Clouds

Yesterday, 5 September 2011, I saw the most beautiful clouds i have ever seen in my life. Clouds enthrall me, i can spend hours simply watching them and seeing all kinds of things within them.

Joni mitchell sang about clouds, well ok the song was really about love. but I don't get why she didn't understand them. they flow into our lives, are sometimes white and puffy like cottonballs, sometimes dark and pregnant with precipitation.


The clouds I am referring to from yesterday, were a brilliant contrast of brilliantly bright over-layed by dark charcoal, creating breath-stopping beauty. The white clouds were under-lit by the sun and shone brilliant white to yellow and pink tinged works of art.

While we are on the subject, how many of you out there see things in clouds. This month, I saw a seahorse, an octopus, an raccoon, and a dragon, and my favorite; a dog splayed out taking a nap. I tried to get Harper to look up and see the doggy, but she was too intent on sniffing the ground and chasing squirrels.

Let me hear from all you cloud gazers out there.What have you seen lately in the clouds?

Snippets of conversations overheard.

While sunning at North Beach yesterday, I heard two young women talking as they passed my blanket, here is what I heard.

"His dreds are so long."

"They are so gross!"

"Do you know how long it's been since Spenser washed his hair?"

"It has been years, I am sure of it."

"Eeew, that is so gross."

Where in Racine,WI Can I Find Persian Food?

Do you love Persian food? If you are a local, Racinian? Racinite?, looking for a great place to eat, I've got the place for you,. George's on Main Street, in the community of River North. The humble-looking, one-time pub turned Persian restaurant, is actually owned by David and Soosan Popoff. George's has actually stood on the corner of Hamilton and Main since 1946, David and Soosan are simply changing their focus to yummy fresh-cooked, authentic, Persian food.

There is something for everyone. Each dish is prepared fresh for you, by Soosan herself. Personally, I cannot enter the door without having some of her Shirazi, a salad of diced tomatoes, onion, cucumber, coucous, parsley and herbs all lightly flavored with her unique, light, and refreshing Persian vinaigrette. Give me more, give me more! And Soosan's hummus is addictive! Be sure to ask for another order to take home, because you will wake up in the middle of the night wanting just one last bite, it is that good. If you have never tried hummus, a wonderfully healthy appetizer of ground garbanzo beans, tahini(ground sesame seeds), garlic, artichoke, lemon, and olive oil, that you dip pita bread into and delight your taste-buds to Heaven and back, George's is the place to try it! I have eaten hummus from California to St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and this is one unique and delicious secret recipe.

Some of the other delicious menu items, include: Kabob Koobideh, so good, so light, this dish of lean ground beef, served on yummy Basmati rice with grilled tomatoes and a side of that special salad Shirazi, is perfect for lunch or dinner. If you love stuffed peppers (filled with delicious yellow split peas) seasoned with Soosan's secret Persian spices, and simmered in tomato sauce, call ahead to make sure there are any left, they are to die for, and one of my favorite's!

So, you've got the kids with you, and they absolutely will not eat anything that doesn't say 100% Pure Beef Patty, with American Cheese on it? No problem, George's also has a few American standards, like cheeseburgers, pizza, and chicken salad. Although, I think Soosan's Chicken salad is refreshing and tastes better than mine, which means it is delicious, because mine is dog-goned great! ;>)

So, walk, jog, drive, ride your bike, whatever, just get down to George's and try out this terrific find of a place and their wonderful food.  They serve lunch, Tuesday through Friday from 11am until 2pm, and dinner from 5 to 8pm. Saturday and Sunday, they open at 10am.

خوردن مبارک  (Happy eating!)

Sometimes Black is Just a Safe Place To Be

Sometimes black is the only safe place for me, the only place where the bad

Does not follow me. In the black I am not suffocated by the sad.

Unless you have been taken by the hand and visited the screeching pain,

I say it, not once, but over and over, and over again.

Don't even try to judge me.

Unless your chemistry dips and agitation and turmoil rules.

Unless your brain cannot remember what it forgot, and the world's idea of what will help turns out to be useless tools,

Don't even try to judge me.

When,

You have felt the frightening questions that wail around you, pushing, gnawing, scraping at your heart, taunting.

Then please don't judge me until you understand how truly daunting,

Unless the fear of forever standing in your room and calling out, "I don't know!"

"I do not know!" Unless all the day, or the long-lasting night, you tear at your hair and cry, "I don't know!"

Until you have tasted the streams of salt, your own rivers of tears,

Until even the beating of your own heart drives your deepest fears,

Unless you have felt each rasping gasp of breath,

Punish your burning chest with a fiery death

Ever onward, ever further away, far from the light of day, far from the safety of the good light.

Until it is either hide some place safe, or surrender to the forever night.

Please don't think of judging me,

Not until these, or perhaps even deeper, or worse are your reality.

Black is the only safe place to be.

When the battering voices, or patterned-churning sound to chaos have given way,

When all you can do is wonder if it will really, truly, ever be safe again to venture into a broader day,

If, in the dark, the wind is still, and the pain recedes, and every thought or feeling in your mind doesn't strike a stinging blow,

Or try to tear apart the you, that is your soul; then there is no doubt; you know that black is the only safe place where you can go.

Until a small, gentle stir initiates a slight change, and the air and light, and blue begin to cease to burn,

When hope returns, slowly at first, and you begin to think, maybe there is some place else to turn,

Oh please maybe, another place to go to, to reach out of the black, oh safe, safe black.

Be calm, breathe deep, take some moments, lest it claim you back.

Once you have tested the walls, and the sound, and found they can once again be calming and still,

And you find coming back within your reach, that wonder of; maybe it will.

Once you have taken a deep, deep, slow, slow breath, and asked, "Can you see your way to be?"

Are you able once again to stand, and boldly, clearly say; "Hi, it's me?"

Then,

Don't you dare to judge me, and say that you would always fight, fight, fight!

I have come back to stand here and say, sometimes I must take flight!

Sometimes, black is the only safe place to be.

One thing more, I know, it is not only true for just me.

For all of you who know and understand, how it is not always safe to be you, me, we.

I say to you, I understand how sometimes; black is the safest place to be.

An original poem by Joyceanne Edell

22 February 2011