They say never judge a book by its cover and oh my how true that is…at times. Our exterior cover can send a false impression of who we are, looking glamorous on the outside and being foul on the inside. Or we could look menacing on the outside and be a pussycat on the inside. Or our book cover can portray exactly what’s on the inside, good or horrific.
Once the mouth is open, the contents on the inside spill out, where no judgment is needed to see the true self exposed.
Red velvet ant (Dasymutilla Occidentalis)
Some call me a creepy critter
some call me a cow killer
I’m really known as the red velvet ant
but I’m actually a wasp, now isn’t that a thriller?
Halloween can stir up some creepy characters and creepy critters, sending goosebumps up and down our spine. Sometimes the creepiness is a common occurrence, not needing a special occasion to take its creepiness to another level.
The reputation of the wingless female Red Velvet Ant’s sting is so potent and painful, it is said that it could kill a cow. Red velvet male ants have no stingers but do have wings. Although they are not deadly to humans, you should still be cautious around them or you may feel like a dying cow! 
It is said that if you break a mirror, it brings seven years of bad luck for you. I’m not sure about that because I haven’t been keeping count. But, what happens when a mirror looks at people who are broken or breaking? Does the mirror get the bad luck thrusted back upon them by being hung on a wall for an indefinite period of time?
People pass by me all day long, making obscene, inappropriate funny and horrific jesters at me. I can’t complain, I can’t yell back at them when they yell at me, I can’t expose myself to them in the manner they expose themselves to me. Some kiss me, although I feel no affection or stimulation, only smudges. Some stand and cry heartbroken, feeling guilty, hurt or wounded, looking at me reflecting back on them and I am unable to sob with them. Then there are those cryptic messages written on me by a tube of lipstick that makes you stop, read and wonder.
I see that something is eating at the core of many people and I am unable to reach out, touch them and reassure them that it’s going to be alright, although it may not be easy. And of course, there are those narcissists constantly looking at me, asking me to tell them how fair and great they are. It is then that I want to shout how sinful they are and advise them to take off their self-centered blinders, and then take a close look at themselves and change their ways.
You can’t imagine the hundreds and thousands of people who come before me each day to primp or to say affirmations to themselves. Some ask some inappropriate questions but they only want answers to satisfy their salacious appetites. If I could answer back, they probably couldn’t handle the truth and they would probably take off running in the opposite direction if a mirror starts speaking back to them!
Image Credit: Pamela Weaver
We get up each day, sometimes focusing on a long list of things to do, feeling the pressure of those things we have no control over. Yet, how do we live, I mean truly live? Do we merely exist or do we matter? Do we act like we have substance and something to contribute to the lives of others?
When I read this poem “The Dash” by Linda Ellis years ago, it made me think about my life, to question how I loved, what I contributed to others, and how to change those things within my power to live and do better. I’m sure you probably read this poem before. In light of so many lives lost for a myriad of reasons among family, friends or acquaintances, it is imperative that we stop, reflect and respond to do better and live better.
I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning… to the end.
He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.
For that dash represents all the time they spent alive on earth and now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.
For it matters not, how much we own, the cars… the house… the cash. What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.
So think about this long and hard; are there things you’d like to change? For you never know how much time is left that still can be rearranged.
To be less quick to anger and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile… remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.
So when your eulogy is being read, with your life’s actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you lived your dash?
Image Source: Tripadvisor.com – Guest at the Whitelaw Hotel taking an infinity mirror picture
I’m being drawn into a fractal of mystery
a mirrored image reflecting an infinite path
pulled into this labyrinth, a vortex of intrigue
this scientific illusion, a spiral of calculated math.
Designers know when a room has mirrors placed on opposite walls, the room takes on an illusion of looking much larger than it is. This morning as I combed my hair, I looked in the mirror on the wall opposite of mine to check the back of my hair and saw a sight I’ve seen many times before. Yet this morning that mirrored image pulsated before me.
There appeared many “me’s” meandering through the ethos in an infinite path of illusion. How breathtaking, this neverending trail of fascination before me!
Walk on by, dismiss my presence
I look ordinary, my body unnoticeable in a homeless encampment
yet all you see is your first impression of me
a morsel of nothingness, disregarded value in your sight
you didn’t notice and couldn’t see, to you I am like all the others
one day you pass by me, and someone helped to brush away my dirt
helped to clean me up and chipped away the rough edges
it was then that you noticed, came near, drawn to my amplified light
you sacrifice everything, bidding, yearning to be graced by my presence
I am exposed, layer by layer, a liberated gem born in the rough
you fought to get near me, I pitied your arrogance beneath me
but in my compassion, I am too valuable to treat you the way you treated me
now it is you who is exposed, shades of darkness consumed by greed.
The ripple effect of quacks this morning was an improv of laughter. It seemed like one duck told a joke and another quacked like The Penguin from Batman.
The next thing you know a chorus of quacks followed and then I laughed, not knowing the secret duckie joke, or even if it was a duckie argument, but it was quite a “quackable” moment!
