Your Dying Spouse 731 - Hallmark's Hidden History {Five Minute Friday}

They say that Valentine's Day is the Hallmark Holiday, and I guess maybe they're right...glossy cards dripping with so much sentiment that you want to wear a biohazard suit, or at least a tinfoil hat.

And I wonder how many are bought by men who realize that it's the evening of February 13, and that, if they don't act, tomorrow is Armageddon?

It's said though, that the tradition of Valentine's Day predates Hallmark by 1500 years or so.

I'm not sure I buy that.

Yes, they found it, yes they did,

and the whole world made a fuss

when Indy Jones pried the lid

off that old sarcophagus.

You should have heard the oohs and ahs

(and the sneezes; it was dusty),

though the smell did give them pause,

something rather worse than musty.

Paradigms were bent and shifted,

staid assumptions had been felled,

intriguing questions now were lifted

as the digging team beheld

the mummy's hand still holding hard

to a Get Well Hallmark card.

This poem first appeared as a comment to Paul Byerly's post Show Your Love Daily on his wonderful Christian marriage blog, The Generous Husband.

As for other things, well, not so hot. Even a whisper is close to impossible, it's mighty hard to breathe, and moving really hurts, like...everywhere.

ASL is really coming into its own.

And I have learned to 'sing' I Feel Pretty in sign language. 

It's funny, things are just so bad (and a lot of it in a physically nasty way, if you get my drift), and I'm happier that I can ever remember being in my life.

Isn't that odd?

Or, Isn't that God!

Music from Petula Clark, with...wait for it A Sign of the Times.

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.

Your Dying Spouse 730 - Fever Dream Jesus

I was very, very ill over the weekend, and this sonnet came into my head, fully formed.

I hope God has a sense of humour.

Saw Jesus in a cowboy bar,

His halo had done slipped.

Some good ol’ boys had gone too far;

their asses would be whipped.

You do not take His name in vain

with arrogant aplomb,

and if you are nearly sane,

you don’t insult His mom.

But these guys thought their jokes were cool,

and that The Christ would understand,

but if you play the heathen fool

you’re going to face the Christian hand

that points out the verbal flaw

in the breaking of the jaw.

Music from Toby Keith, with Should've been a A Cowboy.

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.

Your Dying Spouse 729 - The Sound of Silence {Five Minute Friday}

And now it's time for ASL; even a whisper is exquisitely painful, and so muffled as to be unintelligible.

This step was expected, and now that it's here...I don't mind.

Sure, I can't talk, can't sing ("Thank God!" say the dogs and neighbours).

But it's not something to resent, because not being able to speak opens a door into the silent world of those who have so much still to say...if only someone would understand them by their hands.

Barb does. A gift and a discipline in my wife that I had never fully appreciated until now.

An it's fun. I do a lot of practising.

Barb, you see, has a lovely singing voice, and she is quite beautiful. So I decided to compliment her.

I signed..."You sing like Ozzy Osbourne."

She could not quite believe what she was 'hearing'. "What?"

So I repeated. "You sing like Ozzy!"

Definitely nonplussed (because of the honour, of course), she was speechless.

So I went on. "And you look like Mick Jagger."

Just a few more feet to dig this hole, and I'll come out in China.

Ol’ James, he said it so serene,

that trials would give the answer,

but did he, could he really mean

that this would include cancer?

I’ve fought this bastard for an age

and now am near the end,

and here, upon the final page,

is enemy now my friend?

Can it be that what’s been taken

is the greatest gift of all,

and far from being sad, forsaken,

my illness is my call

to put on my Big Boy Pants

and join the Lord of the Dance?

Now, I'll bet that you were expecting, as a musical selection, Simon and Garfunkel's The SOund Of Silence. Nah. I'm more in the mood for Van Halen, so let's Jump!

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.

Your Dying Spouse 728 - Too Little, Too Late?

There's so much still to do, and so little energy with which to do it!

However...still best to do it.

I've got lots of real cool plans,

and some, I think, are great,

but I'm starting to understand

that I've left them all too late.

I couldn't get to them 'till now,

or maybe I just didn't see

that they were vital, and just how

much they came to mean to me.

But this is really not the end;

I'll start the trip from where I am.

Whatever's waiting round the bend

my effort will not be a sham

for though my breath and lungs are burning,

I'll give my best to every turning.

Music from Three Days' Grace, with Never Too Late

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.