FOUND QUOTATION

WHILE DOING SOME WORK on the February newsletter last evening, I came upon the quotation I wanted yesterday to go with the cloud pictures.  My filing system isn't what it should be.

And when I awakened this morning and lay there gazing at the sky from our place in the universe, the clouds slowly became tinted and I had to leave my warm nest to go get my camera.

“Never, never again

This moment, never, those slow

ripples across smooth water,

Never again these clouds white and gray....

The sun that rose from the sea this morning will never return for the broadcast light that

brightens the leaves and glances on water will travel tonight on its long journey, out of the universe, never this sun, this world, and never again this watcher.”

                                    Kathleen Raine

To me, it's interesting to realize that we, too, are changing  minute by minute and won't ever be quite the same as we were just seconds ago. 

SKIES

RECENTLY I found a perfect quotation to go with pictures of clouds. It was about the sky never looking the same and the need to realize that we are looking at a never-to-be-repeated scene each time we observe the sky. The words were profound and lovely and deep and I'll be damned if I know where to find them.

So, what I offer you today is second best, if indeed that. Should you be close to a window, lift your eyes and marvel at something you'll never see again.




"I saw two clouds at morning
Tinged by the rising sun,
And in the dawn they floated on
And mingled into one."
~John Gardiner Calkins Brainard



“A pessimist only sees the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all--he's walking on them.”
              Leonard L. Levinson




“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”
                     Rabindranath Tagore



"I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills..."
               ~William Wordsworth



"See yonder little cloud, that, borne aloft
So tenderly by the wind, floats fast away
Over the snowy peaks!"
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



"When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator. "

                     ~Mahatma Gandhi



"Those playful fancies of the mighty sky."
                                    Albert Smith



“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time”
                               John Lubbock



"There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul." 

                                   Victor Hugo                                                           

"The sky is the daily bread of the eyes."
                    ~Ralph Waldo Emerson



" I think the world really boils down to two types of people - those who see shapes in cloud formations, and those who just see clouds. " ~Terri Guillemets



"Gray skies are just clouds passing over."
                            ~Author Unknown

BITTER MEDICINE

YOU COULDN'T HAVE ASKED for a more beautiful dawn. I'm glad no one's here to see me staggering around in my nightgown on mornings like that, raising the sun blind and fumbling with my camera, hurrying before the color changes. Just minutes later the sky had changed to this:

Let me set the domestic medical scene. A couple of months ago the oncologist prescribed potassium for Mr. Bob, to be taken twice a day. Some of you may know......we didn't.......that particular pill is huge. I think it could be termed a "horse pill". And the taking of it included a lot of complaining from Him Who Rarely Complains about it scraping his throat. 

On one of my outings to the pharmacy, I spotted a pill cutter and purchased it as a little surprise for him. But He Who Doesn't Like Gifts used it once and put it aside as useless and the complaining continued. 

The doctor suggested putting the pill in applesauce and gulping it down by that method. There was no grousing for a while which was a relief to both of us, but then it began again. We had to play a game of twenty questions before it came to light that he had run out of applesauce. He Who Doesn't Believe in Back Up Supplies had neglected to tell Her Who Is in Charge of Groceries that more applesauce should be on the next shopping list.


Last Thursday I asked the gerontologist who visits the Manor weekly if potassium could be taken in liquid form. The answer was affirmative, so yesterday we went to the Tea Room, where juice is on tap every day. We were armed with the bottle of Potassium Chloride, a tablespoon (Pray tell, what do oldsters without computers do to find out what 20 MCG (15 ML) is as a dosage?)


I recorded the proceeding which ended with a shudder.

“It should be the function of medicine to help people die young as late in life as possible”

Ernst Wynder

ROOM WITH A VIEW

I worked last night on the Manor photo album,

making a new page by 

pulling together several pictures taken from our window.

For the first time in my life, 

I can see the sun as it moves from south to north,

 coming up each morning a little farther to the left 

at this time of year, 

before reversing its journey 

at the summer Solstice. 

I'd been educated to that fact,

but now I can see it from our perch on the fourth floor.

It influences the time I awaken

each morning.

When we lived in a leafy bower, 

it had its advantages as we enjoyed its sheltering coolness, 

but this new experience 

brings us the pleasure of living

on the top of our world.

Now do you suppose 

everyone will be clamoring to have us relocated 

so they can move into Room 412?

P.S.  Mr. Bob will want to launch into his lecture about the earth moving, rather than the Sun, but for all intents and purposes I'm leaving this entry the way it is. Call it poetic license, if you will.