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The essence of friendship…(for Kris…happy 65)

Posted in inspirational, life lessons, people, Uncategorized, tagged , , on March 28, 2013| 3 Comments »

Good friends…like shoes and jeans and plaid shirts…The longer you keep them, the more comfortable they are, the more they grow on you, and even when they are near to the end of their run…you reserve them for weekends, gardening, and over time you mend them, mix them with new ones, and if you’re lucky…they can comfort your kids and friends or family…long after you’re gone…

A good friend is like a dusty piano…even when a piano sits unused and silent, it still has the potential to bring music to your heart and put a song in the air and accompany you…

A good friend is like concrete. A foundation for a life or a dwelling is likely to endure and stand up to weather and adversity much better and much longer than a relationship without substance, or a house built on plain earth that sits susceptible to the elements, not conducive of longevity. Over time, true friendships and concrete foundations are likely to solidify and become sturdier through the years and over decades.

A great friend is like a mighty Douglas fir tree. One can shelter you from sleet and storms…give you material to build a hospitable spiritual or literal abode. And even after the tree or friend has been felled and called back to the life giving earth…the simple memory or remains is kindling and fuel for warmth through fond recollections, or the flames there in your hearth. Whether metaphoric or in your abode…A great fir or great friend never stops giving, even when life has dwindled.

A good friend is a smattering of special songs that sustain and remain and blossom in your heart…whether it’s midnight and moonlight or the advent of a new day at dawn. When the melody lifts you sweetly as the day makes its start. A friend in your soul will accompany you come what may…

A good friend stays with you, prays with you, and will go the distance for you. And they will know by the look in your eye and a subtle hint in your tone that in fact is what they need do…

And a true friend has a long memory to recall the glory, and a short memory to shed the shames…and has a place inside that is safe harbor…but even in a place of refuge, they will tell you what you need to hear, rather than what you wish uttered…

And true friends lean against each other and never let the world know, that if either should shift, the other would fall…and so there is strength even when there is none…

A friend is a gift from God, sent to watch over the other, share in the laughter and sooth the brewing storm. And a friend won’t scoff and scold if you’ve not enough sense to come in from the rain, but will join you because you’ve the strength to endure foul weather while tending to those wandered lambs lost in the elements…and help you guide them to kinder times and warmer surroundings and brighter days.

A friend usually understands, but even when they can’t, they listen and linger for another cup or two…and a friend always watches you till you’ve gone from sight…and then misses you and prays for safe passage and a gentle wind at your back till you return.

And a friend forgives others for having grown old, for needing help to scale the porch or time to just sit and be glad for as many yesterdays…when there are a finite number of tomorrows left to share. And a friend holds your heart in their hands…and it is safe there, as are your secrets and frailties…and then…a friend rescues you, so you can rescue them right back…and the circle though unbroken…is rarely a proper round one, but a precious wandering journey none the less…and a friend seldom looks at the clock when the phone rings, because regardless of the hour, a friend is a friend, is a friend. Amen

Love, Matthew Lyle…son of Gordon and Vimy, which pretty much explains it all.

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…sleepless night

Posted in inspirational, life lessons, people, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on December 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I wake up in the wee hours sometimes,

when most of the world is asleep,

and listen to the peace over much of the land.

And I feel the lonely souls,

and smell the un-brewed coffee,

and feel the chill of the untended fires,

and await the dawn that few wait for,

and I listen to all night radio,

and wonder about the isolated souls in hospital rooms.

But then the gentle breeze rises to a howling fury,

and rearranges what can’t hold fast,

accompanies her primal roar

with a chorus of tumbling and skidding chorus there.

So while the tranquility has been shattered…

And taken away the essence of that which matters,

In but an instant…and a siren’s wail fills the night.

Power and the illusion of control are lost at once…

And too, while we sleep, or wish to be,

Much is lost somewhere along the way.

But I know that regardless of the solitude,

I’m never alone, abandoned…

For regardless of what happens around me,

Faith resides, abides, and dwells within…

And cradles me in an a sweet embrace,

till sleep again finds me.

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You CAN wait…

Posted in Uncategorized on December 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »

You CAN wait…

People always say “they can’t wait” to see this, or do that…Especially for Fridays. I have news for you…you CAN wait. Unless you are drowning, or bleeding, or suffocating, or otherwise waiting for a life to be saved, you will just have to wait.

Remember, while you are busy wishing your life, or day, or week, or year way…real life is actually happening. The life you waited for. The life you’re wasting. Monday to Thursday are the bulk of your real life.

The last couple months of a pregnancy are yours to live, not wish away…

I might have pisst the best part of us away, had I not realized the mundane moments leading up to preferred ones, were mostly what there was to “us”, and those were the moments that defined us. Not the ones we thought we waited for, but the only ones worth saving…

It isn’t about the days in red on the calendar…it is about all the days between…I embrace you even when you can’t wait to be on your way. MLL

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A House Blessing for Friends…

Posted in inspirational, life lessons, people, Uncategorized, tagged , on November 6, 2012| 2 Comments »

In This House…

Lives love,

Compassion thrives,

Laughter grows,

Happiness exudes within these walls.

Joy happens within the property lines.

Great food and its glad aromas invite.

Memorable times and motorcycle rides see their beginnings.

Life is treasured, measured, hugged and healed.

Two beautiful, vital, healthy souls call one another best friend here.

The future and prosperity come to fruition.

Two of my best friends make a life together,

And blessings are bestowed and embraced here.

Best of all, Jeff, Emily, and mighty Koda

All live in this house built of wood and plaster,

But it’s a place truly worthy of being called

Home.

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A toast for Terry and Nita, married after 37 years to the day they met.

Posted in Uncategorized on October 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

As a writer, today is a goldmine for composing words to describe an enduring love and the romance of this moment. As a friend to both Nita and Terry, today is the fruition of decades of fishing and wishing for a glad moment in time…one that revives the faith in happy endings, in romance, and in the simple premise that while life is often a chore, a bore, a routine without much in the way of the “things worth writing home about”.  And there is that collection of amazing things we achieve in the midst of unremarkable times. But that life can also be amazing on a daily basis while we toil with the mundane…If life is lived with the right partner…with your best friend. Today we are privileged to live   vicariously and share in the collateral wave of joy that has overtaken my two friends and will carry them for the duration.

Terry and I have been friends since the middle 70s…and though I left Rainier in 1977, the friendship has endured and matured and actually gotten better over the decades. We ran one season of track together…Lord, he was fast. The view I always had was of him getting farther away and smaller during that lap of the track. But at the end of the day, he never gloated over his gift, and we were equals except for a short time after the starting gun. Today, there is but the glad memory of our having been running buddies so long ago…

In 1975, Terry stormed into a stormy Tillamook for a little game of football on a Friday evening in the fall…as he recalls; the muddiest and worst weather he ever played in…and he left there with a victory…and the attention of some of her citizens. A few days later, at another muddy, rain and windswept field in Rainier, I walked the sidelines with Terry who was in street clothes this time while we took in a JV football contest. And the scenery on the far sideline that was the opposition’s cheerleaders was more than tantalizing. It is now more than obvious that a little blue eyed freezing and shivering, yet still smiling and captivating in all her tiny glory caught Terry’s eye on that happily fateful night. It appears we all became friends in an instant, but I had no idea that while her and I spent the next few years as pen pals (remember pens and postage stamps), that in the midst of the rain and fall coastal fury, she and my friend Terry were to build a small fire that survived as warm coals and embers for over thirty years. And though they were to eventually drift away from one another, and I was to also lose track of her too…true friends never are forgotten.

I still have the notes she sent first from Wilson River Highway in Tillamook, then from a college in Bend.

Life goes on; all three of us grew up, raised our kids and did what old friends do. We wondered how the lives of our friends had turned out. A few years ago I found Nita in Bend…and after a couple years of being e-mail pen pals again, I found myself in Bend for the first time, to witness another Rainer football game there on neutral ground…And it was on that cold and cloudless night that she and Terry were to again meet after three decades…Ironic to have our again shivering Tillamook cheerleader in our midst, but this time sitting on the Rainier sideline between the two us, cheering on a different generation of combatants there…I hardly need tell what happened next…another Rainier victory, and two pink cheeked souls were smitten once again…Gotta love this happening for my good friends…

I gotta be honest. I’ve never known Terry to be this happy on a daily basis…even while dealing with the rigors of life, there has been a prevailing glad overture around him…and the music of his life has taken on a lovely tone. Nita is the salt of the earth…a mother, a great sister and daughter, but mostly a fantastic friend. Years ago I was speaking to my brother in law about my life, my numerous friends, my social circle and network of people. He spoke simply and eloquently…”I don’t need a lot of people in my life. I have what I need without all that. When I got married, I didn’t just marry your sister…I married my best friend. She’s all I need.” Here’s to words well spoken, and here’s to my lifelong friends today having married their best friend….I love you guys…MLL

 

 

 

 

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Fall trip to the coast…

Posted in Uncategorized on October 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I just spent five days nearer to the coast than is my desert home. Late October in the trees. Autumn was making a debut there. The fall colors weren’t quite ready for the complete show…as they will be that opening night. But the dress rehearsal I was privy to be treated with, was spectacular even in its limited fashion. I am to return there in a month and although I will miss the first night’s show and a few seats will be empty, I’m sure the production will be spectacular, colorful, fragrant, and a great segue to the next act; Winter.

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Track season 1975

Posted in inspirational, life lessons, nostalgia, people, Uncategorized on October 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Weekend of October 27, 2012
I traveled back to my youth this weekend…to the Oregon coast, Oregon Highway 30 and US 101.
I drove past the first running track (at Neahkahnie High School in Rockaway Beach Oregon) I attempted to compete on. I’m not sure I even finished that lap. I also passed by a few others…I ran the (then) 440 yard dash. It taught me of life…as it was also called a “gut race”. That first track looks much smaller now than it did then. I have no doubt I could no longer run them at any speed, but if I choose to walk, I could circle them for hours…Life teaches you that…slow but steady. Take your time, be on the ready. The key is being present at the end…and being effective as you journey.

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For their first dance…

Posted in Uncategorized on October 24, 2012| 3 Comments »

Some good friends of mine are being married this weekend, but I will be on the Oregon coast at another wedding that day. I offered to write a short piece to send them off to their dance as a married couple. Bob is an amazing drummer, hence the theme of music and drums in my piece…One of his children will read this after their vows and before they dance…MLL

Across the room…I saw you there. There was music, a curiosity, perhaps a desire, and mystery in the air.

Across the room there was a smile, a potential friend, a possibility…but across the room felt like a mile.

Across town, I thought about you, of where we were…of our future romance. And I felt the music, felt your pulse and your soul from way across town.

And I grew to love you while hearing the sound of (not so) distant drums…

I know now what I didn’t when I was younger…and that things will be right…because I feel a certainty and the welcome presence of romantic hunger. You feel like home.

A lot of life is spent without the music inside the heart. With just moments at a time when the song fills you…I think now there is always a song present, with just moments of silence. That is the way the soundtrack of life should be…moments of quiet to reflect, but mostly the sounds of (not so) distant drums…a rhythm, a melody, and sweet harmony.

There was music during our first meeting, and our first date. Perhaps we are the music now. Perhaps you are the song within me…

Now; my hand is yours, your hand is mine. Across the room a dance floor awaits the two of us. There’s a song that’s waiting to be played…one that will soon be our song.

Might I request this dance for the rest of our lives? From this Moment…we’ll feel the beat of not so distant drums. Might we join hands and have our first dance?

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Top Side Down and Bottom Side Up

Posted in kids' stories, life lessons, people, Uncategorized on October 3, 2012| 5 Comments »

My little girl looked up at me and said, “I love you daddy. Do you love me back?”

I said, “Do I love you back? I DO love you back…and you front and you sides too!”

She looked up at me with a question in her eyes and said, “What about the top and the bottom? Do you love them too?”

I thought about it for a minute and finally said, “But what happens if you stand on your head, and your top ends up on the bottom, and your bottom winds up on the top? How will I know which end is which? And how will I know how to love your downside up bottom and upside down top ?”

She looked at me with a frown, sighed a heavy sigh and told me, “It doesn’t really matter at all, which side is up and which side is down. The top and the bottom are all still me. Even if you turn them upside down or downside up. No matter which way they are pointing, they are still me to love.”

I thought really hard…and then I got all confused and had to ask, “But what about your favorite cup? If I turn the top to the bottom, and the bottom to the top, then there are just sides and a bottom, but there is no top. And then there is no inside to fill up. I just don’t understand. Then is it still really a cup? If there is no place to put milk, or water, or juice to drink up?

My girl thought for a bit and finally said, “Even if my favorite cup is just a bottom without a top…there is still a place for the drink to be…but now it is just underneath, can’t you see?

I told her, “Kinda…I kinda can see.”

My little girl just smiled…and she said to me, “You know about my feet and you know about my head. You still know what they are even if my feet point to the up and my head points to the down. EVEN if my pointing down face gets red, you can still see my nose and my eyes and the other parts of my head. All my parts are still there for you to love. And my heart is always right there where it should be, and it always belongs to you… You are still you, and I am still me. Please always remember what I just said. I’m still me no matter which way you see. ”

And I thought and I fought to remember what she had just said. And I was afraid I might have forgot…but just to be sure, I asked her this to help me remember what I was afraid I had not.

I said, “So even if the lights go off or we’re outside in the dark, and I can’t see your back or your front, or your bottom and your top? Even if I can’t see your eyes and your nose and your ears and the other parts? And if I’m not really sure if all the parts are still in the right places, are all of the things I cannot see, still your back, front, top, bottom, and face? Even if my eyes don’t see, are you still you and am I still me?”

She was quiet for a while, because she knew I had to have a minute before I could see the parts about all of this inside the thinking place in me…And then she looked up again, and asked if I could kneel down so I could see her better, and she could better see me…and she told me to “listen real good cause this is the way things are and the way things always will be…”

She put one hand on each side of my cheeks, and looked into my eyes and said to me;

“Pay close attention, cause this is the last time I’m going to mention…That even if I’m in another place where you can’t see me, it won’t really matter if you can’t see my back or my top or my face or my feet…Even if my bottom is on top, or my top is on the bottom…You’ll still be you and I’ll still be me…and you can still love what you cannot see. That is the way it always was, and always will be. So now you know that I will always love you and you can always love me.”

And then I told her, “I would always remember what she had just said, but now I was tired, so it was time for her to go to bed.”

Then my little girl looked at me with a frown, but then she winked and turned the frown down side up to be a smile and said, “I’m tired too from untangling things in your upside down head, so good night mixed up man. I love you back, and you front and you bottom and top too. Good night to all of you daddy, I’m going to bed.”

I told her, “I kinda already knew what she had just said, cause girls love their daddies, and daddies love their girls. That is the way it always was and always will be.”

My little girl is really smart. Smart as can be.

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A garden gives thanks at summer’s end…for Glenda

Posted in Gardening, inspirational, life lessons, people, seasons, Uncategorized on September 21, 2012| 1 Comment »

A fall garden gives thanks…till after the dark spell.

There comes an autumn night when the first dew descends and blesses the petals, leaves, blades and shrub. From the day last spring you gave fresh life to the soil with your nurturing hands, all of these have waited for a fall day to thank you for your touch, the quiet songs you sing as you tend, weed, and do the things to bring life and beauty to this corner lot of town growing old.

A show of thanks to the gardener…

From a day in early April that first saw life given you…annual volunteers and nursery flats have all known of your love…the love you give and absorb in return from shoot and stem, infant leaves still pale and taut in wait of warmer afternoons. And the feel of joy from bud and blossoms for the touch and tending from knowing hands, still lingers on in September.

Therapy by Mother Nature…

And just as you had waited for brighter noons and longer days, in quiet anticipation of the unfurling and uncurling of leaf and bloom, now the seasoned plants there can feel one last gratuitous standing ovation for you before slumber and decay coincide with warmer socks, a sweater, and brisker walks for the gardener and her friend.

For nearly six months, she has had her regular therapy gleaned from soil and sun, breeze, and fresh air there among the beds and bushes, bulbs and long stems. Convening with nature, in solitude among the crowds of flowers and songbirds, dragonflies, honey bees, and ladybugs. So even out here on her own, the gardener is never truly alone.

A place for tools to rest till spring…

Come October, even the heartier plants have to succumb under urges to yawn and slip into slumber…And the gloves and tools, save the leaf rakes, will find a place in a dark shed, a corner to lean against, or a drawer to nestle in. And there will be a solemn rolling up of hoses and draining of the ancient pump there next to the driveway under a mantle of trees. The canal will be let to run dry as the winter wheat takes root and the grape crush hopes it’s a good year and finds itself a place behind a coveted label…

The way to home in October

Life doesn’t end with the hibernation of the gardens in the lot there on Cascade Street, but the earth does rest, collect winter waters, and spent leaves that cascade back to the life giving ground in a layer of thanks.

And the gardener will tend to the stuff of the cooler and cold dark months. She will be grateful for the rest of the knees, back, and hands. And she will remember the first bloom, and the early morning autumn dew there on the leaves…the strands of gossamer giving flight to the spider after duty there is through…

Nature’s artisans…spiders and morning dew.

And she will remember how time spent with sunshine, water, and earth fed her soul for another year…and will sustain her till the dark months once more give way to the melt and lengthening of days…Matthew Landsman

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