Next fall when you see geese heading south for the winter... flying along in V formation...you might consider what science has discovered as to why they fly that way:

As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in V formation the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range, than if each bird flew on its own.

People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone... and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front. If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed the same way we are.

When the head goose gets tired it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point. It is sensible to take turns doing demanding jobs...with people or with geese flying south.

Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. What do we say when we honk from behind?

Finally...and this is important...when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunshots, and falls out of formation, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or until it dies, and only then do they launch out on their own, or with another formation to catch up with their group.

If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other in like manner.

Goose Send-off
A Migration Poem by Owen Neill

The voice of ancient gossamer
rises still its ancient way
in the quiet thunder eager wings
trying what the north winds say.

What do winds whisper in clever ears
that makes the time to go just right?
The wonder is the mesage comes
to all at once like second sight.

Preparation, patient, strong
born from the egg with what they need
each bird follows its primal plan
ten thousand years could not impede.

We came, once with reckless sway
and cut across the natural flow.
But now repentance pricks us on
as we repair the status quo.

We set the wild geese wild once more.
We hatch, imprint and train the flock.
We run, then fly, again, again
until we share the same bloodstock.

Man and bird are strangely one
yet each cannot know the other.
Along the route soon remembered well
the wild and tame are somehow brother.

The goal is fixed in the mind as one.
All eyes peel the horizon away.
It's time to soar where long ago
all nature held its solemn sway.

Motion liquid below autumn clouds
a man-bird combination flies.
Like an ancient myth we integrate
and put sweet mytery in our eyes.

A wrong is righted heroically.
A beauty we have never known
gives hope our world at least in part
will reap the harvest we have modestly sown.

The voice of ancient gossamer
rises again its ancient way
in the quiet mystery of new born winds.
They know again what the north winds say.

Heaven's dawn by Cypress-flanked gate
at first sight morning mist refrains
from seizing this God-given day
now sunrise steals a beau geste smile
drip-fed rays a certain appeasement
my antidotal replenishment
these days-
running in mind, I turn another page
an atonement delivered within a maze
sealed gratefully by cherry lips
and a brown-eyed reflection
motion of days clutching progress
forerunner of health mannered the cure
a manikineko of graceful claw
then, as now, pain will thaw
through Cypress-flanked gate of such allure.

c-lauren6

A driving school test
The following are a sampling of real answers received on exams given by the California Department of Transportation's driving school.

Q: Do you yield when a blind pedestrian is crossing the road?
A: What for? He can't see my license plate.

Q: Who has the right of way when four cars approach a four-way stop at the same time?
A: The pick up truck with the gun rack and the bumper sticker saying, "Guns don't kill people. I do."

Q: When driving through fog, what should you use?
A: Your car.

Q: How can you reduce the possibility of having an accident?
A: Be too drunk to find your keys.

Q: What problems would you face if you were arrested for drunk driving?
A: I'd probably lose my buzz a lot faster.

Q: What changes would occur in your lifestyle if you could no longer drive lawfully?
A: I would be forced to drive unlawfully.

Q: What are some points to remember when passing or being passed?
A: Make eye contact and wave "hello" if she is cute.

Q: What is the difference between a flashing red traffic light and a flashing yellow traffic light?
A: The color.

Q: How do you deal with heavy traffic?
A: Heavy psychedelics.

Q: What can you do to help ease a heavy traffic problem?
A: Carry loaded weapons.

Q: Why would it be difficult to be a police officer?
A: It would be tough to be an idiot all day long.

* Yello

* The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water" The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

* Next Sunday is the family hayride and bonfire at the Fowlers'. Bring your own hot dogs and
guns. Friends are welcome! Everyone come for a fun time.

* Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.

* Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

* At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early andlisten to our choir practice.

* The Lutheran men's group will meet at 6 PM. Steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread and dessert will be served for a nominal feel.

* Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person(s) you want remembered.

* The church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and gracious hostility.

* Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 P.M.-prayer and medication to follow.

* The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.

* This evening at 7 P.M. there will be a hymn sing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.

"You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead."

-Stan Laurel in "Brats"

I've never felt seasick
is such a lie
whether in a force 9
or the relief of a sigh
wavering between doubt,
harbouring fears
those white horses
recalling the tears
where horizons are never still
until touched by the moment
of a past greeting a future
sailing side-by-side.

-lauren6

"Doctors at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York have gone on strike. Hospital officials say they will find out what the Doctors' demands are as soon as they can get a pharmacist over there to read the picket signs!"

A man goes to his doctor and says, "I don't think my wife's hearing isn't as good as it used to be. What should I do?" The doctor replies, "Try this test to find out for sure.
When your wife is in the kitchen doing dishes, stand fifteen feet behind her and ask her a question, if she doesn't respond keep moving closer asking the question until she hears you."

The man goes home and sees his wife preparing dinner. He stands fifteen feet behind her and says, "What's for dinner, honey?" He gets no response, so he moves to ten feet behind her and asks again. Still no response, so he moves to five feet. still no answer. Finally he stands directly behind her and says, "Honey, what's for dinner?" She replies, "For the fourth time, I SAID CHICKEN!"

Tree and Sky by Siegfried Sassoon

Let my soul, a shining tree,
Silver branches lift towards thee,
Where on a hallowed winter’s night
The clear-eyed angels may alight.

And if there should be tempests in
My spirit, let them surge like din
Of noble melodies at war;
With fervour of such blades of triumph as are
Flashed in white orisons of saints who go
On shafts of glory to the ecstasies they know.

How lovely you are
heartwarmingly so
with every vista
my hinterland impacted by you
Through great pains
no hindrance felt
within your splendidness
my energies are best put
moments beside you
never come too soon
yet last hopefully
to the end of our shadow cast

Forgotten life
in order to save this
suffering and expression
now split perfectly
in two
the writing of words
knows no pain
yet hurting without description
-a broken spine untreatable
with a sentence unspeakable.

I've just got home, after a few scary hours in hospital. My medication put enormous strain on my heart and became rather dangerous...however, I'm safe from harm now, but it was a bit too close for comfort.
The doctor's have finally agreed to reduce, even stop my absurdly powerful medicine, realising that the negative side-effects FAR OUTWEIGH the slight benefits.
I know, I know..

Driving home as a passenger, from hospitalisation, the radio played "Body Talk" by Imagination, with the slowly sinking afternoon sun...I never realised just how good that song can sound, when your mind is tuned right...maybe I just caught the inspiration right.

Morning, afternoon, and night
We lay together side by side
Searchin' for lust
Searchin' for breath
Searchin' for the touch of life

No words are spoken
the only sound we hear
is body talk, body talk

The heat of passion is such
a beautiful thing as it overflows
Pleasure grows all the dreams it can bring
Ooh, your lips in my eyes and gentle sighs
With body talk, body talk

Cool and kind, so soft and pure, a touching moment
Heated feelings once explode, but have melted
We were two souls torn apart with bitter ages
Through expression not aggression, we have become one

Body talk, body talk

Cool and kind, so soft and pure, a touching moment
Heated feelings once explode, but have melted
We are two souls torn apart with bitter ages
Through expression not aggression, we have become one

Searchin' for lust
Searchin' for breath
Searchin' for the touch of life

No words are spoken
the only sound we hear
is body talk, body talk, body talk, body talk, body talk

[Body Talk] Ooh Now sugar
[Body Talk] Aah aah aah
[Body Talk] Oh ah
[Body Talk] Baa dee dee daa
[Body Talk] Ooh body to body

"Body Talk": Imagination.

The one hand seeks delight
the other in hesitation
curled and introverted this night
belies both touch and sight

Early promise petered-out
dampened
such optimism
into faded minimalism

Outstretched emotion
lurching to-and-fro
dizzying heights
passing highlights

Another sip, another line
today's test of time
fortune faded,
or simply foretold

Never a foregone conclusion
determining the gold,
a devil's swing
an almighty cut and sting

Still seeking and searching
hope and faith well-travelled,
companiable when alone
dreams now set the tone

Right into sleep
left the day at peace
through emotions I've been
tomorrow waits to be seen.

-lauren6

And finally the sound of rain
clattering on Sycamore leaves
all else falls silent
watching, waiting
for such company
now on edge,
expectant
for one and all
a day, a year
rising and setting
terms of convenience
as day turns to night
standing guard
for the closing ceremony.

-lauren6

Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half sorrow.
Swedish proverb

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, And the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
Buddha (This one is for ganesharocks!)

The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure.
Francoise de Motteville

When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy.
Oscar Wilde

Whoever is happy will make others happy too.
Anne Frank

Learn to be calm and you will always be happy
Paramhansa Yogananda

Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.
Scottish Proverb

Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up.
Jesse Jackson

I feel a deep affinity with Vincent
Van Gogh. I once cut off my fingernails
and gave them to an ex-girlfriend.

(Tom Sims)

The good news: My new manager has
humongous tits. The bad news: He
yells at me for staring at them.

(Nick Smith)

Why is it that a boy who can kill 300
alien mutants in five minutes on an Xbox
can't hit the toilet bowl when he pees?

(Phil Garding)

Never mind the Da Vinci code --
what about the Picasso code?
Does ANYBODY know what those things are?

(Billy "Croc" Coats)

Somehow "our song" just isn't as
romantic now that they're using it
in an erectile dysfunction ad.

(Jerry L. Embry)

Say what you want, but depression does
have its benefits. For instance, I used
to have a fear of flying, but now when
I get on a plane, I really don't give
a crap if it reaches its destination.

(Ian Dauphinee)

Pebbles
bubbles
giggles
and doubles
but a few
of pleasures simple
that pass too soon
with time's marching dragoon.

-lauren6

Any language is a supreme achievement of a uniquely human collective genius, as divine and endless a mystery as a living organism.

-Michael Krauss, linguist

The loss of a language is part of the more general loss being suffered by the world, the loss of diversity in all things.

-Ken Hale, linguist.

(Both appear in "The Language Instinct" by Steven Pinker.

A collective crowd
hangs in balance
beneath the greatest cloud
now all is resemblance.

[I was reading Pinker's book, and KK's blog, and both prompted me to post the two linguist's words. Thanks KK!]

A storm, the edge of dryness
rumbling-on and bubbling-up
brewing, a hunger acruing
where drought and flood
are preordained to meet
in one pulsating, cascading beat
an offering, a sacrifice
now the gift of rain will suffice.

-lauren6

[After half a dozen 'beefy' storms passed us by throughout July, here in Norfolk, tonight, finally, one has blessed our parched earth with a downpour, but it may be too much in one go, running into the depleted rivers and out to sea. But no complaints this time!]

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Are we on-track
aligned or alloyed?
meeting our targets
obsessed with headsets

Or would we prefer
a simple caress
behind an embrace
defining the place

If it's true
that money corrupts
then it's also true
that love renews, absolutely

Hope to cherish
belief to continue
the future path
already with you.

-lauren6

After one year of having this blog, I will enter the description of lovely Wensum...the reason for this blog's name, is of course the river...

The River Wensum is a river in Norfolk, England and a tributary of the River Yare. The source of the Wensum lies between the villages of Colkirk and Whissonsett in Norfolk. The river flows westward initially through the village of Raynham passing close to Raynham Hall, home of the Marquis Townshend. The river then turns and follows a path to the north flowing through a number of small villages. An 18th century water mill (now a hotel and restaurant) bridges the river at Sculthorpe. The river then turns and flows to the east through the market town of Fakenham where it is bridged by another c18 water mill that was in use until 1979. The river then flows in a south easterly direction passing through the Pensthorpe Nature reserve and the village of Great Ryburgh.
The river then flows onwards through the villages Great Witchingham, Lenwade and Taverham before entering the City of Norwich. The river then merges with the river Yare to the south of the city before flowing eastward through Breydon Water to the North Sea at Great Yarmouth.

The river is navigable from the centre of Norwich to its confluence with the River Yare.

wikipedia.

AFRONT- in front
AHIND - behind
ATWIN - between
BISHY BARNEY BEE-Lady Bird
BOR - neighbour or boy
BRED AND BORN - Norfolk purists insist this is the proper order not"born and bred"
COR BLARST ME! - favourite Norfolk expletive along "Well,I'll be blowed!" lines
DEW YEW KEEP A TROSHIN! - carry on with the threshing - but is another way of saying "goodbye" or "look after yourself"
DUDDER - to shiver "all of a dudder"
GUZUNDER - CHAMBER POT(guzunder the bed!)
HOLD YEW HARD! - Hang on a moment
JIP - aggravation,annoyance in the sense of pain
JOLLIFICEARTIONS - fun, joviality
LEND US A LUG - asking someone else to listen into a conversation for you(this is one of my father's expressions!)
LOKE - lane or alley,usually enclosed
LOLLOP - to progress slowly
LUMMOX - clumsy or ungainly person("git yew out o'the way yew gret lummox!")
MARDLE - 1.to gossip,chat at leisure;2 a village pond
MAWTHER - girl or young woman
OLD YEAR'S NYTE -New Year's Eve
ON THE HUH - awry,slanted or not level
RUM - curious,strange,funny
SQUIT - talking nonsense
TITTY-TOTTY - Very small
WARMINT - varmint or vermin,troublesome person "come here you young warmint I'll sort yew out!"
NOTE:many words beginning with V take a W start in Norfolk - warmint,wittles and willage among them.There are also examples of the letter being changed in the middle of the word i.e. aggravating becomes aggraweartin.

ZACKLEY - exactly ("thass zackly ryte!")

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/5564/dictionary.html

NORFOLK PHRASES IN DIALECT

I got suffen a-shew yo: I've got something to show you
Um nowagorn: I'm now going
Tha's a lotta ol squit: That's a lot of nonsense
Hold y'r blaaren': Stop crying
As loike this 'ere: 'ere It's like this
Cor,yu do look queer: You don't look very well!
Garpen outa the winder: Looking out of the window
Yu'll larf th'other side a y'r kisser sune: You wont find that very funny soon
U'l ding yu over: I'll hit you
Um hoolly dry: I'm very thirsty
I'll box your chops: I'll smack your cheeks
Verra loikely: Possibly

Norfolk ways;

PAST He say,
PRESENT I say,
FUTURE I'll say
A sentence thus constructed would be unintelligible to other than an East Anglian, viz:

"go he say I say,du I dint I say,but he will keep on a-sayen' so I'll say......"

The above phrases and tenses were taken from an East Anglian Magazine dated April 1960. It was written by The Rev.A.D.Jones,A.L.C.D.

Link

It's happy
this morning anew
the sky shines through
blues and whites
hazes from the night
shrieking Jay's pass
lavender scents
July's aflame
yesterday survived
today's for you.

-lauren6

Men judge by the complexion of the sky
The state and inclination of the day.
- William Shakespeare

Much may be lost
falling by the wayside
without passing the test of time
a fact not given merely in isolation
yet! there's something, I am sure
-there being two gems remaining-
of one it is you
within a heart created for two
to combine and entwine embodies
a beautiful essence of oneness
thus life becomes liveable
as love belays the unbridgeable.

* VIRUS ALERT *

If you receive an email entitled "Badtimes" delete it immediately. Do not open it! It will not only erase everything on your hard drive, but it will also delete anything on disks within 20 feet of your computer.

It demagnetises the stripes on ALL of your credit cards.

It reprograms your ATM access code, screws up the tracking on your VCR and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you attempt to play.

It will re-calibrate your refrigerator's coolness settings so all your ice cream melts and your milk curdles.

It will program your phone autodial to call only your mother-in-law's number.

This virus will mix antifreeze into your fish tank.

It will drink all your beer.

It will leave dirty socks on the coffee table when you are expecting company.

Its radioactive emissions will cause your toe jam and bellybutton fuzz (be honest, you have some) to migrate behind your ears.

It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine, all while dating your current boy/girlfriend behind your back and billing their hotel rendezvous to your Visa card.

It will cause you to run with scissors and throw things in a way that is only fun until someone loses an eye.

It will give you Dutch Elm Disease and Tinea.

It will rewrite your backup files, changing all your active verbs to passive tense and incorporating undetectable misspellings which grossly change theinterpretations of key sentences.

If the "Badtimes" message is opened in a Windows95 environment, it will leave the toilet seat up and leave your hair dryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub.

It will not only remove the forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows, but it will also refill your skim milk with whole milk.

It will replace all your luncheon meat with Spam.

It will molecularly rearrange your cologne or perfume, causing it to smell like dill pickles.

It is insidious and subtle. It is dangerous and terrifying to behold. It is also a rather interesting shade of mauve.

These are just a few signs of infection...