Opera Sino Opus Unius

Shite! 

What kind of crap is this?

Why, why, why why, for God’s sake?

In what friggin’ universe is it okay

To disparage a person in a vain attempt to advance career?

And then, damn-it another person decides

It is a dandy idea to support person number 1

In this pack of lies.

Did you know labour, meaning work

Has a common Latin root with suffer?

The creators of that beautiful language had it right

Laboro Laboris.  Damned right!

Suffer Work!

All yea managers unite.  Pareto your team.

The adage will be true. 

80% of the angst will come from 20% of your force.

But you know what to do…

Settle down.  Breathe, breathe, knowing what is right is key.

Ask what is causing this aggression? 

Remember the work: attack the process not the people.

It is always the process that causes the problem.

Check the facts thoroughly, perforo

Understand the gaps explicitly, factum

Address the barriers appropriately, parietis

Secure the peace unequivocally, pax pacis

And when all else fails imbibo vinum!

My Twenty Five in no particular order...

1. Coca Cola, in a tall thick glass, 5 ice cubes, cold.
2. Coffee, black, bitter, and strong.
3. Grandchildren: Gods blessing that life must carry on with unconditional love and free will.
4. Work driven by personal intrinsic motivation.
5. Lemons.
6. Children, my children, to love and be loved for all our days together.
7. Travel, new and interesting places, new and interesting people, culture.
8. Cathedrals, of all religions, architecture of faith, monuments
9. Chocolate layer cake, raspberry centre, chocolate butter icing.
10. Cold milk!!!
11. Water: to swim, to float, to marvel, to drink.
12. Prairie thunder storms
13. Spring snows
14. The scents of fall
15. A woman to adore: my best friend, a partner, a confidant, a supporter, a critic, a protector, a lover.  Till death do us part.
16. Winter
17. Dry Red Wines
18. Poetry
19. Internet: an organism to join us all to motivate us to better.
20. A healthy earth
21. Stories
22. Love
23. Hot Showers
24. Mountains
25. My healthy strength

Crest

My friend blessed me with a gift this early morning.  What is the view from your house the quiet excited thoughtful voice implores.  Oh, I’ve woken you, sorry, go back to sleep.  NO wait, look.  Tell me what you see…

Waves of orange and grey slip by my windows undulating across the sky, lights from a descending craft fading in flickers on its homeward journey.  The orange, an elemental glow from amber streetlights on Armstrong’s Point.  Grey, the thick cloud of flurried snow as a heavy wind blusters and blows.

It is May Day isn’t it?  What madness is this?  It is not.  This is nature’s maypole dance, a swirling crescendo of beautiful girls dancing across the sky, colours of nature in the deep night sky.  Mixtures of rain and snow, the foundations of spring life, swirl dancing to the ground below settling on trees and rooftops and cars and streets…

…and riverbanks.  The new fallen snow expands the ever widening river, this itself a tributary to the larger shed river.  The wind is churning the waters that have been hastening their descent all day as they rise to the Red.  The Red itself rising faster has been backing its waters into the Assiniboine, the two expanding waters meeting and mixing in a churning eddy at the end of Cornish Street.

Waters rise, meet, and churn, rain and snowfall, wind gusts and blows, blusters of grey and orange, release to a clean white cover.  A perfect choreography this May Day, the natural earth rhythm working to crescendo, a rivers crest rising to peak to trumpet herald a new season, a new reason, of fertile hope.

This I share with my friend, grateful for this late night call, blessed to be able to share my view, thankful voice we part to silent wonder of this earth given art.