A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Friday, October 4, 2013

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words



A picture is worth a thousand words.

Sunday afternoon I was looking through some old photos that my mom sent me a year or so ago. Some friends and I enjoyed all the different hairstyles, furniture and clothes that were present at different times in my family’s life. These were family photos, so of course they pulled the heart strings too. Lots of smiles were on display, occasions gone by but not forgotten and people gone too. That happens. The deeper I got into this box the more memories popped in and out of my mind and as luck would have it, I found one of my favorite pictures. It was taken by my Uncle Gar of me and my Aunt Ami. I had on my favorite hoodie that my Auntie had brought me from Alaska and I was walking just a little bit a head of Ami and she was looking down at me. There is no telling what kind of story or adventure I was cooking up!

You see, when I was a kid I was pretty rowdy. I guess I can be a little rowdy these days too if the occasion arises. And around the time I was turning three my Mom and Dad were tossing around ideas of good babysitters; you know someone with a tall fence, a good leash, some old toys and very few breakables. Mom was going back to work and it seemed like the time that I would be able to embrace the outside world with more ease. They had some options when causally my Aunt Ami suggested that she and my Uncle could look after me while my parents were at work. That was just it, no questions asked, what a great idea. But, Ami and Gar didn’t have a high fence, they didn’t have a leash, they didn’t have old toys and they had a lot of breakables.

My uncle was good with jokes, he always had a good line to drop, and was good with slapstick antics. I loved that, I just can’t tell you how much. He made his own weights to fish with and his own lures, he had a workshop that was full of cool stuff to look at and tinker with. Gar had a Duck named Little Squirt, in a pin in their back yard and every day we would let him out and he would walk through the yard and look around. They had an old container that caught rain water and Little Squirt liked to get in that and wash off - I can’t believe that I just thought this was all so normal. But that’s just it, it wasn’t, it was better than anything normal would be.

My aunt had a green thumb. She grew African violets, she had a good variety of colors of them and they were beautiful. She grew amaryllis’ which she displayed when they bloomed, and she had beautiful roses too. She taught me a lot about plants. Ami also taught me a lot of fun rhymes and riddles, she read stories to me, made me special snacks, she even put smiley faces in my pancakes.

Between the two of them they had their work cut out for them, but they didn’t seem to mind. They bought me my own shopping cart to take to the grocery with them and to Wal-Mart, and of course usually what I put in it came home with us. Gar encouraged me to start eating bread by telling me at Dairy Queen: “If you can eat two hamburgers boy, you can eat the buns now.” Gar noticed that I loved to draw so he bought canvases and got out paints and encouraged me to paint and be creative. In fact, the day he took that picture we were going to paint while the fall leaves were on display. I went to coffee break with Gar and tagged along on all his stops throughout Dawson Springs every day and we went fishing a lot too.

Ami and I sang songs together, especially at Christmas time. She let me help her with all her flowers too. We would have long conversations about things that I didn’t understand and she laughed at all my jokes. She always let me help her cook and never asked if I wanted to help clean up and she gave me lots of hugs. The more I think about it, I wouldn’t mind to go back to their house for the day right now. Sooner or later I’d find the candy bar jar, maybe ask her to put on her mood ring that she had in a drawer to see what color it changed too. I’d probably help Gar let Little Squirt out and help her clean out the bird bath and put some more water in. The little things that we did were like big things, any help I offered was met with big smiles and little did I know I was learning so much from them.

My Aunt use to describe people that she really admired for being generous by saying that they: “had a heart as big as all outdoors.” I can remember always thinking…”Now that’s big!” I’d like to say that about them, because they truly did have hearts as big as all outdoors. No question about that.

Over the years the kids in my family have all benefitted from their love. Their doors were open to their nieces and nephews long before I ever entered this world. They didn’t have children but I guess they had all of us. Ami made lots of sandwiches over those years and there would be no counting how many jokes Gar pulled. I just hope they knew what a huge impact they were making on our lives.

I’m so glad that I found that picture and this time I am going to find a frame for it, so I don’t misplace it again. Things like that need to be out where you can see them. So - a picture really is worth a thousand words and then some. I just proved that.

Farewell Old Friend

Where do the moments go that so swiftly separate us from our youth. The youth that takes us down paths that now we'd dare not go. Through the years we can always drift back into our youth through Them. Those that love us long and see the true beauty of the youth that still exists. So sad the loss of this. For my dear, kind and poetic hero, what do I say?

Years and age take people to places that we can only expect, but never understand. The process of aging is one that we do over and over again. We watch it like reruns of I Love Lucy, yet there is still no master of aging. No one wins this battle.

On the nineteenth day of December, just a month ago, my Papaw passed away on a cold gray morning. Gaunt and tired, his soul left bones it had been chained to for all the time it had known. Sweeping through a hospital corridor, down the stairs and out into the gray air. Over the miles to the quaint Dawson Springs, past the little white church and the yellow house, down the lanes that went back to the depths of home. I went there with him so many times that I can see the flight he took. Sweeping through a memory at a time, taking notice of each one as he passed just once more.

I've had some time to think about it now. I think with a smile of one more conversation, it would be nice, but I won't bother. You go my friend, deep into that gray day and into the infinite blue night. There you will become the Bridge of Stars, peering into the deep blue night - I may call out to you. Never just a journeyman at the bar, No! Far more bright and prominent I am sure. Go there and stay my pal. This time your reward comes and all the seeds you have planted and watched over will still grow. Far beyond a watchful gaze and into the distant blur of time; we will go on.

Taking his place on a stone marked hill just outside the town, there rests the names of my beloved grandparents. Those that kept my youth, and held me there in high esteem. Too soon then, I bid her farewell, and now you, my pal, my friend. Now I clutch tight a favored smile and treasured phrase, with arms open wide: "there's my boy!" The memory swirls and I drop my head as tears fill my eyes. But not this time, not again! I won't cry for a man of stature! I will not be sad for a man of great will and great strength, only a fool would. I will honor this man.

All the chains that bind us now, you have placed, and I still hold. Those stay. They stay like the stories that dwell within me, they become part of me. Old Storyteller, you've put down your pen and I look with reluctance until my fingers grasp it. And with a soft smile I think to myself: Storyteller - old friend, yours will be a good long story, told ages from now with a great smile. Over and over the hills and memories of my youth there you'll be always. 

Edward E. Storms

May 5, 1930 ~ December 19, 2011

Clouds got in the way... Not anymore!

Obstacles are so annoying. They do, however, become good scape goats for not getting things done, right? The first verse of one of my all time favorite ballads: Both Sides Now; by: Joni Mitchell, uses clouds in a metaphor about obstacles. Those of you that know me well have come to realize; that it is often difficult for me to make an analogy about anything without throwing in a reference to a Joni Mitchell song. I digress. Mitchell discusses what we see in the clouds as children, when our innocent imaginations can go wild. Later on in life when our imaginations become more responsible, the clouds become things that: "rain and snow on everything." "Clouds got in the way," she wrote and sang.

Obstacles, whether they be clouds, red lights, low budget, or any number of things that may stand between us and what we want and need; are simply just things that we have to endure. As my birthday approches I think of so many things that I should have done from one year to the next. I feel like I have two New Year's: the real New Year on January 1, and the one on September 16. Each of these dates usually become times to celebrate and reflect for me. Without fail, there are always things that have kept me from doing this or that when I look back from one year to the next.

This year as my birthday approaches I feel a new self-improvement project coming on. Eliminating obstacles! I just feel like life is too short and too valuable to waste it letting things stop me. Instead of stopping when these boulders fall onto my path, if I can't climb over or go around them, I will be forced to bust them up and move them aside. Not so long ago, when I was a young kid running along life's path, overflowing with dreams and plans. There were no such things as obstacles in those ideas - nothing stopped me from dreaming big and reaching high. That said, I think it would be a waste of so much of my own time if I didn't reverse my own negative energy. I have to take all those negative thoughts about the things that stand in my way and use that energy on getting past them. Replacing complainging and quitting with action. All my little unfinished personal projects should definitely benefit from this new way of thinking.

I have a list a mile long of all the things that I want to do with my life and my time. For the most part I am pretty good at checking these things off my list, slowly but surely. As I begin to turn the page on my own year, more personally than ever I seek positivity, accomplishment, and peace. Everyone deserves that.

"Come with me and they won't see us for the dust!" Frank Lloyd Wright

Thiry Seven...and counting.

I called my parents this morning to wish them a happy anniversary - thirty seven years - not bad. We chit chatted fondly about this past weekend's activities, good meals and fond memories over the years. As we were talking via speaker phone, they both received simultaneous text messages from their grandchildren: "Happy Anniversary Nana and Poppy"." It often dons on me that time has taken our family over many milestones, and although thirty seven is not a culminating number like twenty five or thirty, it is telling.


My parents are two people who have seldom been apart throughout their long relationship. From dating to rearing children, they rarely were far from each other's sides. Forming their own unique bond that has been respected and appreciated by our extended family and friends throughout the decades. Carefully creating for my lovely sister and I, a safe place filled with love, ambition, and good times. I think of them today with the fondest of thoughts and thankfulness. Knowing that their devotion to each other has kept our family strong as a unit. Also knowing that without their love and guidance to me over the years, I would never have been the person that I am today.

Of course I will always have a special place in my heart for my parents…I think that is a given. Frankly, they make that so easy. Just by being the very special, steady and wonderful people that they are separately, and together. What a blessing.

From Austin, here's to thirty more!

Keep on keepin' on my Friend!

Sometimes when we have no idea what we are looking for we find exactly what we need. The last home I lived in while I was living in Nashville was nestled beside a golf course and a greenbelt in a neighborhood called Sylvan Park. I couldn't have been more pleased to live in this little nook within the city. One Sunday I was strolling along the green belt enjoying the crisp Spring air. The wild flowers were coming out in full, green and fresh, while the birds were chirping and the dew was being lifted by the morning sun. Looking in all directions I was trying to enjoy this urban oasis and while I did my eyes drew me to some color among the leaves just off the path. Watching my step I crept off the path to see what treasure might be out of my sight. There in the gleaming light of the morning sun was a tall columbine blooming in hues of yellow and orange. What a gift that day! That columbine could not have been more beautiful if I had nurtured it in my own yard, it was magnificent. I'll never forget that plant and it's untamed beauty and I kept it a secret in fear of someone trying to go out and dig it up or pick its blooms. As I stood there admiring it, I realized how important it is to let the road lead you sometimes and forget about what you are supposed to do. Do more than that - follow your heart.

Later that same year I moved to Austin, Texas and the year that followed would allow me to find so many things that would catch my eye. It began to feel like I was in a world wind of newness - again I had found myself off my beaten path. I learned a great deal about life and myself during that year and while I have always marched to the beat of my own drum, I found that Austin encouraged that. I was in fact following my heart more and more every day, as I became overwhelmed by new ideas, people and opportunities. One night I was at an event and was introduced to a woman there that I immediately connected with. A friend of a friend who had followed her heart to Austin and was testing the waters here. Her energy immediately put me at ease and the longer we talked the more we agreed that we should be friends. Over the next two years we met for brunches, lunches, dinners, and movie nights. We accompanied one another to events similar to the one where we met, we went to concerts together, took walks, met for drinks and even moved into the same neighborhood. We would find ourselves talking about life, our families, our friends, relationships, art, music and you name it we covered it in conversation. How little did we know that a handshake would lead to a friendship and a wealth of good times. I found that Dara was a fellow plant lover, that we both loved music, trying out new restaurants, and I also learned that she was as eager as I was to learn more about Austin. I suppose over the last couple of years if she and I haven't been there…it is not well advertised.

I believe that things happen for a reason. I knew when I met Dara that she was someone that I was suppose to know, and I don't know why. Just like that day on the greenbelt when I saw that beautiful columbine I will never forget, I will never forget Dara. We made fast friends and we wasted little time in getting to know each other. I learned that she was very good at helping me see another perspective on things. She also made home not feel so far away, when it did. We shared that - she had come from Atlanta, Georgia and was no stranger to Nashville - there was definitely a southern kinship. But more than all of these things, I feel like we were both searching for a new part of ourselves that we yearned to know and experience. We both love life and all its portals.

Recently Dara has decided to make her way back to Atlanta, and although I am sad to see her go, I know there is something left there that she is suppose to do. There is someone there that needs her spunk and her love to get them through a hard spot or show them the way, and she will! She is sure to be welcomed back by her friends with open arms and wished well by her many friends here. For what it's worth, coming from a new Austinite (although a proud one), you have graced the city with the exact type of vitality that its people crave. For you I hope that the path home is as adventurous as the one that brought you here. I hope that whatever is around that corner is magnificent and new. And of course, that the long road between the two will not make us strangers.

After all, life is like walking down a path; stopping all along the way to enjoy the scenery and take things in. Sometimes we stop and ask directions, sometimes we stop to take a break and enjoy the atmosphere, and sometimes we just keep on trucking. All the while knowing that something IS waiting around the next corner for us. If we do our best we will see everything that we are suppose to see on that path, we will leave no stone unturned and we will leave the path in better shape than we found it. I have been so blessed since mine and Dara's paths have crossed. She has changed my life with her uplifting and upbeat attitude. Dara your light shines brightly and may it always shine as you help lead others down the path.  All my best!

"Wrote a song about it, wanna hear it? Here it goes."

Waking up from a dream and looking at the clock to see that the late night had turned into early morning happens so many times. Helping hazy thoughts surface. Those that linger between sleep and awareness of being awake. I have effortlessly tossed things around that I know are the things that are always on my mind. Subtle thoughts that sometimes become prayers or something to laugh about. That is the way my mind works.


It's funny that it's always people that have intrigued me and over the years I have met some interesting people. Interesting people that have helped to make me interesting, if in fact I am. I know why that is to. With roots in a small town I have never met a stranger and in many ways I think I was trained to be that way. Later on in a college sociology class I learned that that I was not trained or taught but socialized. Words.

From my roots in Western Kentucky to Austin, Texas and all the places in between. The little pieces of life that I have left out there. All the times well spent, the laughs well laughed, all those people and all the words that I could use to describe them. Who thinks of things like this?

I was talking with someone a few nights ago who said something that really resonated with me. Something to the effect of: "If you don't have good friends what really matters?" And here I am being so damn considerate that I think to myself…"what about family?" But they are already there, from the very beginning and for life. Essentially we become so interconnected that even if we wanted to break ties it would be so difficult that we would probably just give in and stop. But friends on the other hand don't have all these ties going back to our birth. Those distant handshakes and introductions can be forgotten if need be. That particular thought make me even more happy that he said that. It almost validates my thoughts about life and things happening because they are supposed to at certain times and in certain places. And although this may not make a lot of sense…it does to me.

I guess some morning in the haze of another night's sleep I might think of my family and how they socialized me to want to meet people and know people. I mean really know them. People that would later become good friends of mine. Lifelong friends that sort of understand who I am and why I am the way I am. A cycle that we can be describe so simply but is so difficult. Life. Who could do it without friends?

Maybe I should write a song about it.

Happy New Year

From a balcony overlooking Lady Bird Lake, while fireworks boomed, I rang in another New Year among friends. As people cheered and yelled out when the clock struck midnight, I for once was at a loss for words. This year went by so fast and with each day new things, people and ideas came into my life. Joni Mitchell's brilliant song "Both Sides Now," describes it so well. "But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads they say I've changed. But something's lost and something's gained in living every day.

Of course I thought up some usual New Year's resolutions including aspirations to eat healthier, exercise more and save more money. Blah, Blah, Blah. I say that every year. But I go farther than that this time. One of my resolutions or goals this time is simple and should be easy to achieve. I hope that in 2011, more than any other year of my life I allow myself the freedom to experience more of the goodness this world has to offer. I am going to make a huge effort to infuse more of our local music into my schedule. I also hope that I can continue to meet awesome people that fill the homes and streets of this city. And this is just part of that list. However, with these continued additions it should be inevitable that my life improves and that I grow. That’s corny, right?

Yesterday afternoon I spent the day with a couple of friends downtown. The sun was shining and there were many laughs. At one point before the night ended I thought to myself - this is great. Life is suppose to be great , it can't be all of the time. How about most?

I welcome a GREAT 2011!