Morning Coffee

A bunch of guys who have known each other for a long time gather for morning coffee. The talk and banter is lively and they speak freely with me as the only female sitting there and watching and listening. Doggy Dog isn't too intimidated by the larger dogs, so  that is good.
What I learn is how to survive in a small town. Some of the guys are well of. One flaunts his wealth throwing a thick money clip with a wad of dollars on the fake rock where we put our coffee mugs. Others keep silent. Yet in a small town everybody knows everybody's business. There is a bunch of taller dogs  who play and get sometimes a bit rowdy, then Doggy Dog runs for cover under my protection. This talk among them creates a bond. Some are more prone to act, others look out for their interests. One speaks about the woman working for him and boasts. Ron makes the morning coffee. I like talking with him He actually grew up in Chloride, knows its in's and out's, went tho first grade here in town. Now, no school, only the school bus. Ron is a kind of visionary but knows the limits of what is possible in this town. This is not a place for young children, there is only nature that is an inspiration.

So they arrive
Ron first
puts on the coffee
then one by one
they arrive
and bring their stories

After going there for a while
I know
that men speakdifferently
than women
The comradery can have an
edge with a smile
So turns the night to day
Water to coffee
Silence to talk.

Autumn rain in Chloride

The smell of rain in the desert
The sound of rain on a tin roof
The gentle rumbling of giant's conversations
The grey a grace and gratitude

And then lightning -
        the higher light light of
      comprehension and compassion -

The sand is thirsty and clears the air breath by breath -

Smell the roses
        smell the rain on sand

The highest mountain claims the cloud.

October 24 - 2016

After Nadine's Birthday party...

A bunch of us, under the guidance of Ray and  Shelley keeping her mother at home we worked tirelessly to decorate the roo, which came out great,  the table setting and decoration and the hushed silence when it was clear that Nadine had arrived. Never in the history of Chloride was a secret kept. She and John had no idea that there were around 60 people helping her having a great birthday surprise party.

If I can find someone to help me uploading the pictures that came out great you'll see how great the party was.

Nadine and John

It is Nadine's birthday today. Ray and Shelley really went out of their way to give her a special occasion birthday. I helped but my contribution was of a poem. I was lucky they liked the poem.
By the way the Chloride women can sure cook and bake!!

The house on the hill
has its foundation
in beauty and the wisdom
of building strong.

Kindness rounded everything off.
The gentle lady of the house
found strength to do
what she had to do

each day - good days and others

No bake-sale without her
No morning coffee without him

Day by day their togetherness
grants freedom to both -

And so the river of time flows.

Happy birthday Nadine!

Brother and sister

I lived as an only child from an only child and have an only child. And the question "Do you know Janine Ameloot?" My reply was: yes she was my mother. Then followed a longer very thoughtful e-mail. And it became evident pretty soon that my brother Tommy had found me. I didn't know about him. My mother never told me, but after Tommy had contacted me,  by a weird set of circumstances my stepfather decided to tell me there was an other child from my mother. So Tommy's existence had been confirmed. Now a few weeks later we are planning to meet in Chloride for just a few days. His two daughters will accompany him. Of course after having been away from Chloride the yard is overgrown, doors and windows have to be repainted ( every year :-; ). Then followed an invitation for thanks giving, an occasion more important in the USA than Christmas or Halloween. The name says it: it is about giving thanks. It started out as a giving thanks for a good harvest. In Germany that is "Ernte Dank Fest". And yes it is fitting that we, brother and sister, meet in this time of the year. We have e-mailed, spoken over the phone and I am invited to spend the Holiday with Tommy and Jo Ann's extended family. I know, as a former only child, that it is easy to be overwhelmed by suddenly being part of a tribe, and being related by blood or marriage to all of them. So yes I'll travel to Cincinnati and back to Las Vegas, which is the nearest airport and from which I will fly out back to Brussels and then on by bus to Antwerp. All this with Doggy Dog in tow.

What adventures we will have.

Coretta Scott King

Elizabeth Warren read out the text that follows and was stopped and escorted out of the congress trying to stop the nomination of Jeff Sessions for federal judge. Elizabeth is my champion and I thank her for her courage. Coretta Scott King, the widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., urged Congress in a letter to block the 1986 nomination of Jeff Sessions for federal judge, saying that allowing him to join the federal bench would “irreparably damage the work of my husband.” The letter, previously unavailable publicly, was obtained on Tuesday by The Washington Post.

(Read the full letter below)

“Anyone who has used the power of his office as United States Attorney to intimidate and chill the free exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to our courts,” King wrote in the cover page of her nine-page letter opposing Sessions’s nomination, which failed. “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters. For this reprehensible conduct, he should not be rewarded with a federal judgeship.”
Thirty years later, Sessions, now a senator, is again undergoing confirmation hearings as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, and he is facing fierce opposition from civil rights groups.
In the letter, King writes that Sessions’s ascension to the federal bench “simply cannot be allowed to happen,” arguing that as a U.S. attorney, the Alabama lawmaker pursued “politically-motivated voting fraud prosecutions” and that he “lacks the temperament, fairness and judgment to be a federal judge.” She said Sessions’s conduct in prosecuting civil rights leaders in a voting-fraud case “raises serious questions about his commitment to the protection of the voting rights of all American citizens.”
“The irony of Mr. Sessions’ nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given a life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods,” she wrote, later adding, “I believe his confirmation would have a devastating effect on not only the judicial system in Alabama, but also on the progress we have made toward fulfilling my husband’s dream.”
It is sad that in today's America actions like this are still necessary. We live in dark times and Elizabeth shows us the courage we need in these circumstances.