The Holidays

This holiday season

Enjoy

The holiday spirit.

Enjoy

The season you love

With the ones you love.

 

I hope you’ve caught the holiday spirit.

 

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

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Horos

Feeling overwhelmed right now.

Chipping away at the problem.

Clearing the slate.

Walking the walk …

    or just talking the talk?

Trying to do too much.

Going beyond the call of duty.

Seeking a conclusion.

The rest of the way is smooth sailing.

A positive attitude can be a big help when you have problems.  Even if it doesn’t actually solve the problem, just thinking that you will solve the problem, makes the problem easier to bear.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

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Go to http://newsprintpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/12/doing-too-much-trying.html to read my thoughts about this poem and how I came to write it. 

This painting by Laurie Justus Pace is from
www.dailypainters.com

Lost and Found

Reminiscing with my siblings
about
favorite foods from our childhood. 

Chef Boyardee Beefaroni

Count Chocula

Frankenberry

Keebler cookies

Frozen pot pies

Jiffy Pop

Mars bars 

Missing, not forgotten.

I found this in the food section of the newspaper.  I bet each family has their own special list.  I think it would be fun to have each sibling in your family make their own list and bring it to the next family get-together. My would include hostess SnoBalls, Kool-Aid, Three Musketeers candy bars, and Creamsicles.

 

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

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TV Today

They came.
They saw.
They did the rumba.

It’s finally time.

Dancing with the Stars: All Stars.
Who will waltz away
with the disco-ball trophy?

The newspaper described the disco ball trophy as hideous. People are always putting down anything “disco.”

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

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I found this picture or the Dancing with the Stars trophy at

http://www.realitytvobsession.com/

 

A Forever Family

November is

Find books about adoption
on amazon.com

a time for adoption celebration.

November is

National Adoption Awareness Month.

Celebrate the creation,

or the expansion,

of a forever family

through adoption,

through a birth parent’s
selfless decision.

A child thrives in the safe, loving

environment of a forever family .

 In 1993, I adopted a five-year-old boy from Guatemala because a mother made a selfless decision.

 

© 2012 Catherine Giordano 

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I found this picture at

http://www.drjunno.com

See The Light

A white amorphous blob--

the blob starts to take shape

forming swirls.

Its color shifts from white

to gray,

then green.

The Aurora Borealis Light Show

has officially begun.

The Aurora Borealis has mesmerized

mankind for millennia.

Layers of green, then magenta

piled onto the horizon;
red shooting skyward
from the green
like skyrockets.

Then it all just petered out.

Spectacular celestial events once again inspire the poetry.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

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This picture from www.photomage.com

Simplify Christmas

Our annual surrender to Christmas commercialism—

We’re all suckers. 

Sleighs-full of promises.

The promise of perfection.

Perfect Christmas parties.

Perfect gifts.

Perfect meals.

Perfect Hallmark moments.

Promises unfulfilled. 

We want off the holiday ride.

We want simplicity, spirituality.

We want to unplug the Christmas machine.

 

The Black Friday crowds set records. I guess not to many of us really want simplicity.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

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The picture is from http://freebies.about.com

An Orphan Planet

In celestial seas,

astronomers see,

a planet

that is an island unto itself.

An orphan planet
roaming our galactic neighborhood.

A globe of gas,
the size of Jupiter,
untethered to any star,
drifting 100 light years from earth.

A lonely planet in the constellation Dorado.

It has no name.
Call it a substellar object,

a lonely planet, a floating planet,

a planetary mass object.  

Call it the orphan of Dorado.

Last night I saw the movie “Melancholia.”  It's a very emotional movie that involves a substellar object arriving in our solar system.    

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

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This picture is an artist's rendition of a planemo.  I found it at  http://news.nationalgrographic.com
 

 

Hang the Mistletoe

In the season of mistletoe

and champagne flutes

visions of chemistry

and compatibility—

aspiring matchmakers

want to bring

great people together. 

Matchmaking is the art

of knowing what matters

common interests,

compatible personality,

similar life goals and values.

And don’t forget

the deal breakers.

 If you are looking for someone special, find that special person--the special person who is great at matchmaking.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

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This picture is from  http://www.inspirationline.com

.

Feast of Tradition

Thanksgiving turkey dinner

Thursday’s dinner is a feast of tradition--

every whiff of freshly baked pumpkin pie,

every drip of turkey gravy

can make a memory come alive

A table strewn with familiar comfort foods



CLICK HERE

recalls the joyful spirit of the day.

 

Have a very happy Thanksgiving.

 

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

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CLICK HERE



 

 

Midlife Malaise

 

This photo of a orangutan is from

http://www.nature.com

 

 

 

 

Chimpanzees and orangutans
experience midlife crisis
just as surely as do humans.

Sadness, withdrawal, and frustration

at life’s mid-point,
is perhaps.
driven by biological factors.

The winter of our discontent,

a mid-life trough,
is a universal feature of existence.

Scientists have drawn on

economic, psychological,
sociological explanations,
overlooking the role of biology.

Biology influences mood

at the mid-point of life.

Sadness at mid-life may be pre-programmed, a function of biology, and not due to the circumstances of one’s life.  Scientists have discovered that people in at leat 65 countries, as well as apes, suffer from midlife malaise.

 

Read the complete story at  http://www.nature.com/news/great-apes-go-through-mid-life-crisis-1.11847



CLICK HERE to look inside
a wickedly funny book of essays
about mid-life

 © 2012 Catherine Giordano

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Family Fund

Families are homeless
looking for a warm bed,
a safe place to stay.

Families are hungry,

struggling to put meals
on the table.

Abused children

are scared
and hurting.

There are organizations in your community

working hard to ensure that your neighbors
have food, shelter, education.

They need your help.

Contribute. .
You truly can make a difference.

The Orlando Sentinel requests donations to the “Family Fund.” Every donation is matched 50 cents on the dollar by the McCormick Foundation.  All administrative expenses are taken care of by the Orlando Sentinel and the Foundation so that 100% of your contributions can go to the community groups that help people in need.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

Donate at OrlandoSentinel.com/familyfund

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Old Florida Dining

Jolly Gator Fish Camp.

It’s not fancy.

A small indoor restaurant—

a dozen tables;

an outdoor screened patio.

Watch the birds.

Watch guests departing on airboats.

Savor the silence.



CLICK HERE
to look inside

Biker-friendly dart boards on the patio.

Family-friendly swing-sets in the grassy yard.

Bands on Friday and Saturday nights.

Sunday afternoon blues jam.

That’s dining with a Florida view.

Tourists get theme parks, and condo-hotels, and golf courses.  The locals get places like “The Jolly Roger Fish Camp.  The locals get the better deal.

 

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

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Twinkies

Twinkies--

Never looked so good,
never moved so fast.

Hostess Brands--

Bankrupt.  

Consumers around the country

racing out,

stocking up

on Twinkies,

chocolate cupcakes,

and small pies. 

Will the products become extinct?

Hostess lovers are taking any chances.

Some stores sold out. 

Americans hording Ding Dongs,

Ho-Hos and Twinkies.

Relax.  If Hostess Brands liquidates someone will buy Twinkies and the other popular brands and they will continue to be available.

 

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

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Lincoln

“Lincoln”

A surprisingly subtle movie

Conjuring the past

History remade

 

The 16^th president

The folksy deliberation

The Idiosyncrasies

The Contradictions

Of an actual human being

 

Cinematic Americana

Something grubbier than Americana

Pomp and historical circumstance

A fascinating movie

Hushed and intimate

Exquisitely right

Inspiring

 “Lincoln,” directed by Stephen Spielberg, sounds like it is going to be an “important movie” as well as an entertaining movie.  I plan to see it this weekend.

 

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

This picture is from http://insidemovie.ew.com
 

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Traditions

Traditions and rituals---
the heart and soul of the holiday season
enriched by history and heritage.

Holiday traditions,

sacred and secular,
customs and rituals,
prompting happy memories.

Rekindle the past.

Keep traditions alive.
Combine old traditions with new.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

 

Old traditions should evolve into new traditions, yet should always retain a bit of the old.

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Bipartisanship

This picture is from

http://www.thedailypage.com

America trapped in gridlock
long on rhetoric,
short on action.

Voters sent a message:

Work it out!
Tackle this nation’s pressing problems!

America’s overlooked majority--

the moderate middle—
craves cooperation.
 

The Democrats are already in the moderate middle—that’s why they won.  The Republicans have caused the gridlock with their ridiculous strategy of trying to win elections by refusing to do anything to help the economy. 

 © 2012 Catherine Giordano

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