Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Thinking About Peace Today


When I got up this morning, the sun was just coming up. May and Matt were already up and as we sat drinking coffee, the sea fog began to roll in and at this point, it would appear to me that the sky can't make up its mind as to which costume to put on. The blue or the gray or the blue and white? Perhaps the gray and white. It is trying them all on, every second a different color scheme.

I am having to laugh at myself after yesterday's post about how GOOD walking makes me feel. How not-old. I am laughing because today I feel not good at all and very, very old. I am walking like a crippled old thing so instead of a walk this morning, I took a saunter, a stroll. I rolled along like the old white-headed couples who stop their slow progress to stiffly bend and examine shells. The old-people dance.

Here's the beach cat which appears to have come with the apartment.


She is shy and does not want to touch or be touched and definitely doesn't want to come inside but she is a nursing mother. I am a professional in this matter, you know. So we have been feeding her, as I'm sure everyone who stays here does. So far she has had rock shrimp heads and eggs and turkey and smoked cobia. And cheese. May and Matt and Jessie are walking down to the store now where they are going to buy cat food. I am sure Mama Cat will appreciate that but she'd probably far prefer the diet we've been providing for her. Little Friskies or smoked cobia? Hmmm....Let me think.
Well, now she'll probably get both. There is always plenty of food at the beach for a cat. Crabs that scuttle along, the palmetto bugs if nothing else is available. The fish heads and guts that fishermen leave when they clean their catch. It may not all be easy food or regular, but I can only imagine that it is sufficient for a cat not afraid to work a little bit for her grub. Easier, of course, to sit outside an apartment door and stare and beam magic cat rays which affect humans in such a way that they are compelled to present food in a dish or on a paper plate for finer dining.

And so it goes at the beach. A stray cat becomes an object worthy of great contemplation and a good deal of conversation as well as trips to the grocery store, scrambling an egg in a cup and cooking it in a rented pan. The changes in the sky from minute-to-minute, the butterflies, the dragonflies, the would-you-like-some-chips-and-hummus? and do you want to go for a swim? The great excitement of an umbrella becoming detached from its moorings in the sand and flying off with a need to be rescued. All of these things are as important, if not more so, than when the next presidential debate will be, what is happening in the great cities of the world, and celebrity side-boob. Night-time conversations start out with the worlds, "Do you remember...?" and go from there and there is laughter and stories are told and retold and we wait for the next person to arrive and the grandchildren, our beloved boys, and new stories will unfold and I can only imagine will be told and retold, many years from now whether I am around to hear them or not.

The ocean is a good place to contemplate these things, it being all vast and eternal and shit.
Always changing, always the same. Filled with mystery and wonder and offering with its breast a haven for us all, dolphin, sea turtle, crab, bird, cats, humans, fishes, both great and tiny and the bobbing jellyfish, all if it.



It is John Lennon's birthday. He would have been 72 years old today. We raised a toast to him this morning with our coffee cups and will be thinking of him all day. I read some of his most famous quotes this morning and my favorite one was this, having been accused in the recent past of thinking that life is still all about peace and love and rock and roll:

“If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.”

Like the ocean. I do believe that. 

Peace and love, y'all...Ms. Moon Who Also Believes In Rock And Roll

11 comments:

  1. This week at the beach is brilliant! Just brilliant.

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  2. O I'm so enjoying your holiday by the ocean; the ever changing skies and the shore line, the "night-talk" as we used to call it, the fairy lights and the moon and every single thing that you share with us . . .
    "Chips and houmous with a Pina-Colada please, on the deck at around sunset, thanks" x x x

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  3. Peace and Love to you, Mrs. Moon. I'm doing the old-person dance on the left coast. We do it left foot first here, I guess. The ocean here has put on the blue clothes today. Let's dance.

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  4. I'm happy you're enjoying all this and reporting back.

    XXX Beth

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  5. I'm feeling more peaceful just visiting your blog. Maybe a little envious too. It's windy and chilly here, and I'm trying to accept that shorts and sandals are no longer a good fashion choice, at least until the late Spring.

    I love that picture of the water especially. Thanks. I also love the picture from the earlier post, with the dragonflies. It's paradise.

    My hips flared up with arthritis or whatever the hell it is this week too, I almost came undone. Three days of pain and mysteriously better today. I'm going to be real grateful for painless locomotion all week. :)
    Hope yours are better too.

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  6. Mary,

    Easier, of course, to sit outside an apartment door and stare and beam magic cat rays which affect humans in such a way that they are compelled to present food in a dish or on a paper plate for finer dining.


    I do believe that may be your funniest sentence...EVER...because that is EXACTLY what they do.

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  7. Lucky me ~ I was born on John Lennon's birthday!

    Imagine...

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  8. Beach vacations are always terrific for bonding and togetherness -- the good, relaxed kind of togetherness, as opposed to the stressed-out holiday kind of togetherness.

    I can't imagine John Lennon at 72. Wow.

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  9. I believe peace and love are eternal but have been in short supply lately.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.