Join the Club

12/04/2023

All kids intuitively understand iterative design. (Push until it breaks, screams, hurts, blows up or burns down; then you know the limits.)

12/04/2023

When it comes to art, does it matter if anyone else understands it? Or life?

11/15/2023

Innerstellar

Thoughts appear and disappear.
Some I can recall.
Some I understand.
Most wander abandoned
alongside a misrememory.

M L S Baisch © 2023

11/07/2023

I begin to think about the coming new year toward the end of every October. It takes that long to order my thoughts, to reflect, to decide what to keep and what to jettison from the passing year--to think of where I've been and where I still want to go. My New Year never skates in on one resolution the last day of December.

I've noticed that completing even a fraction of a big plan is more rewarding than it is to keep just one lonely resolution. A big plan allows for for spontaneous additions and subtractions. It's more like a road trip to multiple destinations than a vacation on a cruise ship.

Maybe the most unexpected happening in 2023 is a return to thinking about iris as more than just a pretty flower in the garden. Going forward will not be going back. Nothing can ever be recreated quite the same way twice. Bigger is not always better. What I'm thinking now may be a lot more fun.

11/05/2023

Life is an exercise in becoming. Start somewhere and continue.
--------------------

"It’s a good thing to make things difficult for yourself, because in order to undo those knots, you’re forced to be original.” —, May/June 2006

10/23/2023

I still haven't been posting much to this page, a page that's always been an interior bookmark to me. It's just that sometimes life reads pages slower than faster. And so it has been.

My new year always begins when the weather turns cool in the fall. That time has come and, interstingly, it has comes with new energy. Welcome energy.

I predict that you'll find me writing here more often.

Join the club! New energy is badly needed in this old world.

09/01/2023

Life:

A walk alone together
in a universe of sleepwalkers
going everywhere at once,
going around lost corners of
the known world to someplace
without an address.

06/09/2023

I haven't posted on this page much for a while. My intention is for that to change as this page segues to augment a website in progress.

03/18/2023

True! True? True.

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03/17/2023

Way back mid-February, I said I was busy setting up a blog. It's a process. A learning curve, too. At the same time, life goes on, and real life around here is time consuming. One would think, at my age, that I would have nothing but time on my hands. Not the case. But, enuf with excuses.

The blog is on-line. This is my first announcement. I'm still working on the bells and whistles, but it's definitely ready for first readers.

Check it out please. Https://www.monabaisch.com

Comments appreciated.

Life is seriously serious and furiously funny. Join me on the journey.

02/15/2023

I haven't had much to say here for awhile. I've been working on a new website / blog project. It's the sort of technical thing that forecloses creative thought, pretty much. The mind, mine, at least, is a funny thing. It gets going in a certain way and, like a road, it leads me on the one track until I get where I'm going. I'd like to say there are never any side-road excursions, but that's another thing. There can be and they're sirens! In the sense of dangerous distractions. Tempting. Too much time on social media can be one such, when there is only so much time. I'll soon come up for air.

01/09/2023

Whither Thou Goeth

Life, naughty life, thou sneeketh up on me. Thou bendeth
thy irresistible crooked finger and beckoneth me onward.

Thou maketh me to forget to wash my face
until my crusted eyes forget to see where my feet troddeth.

Thou stoppereth my ears until the birds sing silently through days
and the toads roam through my nights without croaking.

Thou forgeteth to have me remember to turn out the lights
and the oven and the faucet and the sound of my heart beating,
so that they burn brightly to spilleth out over the shadow of my days,
burneth the roast until it's crispy, flood over the floor of the life
left to me, left with a dirty sink and stoppered-up with bloody veins.

Thou maketh me old when it’s wise I prefer to be.
Thou maketh me silly when I would have chosen carefree.

Thou maketh me forget everything save worries without end
and sorrows that come to stay like beggars with nowhere else to go.

Derelict, they burrow in, snuggle down but never sleep.
Famished, they eat me from the inside out.

Who knew that Forgetful would move in, take the stage and insist
on being cast as Worry, the starring role in the farewell performance?

Who knew, in the opening act, that the play would be at least
as tragic as comic, and that the finger that beckoneth was deadly serious?

M L S Baisch © 2017

12/27/2022

I turn 81 today. I suppose I should have something on my mind. The first thing that came to mind was to let the dog out. The second thing was to feed the feral kitty that has decided to hang out here during the cold spell.

I have no 'birthday' plans. I'd say, just another day, except that all days deserve to be special.

Yesterday, I took my new, but not working, computer setup to a local repair guy and found myself in the presence of far more than competence. I spent several hours basking in the company of cheerful and needed help at a reasonable price--if there is a way to put a price on that sort of serendipity. It was a special day.

For every one of three days before that, we entertained great-grandchildren. What could be more special? Christmas is about children.

The day before that, I made my first New York cheesecake to deliver to a friend to share with her mother who resides in a nursing home. That was a special day.

Every day is special if I don't expect every minute of it to be an over-the-top celebration. Perhaps, the ordinary is meant to bind those special events together. One must separate them so they stand apart. Without the ordinary, would anything be special? Of course, it's up to me to decide what is special. Often I find ordinary to be very special.

I haven't decided what will be special about today. It's always either a choice or a surprise.

Note: I'm borrowing a picture of Sue Sellers' beloved dog who has it exactly right. Every day is a window of opportunity.

12/24/2022

Earth-Walk

Praises to the newborn one.
God gave his only son
A life like mine,
A little time to walk on earth--
To dance, to weep,
To love, to sing:
His Christmas gift that night!
My birthright is His love.

M L S Baisch © 2022

11/21/2022

The earth is preparing for the dark, cold seasonal preparation leading to rebirth.

Just when darkness reaches its zenith, there will be light; the, push-and-pull game continues into an eternity!

We are at the gate again, stepping over the threshold into a brave night, trusting the path. It's the thankful season.

Found on Google from www.youtube.com

11/12/2022

11/12/2022

The Human Race

There is a cost
(call it an entrance fee; or a come-in tax)
required of all who enter.

MLS Baisch © 2022

Photo of the old Marlow Theater, Helena, Montana. I remember it well; standing in line for the door to open; where the come-in price for kids to the Saturday matinee was an Eddy's Bread wrapper.

11/12/2022

It's a wonderful world!

In many parts of the world, a warm summer evening sets the stage for a familiar sight: the lightning bug. Through a phenomenon called bioluminescence, these winged beetles generate chemical reactions in a part of their abdomen known as the lantern to produce flickers of light. Of more than 2,000 spe