike, I invited Mister. (I really just wanted an extra set of hands to help with The Girls – Hershey and Asta.) I figured he had hung around me this long, the least I could do was let him join me on my treks through the woods. Besides, he offered to hold leashes when I wanted to snap a photo. He is kinda handy to have around after all.

You can click on any image to see a larger photo, or the series as a slideshow.

(Photos shot with a Nikon D60, using an 18-55mm, 55-200mm, 20mm f/2.8 wide-angle, 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, Nikon CoolPix S205 and/or iPhone4)

For more photos, please visit my Flickr photostream.

Submitted to Unknown Mami’s Sundays in My City

*Photo venue: Bayou hiking trail, Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park, Niceville, FL