Change the world…

Intention
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Django Reinhardt. Harlan Ellison. Virginia Wolf. Toni Morrison. Whitney Houston. Frida Kahlo. Stieg Larssen. Billie Holiday. Margaret Atwood.
Did they set out to change the world? I can’t answer that, yet I can say that they sure did.

There was once a young captain of the guard. He had successfully risen through the ranks, achieved goals, and proven himself to be intelligent and capable. Yet the king was concerned about his arrogance and seeming to think he was superior to others. The king wanted the young captain to continue in his career yet learn that he was not superior to everyone else. A lesson in humility, thought the king, was needed. He thought, and thought, what task could he assign to the young captain that could not be achieved that might enlighten him?
Then one day, he thought of one and summoned the young captain.
“Captain,” began the king, “I have a task for you.”
“At your service,” replied the young captain enthusiastically.
“Bring to me something that makes a happy man sad, and a sad man happy.”
“Yes Sir!”
“You have one year to find this and return it to me.”
“I will be done much sooner than that,” the captain nodded and saluted the king. He bowed and left the king’s chamber.
The captain began his search that very day. What would make a happy man sad and a sad man happy? He went to the town’s market, the nearby ports, neighboring villages’ vendors. Nothing the vendors or merchants offered him matched the task. Over the next months, he traveled near and far, up the coast of the Mediterranean, northern coast of Africa, even to the island of Cyprus. He was nearing the end of the year given him, his horse was thin and tired, when one day he crossed paths with a traveling merchant, whose wagon was filled with pots and pans and tools.
As tired as he was, the captain chatted with the merchant and asked him, “Do you have something that would make a happy man sad and a sad man happy?”
The merchant tipped his head in thought, then said, “No, yet come have dinner with my father and I. He has done many, many things over the years. We’ll ask him.
So the captain went home with the merchant. After the first meal he had had in many days, he thanked the father, who then asked him, “What is it that you are seeking, young traveler?”
The captain shook his head, “My task is to bring the king something that will make a happy man sad and a sad man happy.”
“Ah,” said the father. He sat back in thought for a while, then said, “I have an idea. Give me a few minutes.” Off he went into his workshop.
The captain and the young vendor heard scraping and hammering from the father’s workshop. Sometime later, the father came out and opened his hand.
“What do you think of this?”
The captain looked at the steel ring in the father’s hand a long moment. “That’s it!” he said. “How can I thank you?”
The father smiled. “You go back to your king and live a good life.”
At the first light of day the next morning, the captain set out for his home. When he arrived at the king’s castle, there was a great celebration in progress. The king was celebrating 25 years of his reign, a time of peace as well as growth in the kingdom. The king was happy and exuberant. When the young captain entered the celebration, the king smiled anticipating the captain’s humility as he admitted his defeat.
The king was surprised as the captain knelt before him, held his open hand out to the king, and said, “Your majesty, I believe I have accomplished the task.”
The king reached forward to take the simple steel ring from the captain’s hand. As he looked at it, his expression went from a celebratory, smiling expression to one of dismay as he read the inscription on the ring. “This too shall pass.”

bookstore in Paris! (c) MDessein

Do we each change the world? Probably. Is that our intention? Who knows, as we truly can’t be sure.
We do our best writing, painting, singing, drawing, whatever impels us, right? What others think is up to them. Harlan was pretty clear on that!
How do we get through whatever is going on for each of us? The good, the not so good, the amazing, the sad? Ah, This too shall pass.

Thank you for reading. If you are so inclined, let your friends know about my site.
And of course, my book!

Loss is Part of Life

Redemption
Posted on 12 Comments on Loss is Part of Life

Life and Death walk hand in hand.
There are many folktales filled with wisdom and insights about this relationship, and our relationship to it. From Nepal, Greece, Turkey, Canada, Africa, China, Mexico and beyond are these tales of tricking Death, making deals with Death, hiding from Death, befriending Death.

A Mexican tale about an old woman who tricks Death to climb up into a tree, a tree with a magic spell which holds him captive in the tree. Over time, no one dies. The world becomes over-crowded, people suffering do not die and so on. Things start to way back up, so the old woman makes a deal with Death, if he doesn’t take her, she’ll let him down. He agrees, and life goes on. There is a Greek version of this tale as well.

In 1939, the movie, “On Borrowed Time” was made, starring Lionel Barrymore as Gramps. He tricks Death into climbing up an enchanted fruit tree, from which no one can escape. Death is trapped up there. Over time, negative consequences accumulate when no one can die, including Gramps’ suffering grandson. So Death is released.

Another folktale about Luck and Death walking along. They come across a farmer working his field. The farmer recognizes them. Luck says “Let’s see who he trusts the most,” thinking this was a trick on Death, he’d show Death who was the coolest. When they ask the farmer, he looks straight at them and says, “I trust Death. He treats everyone the same.”

Hinterlands outside Prineville, Oregon (c)MDessein

We each have lost people and pets and relationships we love: parents, siblings, a child, a spouse, pups, cats, gerbils, a best friend, the list goes on. For me, I have learned it always contains gratitude. Yes, gratitude for all the warm, rewarding, loving times. Endings tend to be difficult.

Many of you know the tough decisions that often are required: when to end life support measures, when to remove apparatus, to decide when to put down a beloved pet. A lovely friend who recently lost her husband sent me this song as I am preparing to put down my kitty, who is purring on my chest.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have: Tell Your Heart to Beat Again by Dan Gokey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F77v41jbOYs

Uncertainty is part of life

Connection, Friendship, Help, Uncertainty
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As if you didn’t know that already. Just a reminder.
Events happen we could not have predicted, and we have to deal with them.
A deer jumps across the road into the front end of your car and totals the car, one of your children (or spouse) has an appendicitis attack and has to go to the Emergency Room, a neighbor’s tree falls on your roof and they claim it’s your problem, you fall and break your wrist, ulna and radius bones, your credit card gets hacked.

You can sure add to the list, right?



Ah, then friends come along to help.

Drive you places, vacuum your house, sit with you at the ER, call you, come to visit you, take care of your pets, give you money.
Take you with them to a concert.
..

Indeed, uncertainty is part of life. Challenges and gifts~

Thank you for reading.

West Beach at Deception Pass State Park sunset July 27, 2024 (c)MDessein

My excellent book available on Amazon paperback and e-book!
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=when+i+was+a+rock+star&i=stripbooks&crid=32WFM3E4Z2ZGL&sprefix=when+i+was+a+rock+star%2Cstripbooks%2C170&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Hot Wings and Kitty Litter

Belonging, Connection, History, Meaning
Posted on 4 Comments on Hot Wings and Kitty Litter

My daughter loves the fried chicken nuggets in a spicey sauce from a local Chinese-American restaurant. Amazingly, sometimes it is the only thing she can keep down due to her current health challenges.
When visiting her and her wonderful family, and finding out tidbits like that, as well as that her nineteen-month-old son has a large vocabulary and knows many gestures of sign language she has taught him, and that her remarkable husband is installing solar panels as well as digging water lines for their home, I was humbled. Then a larger sense surrounded me: I was part of their family. I helped feed my two grandsons, herded the dogs, weeded sagebrush and nasty pokie weeds to clear space for a garden, fed the goats, and then chased her two sons while their parents did household and farm tasks.

Family, belonging, meaning.


That sense of peace and belonging enveloping me felt lovely. Even as I have my own fulfilling life, it is much more solo and four hundred miles away from them. That sense was a pleasant surprise. To be part of their small community, not an external visitor. Ah, finding the right words to express this now.

Yes, my poppies are blooming. As are my foxgloves and the myriads of daisies. I write this while listening to David Garrett’s spectrum of musical expertise on his violin. Commitment, talent, meaning.

It was not only when hot wings had climbed to the top of the priority list of urgent things to retrieve, they were about to be out of cat litter. With four cats, that is a definite imperative.

So off drove my son-in-law on the forty-minute drive to town to get both the mandated items. As I dug up more weeds and kept an eye on the boys, ages four and a half and one and a half, as they filled buckets with dirt, dumped them out, and ran through it, I had to smile as I thought of my own priorities. Cat litter was in the mix as well, yet this being with my family was now it. They wanted my help. I loved doing it. I rescheduled my trip to France to be here, happily. Priorities, commitment, love.

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O la la, yes, Paris is fabulous.

Venus de Milo at the Louvre. I look forward to the next trip. Sitting at a bistro and watching the people, seeing the cars, taxis, & busses swoosh by, hearing the voices of people talking as they jaunt along the sidewalks, zooming along when riding in the Metro, eating a caramel crepe on the Eiffel Tower!
Breathing in and being in the ambiance of Paris.

When they were building the Glass Pyramid at the Louvre in late 1980’s, which is now the entrance to the spectacular museum, they discovered during the excavations there were ramparts and streets below the ground. Which according to our tour guide, that no one prior to the excavations had any knowledge that the ramparts were there and had been for centuries. The Louvre was built as part of a palace and fortress in the 12th century.

Safety, history, legacy.



From Paris, I will then take the train out to Langres, about a three hour, scenic ride through farmland, villages and the countryside. Langres is another ancient city, dating back to the 3rd century.

Much of my family history is there. And family. Getting to know and build relationships with my cousins who live in and around Langres is a joy and a wonder.
Cousins, walking the ramparts, seeing and being where my great-great grandparents lived.

Family, belonging, history.

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Peace, love, and light to you.

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Text and photos (c) copyright Mary Dessein

A Path to Besançon

Nature, Writing
Posted on 8 Comments on A Path to Besançon

When I saw an orange-breasted robin wrangling a worm up out of my lawn a couple days ago, I thought I have worked hard for things, too. Haven’t most of us? How many times did the bird have to do that to get a decent meal?

In looking at the abundance of irises in my yard, I saw the blossoms in full bloom and the tight buds yet to express their beauty to the world. Potential. Present and imminent for the future.

Wrangling. Abundance. Potential.
Working toward a goal.
The robin wrangler captured my thoughts. There are a myriad of birds in my world. When I sit on my deck in the evenings as the sun sets, listening to all the chirps, tweets, caws, hoots, coos, warbles of those birds, it is like I am connected to Nature, to the real world.

Working on my novel, being present for my family, going to a concert, helping a neighbor, mowing my lawn and weed-eating. I am connected to Nature, yes? A story-line in my novel took me to the town of Besançon in southeastern France (pronounced behzansan). Quite the history there, and it was way fun to be led to a new discovery.

Such a wondrous part of writing: the characters and events often reveal themselves as I am writing. I am sitting at my computer trying to wrangle the next event or conversation out of my thoughts. Then the character downloads it into my head. Another cool part is that when I try to create what I think should happen or what a character should say, there is the part of me that says, “That is not working,” or “That does not feel right.”

I have learned to pay attention to that part. Yay, it’s about time!

Thanks for reading~~ The foxgloves may be next: they are getting tall and are full of buds.

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