Teenagers

In these days people complain how much teenagers eat. I remember my son. We joked he will eat us out of the house. In one year he grew eight inches. "He isn't so bad. It's girls." Time to build bones, time to grow muscles. Eat. We have to eat. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann Pottsville, 11/11/2010

Art of shopping

Til' today I was thinking, that shopping is about spending money, killing time, and about getting "five minutes pleasure", when you buy something, what you like, usually clothes, perfume, jewelry, or a nice scarf. I go shopping because I have to, usually with a list of items we need: groceries, detergents and cleaning needs. Of course I forget shopping list at home and have to buy from memory, and I am not talking about coupons, which are still resting in a box on the top of a fridge..\br Today I went to buy a chair for a desk. My idea was to get to the store, grab the chair, pay for it, and get out. Wrong! I found six bars of a soap on a dollar table, and not a single chair suitable for the desk. The soap was for regular price. Somebody just put it there.\br My friend goes shopping every day. She comes home with practical things like economical and highly efficient vacuum cleaner, energy saving bulbs, and the lamps spreading nice, soft circle of a light in the evenings. She knows how to systematically build inviting, cozy, and comfortable home. I don't. I am rumbling about spending money. She just wants to be comfortable.\br My room is a mess. Papers, which should be discarded a long time ago, are lying everywhere, and of course, collect dust. Nobody wants to come to sit in my room. It is not inviting. I create chaos. She builds home.\br Copyright (c) Marie Neumann Pottsville, PA (not that in Texas). 11/9/2012

Celebration

I met them at the meeting: grandmother, mother and daughter with her own children. There were four generations of women coming. Mother was ill and still coming to help others. Mother was dying. There was a funeral. I didn't come, because I overlooked a notice in the paper. I didn't go, because I hate funerals and forgot to come for the living. After the funeral I asked: how was the funeral? "We celebrated her life." Copyright (c) Marie Neumann Pottsville, 11/1/2012

A letter

You wrote me you will wait till' Spring time and then you will die. I hope you will change your mind and wait to see your new grandchild, and be happy, so you forget about dying. In the case you will not change your mind and you will go to Heaven, I hope you will meet Jack's wife, and you will become close friends. How? There will be not a language barrier. Language is such in-perfect tool for communication anyway. You will teach her how to knit and crochet. Your hands, forearms and elbows will not hurt, so you could do, what you liked to do. There you two will be sitting, happily clicking needles, creating new fashions, taking wool from the white clouds, and dressing all little angels. After a while you two become tired of white color, so you will also use gray clouds, pink and yellow from the sunset and sunrise. You don't like to use wool from dark, angry clouds, It is to wet anyway. All little angels will be happy, because they could sit on the clouds and blend with them, so nobody will see them. It is one of the rules: not to be seen. After another while you will begin to dream about luscious green of the grass, deep red of the roses, rich yellow buttercups, and you will begin to ask: what happens to the rainbow after it fades? Nothing disappears without traces. May we use the colors from the rainbows to dress little angels? Your activity is pleasant to my eyes, you are not selfish, and you think about others and not about yourself. Yes, you may. So Rosalie and Joan are knitting sweaters, hats, socks, scarves and mittens in rainbow colors, and soon all Heaven is as colorful as Earth. They look like clowns, some conservative complains. This suppose to be Heaven and not Earth. Never mind, is an answer. Clowns bring laughter. Did you have enough of it, when you lived on Earth? Rosalie and Joan also invented cases for the angels' wings in the colors of butterflies and rainbows. When the first putties appeared in the sky fluttering their wings, they heard a hearty, belly laughter: I invented everything, but cases for the wings of my little angels. I am silly. I wish you happy life in Heaven, when I should wish you long and happy live on Earth. Your little sister. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann Pottsville, 9/22/2012

The best where to ride a bike is ...

Of course first what comes into my mind is where not to ride a bike ... Not to learn to ride on your older brother's bike, when one foot is on the pedal and second leg has to be under the stick. Riding the bike in the circles where my brother was a center; and then he lets go ... Nice, flat surface without rocks is fine. Also to learn how to steer is very helpful. With such a skill you can ride the bike practically anywhere, two wheels economically placed behind each other, can fit. There was an end of a flat surface and it was downhill. It is helpful to ride the bike, when you know how to step on the brake, and where is the brake located. Then you can ride the bike practically anywhere, when you feel it is important to interrupt a motion. Speeding I wasn't able to locate the brakes and ended up inside of half demolished house. It was a better option, because if I knew how to steer I could end up under a car on the busy street under the hill. A lesson: to avoid busy streets, half demolished houses and you can ride your bike practically everywhere. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann POW! 9/8/2012

Leaf

Leaf in the water floating quietly, motionlessly. Sign of the autumn. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann Pottsville, August 20. 2012

Lost love

Little tabby is meowing behind a kitchen door, and then she runs in quickly so nobody will smell her shame. "He didn't want me - I am spayed, and I just wanted to look at them." I see him walking our path hand in hand with another gal. World stopped and a heart missed a beat. There will be another one to fill his place. What about a little revenge? Look at a tree. It is full of blooming flowers. The heart will heal and the World didn't stop. It was only illusion. Keep going and wait. Another will come your way. Fill your time with dreams. Do you know the best way how to kill your dreams? Fulfill them. And then what? Learn to cook, mend bad moods, raise the children, tend a garden, and say us instead I. What about lost love? Sweet sorrow bathing in self -pity. Be real. It's time to do your homework. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann Pottsville, 9/24/2012 POW assignment