It's Not a Meme!

I umm...borrowed...this from Friar. He's funny. He's an engineer. I know! Anyway, go see his original post to see where I ganked the idea.


What would I wish for, if a Djin granted more than three wishes? In no particular order:


Health - a strong immune system, a healthy body, balance and well being.


Wealth - not obscene wealth, but rather just enough to meet my needs and some of my wants, and a bit more besides.

The ability to instantly liposuction my ass at will with a thought. Hell, why stop at the ass? Instant, safe liposuction at will for any part of my carcass.

Clean Earth, clean Air, clean Water - all human pollution gone, never to return.

A self-cleaning house where dishes wash themselves, dry themselves, and put themselves away, and laundry gnomes have everything cleaned, pressed, and hung up as soon as it hits the hamper (or, more realistically given the folks living in this mess, the floor).

A bit of Earth - 100 acres of my very own, with level spaces, hills, and year-round flowing water. It would have forests, and perhaps a cave or two. The land would be fertile, and somewhere there are proper seasons, all four of them. A place to farm, harvest from the wild, and live in seclusion without interference from society in general. Of course it would have Internet access.

A home - in the heart of my bit of earth, my dream house...home. Large kitchen, pantry, prairie kitchen; large library; wireless Internet; powered by solar, wind, and geothermal energy sources; spacious wrap-around porches leading to a deck for open-air living, with a little observatory with telescope to gaze upwards at night; an outdoor kitchen; master suite with a big, comfy bed, fireplace, walk-in closet, great big tub in the bathroom, great big shower; sky lights in every room; creative space...eh, you get the picture.

A walk on the moon - yes, really. It has long been a dream of mine to walk upon the moon, perhaps bring home a stone to place on my altar. If I'm going to dream, I'll dream big.

A healthy planet - somehow remove human influence from the environment so that whatever she does, the Earth is simply being herself.

I like Friar's idea of a carnivore's garden where meaty deliciousness depends from every bough. Mmmm...Slim Jim tree...meatball bushes...bacon plants...ribeye vines...see why I need instant lipo at will?? While we're planting wish gardens, how about a baked-goods garden? Brownie bush, anyone? Muffin plants? Cookie trees? Again with the need for lipo...

A never-empty bottle of water that's always the perfect temperature.

An automobile that runs efficiently on an alternative fuel that is truly clean - unlike hybrids that uses dangerous batteries and hydrogen-cell engines that require huge resource consumption to get the fuel, thereby negating any benefits they may bring to automotive use.

I'm sure I could think up more...but this makes a nice start. You may have noticed it's a little selfish, my list - I haven't wished anything for anyone else, nor to change political, religious, or social situations that currently make life a bit...tense...for much of the globe. That's because I believe it wrong to sublimate free will, to force change on someone that they would not take into themselves willingly, freely, and without undue influence. I would not stop people from polluting...I would simply negate the effects of their callousness, their carelessness, on the rest of us. Even wishing, I can't unbend on that point...people must be free to be themselves, even when I think they're not worth a plugged nickle.

So tell me, folks - what'd you wish for??

Eclipsed

I was outside just now, enjoying the coolth (yes, that is too a word) and the waves of night song washing over me.

Somewhere in the world, people were watching as shadows played Hob with their day. Earth, Moon, and Sun bowed to their partners, bowed to their corners, began the dance of the Eclipse. Here, it was, it is, dark. Night is well fallen, well beyond evening and into darker time. Somewhere, though, it is day, if obscured.

I made a wish. Why not? New moon, eclipse, why not?

I wish that every man, woman, and child who lives in fear of another blow, in fear of abuse, neglect, or abandonment, knows peace.

I wish that every man, woman, and child who lives with hunger, homelessness, uncertainty, want, or need, knows peace.

I wish that every man, woman, and child who is waiting for the next gun, the next bomb, the next invasion or act of violence, knows peace.

Peace. I wish for peace.

It's my wish...I'll spend it how I like. Wishes aren't supposed to be realistic - they are supposed to reach beyond the bounds of reality and into that place called Hope, that soft place in the human Heart, the human Soul, where the last of Pandora's gifts shelters, waiting for us to notice her.

Between Sea and Sky

When I was a girl, I loved going out onto the ocean, alone, to a place where I could drift between sea and sky without fear of interruption - no other boats, no people, no sound to disturb the song of water and wind.

I would drift, float, sometimes slip into the water, lay on my back, and just...be.

When I moved away from the shore, I missed it, and a place deep within my psyche still yearns for that place between places.

Land-locked, I would climb trees to find solace, making my way deep into the woods where cool shadows curled around each other, played tricks with the light, held secrets and mysteries, kept little stores of snow hidden away from the spring melt. Up high, nestled in the topmost limbs, I would feel the tree sway in the wind, let myself sway with it, listen to the hushing of air through the branches, smell the pine-and-loam of the forest below. With a book, bottle of water and an apple, I could stay up there for hours and just...be.

When I moved from New Hampshire to Georgia, I was bereft - no sea, no magnificent old conifers to climb, and surrounded by people who I didn't know and who thought me worth teasing and bullying because I was different from their norm.

Without the solace of the tides or the creaking embrace of the trees, I found Night.

Outside the house I shared with my Mum and Big Brother, I found relief from the heat, from prying eyes and wagging tongues, from television and telephone and The World. There were the stars above, and I fancied they were laughing, singing, dancing just beyond my reach. The moon would caress me with her light, wrap me in pale silver-blue coolth. I would lie in the grass, staring up and out, and just...be.

Throughout my life, for as long as I can remember, I have preferred solitude to company. A lonely old soul, am I. As a child, I did fine among people - I could laugh, play, socialize, and be content, but I spent more time alone, reading, coloring, or wandering the lanes of made up lands for hours on end.

The older I get, the more I value solitude, and the less I have of it. I wonder if the reason I am so often out of sorts is because I am so infrequently left to myself.

Sometimes my mind wanders down unfamiliar paths, and I catch myself wondering what like would be like if I were alone. Would I have a little house? A condo? An apartment? Would I have some sort of shop (a bakery, perhaps, or a fortune teller's den) and live above it? Would I write more? Would I feel myself struggling to breathe, as I sometimes do now, because my life is wrapped around me too tight? Or would I be content? What if I had Bird, but no T? What if...?

Don't get me wrong - I love Mum, and Bird, and even T (poor devil), and I love my friends, too...only, it would be nice if I could have days when I was alone with my thoughts and my madness and could just...be.

If wishes were fishes...

Do you remember when you were a kid and the grown-ups would ask you what you wanted to be when you grew up?

I remember wanting to ride show-jumpers, be a competetive swimmer of some sort, or a dancer, a teacher, a doctor, a shrink of some variety, a writer, a singer, a jockey, an actress, a model (hah!), an advice columnist, a forest ranger, a marine biologist, and any number of things. Mostly things that involved nature, creativity, or healing. Hmm.

Now that I'm supposedly grown-up, I still have things I want to be. Or at least do.

I have always wanted to scuba dive. I've swum, snorkeled, and sailed, but I've never been scuba diving. I love the deep water, I've just never had the time or money to go learn and be certified - and now I can add a distinct lack of confidence in my physicality to the list of "why not?" Still, I hope to manage this one in the not-too-distant future.

I would love to sky dive, while we're on the subject of diving. Deep water, open sky, same-same. Sky diving looks so free...this one may not ever happen, but a gal can dream.

I think learning to fly would be fun, too. Or maybe to operate one of those glider thingies - you know, the ones they tow behind an airplane and then release to float back to earth?

I'd love to brush up on my sailing skills - for all I talk about sailing as a kid, it's been several decades since I actually did it, and I'm afraid that only bit of it I can still do with any confidence is the knot tying...you never forget how to tie a good knot, and it's always a useful skill to have.

I've often wished I could ride a horse at something faster than a canter. I never did, and riding is something else I haven't done in a long while. I'd like to own a horse, but I'd have to re-learn how to care for the beasts. They eat pickles, right?

I'd like to go to Alaska. I don't know if I'm hearty enough to live there, but it'd be nice to visit some of the less touristy bits and take a million or so pictures.

Speaking of visiting places - Australia and New Zealand would be nice, too. And, umm...let's see...Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England, and a number of the United States that I've missed in all my travels. I like wild places, rugged places, places where nature still has a presence. I also like places with history, where pieces of humanity are still standing long after the people are gone. Following the Roman wall through Paris would be one of the few reasons I ever went back to that city.

Visiting the sacred spaces of the world would be brilliant, too.

I've been hot-air ballooning, and would like to do it again - this time without garnering the back injury that still plagues me some fifteen or so years later.

I'd like to go back to school, if I could just go and learn without having to declare a major or worry about grades. I'd really like to root around in some of the sciences a bit more - chemistry, physics, and quantum physics mostly, although biology, geology, and a number of other -ologies would be fun, too. I can read books aplenty (and I do) but having a proper teacher to ask questions of, to explain the many, many, many bits I don't quite get, would be tremendous.

I'd also like to study more art, more history, more everything.

Also, winning the lottery would be nice. Oh, the things I'd do...

And while I am wishing things up...heh...I'd really like to not only finish a story/book/whatever the hell I'm writing, but maybe even manage to get the dang thing published. Sigh.

Well, if wishes were fishes, beggars would eat.

What do you wish you could be or do, grown up or not?