Morning Glory

"Good Glory Morning!"  copyright 2011 by Caris Cerdwyn, all rights reserved

Glory...Something old fashioned about that word.  You find it a lot in the bible.  Southern preachers enjoy using it, rolling it out...stretching it into something like G   a    l   o   w   r   y!!!!!!  With many exclamation points behind it.  A friend and I sometimes like to use that version of the word when something especially wonderful happens and deserves some celebration.

I believe, don't quote me on this, but I believe the flower above is a morning glory.  A really wonderful flower that loves the morning.  There used to be a cafe where I enjoyed going for breakfast with a particular friend, and it was called "The Morning Glory."  Great food!  I vouch for their oatmeal pancakes with walnut butter and maple syrup!  Heaven.  If you're ever in Ashland, Oregon stop in for a visit.   My friend B. and I went there the first week it opened many years ago...before it became so hugely popular.  Now if you go, plan to wait!  Anyway, way back, and probably still, their menus had this haiku written on it.  

I am one
Who eats his breakfast,
Gazing at morning glories.
                                Matsuo Basho 

Simplicity is always the most elegant speech.


Morning and "glory" are words that go well together.  My ventures out into the now, tasting-of-autumn, early morning air have been such a gift.   Flowers and deer, sunrise and water, great herons and jumping fish, a happy dog...the mornings are a great wealth of "G a l o w r y y y y"

And this little flower speaks so simply of her own truth.

Oh, and this is a P.S., My very favorite spot for breakfast in this area is The Double Day Cafe in Cooperstown.  Super, super!  Great waitstaff, terrific food, (always love their oatmeal with walnuts and fruit.)

The Smallest Unit of Life

Wow...we have finished Unit One in Anatomy and Physiology.  The photo to the left is from Wikipedia, and is taken of red blood cells.  Drs. Noguchi, Rodgers, and Schechter of NIDDK were the photographers.  Do you know what the largest cell in the world is?  An ostrich egg.  That's wild!  Do you know how to identify whether or not something is alive?

Do you realize?  And do you recognize
that there are six characteristics to life! 
Yes, six characteristics to life.
If it can respond and reproduce
                                        Grow, metabolize
                                        Move and Differentiate
                                        It matters not the size,
                                        It is alive
                                        if it has the six characteristics of life.

This little ditty is supposed to be spoken a bit like Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. 

My brain is a bit saturated with this stuff, so I took a nice long walk at one of the waterfalls in the area.  How this place feeds my soul!  Up to overflowing and then some.   All of these billions of cells that make up my being, sloshed along (you see we're 60-75% made up of water!  So I think that's why we human beings love the water so much.  I walked by the water, soaking up the sunshine despite the cold air.  It's enough to want to shout like some Baptist Preacher from the south:  "GaLOOOOW-RY!!  Gorgeous and glorious filling me up with pure happiness.