Recipe for Life

April 11, 2012April 11, 2012 / Juliana Lightle / 2 Comments

Yesterday, I attended the memorial service for an extraordinary woman, Paula Porterfield. As a young woman she exhibited remarkable intelligence and leadership skills. She attended college and became a nurse. Then without warming, schizophrenia struck. She kept on going and attained a second degree. She never gave up. Her generosity and kindness remain legendary. She both loved and wrote poetry, created hand made gifts for friends, and gave endlessly, never complaining no matter how bad her health, how distressing her living conditions, or how badly her hands shook. She never spoke ill of others. She modeled how to live life well in spite of awful odds. Here is her recipe for life:

3 c. Love

1 c. Understanding

2 tbsp. Concern

2 tsp. Emotional Security

2 tbsp. Joy

4 tbsp. Hope

1 c. Loyalty

3/4 c. Committment

Pinch of Support

Cream Love and Understanding. Mix Concern and Emotional Security. Fold in Joy and Hope. Sift Loyalty and then blend in pinch of Support and Commitment. Sprinkle with Humor and cover with Dreams.

Put into a beautiful Being and share with the world.

Paula will be missed.

Firsts

April 4, 2012April 4, 2012 / Juliana Lightle / Leave a comment

Recently, I took a writing class about finding your voice. Mostly, I took it not because I needed to find my “voice”, but rather to force me to really get serious and write. One assignment was about firsts in our lives, e.g. first kiss, first love, first…You get the idea. It was difficult for me because suddenly I realized I neither remembered nor even cared much about firsts. My response to the assignment is this.

Memories of the future.

These are the memories that matter,

These and memories of the present.

Bold, fearless, fun, beautiful, wild,

Dancing, singing, writing, loving, laughing

memories now and tomorrow.

The past—gone, dead.

Fly free and clean!!

I don’t remember many firsts. First dance, first communion, first love, first hand holding, first lie, first kiss. Nothing. I am not all that fond of kissing anyway. I do remember first sex as a rather boring disappointment. Good sex requires experience.

I have never been lost in my life. I have never thought I really might die, not soon, but when I do I would rather die by puma than in a car wreck.

Choose

February 25, 2012April 17, 2015 / Juliana Lightle / 3 Comments

Last night I planned to reblog this, my very first blog post from over three years ago. However, a big lightning and hail storm arrived; I turned off my computer. I did not want a lightning strike to ruin it. Lightning struck my house twice in the six and one-half years I have lived here; once it destroyed my TV.

Abraham Lincoln said we choose–or do not choose–happiness. When I was twenty something, I chose happiness, not the sappy, syrupy, cheery, but the deeper joy of cherishing the small, the unique, the everyday, smiling with sunsets, the song of the mockingbird in the spring, my horses running free, the nearly invisible bobcat climbing the canyon wall, the taste of fine coffee at the first wakeful moments in the morning, cooking for friends, taking a “property walk” with my grandson, laughing with the teenagers I teach. I am driven to do very little; obsessions, compulsions do not run me. I choose. Choose life, choose joy or choose whining, choose lamenting. But choose!! Be who you want to be; do what you want to do. Be YOU!!