Happy New Year, Everyone!

2015, you broke my heart.

I Got A New Coloring Book And Coloring Pens For Christmas

It took two days to color and was worth the time I put in.

Feliz Navidad Mis Amigos

Snow Dog

James R. Shannon US Navy 1943-1946

Just Thought You Would Like To Know

Bastille Day 2015

July 14, 1789, storming of the Bastille (fort) in Paris.

Happy Independence Day!

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."

Let's PARTY!

Father's Day 2015

My father late 1950s. This is how I remember him looking- crew-cut, ears that stuck out a bit, and blue eyes.

-My sister's beautiful story about searching for a connection to our father.

Moving forward,  Father's Day When You Have A Bad Dad

Memorial Day Weekend 2015

Mother's Day Poem

My mother is like a humming bird,
flitting from one flower to another without staying long at any one.
My mother is the color of the undersides of storm clouds,
reflecting brilliant white one second and then swiftly changing to black the next.

My mother is like an earthquake who's ground I did not stand on securely. I never knew when that ground would crumble beneath me.
My mother is the sound of waves on the beach,
sometimes crashing over me and threatening to drown me;
other times gently massaging my toes.

My mother will always be the smell of Coty's Emeraude,
who's scent still brings back the feeling of pride I had whenever I saw her dressed to the nines.
My mother is the feeling of sadness and loss of a life lived in fear and regret.

My mother is like the texture of a rock smoothed by years of being tumbled over the sandy bottom of a raging river.
My mother is like the taste of cotton candy
who's flavor would disappear just as it was dissolved by the warmth of the inside of my mouth.

My mother is the daughter of Athena who's wisdom she was not able to pass on to her own daughters.
My mother is like the Langston Hughes poem "A Dream Deferred,"
A raisin in the sun,
Gone and never to return. 
-Colleen Shannon (2006)

Light Shadows 25

Happy Easter, everyone.

What do you know, the Easter Bunny made it to my neighborhood this year.

Martin Luther King, JR. Day

Bearing Gifts We Travel Afar

Snow, Snow, Snow

New Year's Eve 2014- a beautiful, clear, crisp evening.

Happy New Year!

Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear.

Some Christmas Photos

Christmas Eve with a fire in the fireplace and my sister playing with her dog.

Christmas Eve tree.

Santa Crock!

Christmas Day with my husband, me, dogs and Santa Crock.*

Yesterday in the backyard. Now I understand the phrase, "blanket of snow."

*It was just starting to snow lightly when my sister took this photo.  By the next morning there was 6 inches of snow on the ground.   So, technicality we had a white Christmas.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Christmas would not be Christmas without Darlene Love singing Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) on The David Letterman show. She has been on the show every December since 1986. Below is her original 1963 recording (God, she sounds so young), a compilation of all her Letterman appearances up to 2013 and her final appearance on the show from this year. She just keeps getting better and better.











(Christmas)
The snow's coming down
(Christmas)
I'm watching it fall
(Christmas)
Lots of people around
(Christmas)
Baby, please come home

(Christmas)
The church bells in town
(Christmas)
All ringing in song
(Christmas)
Full of happy sounds
(Christmas)
Baby, please come home

They're singing "Deck The Halls"
But it's not like Christmas at all
'Cause I remember when you were here
And all the fun we had last year

(Christmas)
Pretty lights on the tree
(Christmas)
I'm watching them shine
(Christmas)
You should be here with me
(Christmas)
Baby, please come home

(Instrumental interlude)

They're singing "Deck The Halls"
But it's not like Christmas at all
'Cause I remember when you were here
And all the fun we had last year

(Christmas)
If there was a way
(Christmas)
I'd hold back this tear
(Christmas)
But it's Christmas day
(Please)
Please
(Please)
Please
(Please)
Please
(Please)
Please
(Please)
Please
(Please)
Please
((Please)
Baby, please come home

Do You See What I See?