from the mixed-up files of a middle-aged mind

OK, so I got a little distracted by a death in the family, a beautiful fall day and an interesting word challenge, but here is the last installation of pictures from my Finland trip. These are my personal favorites: the people. These are such a beautiful people! Everyone was so kind and friendly. Perhaps the trees all started to look the same after awhile, but I never, ever got tired of watching the people... I have a baby picture that looks just like this... We were amused by the Japanese tourists posing for pictures with the little Finnish kids Shane reaquaints with and old friend--she has held on for 26 years to the book he gave her

. . . and now I won't be able to sleep tonight because the words came tumbling out . . . creek : 1. What I want to say is that sound my joints make--particularly my knee joints--when I go up and down the stairs. 2a. But really it's that place at the top of the hill behind my Grandpa Rex's house in Randolph just before the run-down old barn and corral, where the grass and willows grew and where we used to spend entire summers tossing down sticks, grass, debris--our innocent and tanned bodies--just to watch them float, or over which we would lay atop the old worn, a-plank-or-two-shy wooden bridge watching our youth float away while the warm summer sun baked the memories into our sweat-silken skin. 2b. Also that place I love up at South Fork Park where I could waste away an entire afternoon without regret while lying by the banks contemplating the soothing sound the water makes as it tumbles across the rocks and over and around itself as if it is both in a hurry to reach some...

. . . and chose the road to Paradise. Today the fates smiled kindly upon me and I volunteered my way to lovely Logan and rediscovered idyll in my life. And here is an account of what happened there: I continued to be enchanted with the Provo High Marching Band's fun-spirited rendition of "The Nightmare Before Christmas." (Even though I can only see the performance from the back through a tiny break in the marvelous set--I volunteer on the set crew). I get a chill and a thrill and the crowd goes wild every time mere mortal high school students raise the 18' tall Jack and Sally marionettes into the air. Every time. I thanked the heavens for such a world in which the golden autumn leaves are prone to dance across the streets and scatter along the sidewalks with wanton abandon. I pondered the pastoral scenes on the drive from Brigham City to Logan, then from Logan to Paradise (and you thought I was just kidding) then again from Logan to some town without a nam...

Today I attended the funeral of a wonderful man . A man who wooed my widowed grandmother some 15 years ago while dancing the night away with her and who kept dancing with her long, long after they married. A man who embraced her family of some 250+ and learned all the names and faces and greeted us each with a cheerful smile and a twinkle in his eye each and every time he saw us. While the services were beautiful and I love to celebrate a life well lived, I still came away with regrets. This isn't the first time I've waited till it was too late to really get to know someone. I knew Emerson well enough to recognize and appreciate his genuine kindness, his cheerful demeanor, his wonderful laugh and his friendly embrace. But I didn't know how he liked to collect antiques--not in the context of its monetary value--but because the items he collected were all associated with someone he knew, a memory he cherished or a story that needed not to be forgotten. I never knew he had lef...

Helsinki is such an amazing city! So colorful and distinct and interesting. I decided the best way to do Helsinki was not to worry about trying to see everything, but to just take the time to savor it--to feel it, hear it, and just watch--wherever I was and whatever I was doing. Several times we just got on the "trolley" and rode whatever loop was in the area and just looked out the window. I could live here in a heartbeat. I think I could be a professional shopper (I have never seen suge HUGE department stores--nothing like a mall, really). Well, all except for the in-just-a-couple-months-there'll-only-be-three-hours-of-daylight-and-everything-will-be-buried-under-ice-and-snow thing. (I know for sure I'd go to market every day to buy some tomatoes.) The Rock Church was built right into a big chunk of granite For our second (and longest) stay in Helsinki, our hotel had the BEST view! We looked out on one of the squares and could see just about anything and anybody. W...