Bogaert and McLees, Living RV Poetry » ReVisited Values

The Afghan, Share A Square

Marcia — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:59:13 +0000

The Afghan

Tucked gently
it brings warmth -
and timeless safety
from the cold reality
(of the moment).

They may need safety a bit longer

but,

watch them wear afghan capes in battle,
fly afghan flags of victory,

or

huddle beneath afghan tents
and shine flashlights
toward the ceiling
in awe at their created patterns
that rival stars dancing above
a dark country road

and

tomorrow they may just toss it aside

though first, I’d bet,

they will wear a crooked grin
and drape it over someone’s BIG cold feet
for what better way can one child thank so many people
than simply to spread the warmth.

Marcia McLees Bogaert
04/10/08

This poem was originally posted on my poetry blog, MeeAugraphie, in 2008, inspired by This Eclectic Life (Shelly’s) orchestrated drive to gather squares from crafters for her first Share A Square project to provide special afghans for children battling diseases who were attending camp.

Why am I sharing it with you on this blog, two years plus later?

Because so many of us (myself included to a point) may overlook that an afghan can be more than just something to keep cold from chilling bones… There is more to this project than just a simple afghan. These are special, the sheer number of people involved in EACH afghan alone is special, the tags, and the children’s delight in just those are enough in and of themselves… combined.

Those involved could get goosebumps…. the good kind.

If you are not familiar with it or this year’s drive to provide those afghans for children in three cancer camps, just click here for the FAQ – or look for her project on Facebook, Share a Square!

You will be so happy you did. And so will the children.

Note: updated to add link to Facebook!

Schedules

Marcia — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:45:30 +0000

Schedules rule most. I think the lure of RVing for some is not so much the travel – as the lack of a restrictive schedule. There is something to say for schedules though. I have taken the lack of a schedule to the extreme since I retired early years ago. Even now, having gone back to work for/with/beside Leon, I find it hard to make my schedule less flexible. I’ve made some attempts to incorporate a schedule in my personal life, but it always becomes just another list – something I thoroughly enjoy writing, but rarely look at again. You know, like the schedule I’ve attempted several times for my blogs.

My lists may as well be blank, but then I wouldn’t have the joy in writing them.

UNSCHEDULED

Uneven
Nuances,
Spontaneous
Chaos,
Heralded
Excitement,
Dulled
Urgency,
Lazy
Excuses,
Delightful!

36th Anniversary

Marcia — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:43:11 +0000

Sounds strange saying out loud how many years and I have been married. It seems like we have always been married – and yet it seems like it was … almost… yesterday.

!st Anniversary, waaaaay back then – in Key Largo, FL. Two exhausted belated honeymooners:

As some of you know, I decided a year or two ago that we would be married ninety years — we would only be one hundred and fourteen years old. I informed Leon of my decision, lol, and he agreed to go along with my plan. Assigning an end date to our marriage was not brilliant… so, I now add, “with option to renew”! Grin.

So far, so good. Day one of year thirty-seven was a good one.

We heard from the RV/solar tech! He should finish his work on Panoply this weekend. He had a family crisis – of the worst kind, and we told him to forget about our RV and use that time with his family. He did – and almost a full month later, he is one day’s work away from finishing the installation of our five (four new) solar panels, four new batteries, a controller, an inverter, etc. He is doing a few other items for us as well. It has been so long, it honestly, felt like we didn’t own an RV.

This put us way behind schedule – but humanity comes first.

(Listen up Hurricanes, we are not going to be ready to ‘run’ for at least another month. Too much more work to be done – and Leon’s clients have to take priority over building the slide out sofa bed frames, finding a sink and making it fit, and so on … and on… and on.)

May our days be filled with sun bright heart
our evenings lit by contentment’s glow
our nights silent in peaceful sleep.

Volunteering – S.A.D.ness cure?

Marcia — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:05:05 +0000

Shelly at This Eclectic Life chose to write, in part, about S.A.D., one of winter’s crummy side effects. Now before you click to read her post, if you have a sweet tooth, before nibble on something first! Today is her day to not only find the good but post on it.

There are ways around S.A.D. like specialized lights, but I have another idea to help y’all get through it: VOLUNTEER.

Why not? It can’t help but make you smile – and think of how many other people will smile ’cause of you. That creates light, right? OK. So, SAD lights are not quite the same type light, but the principle is!

Not enough hours? Many of us associate volunteering with helping month after month, but there are plenty of one time opportunities.

Can’t find the right place? You could start simple by doing a search online or asking co-workers or neighbors. You could, however, take the easy route below – the one with a reward on top of the feel good reward!

So, on this Only the Good Friday, why not consider this:

Disney is offering admission to either Disney World or Disneyland if you volunteer for one of the organizations linked below. And guess what? Some allow children from six and up to volunteer. You search by your zip code and nearby areas. There is a variety in types for people of all skills and skill levels:
Give a Day. Get a Disney Day

Let’s make the winter as bright as these white roses in Scotland’s summer sun!

Now, share your good for the day. Join us on Only the Good Friday!

Belief, perhaps, but….

Marcia — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:00:21 +0000

Belief in self may lead, but self then must trudge forward to follow – MeeAugraphie #quote

Originally posted on Twitter.

Poetry is not all about flowers

Marcia — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:05:04 +0000

I know my blog title confuses the heck out of people who stumble upon it without knowing who I am. It was not meant to, and yet, I like that it does. I knew when I created this blog, we wanted to RV in the future, but when I came up with the title, it’s meaning was much less about RVing – it is just that the act of Rving reflects my vision so much more. My tag line to the title is self-explanatory, I hope.

Poetry is very much a part of my life: rough draft poetry as I have said before, because most of life is done as a rough draft, we react. But there is something to be said for poetry that is edited and tweaked.

Now if I say I am writing haiku or senryu, many don’t know what the latter is (I didn’t) and others think haiku is nature and descriptive, and would rather just look at nature than read someone’s words about it.

On Twitter, we have allowed ourselves the freedom to play. Much of the haiku you find is so untraditional purists are closing their eyes as they grimace. There is a lot of beautiful and pure haiku posted, too.

One individual, an animal activist, musician, and poet – as well as an everyday human being, is also a collector. He spends extraordinary amount of time searching to post for us what he feels is the best haiku, senry, tanka, and micropoetry posted on Twitter on any given day. He is known as the Dragonfly Hunter.

But, he does not choose only the pure, but, also, the clever, well thought out, different. All are tiny slices of life: seen, hidden, wanted, cast aside, loved, hated; even the everyday. Real life.

Check out the Dragonfly Hunter’s collection. Let your eyes skip across the page and light at random. I dare you: The Dragonfly Archives

Love is God, a Video

Marcia — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:40:23 +0000

I know it is only the Good Friday. Speak of good. Well, I am, in spite of the question.

My brother wrote and performs this song. He wrote it because someone he knows had relatives that pretty much ostracized that person because they practiced a different religion than the rest of the family.

The person was kind, gave to others, and basically followed the major tenant of all religions, “The Golden Rule”! This person believed in God.

I’m going to be honest here, as I have been before. I truly believe that whichever religion you believe in is right for you. Why? Because I believe religion was man made to fill the need every human has to have guidelines and more importantly the comfort and ‘home’ that comes from a belief.

But, this post is not about what or what not you believe, it is about kindness and concern and a human’s empathy for another. A good thing.

Some of you are questioning where the Good is in this much more than others are. For you all, I offer this: One good I see in this is that my brother was so moved by another person’s hurt that he wrote a song to share, an expression of love.

Only the Good Friday is a good thing. It is an excuse for blog readers to stop and speak of good, as in not gripe and smart off for at least one day of the week. Feel free to join in. Check out This Eclectic Life’s post for the week, She’s “all warm inside” – and gather the links of other bloggers who participate.

I hope you have a good moment in your day, today – and everyday.

Change

Marcia — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:06:19 +0000

It is in change we grow, so why not embrace it? Perhaps, even instigate our own!

How Can I Rant When….

Marcia — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:20:58 +0000

I’m sure I’ve posted this pic before – but this is part of my dream, just in a smaller vehicle than these:

I am so incredibly blessed right now. (OK, those who know me well, know I could easily rant at any moment – especially about South Florida drivers on the interstates crossing four lanes in a beeline for the exit.)

But, our niece whom we had the pleasure of raising for five years of her young life just had a healthy baby boy, we got to see a picture and we both got to speak with her and the baby’s father today. YAY!

But, this is about dreams. I never dreamed much as a child, content to read a book, go swimming, learn cool things in school – long enough to pass the test. I was so shy – and watched my parents everyday life push dreams right out of them, they were just trying to survive – but at the same time they enjoyed what they did have! So, possibilities in life seemed foreign to me, really.

As an adult I lived some dreams, but they just came on their own, more or less: managed to snag the man who would turn out to be my soulmate, talked him into having our son (grin), finally decided to try college, and had the pleasure of a temporary ‘daughter’.

Moving to Washington state for those three years was probably the biggest dream that I dared dream or that we actively pursued – we helped make it happen. The dream to own an RV came slowly, we tiptoed around it. Again, it partially came on its own, but we made the decisions that allowed it – and then we took a risk or two. And next week the transaction will be complete. We have more dreams to make happen. But, now, they seem less intimidating and more accessible.

I never dared dream as a child or teenager, but found that if you dare, the Universe may just help you a bit… but you have to go for it. You have to!

Oh, and for the record, the most time we have spent in an RV is driving it for the test drive recently, lol.

Swimming Through Life

Marcia — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:51:45 +0000

It is Only the Good Friday – and for me, the good was discovering this song during lunch break today. It is a wonderful song. I chose to post for you the acoustical version, but if you want to read the words, click on the official video. The words are found by clicking “more information” on the right side.

This song is about revising how we live: swimming steadily through life, keeping our heads up. We’ve all needed this reminder, I think. Let’s keep swimming. But before you start swimming again, you may want to read Shelly’s post on helping others dress for success. It is a very good thing.