Author: Maria Johnson

a little song, a little dance

I’ve got some songs playing

                in the background while I clean

up around the house.

                It’s the usual stuff, loud,

with a thrumming beat

                that keeps me company.

Today I’m not inclined to pick

                a favorite and play it on repeat

until I don’t even hear it anymore.

                Instead, I hit the shuffle button

and trust that what comes up

                will be just the right inspiration.

So I surrender to the music and

                let it take me to places in my heart

that I never even considered.

                There, I found a companion in

the rhythm that matched the beating

                of my own heart.

Or maybe it’s the other way around

                and my heart aligned itself

with the song.

cleaning up after a messy week

Check out the collection of other 7 Quick Takes Friday posts, hosted at Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog, Conversion Diary. 

–1–

This has been a wacky week of ups and downs. Actually, it’s just been ups. Really. One up after the other. And not the kind that makes me sit around and wonder when the other shoe is going to drop. Most of it has a lot to do with me getting a much needed attitude adjustment.

.

–2–

It required a little more adjusting, as a matter of fact.

–3–

Still working on the CNMC 2012 program. It consumes my Fridays, but I like it. Nothing like good work that one enjoys.

–4–

Had a hilarious twitter conversation with my BFF from high school that included, of all things, Earth, Wind, and Fire. This particular song brings back many memories of parties and crushes…and other teenage melodrama. We’ve come a long way! Martha’s writing children’s books now!

.

–5–

So yeah, did I say she wrote a children’s book? This book trailer cracked me up! Go Martha! Not the stuff of crazy notes in Mr. Wycoff’s class.

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–6–

The annual Christmas cleansing is upon me. I am in a perpetual snit about de-cluttering. Obviously, I am getting it wrong if I am still still STILL doing this. But…moving on. Am gathering things for Goodwill and the dump. I wonder how much I’ll be able to sneak past the primary generators of the clutter. Because, of course, we all know I couldn’t possibly be responsible for any of it, right?

–7–

And speaking of de-cluttering, off to a little quiet time in front of the Blessed Sacrament. A little internal de-cluttering is in order, too.

found on a scrap

Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.  ~St. Augustine of Hippo

more coffee, please

A photo of a cup of coffee.

Is it possible to get a cup of coffee-flavored coffee anymore in this country? What happened with coffee? Did I miss a meeting? They have every other flavor but coffee-flavored coffee. They have mochaccino, frappaccino, cappuccino, al pacino…Coffee doesn’t need a menu, it needs a cup.-Denis Leary

Coffee falls into the stomach … ideas begin to move, things remembered arrive at full gallop … the shafts of wit start up like sharp-shooters, similies arise, the paper is covered with ink …-Honoré de Balzac

Write a lot. And finish what you write. Don’t join writer’s clubs and go sit around having coffee reading pieces of your manuscript to people. Write it. Finish it. I set those rules up years ago, and nothing’s changed.-Jerry Pournelle

The powers of a man’s mind are directly proportioned to the quantity of coffee he drinks – Sir James Mackintosh

Decaffeinated Coffee. It’s useless warm brown water. – Heard on David Letterman

Ah! How sweet coffee tastes! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! -“Coffee Cantata”, J.S. Bach

Last comes the beverage of the Orient shore, Mocha, far off, the fragrant berries bore. Taste the dark fluid with a dainty lip, Digestion waits on pleasure as you sip. – Pope Leo XII

If you want to improve your understanding, drink coffee; it is the intelligent beverage. – Sydney Smith

Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water. – The Women’s Petition Against Coffee (1674)

Just around the corner,
There’s a rainbow in the sky.
So let’s have another cup o’ coffee,
And let’s have another piece o’ pie.
– Irving Berlin, 1932