Laine's Blog, Thinking Out Loud

I Can't Think...

 

I've lost my head!

 

Me too!

I can't think...

I feel like an April Fool!

 

 

 

Sorry!!

 

 

So, Imagine This...

 

So,

in my alternate universe...

There was no degradation of the earth.

Clean Air.

Clean Water.

No lies, no wars in the oil rich Middle East, no lives lost.

The U.S. military would be doing what it is charged with-

protecting Democracy,

not dismantling it worldwide.

Cancer would still be a rare disease,

not the Big Business that it is today.

 

Our Government by the people, and for the people would stand by the people,

and not the greedy aggressive corporations that have given us this dystopia.

 

Family Farms would have been protected,

and the Giant Agri-Business would never have been allowed.

Our food would be wholesome and delicious-

the soil rich in nutrients-

bees would thrive.

 

And the peacemakers never would have been assassinated,

and they would have led the way to peace and prosperity for all people.

 

"You might say I'm a dreamer,

but I'm not the only one."

                                                        John Lennon

 

 

©2020 Laine Quinn, Earth Flag, Home!

John Lennon Quote from the song "Imagine"

Paradise Reclaimed...

 

What if, instead of multiple networks of highways,

America was crisscrossed with lines of light rail?

And there were lovely terminals scattered everywhere,

and people could travel safely and comfortably,

south to north and east to west and back again,

in climate controlled modern rail cars?

 

Imagine the lives that wouldn't have been lost over the last 50 years to highway fatalities.

 

Wakanda!

 

The fictional city in the Black Panther movie,

where women were empowered equally to men

and developed technologies of peace.

 

A City outside of the greedy capitalist unsustainable consumer economy

that we have spread through the globe like a virus threatening our very existence.

 

A fictional utopia?

Yes.

 

But we are living in a real dystopia,

one that with a few different choices would improve exponentially.

 

This Earth really is a Paradise that we need to reclaim.

 

 

 

 

 

Disney, Animal Kingdom...

 

Disney = long lines and sore feet and exhaustion!

BUT...

the Avatar ride in Pandora was worth it all!

You are gliding on a Banshee through the Fantastic Pandora landscape,

even though you never leave your seat,

you duck and lean to avoid hitting branches and arches and going into the ocean!

 

WILD!

 

A giant plant, along the 3 hour walk to the ride!

Very well thought out exhibit!

 

 

© Laine Quinn 2019.

If I Were a Dolphin

 

If I were a dolphin I would have to make a lot of changes -

move much more quickly,

eat a steady diet of fish (without the taco!)

talk more, laugh more,

and play more everyday!

 

I'd have to get rid of ALL of my things 

and stop worrying about anything!

 

Hmmmmmmmm...

 

 

 

 

 

Dolphins in the Chesapeake Bay, Cape Charles, Virginia.

This post first appeared in Laine's Blog in December, 2012, and then again in 2013!

A Girl Can Dream...

 

 

It was a great dream for a couple of hours...

 

 

The world's smallest yacht!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dreaming...

 

 

If someone dreamed up the world that we live in,

(and believe me someone did)

then we can dream up a better world.

Together.

 

 

 

 

 

Good Use Of A Drone...

 

 

I want one!!!

 

 

 

 

 

St. Augustine Beach.

Just Wonderin'

 

Worrying...

It's quite a distraction...

and then,

well...

 

 

Wonder on the other hand,

it will lift you up and up and up!

 

 

(I wonder what I will worry about today?)

 

(I worry what I will wonder about tomorrow!)

 

Just wonderin'.

 

 

 

 

From Laine's Blog, March 26th, 2015.

Captain buried at Disney and the sunset is off my deck.

 

 

 

Hidden Gifts

 

 

What I have been trying not to say out loud,

is that there are blessings or gifts hidden in tragedies,

and these gifts may not be obvious for some time to come,

but they are there.

 

If we can make a commitment not to let the anger and helplessness

allow us to disconnect,

and instead turn to our friends and families,

and really see them in that deep way that keeps love alive,

then that compassion spreads to our neighbors, and the person behind the counter,

and we become part of the force that moves us away from the madness,

and towards creating a loving and compassionate world.

 

Be gentle with each other and kind and open.

 

 

 

 

Reprinted from Laine's Blog, April 18th, 2013.

 

 

Anxiety...

 

Do flowers ever experience anxiety?

 

 

Well, probably not the poppy!

(or would it be just the opposite?)

 

Nahhhh.

 

 

 

 

Poppy field of one on my deck!

 

St. George Street Caucus...

 

 

No no no.

Yes yes yes.

No no no.

Yes yes yes...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Politics, 2016 in the eye of the fish, or fish eye! 

Grover's Gallery's Independent Critters.

Stories at the Beach...revisited...

 

 

One evening.

One beach walk in the rain.

Three or four or five stories being played out...

 

 

 

"Let's Get Away"

 

A couple, no longer young, and not yet old, married only a few years, but finding themselves entrenched in very hectic busy lives together with their eager dog, Fletcher.

She suggests they dash it all and get away for a few days. He reluctantly agrees, only if they can bring Fletcher and they find themselves on the beach in St. Augustine, only hours from their

home in Gerogia. And although it is raining, they find that the joy of watching Fletcher running and chasing the frisbe in and out of the waves is changing their world, cracking their weary

faces into shameless smiles.

 

 

 

"The Wedding"

 

She: Do you remember when we decided to get married, we both agreed that we would run into the ocean in our fancy wedding clothes to celebrate in style? Why didn't we do that?

He: We were a few miles inland, if you recall, and surrounded by out of town guests and we couldn't get away.

She: Let's do it now!

He: Now? It's about to rain!

She: So, let's. It will seal our promise to each other, who cares if we get wet.

He: You really want to, now?

She: Yes! Why not?

 

 

 

 

 

"Nobody Gets Me, But You"

 

 

She: Dad, where are you going?

He: Out to the beach.

She: Again? It's supposed to rain.

He: You worry too much, Baby, God's rain don't hurt me.

She: At least wear your hat.

He: Ok, Baby.

 

The old man drives his old car to the beach and drags his chair and the satchel that holds the holy book close to the water, taking off his shoes and feeling the warm sand between his toes. He reads the words that are like music to him and writes the notes that help him to remember how they make him feel.

He thinks to himself, I wish Baby could hear what I hear and see what I see when I read these songs. It's like sitting on the edge of the world, looking out into the infinite. What's a little rain to an old man in ecstasy, just more joy! Nobody gets me, except, of course, you, my Lord and Saviour.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a very interesting trip down the beach that night.

There were the two young girls taking pictures of each other with a phone, doing hand stands.

I offered to take their photo together and they accepted and immediately posed,

with their backs to me, facing the ocean,

their hands and arms entwined in a kind of pretzel over their heads and thanked me!

I said, how about one looking at the camera together?

Oh, ok!

 

And at the end of my walk, a young man and woman,

kids really,

playing soccer, one on one,

and she was winning!!

 

 

Lots of fun in the rain on the beach.

(These stories are of course fabrications, fantasies, more fun!)

(The photos are real!)

 

 

 

Reprinted from LainesBlog, August 2014, with permission!

 

 

 

 

The Little Dog Laughed...

 

To see such craft...

 

 

And the dish ran away with the spoon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which Provincetown Restaurant?

Childhood rhyme, 

 

Hey Diddle Diddle.

The cat and the fiddle,

The cow jumped over the moon.

The little dog laughed to see such craft,

And the dish ran away with the spoon.

 

 

In A Hurry?

 

Standing in line at the Winn Dixie one morning,

someone said something that stayed with me...

It went something like this in response to another person apologizing for taking so long...

 

If I was in a hurry, I would have gotten here earlier...

 

I liked that.

 

Once in awhile, we do hurry, but it is all the same in the end, isn't it?

A minute here and a minute there.

 

 

As Rumi says,

We are all going through the same gate.

 

 

 

 

Egret in a great hurry! Or so I imagine in St. Augustine, Florida!

 

Gravity...

 

Gravity, according to Webster, is the force of attraction

by which terrestrial bodies tend to fall toward the

center of the earth.

 

 

 

Tilting the camera, does not affect the effect of gravity,

but it might make you dizzy!

 

 

(Hey, where'd the ball go?) 

 

 

 

 

St. Augustine Beach, tilted and not tilted.

 

Reprinted from Laines Blog, July 2014, with permission!

 

Remember the Cone Heads?

 

 

...not from New York!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite Ice Cream at the beach, St. Augustine Beach.

Related articles

The First Ice Cream Ad Ever

Do You Believe In Magic?

 

 

Three days, three Disney parks...

and oh so many princesses!

 

 

A whirlwind of fun, crowds and surprises,

the first time for this old gal,

with a new appreciation for the creativity

that is Disney.

 

 

 

 

The Magic Kingdom, Castle and a lovely Princess and her little Prince.

Sail Away...

 

 

A voyage begins...

 

If the sun keeps his promise,

there will be turquoise water on these pages soon...

 

(Are we excited?)

 

(Oh Yeah!)

 

 

Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

The turquoise water of Alexander Springs, Florida.

 

 

 

A Little Green...

 

 

Isn't it good,

Hungarian wood?

 

A little green for a winter's day.

 

 

 

 

The park on the way to the castle in Godollo, Hungary.

(Sounds like a fairy tale...into the woods...a castle...talking trees!)

 

The Hundred Acre Wood

 

 

Christopher Robin and Pooh are walking through the hundred acre wood,

just before Christopher has to start school.

This is the conversation that we hear...

 

Pooh, what do you like doing best in the world?

 

What I like best, is me going to visit you and you saying,

'How about a smackerel of honey?'

 

I like that too. But what I like best,

is just doing nothing.

 

How do you do just nothing?

 

Well, it's when grownups ask, 'What are you going to do?'

and you say, 'Nothing.'  - then you go out and do it.

 

I like that, let's do it all the time.

 

You know something, Pooh? I'm not going to do just nothing anymore.

 

You mean never again?

 

Well, not so much.

Pooh, when I'm away just doing nothing, will you come up here sometimes?

 

You mean alone, just me?

 

Yes, and Pooh, promise me you won't forget me ever?

 

Oh, I won't, Christopher. I promise.

 

Not even when I'm a hundred?

 

How old shall I be then?

 

Ninety-nine, silly bear.

 

 

They continue meandering along the edge of the creek,

skipping stones along the way,

just doing nothing.

 

 

 

 

Borrowed from the Disney version of "Winnie The Pooh", based on the books by A. A. Milne.

 

 

Related articles

19 Incredibly Wise Truths We Learned From Winnie The Pooh

The Poetics of Pooh: On the Urge to Unsee and the Act of Imagining

Hold Onto Your Hats!

 

 

 "Oh, we are coming down faster than I thought!"

 

"At least it looks like it'll be a soft landing..."

 

"Hold onto your hats, kids!"

 

 

 

 

 

Those funny fall migrating birds coming in for a landing, St. Augustine.

 

 

 

Those Dragonflies...

 

Karaoke Night

 

 

Do be do be do...

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are everywhere this time of year, watch out! Karaoke Night reprinted from October 2013, from Laine's Blog, and with her permission!

 

 

Stories at the Beach...

 

 

One evening.

One beach walk in the rain.

Three or four or five stories being played...

 

 

 

"Let's Get Away"

 

A couple, no longer young, and not yet old, married only a few years, but finding themselves entrenched in very hectic busy lives together with their eager dog, Fletcher.

She suggests they dash it all and get away for a few days. He reluctantly agrees, only if they can bring Fletcher and they find themselves on the beach in St. Augustine, only hours from their

home in Gerogia. And although it is raining, they find that the joy of watching Fletcher running and chasing the frisbe in and out of the waves is changing their world, cracking their weary

faces into shameless smiles.

 

 

 

"The Wedding"

 

She: Do you remember when we decided to get married, we both agreed that we would run into the ocean in our fancy wedding clothes to celebrate in style? Why didn't we do that?

He: We were a few miles inland, if you recall, and surrounded by out of town guests and we couldn't get away.

She: Let's do it now!

He: Now? It's about to rain!

She: So, let's. It will seal our promise to each other, who cares if we get wet.

He: You really want to, now?

She: Yes! Why not?

 

 

 

 

 

"Nobody Gets Me, But You"

 

 

She: Dad, where are you going?

He: Out to the beach.

She: Again? It's supposed to rain.

He: You worry too much, Baby, God's rain don't hurt me.

She: At least wear your hat.

He: Yes, Baby.

 

The old man drives his old car to the beach and drags his old chair and his satchel that holds the holy book and sits close to the water, taking off his shoes and feeling the warm sand between his toes. He reads the words that are like music to him and writes the notes that help him to remember how they make him feel.

He thinks to himself, I wish Baby could hear what I hear and see what I see when I read these songs. It's like sitting on the edge of the world, looking out into the infinite. What's a little rain to an old man in ecstasy, just more joy! Nobody gets me, except, of course, you, my Lord and Saviour.

 

 

 

 

 

It was a very interesting trip down the beach that night.

There were the two young girls taking pictures of each other with a phone, doing hand stands.

I offered to take their photo together and they accepted and immediately posed,

with their backs to me, facing the ocean,

their hands and arms entwined in a kind of pretzel over their heads and thanked me!

I said, how about one looking at the camera together?

Oh, ok!

 

And at the end of my walk, a young man and woman,

kids really,

playing soccer, one on one,

and she was winning!!

 

 

Lots of fun in the rain on the beach.

 

(These stories are of course fabrications, fantasies, more fun!)

(The photos are real!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Augustine Beach. 

 

 

Some Bunny

 

 

Some days, more than others, you feel like a grownup.

 

Today is like that for me.

Got reliable internet.

A home phone.

A smart phone on the way.

 

Welcome to the 21st century, baby!

 

What has all of this to do with the stuffed bunny?

Something, I am sure.

 

 

 

 

Related articles

Maybe We Are All Just BIG Babies!

Singin' In The Rain...

 

 

"So many songs about rain,

I don't know which one to sing first.

 

La la la la la..." 

 

 

 

"Where'd everybody go?"

 

 

 

 

Lizard, about to sing in the rain, on the deck, St. Augustine, Florida.

 

Can You Fly?

 

 

 

A young hawk sitting on a car roof in the parking lot.

Patient and fearless, it watches me as I watch it.

 

If the hawk could ask me one question, what would it be?

 

"Where are your feathers?"

 

"Can you fly?"

 

or

 

"Is this your car?"

 

 

 

Reprinted from LainesBlog, May 2012, with permission!

 

Peace and ...boats?

 

You never know what you'll find at your local boatyard,

until you get there.

 

Boats?

Yes!

 

 

All kinds of boats!

 

 

And an homage to world peace...

 

 

And what's this,

a yellow submarine?

 

 

No silly,

it's a Bug.

A yellow bug!

 

 

 

Marine life in St. Augustine.

 

So...?

 

 

So, what do you want to do today?

 

Walk?

You know I can fly, right?

Of course you do!

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Pigs Fly

 

 

Have you done something impossible recently?

 

You must have, because this was in the sky,

just the other night.

 

The sky does not lie.

 

 

 

 

"When pigs fly."

From the archives of LainesBlog, February, 2013.