Happy Holidays

Just to let you know that I'm away from tomorrow until around the 4th of January. I wish you all the best of holidays, and see you in the New Year.

Singing Beautifully

I have a terrible singing voice. I say this quite matter-of-factly because it's the truth. I envy those with beautiful voices and have always wanted one. I do not believe, however, that there is anything I can do about this now. It is my genetic lot to be graced with the voice that I have - a little deep and throaty, and hopelessly out of tune. A beautiful singing voice, it seems, is a little like naturally blonde hair - either you have it or you don't.

And yet, we all love to sing and dance and make music. The human spirit does not know about talent, about good or bad. It only knows of the need to express.

I almost never sing in front of other people. On the rare occasions when I have let my guard down, I have without fail regretted it. The response is predictable. "Don't give up that day job." Those people usually do not get to hear me sing again, probably much to their relief. I do not like to make a fool of myself more than once.

There is, however, one exception.

At night when Joshua and I are alone and I am sitting beside his crib, I sing to him a lullaby that I made up just for my babies. It is soft and gentle and soothing. He looks up at me with those big wondrous eyes, smiling and listening intently to mama singing his song.

And you know what? At that moment, I sing beautifully.

Red Corner

Forgetfulness

by Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

26things 2 - Last two

Hooray, I've finished. The last two photos are up - three and too much.

I really enjoyed it again this time around, and even quite like a few of the photos. Don't think I'll be doing A Day in the Life - need a break :)

Ho ho ho and all that

Well this was supposed to be the new Christmas design, all cheery and bouncy, but I went and stuffed it up, didn't I!

For the life of me I can't figure out how to reduce the width of the sidebar div in the stylesheet. Ya'd think it would be that little attribute that says "width" wouldn'tya? But when I change that, it doesn't do anything. And as for the anti-aliasing on the Slipstream font, yeah I know. It looks like crap, but I don't know what is up with it.

Well, I've never claimed to be a CSS or a Photoshop guru.

Sigh.

I used to love Christmas. And now I'm just plain tired. Shopping, ungrateful kids, family craziness, work stress.

Argh.

Well, at least there are some more photos, and an entry or two in the wings. But right at the moment, it is very late, and I should be asleep because the little Joshie alarm clock is going to start chattering at around 6am. Goodnight folks.

And yet more photos

Well, i'm getting there. Another five for 26things - cold, energy, warning, soft, community.

Only two more to go!

26things 2 - another four

Okay, four more photos - sharp, reflection, the end, and movement.

Hope you're not too sick of LOTR photos :)

26things 2 - Five more

Five more photos up for 26things 2 - team, familiar, contemplation, famous and old.

Past the half way mark, only 11 more to go. Whew. This is hard work. Congratulations to all you that finished on time :)