Slice of Life | Reflections on the Teche

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Slice of Life: Some Days are Like That…

Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged affirmations, One Little Word, purpose, spiritual journey on March 27, 2023| 12 Comments »

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

“Some days are like that…even in Australia” were the wise words of the mother to Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. It’s good advice. This mother empathizes and reassures Alexander that life will go on and tomorrow will be better.

This message in my inbox this morning:

Type Four EnneaThought®

What would happen if you stopped trying to understand yourself today? Would your world fall apart?

This morning is a new day, and I’m not feeling as sad or overwhelmed. I won’t chew on my heartstrings all day today. I have children to teach. This is what I am telling myself anyway.

Grief is a weird thing. We all have it in our backpacks that we carry through our lives. Sometimes, it stays back there, weighing little to nothing. You think you’ll be fine. Hey, look what I am carrying with little or no effort. Aren’t I the strong one?

Then someone hugs you, touches your shoulder, gives you that look of empathy, and you crumble. Yesterday our choir master was back at church after a few months away. His mother had been diagnosed with end stage cancer and after she died, his father willed himself to follow her. They had been married over 70 years. This is not my story to tell, but it may give some context for why my own grief hit me hard yesterday. I was overjoyed to see him, but as soon as I hugged him, the tears welled up.

I wanted to understand these feelings. It was Sunday and all the while I did my Sunday chores, yard work, laundry, and so on, I wanted to understand and the more I tried to understand, the more I cried.

Today is a new day. I am breathing. I have a plate full of things to do. I will be OK.

Without even knowing what was going on with me, my friend texted me this affirmation:

I offered my best self today.
It doesn’t matter if I did everything perfectly.
The day is now past and I will let it be.
I am looking forward to the morning.
I have the power to make tomorrow a great day.
I will feed my strength with sleep.
Tomorrow I will grow further.
Source unknown

Today is a new day, a new week, and I don’t have to understand myself.

My hand gathering strength from a tree, Women’s Wellness Retreat, Lake Fausse Pointe

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Slice of Life Challenge Day 25: Hatchlings

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged #woodducks, @TecheProject, bayou life, Bayou Teche on March 25, 2023| 8 Comments »

Yesterday was Jump Day for our first clutch of wood ducks this year. We had a good mother and only one. Sometimes two will take a box and you can end up with 2 dozen eggs, but not this year. One mother, one clutch, one dozen. She sat for 32 days. I was so relieved they didn’t hatch during this past week’s cold front. They waited for warmth to return. Only 8 of the 12 eggs hatched. This ratio is typical, we’ve learned.

I wanted to watch the jump, but it was a school day. I kept checking the Ring camera and the mother was calmly cuddling her chicks. At 10:15 I went outside to plan a butterfly garden with my student. Then I packed up and left that school for my next school. Yep, that was when they jumped.

My mother-in-law came to our house for the big event with a book and binoculars. She texted me that 8 ducklings had jumped. Four eggs were left in the box. Enjoy the video from inside the nest box. There always seems to be one that has trouble figuring it all out. We cheer for this little guy.

New Chicks

Gentle peeps echo.

Jumping onto mother hen,

New chicks jitterbug.

Like petals on a pinwheel

fluffy down spins together.
Wood Duck Diary Tanka, Margaret Simon, all rights reserved.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Shoes

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoem, being mamére, shoes on March 22, 2023| 15 Comments »

Welcome to a weekly Wednesday photo poetry prompt. If you’d like to get this in your inbox each week, please subscribe to my blog. Join in the community by writing a small poem in the comments and encouraging other writers with your comments.

Today’s photo is one I took at my daughter’s house last weekend. I had returned her two children from a morning at the museum and was getting ready to leave when I saw the shoes posing. Perhaps my daughter had placed them there, but more likely it was Stella who, at the age of two, likes a certain order to things. Her mother was like that, sorting all the cans in the cabinet by size and color at a very young age. She gets that from her father, and her father gets it from his mother. I once took a personality test that labeled me “abstract random” and my husband as “concrete sequential.”

No matter what type of order your keep or don’t, this photo is sure to charm you into writing something. At Ethical ELA this week we wrote a Pile of Good Things poem. I think I could add “Three pairs of shoes all in a row” to my pile.

Photo by Margaret Simon (permission to freely use)

These shoes have seen
the hills of North Carolina
and the backyards of Louisiana
but they are most happy
lined side by side on a bench
in the home where they belong.
Margaret Simon, draft

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Slice of Life Challenge Day 21: Underrated Joys

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged gratitude list, joy, Lynne Dorfman on March 21, 2023| 4 Comments »

This morning I searched for a writing idea on Lynne Dorfman’s Blog and found this post about underrated joys. Who can resist a list? I am responding with my own list of underrated joys. This is a similar exercise to My Pile Of Good Things, but why not?

First bloom on a Peggy Martin rose.
Re-bloom on an orchid I bought at the grocery store.
The scent of my first sip of coffee.
My engagement ring reflecting the stained glass in church.
A student has an Aha moment.
Students writing poetry with me.
My dog’s unconditional love.
Facetime.
Real time: “Mamere, you’re here!” Stella lights up with joy.
Stained glass egret in my window.
A message on Voxer.
An egret or heron on the bayou.
Creating something new.
An actual letter in the mailbox.
Being with family.
Chats after church.
Comments: Sally has a good post today celebrating comments.
A ping from the Ring: “There is motion in your Wood duck House.”
My mother’s voice.
Hitting publish on a Slice.

What is on your list?

My neighbor’s Peggy Martin (Katrina) Rose is growing up into her crepe myrtle tree. Isn’t it fabulous?!

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Slice of Life Challenge Day 20: Wood Duck House

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged wood duck nesting box on March 20, 2023| 7 Comments »

We live on the Bayou Teche (pronounced “tesh”) in New Iberia, Louisiana. Our address/mile marker is 69.4 on the 125 mile bayou. The name came from a Native American word for snake. The legend tells of a huge snake that was killed by arrow and its body made the impression of what is now a water way.

One of our favorite activities on the bayou is our wood duck nesting house. Each year for about 5 years, we have had two clutches of eggs hatch in the box. Jeff mounted a Ring doorbell camera inside the box, so we can watch the mother duck come and go and know when the babies hatch. The very next day, 24 hours, the little tiny hatchlings jump from the house and follow mother duck off into the bayou.

The mother duckling has been sitting for a month now. She’s an experienced mom that has been attentive and dedicated to her eggs. But today is due day, and the temperatures have dropped below freezing, a weird March winter chill. I am worried. I’m hoping they will stay in their safe eggshells for at least another day, so they can jump into milder water.

My head knows that wood ducks have been doing this for generations, so they will be OK. But my grandmother heart wants them all to hatch and all to go off into the sunset, so to speak. This is a screenshot from yesterday as the hen was busy turning the eggs. If you want to watch the Jump Day, we will set up a “Duck Door” camera and record the jump. Last year’s footage is on my YouTube channel linked below.

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Slice of Life Challenge Day 19: A Pile of Good Things

Posted in being mamére, Creativity, Gratitude, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Ethical ELA, grandchildren, Let's Make Art, Pile poem, The Hilliard Museum on March 19, 2023| 6 Comments »

Art by Leo, left, and Stella, right from “Let’s Make Art” activity at the Hilliard Museum.

On the campus of ULL (University of Louisiana at Lafayette) there is a beautiful museum, The Hilliard. Saturday they held a drop in art activity for kids 4 and up. I showed up with Leo, 4, and Stella, 2, and they were the only children there. They had the full attention of the artist instructor.

I was amazed by the focus of both kids on this activity. From the flyers on the table, I realized it was meant to be a quilting activity. There were shapes cut out of various papers. However, Leo immediately grabbed the scissors and started cutting the shapes to his liking and building a 3 dimensional motorcycle. I glued it down for him on the white “quilt piece,” and he continued to add to it a winner’s banner and a man riding (notice the skinny yellow strip sitting on the motorcycle.)

Stella was happy enough to glue and glue and glue. The artist taught her how to put the glue on the back and turn the paper over and press it down. We were also able to freely roam the current art exhibits. It was a great way to spend a rainy cold Saturday morning.

Today, at Ethical ELA Open Write, Stefanie Boutelier is teaching us how to use technology in poetry with a wonderful prompt and model poem “A Pile of Good Things”. You should follow the link and see what it’s all about. Here is my pile:

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Slice of Life Challenge Day 18: A Piece of my Heart

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged Andrew M Liles, cousins, En Plein Air, The Shadows on the Teche on March 18, 2023| 7 Comments »

St. John’s Cathedral Lafayette, LA by Andrew M. Liles, from the collection of Margaret and Jeff Simon

My cousin is leaving today. He’s been here all week participating in The Shadows-on-the-Teche Plein Air Competition, a juried art competition for artists who paint outside. They arrived last Saturday and have been painting all over our area until Thursday when they hung their best pieces. Friday night was the awards ceremony. Today, Andrew goes home to New Orleans.

Andrew and I are first cousins; his father was my mother’s brother. He’s like a little brother to me. I will text or call when I am in New Orleans and sometimes we manage to get together for coffee and beignets, but this week we spent every evening together. Hours of talking and sharing and learning more about each other and the family from which we hatched.

I feel like a part of my heart has grown back, a part I didn’t even know was missing.

This was only the second Plein Air competition he’s done. By day, he’s an architect and teaches architecture at Tulane University in New Orleans. At the beginning of the week, he was vulnerable and questioning his style, but by Friday night he had sold 4 of the 7 pieces he put into the show. That feels like success. We purchased the best one, in my opinion, the painting you see above of St. John’s Catholic Cathedral in Lafayette, LA.

The most successful thing for me was claiming back the relationship I have with Andrew. We’ll both treasure this time we had together.

Margaret Simon with artist Andrew Liles at the Delcambre Seafood Market

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Slice of Life Challenge Day 17 and Poetry Friday: Thank you, Moon!

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged collaborative poem, full moon on March 17, 2023| 17 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Laura Purdie Salas.

I am privileged to have the opportunity to write poetry with gifted kids. Their minds are open and in tuned to ideas. Most days they can’t wait to tell me what they are thinking about. Most days they want to write, welcoming the blank page. This week I shared with two of my young students (2nd and 3rd graders) photos of the full moon that I had collected from social media. I actually had another idea for them, but as we were looking at and discussing my picture of the moon above my neighbor’s house, they were full of questions and wonderings and a poem emerged. It was a happy moment because somedays little boys would rather be running outside than writing a poem with their teacher.

Click the image to see a larger view. Photo by Margaret Simon.

There are still a few dates available to sign up for the 2023 Kidlit Progressive poem. Click Here.

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Slice of Life: Type Four

Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, tagged Enneagram, Type Four on March 16, 2023| 10 Comments »

You’d think by my age I would know myself well, have it all figured out, and be sitting with confidence. I’ve got news for you, folks. You are always becoming.

During the labor for my newest grandchild, my two daughters convinced me (we had a lot of time for talking about stuff) that I am a Four, not a Two, on the Enneagram.

I decided to try on the Four for a while. I signed up for EnneaThought for the Day from The Enneagram Institute. The teachings of a Four have been pretty spot on. My mother-in-law told me she had me written down as a Four when we took the test years ago. I’ve always thought I was a Two.

A Two, to be brief, is a person who is seeking out love. She selflessly does things for others hoping to gain love. She usually does so many things for others that she loses herself and doesn’t take care of herself. She’s the one who will deliver a casserole to someone whether or not they asked for it or even need it. I’ve been taking care of three daughters for a long time. Pride is the negative trait of a Two, and I could even relate to that.

Now I’m trying on the Four and it fits better, feels better, is not as stressful as the constant attention on others. A Four is a romantic, often an artist or poet. Fours are commonly introverted and focus on their feelings. They need to get out of their heads and into their bodies. One of the recent posts from EnneaThought resonated with me: “Remember to stay calm. Emotional volatility and moodiness are not the same as real sensitivity. Keep this thought in mind today.”

The words “real sensitivity” stung. Is my care and concern for the way others feel real? Is my moodiness obvious to others? This message made me want to crawl into a shell and sleep on it.

I think it is a positive thing to keep open and discovering who you really are. Enneagram has to do with your most inner spiritual self. From what need do you function from? Do you need safety, love, a sense of accomplishment and success?

People are complicated. I’m not finished yet and don’t think I ever will be. And while I stew on whether or not my sensitivity to others is real, I read today’s thought:

Your key defense mechanisms are introjection, displacement, splitting, turning against the self. Notice if these impulses arise today. ( Understanding the Enneagram, 90)

EnneaThought® for the Day

Yikes! Maybe I don’t want to know my true self.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Proud Fisherman

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged Delcambre Seafood and Farmer's Market, Pi-ku on March 15, 2023| 33 Comments »

Delcambre (pronounced Del-comb) is about 20 minutes south of New Iberia. On Sunday evening, we attended a fundraising dinner for the seafood market. I even ate a piece of fried alligator which tasted a lot like fried chicken. We were there to support my cousin Andrew as he participates in a plein air (painting outside) competition. There will be more posts about this later.

Today I want to introduce you to Markavian. I don’t know him, and I’m not sure that’s how to spell his name, but when I took his picture, he proudly told me what his name was. He was beaming from having caught a huge catfish right off the dock. I asked permission to take his picture. There is so much that I love about this picture. His smile. The largest catfish I’ve ever seen. And how it captures the attitude of a fisherman. My husband says that our newspaper’s sports section is usually just men holding fish. It’s true fishing is a big time sport around here. Perhaps Markavian was competing with his brothers. There seemed to be a family in the background, and I caught him just as he was about to go show off his catch of the day.

Catch of the Day, photo by Margaret Simon

Yesterday was Pi Day, so my students and I wrote Pi-Ku, which is a small poem based on the number 3.14. Please leave your own small poem in the comments and encourage other writers with your responses.