We are so very blessed

{Update 2007-May-07 : It's been a year. Read the latest post here}

I am having a hard time denying that my family and I are blessed. I deny a active God on a regular basis; a God who acts in our lives; day to day miracles. I've been wrong before and this might be one of those times.

My youngest daughter was burned last week. She pulled a cup of hot chocolate off the counter and onto her face, chest and arm. Her screaming brought the rest of the family into the kitchen at a run. Michelle pulled her shirt off and Susan and I took turns holding her while the other poured water on her.

Our pediatrician, Hyman Penn, saw us right away and the next day we were seen at Texas Children's Hospital by a plastic surgeon.

He walks in to the room, stops, and says, "Wow." You don't here that much from doctors. You hope you never will again.

They say that Miri probably won't have scars. We need to keep her out of the sun. We need to bathe her twice a day. Keep the neosporin on. We go back next Friday to TCH to see what's changed.

The amazing thing is that Miriam has been happy. She's been playing and dancing and singing and being herself [which means she is still an imp and screams when she doesn't get her way].

She hasn't complained or cried as we've cleaned her wounds. She hasn't gotten bored or frustrated. If you ask her she'll tell you her face is messy.

The other thing is she is healing so quickly. Every day she's better. Susan says it's because of all the prayers that have been offered.

I find it hard to deny that there may be something to it. So I pray a little. And I hope God's there. And I find it a little easier to believe that he is.



The day after the burn:


Two days after the burn [Friday], dressed as a Princess :


Day three [Saturday], wearing her favorite "ballerina" slip:


Day four [Sunday](with a new stuffed puppy from the Silvers next door):


Monday, before her morning bath:


Tuesday (with her "Peeps" ballon:

A failing experiment: the Klenke Wiki

I long while back I thought about a way to capture the stories that make up a family. I knew that I didn't know most of them though and knew that I didn't have the time to invest tracking them down and documenting them.

I looked for a web-based system that the whole family could use to add, or edit whatever they wanted.

I ended up creating a WIKI at http://klenkefamily.pbwiki.coim

The system is easy, trackable, kinda fun.

I get piles of traffic from there to here but the family didn't get into it. Zero interest.

There is so much I don't know about my family; so much I've forgotten or remember wrongly. It looks like I'll pass the same legacy on to my kids.

Morning Glory Muffins

My sister needed a cupcake-like recipe for my nephew Thad to take to school. So she came to us, because we have the best food ever!!

These muffins are so good that kidlets will never know they are good for them.

Morning Glory Muffins

1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 t baking soda
3/4 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
3/4c. oil
3 eggs
1 large carrot (grated)
1 zucchini (grated)
1 c. coconut
1/4 c. golden raisins
1(8 1/2 oz.) can crushed pineapple (drained, reserve juice)

Sift together first four ingredients and set aside. In separate bowl, mix sugar, vanilla, oil, and eggs, stirring wall. Add dry ingredients to Liquid mixture, mixing quickly. Fold in veggies and fruits. If batter is too dry add a small amount of reserved juice. Grease muffin tins, spray with Pam, or use paper liners, and fill 3/4 full.

Bake at 375 degrees about 25 minutes or until golden brown

Lucy . . . I'm home!

Every day when I come home from work I enter the house and yell "Lucy, I'm home!" in my best Ricky Ricardo voice. I don't remember why or when it started. It's just one of those things. [And don't get me started on why his full name was Ricardo Ricardo.]

In any case, the two little kids have started to do it. At least they have a reason; "Dad does it."

I asked Gwendolyn the other day if she knew who Lucy was. No idea at all. It looks like I have to teach Gwen some culture.

It's Cookie pus!

Susan is from New York and I'm always hearing about these ice cream cakes from Carvel.

I hope their cakes are better than their commercials.

It's a small, small world

Drunkenbatman of DrunkenBlog and I go back more years that it seems like [or maybe it seems like less years than it is]. He's family now; whether he want to be or not.

Apparently he had a link in his IM away message to the latest video of Miriam singing and dancing.

It was picked up by a seemingly nice lady named Emily who met DB at his Evening at the Adler indie Mac developer conference thing. She's the editor at MacZealots.com.

So I pop over to her personal blog (wondering where the new traffic is coming from) and run into a port of Lemonade Stand for OSX. That spawns an email to my dad who introduced me to computers with an Apple ][ thanking him for being pretty cool back in '77 or '78.

This Emily is calling Miriam cute. She's winning points with me. Little does she know that there are days I curse EBay's policy about not selling people.

In the end, I have a new feed to Emily. We'll see where that takes me.

Small world after all.

A Serendipitous Intention » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup

There's a manic rendition of Ten little monkeys available here if you haven't had enough Miriam Dance.

I had a dream the other night that she was doing THE baby dance. Susan says I'm not allowed to teach her though. She says it's too odd; even for me.

It's a Baby Bumble-Bee

Miriam, the dancer, again.
She says she learned the song at her school . . . and I have to get her out of there!

She's been watching her sister dance for years. I guess this is the pay-off.



You can see more Klenke videos at Google Video

Got website frustration? Let it out!

www.netdisaster.com lets you destroy websites in new and creative ways. I've targeted www.drunkenbatman.com with a scribling baby in the screencap because it amuses me to think of DB with kids.

Galactic Civilization 2 release date

I almost never play computer games. I love playing them but there is always something better to do. Chores, job, kids, wife. Ya know. But I really do like losing myself for a while.

There's a new game coming out at the end of February called Galactic Civilization 2. It's made by a company called Stardock. They are mostly known for thier Windows eye-candy apps but they also make a kick-ass productivity suite (including Multiplicity) and some great games. {If you like politics, take a look at The Political Machine, it's a fun simulation}

The player takes on the role of the leader of a space-faring
civilization and must guide its expansion in a hostile galaxy.
Gamers must balance their economic, technological, diplomatic,
cultural, and military power to forge alliances, fight wars, and ultimately dominate the galaxy.

The game is single-player and allows the player to play randomly generated galactic maps or play through a multi-mission campaign that tells the story of an ancient enemy called the Dread Lords.

I enjoyed playing the first GalCiv and I've been part of the beta for this one. The graphics are great. The stories are fun. I can't wait.



You can see it full screen on google.

Juggling fire (poorly)

Last Friday we had a birthday party for Gwendolyn.

Susan asked me to juggle my torches and how could I say no. I had juggled them at many of my sister Michelle's parties and this time I was going to be sober.

It was more dark that I would have liked and I hadn't juggled the torches in over a year but the kids had a good time.

I gave a bunch of them water pitols to "put me out" if I caught fire. They were configured not to shoot straight so that they would shoot each other if they tries to shoot me. There was significant pandemonium.



You can see it full screen on google.

Gwendolyn starts preparing for soccer - Miriam digs in the dirt

The spring season is right around the corner. Gwendolyn and I have been working on passing, dribbling, and kicking with the inside of the foot.

She's a dancing queen

Miriam is my active child. She had been dancign for about two minutes before I whipped out the camera and after she recovered from the fall, she was right back up.

I tried to get her to go the other way thinking she might wind down instead of up but I had no luck.

For the record . . the song is Ten Little Monkeys, Jumping on the Bed

Playing a game . . . or going to bed

I'll admit that there have been a few times when I've gotten wrapped up in a computer game and forgotten to go to bed. I've set timers and even scheduled the PC to turn off. Things happen. I like losing my self once in a while in a make-believe world.

The thing is, I always feel bad when I climb into bed and my wife is all curled up in a ball because I wasn't there to keep hejr warm.

I've never been as bad as these guys though. Very funny.

The Mutha of all gangstas . . shut yo' mouth!

I guess it runs in the family.

In a previous post I documented some of the other gang members that abide in Kingwood. I thought they were anomolies in this part of town.

Apparently I was wrong; gang membership may be bred, not learned.

Below are my wife and daughter thowing signs

 

Delicous DrunkenBatman at MacWorld

I am so wicked jealous.

DB sucks. :-)

Tommy the Cat by Primus

It had to be back in 1989 or '90 when I first heard of Primus. They were so very odd. And this song seems representitive.

Cat Herding

I think that this commercial illustrates what I do at work and what Susan does at the house. Except for her, the thrill of bringing in the herd is years away.

A Miriam photoshoot

It will be good to remember her cute [when she's being "impish"]


I see her in me . . . or is it me in her?


You would think she was able to listen . . but ask her to pick up her toys . . .. not so much


So very sweet.


And time ot have her sister Michelle, repaint her nails.

My Political standing (according to OK Cupid survey)

It seems like I haven't posted in forever. Life has been busy and blogging is never my first priority.

I'm easing into this then with who I am politically (based on 20 questions) from a site I barely know. It seemed to put me about where I thought I was though . . . so there you go.

You are a Social Moderate (55% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (71% permissive) You are best described as a: Capitalist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Gwendolyn's Christmas Recital - -

Notice who the other girls are looking to for direction . . and notice too who's throwing her hips around . .

After-dance photo op

Pink roses from Dad

She sure is beautiful . . . must get the from her mother.

Out in the Boondocks

I only read one comic strip these days; Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks. It's one of the highlights of my day.

The current story-line concerns Huey's grandfather wanting to see a "manly" movie and choosing "Brokeback Mountain" ". . . [a] story about a forbidden and secretive relationship between two cowboys and their lives over the years."



Today's strip revealed the critical aspect of the plot to Grandad. It had been a week building and was worth it. Funny stuff. Check it out.

The Holiday season has (sorta) started here. We're still wearing shorts, but Santa has come to town and the town tree lighting was last night. Gwendolyn has started the prayers for snow.

Is there a rule about putting a drunken cow on a PC? I dual boot boot Ubuntu on it. And there's a Performa 578 next to it, and a Mac G4 below it . . .

More playing with the new camera . . . and my two youngest girls

Mad face

Scooby-snack face

Sharpened and tinted

Hide and seek

Walking the line. Soft focus, B&W

Done swinging

Sisters. :-)

Playing with video.google.com

I have no need to post video to Google. It's not like anyone outside my family wants to see anything I might film. There are probably the same people who regularly read this blog. But I like the technology. Some days that's enough.

My Christmas wish list

It's that time of year again. So if you're browsing the site and thinking to yoursefl, "Self, you've got disposable income and the desire to give. Here's your chance to do a little something."

• Double Standards by Lea Delaria
• The System of the World (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 3) by Neal Stephenson
• Sony DRU-800A Internal ATAPI/EIDE Double-Layer/Dual-Format DVD/CD Recorder
• Offered by TigerDirect by Sony
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• Anansi Boys : A Novel by Neil Gaiman
• Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America by Morgan Spurlock
• Star Wars - Clone Wars, Vol. 1 (Animated) by Corey Burton
• Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow
• Devils & Dust by Bruce Springsteen
• TX 5-Foot Giraffe Unicycle Offered by Magic Geek - Juggling Store by Torker
• Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow
• A Place So Foreign and Eight More by Cory Doctorow
• Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
• Band of Brothers by Kirk Acevedo
• Flashbacks: : Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury (Trudeau, G. B., Doonesbury Book.) by G. Trudeau
• Star Wars - Clone Wars, Vol. 2 by Corey Burton
• Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (Widescreen Edition) by Ahmed Best
• Power Strip Liberator II 1' "Y" Cable Offered by Cyberguys! by Cables Unlimited
• Liberator Combo Pack, Poly Bag Offered by Cyberguys! by ZIO TEK
• Good Omens by Neil Gaiman
• Scientific American by Scientific American
• Popular Science by Time4Media
• Computer Shopper by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
• PC Magazine by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
• PC World by PC World Communications, Inc.
• Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab/the Body Farm/Where the Dead Do Tell Tales by William M. Bass
• THX 1138 (The George Lucas Director's Cut Two-Disc Special Edition) by Robert Duvall
• Last Child in the Woods : Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
• Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap, Wiggle and Shake by Various Artists
• Unnatural Death : Confessions of a Medical Examiner by Michael M. Baden
• Radical Fish Street Pro Club Red Offered by Magic Geek - Juggling Store by Beard Juggle
• How Would You Move Mount Fuji? : Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle -- How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers by William Poundstone
• Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman
• The Best of Frank Deford: I'm Just Getting Started by Frank Deford
• The Sixth Sense (Vista Series) by Firdous Bamji
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
• PlusDeck 2c

List available via Amazon.

I made Literally!

I have a number of pet peeves with the use of English. One of them is the (incorrect) use of "literally." Literally (http://literally.barelyfitz.com) scratches that itch so I don't have to pound people.

Last night I made my first submission and it was posted. Bully for me!

For anyone here from Literally, "Welcome!" Take a look at my favorite posts over to the left . . . they have less to do with family stuff than the rest of this little blog and is more general in nature.

Eight wonderful years

Last week Susan and I celebrated our eighth anniversary. Dinner and a movie mostly. Talk about how we have changed, how our love has changed, how many more kids we have. -=sigh=-

Our wedding day is not the most important day of our pre-marriage life to me though. The most important day is when she accepted my proposal.

It went like this . . . .

The dryer at Susan's house was on the fritz and she didn't have money to
repair it. So she packed up the two kids (and me because I had nothing
better to do and loved being with her) and off to the Laundromat we went.

The kids and I were no help at all. It was hot out we were more
interested in goofing off than moving wet laundry. So there's Susan making trip
after trip with the clothes . . . back and forth . . . sweating and getting wet
and tired.

The kids and I, we're laughing and running and chasing,and having a great
time.

Susan finally loses it. She is hot and tired and frustrated and
getting no help and she is DONE.

She says she's going home. And if we want a ride home we better get in the
car NOW. And we better not talk to her on the way to her house.

There was silence in the car.

We pull into the driveway Susan is out the door and into the house before
any of us are out of the car. By the time we get into the house she's in
the bedroom with the door closed . . . with a slam.

The girls and I sit in the living room and pretend to watch TV for a while,
each of us in our own thoughts.

Finally I can't stand it anymore, I go into the room and kneel by the
bed. I whisper her name to wake her. "Susan. Wake up
honey."

She stirs . . . and looks at me with eyes filled with anger.

I take her hand an tell her that even with her being so mad at me, and
being so hard to deal with, I could not imagine my life without her in it.
And I told her that I wanted to be the one to make days like this better.
And I asked her to marry me.

She looked at me as if I were crazy. And said yes (with
conditions).

And here we are today; happily married.

Gwendolyn's Christmas list

I'll translate:

Floam
Polly Pocket Jewelry Maker
Light-up shoe laces
Hair-Dye Barbie
Baby Born
Amanda (doll)
Robots (movie)
Barbie Digital Camera
Barbie Pegasus
Real Real Oven Meal

She also enjoys arts and crafts

 

On a walk

At the start of a walk . . . Gwen needs a new bike . . .she'll be six next month.

She's growing up so quickly. It's hard to imagine, but it was eighty degrees today in Houston.

Miriam decided not to ride today . . feeling a bit lazy.

And to prove my point . . .

We stopped to move a beetle off the sidewalk.

Gwen kept riding ahead and then stopped to ask what was taking so long.

A brief stop on the way home.

And a picture of Miri and I . . .

Home again, home again.

Panama Canal Timelapse video

Gwendolyn at the dance clinic

Miriam at the Garage sale

 

Miriam's School Pictures

 

It was an accidental good day

Today I was in a car accident. Not too bad really. A lady in an Expedition had a green light at an intersection and so did I. There was construction going on and she and I both think that we the lights were to blame. She lost a license plate, I had the passenger side rear smashed. Drivable but smashed.

So we waited for a while for the police to show. When they didn't we went to a sub-station and tried to file a report. They gave us each a form. Thanks, thanks a lot.

Then I sat in traffic trying to get home. And I sat. And I thought about what a crappy day it was. And I sat some more.

"What the hell could be taking so long?" I thought to myself.

Then the radio does traffic. There was a five car pile-up. A semi hit a van that hit a retaining wall that hit . . . and so it goes.

So I said a quiet prayer to the families of those people who died or were hurt and thanked God for my accident. I was grateful for having a car that worked and the ability to go home to my wife and kids.

Today was a good day.

General update on life, Kingwood and stuff

Halloween's tonight. It rained so we didn't take the kids out far. Only to two neighbors. The bright side was that we were able to trick or treat at four bedrooms inside the house. Miriam was a princess and Gwendolyn was a witch. I think they had their costumes confused. I went to her storybook parade at school this morning. She was Princess Juliana and wore a shirt that Susan made for Sarah when she was the same age.

I recorded Gwendolyn describing her art this week at her blog. We both and fun and we'll keep it up. She sounded more professional than I do when I'm audioblogging from the car.

I introduced her to Cracker Jacks this week. It was a mixed bag. Her first box had no prize. All the hype singing "Take me out to the Ball game" and me telling her about tattoos and stickers and then . . . nothing.
We had more luck with the second box. It had an illusion of a young/old man depending on how you held it. This led to a discussion about illusions and brought us to Mr. Angry / Ms. Calm. A truly wicked cool illusion.

I'm reading a few books these days. Nothing too heavy though. I just finished "Somebody Comes to Town, Sombody Leaves Town" by Cory Doctorow. I really enjoyed his last two books, "Eastern Standard Tribe", and "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" and this one was no exception. Cory mixes fantastic and future in a way that blends well. All three books are released under the Creative Commons license. I read them all on my Handspring Visor.

I also converted "Monster Island" by David Wellington from iPod notes to a Palm doc. It's entertaining but hard to suspend belief sometimes. The characters make rookie mistakes and aren't always consistent with what has happened before. I like to blame that on being confused by all the zombies. Other times it seems that the cliff -hangers are more contrived than the Flash Gordon serials I watched on AFRTS in Panama

Susan and I are reading "The Automatic Millionaire" and "Financial Peace". We need to get more control of our "this and that" spending. Gas prices are just getting too high.

Minny has a boyfriend named Patrick. He appears to be a nice guy and a good friend. I wish her the best. I haven't heard from Sarah in a few weeks. I guess that means she's doing well. At Christmas break she's going to bring home her PC and I'll be upgrading her to Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger).

Work is good, home is good. The soccer team is doing great. What more could I ask?

Prop. 2 is wrong

I'm married to a woman. I have homosexual friends. I live in Texas and am of voting age. That makes me an expert when it comes to the proposed amendment to the Texas Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

I believe that marriage has two aspects in America. There is a religious and a secular. We have the choice to do one, the other, or both. The interesting thing I think is that within a couple, there is the ability to have different aspects accepted within the couple.

Secular marriage in America is almost an undocumented contract. It's a legal agreement to share resources and responsibility. It is most beneficial for the children of a couple but has it's uses in the case of divorce too. Secular marriage also raises a little revenue for the state; always a good thing, right?

Of what benefit is marriage to the state? A more formal contract between the marrying contract would be more useful. Is it the function of the state to ensure that such a contract exists? If so, it should be enforced at the birth of every child, not at the beginning of a union.

Religious marriage stems from the desire (or requirement) to have the union blessed by a deity.

I fail to see how the sex of the partners in a union violate either of the aspects of marriage. If one's religion (or lack of) allows for same sex unions then it should be allowed. If the secular (legal) contract is valid then there is no need for any change of the existing system.

What this amendment does is sets a separate law for a specific class of people. My daughter Michelle asked the question last night if it was ok to say that a union between blacks was illegal. The difference is miniscule.

I'll be voting "No" to Prop. 2. Marry who you want. What's the harm?

Big Ideas come out of Big Pencils

I don't know how many rules of design this site breaks, but I enjoyed visiting. I almost never use pencils, I'm a pen guy, but I enjoy the concept of pencils. I think it's neat that there are "do-overs" with pencils.

Me, I like the commitment that goes along with pens. I like the fact that crossing out a mistake is a branding of yourself. I try not to show that I am human and make mistakes, so I am careful when I write with pen . . . I think a little more about it.

Also, and to be honest, the sound of graphite being rubbed away on paper is irratating to me and I avoid pencils for that too.

To sleep, perchance to dream.

There are lots of things I like doing. I'll read [almost*] anything and enjoy it. I like palying some computer games. I enjoy doing almost anything with my wife.

I enjoy juggling and walking. I like drinking scotch with friends (or alone).

Except for the scotch (and probably the juggling) I think I'm like most folks.

But one of my favorite things to do is sleep.

I like napping between naps. I like getting up, showering, and going back to bed. I like falling asleep while watching TV or reading.

I like napping with daughters and wives. I like after a family lunch finding a bed and knowing that everyone else is looking to curl up in the sun too.

I do like sleeping in the sun and with all the blinds shut tightly.

I'll nap on sunny days to escape teh heat and on cloudy days with the hope of rain.

I enjoy the process of falling asleep. Sometimes I'll pick a spot on my foot and try to fire off synapse all the way to my face in a continuos line. I like counting backwards from two-hundred. Sometimes I'll add numbers in patterns until I fall asleep. I like waking up and not knowing where I am and then falling asleep not knowing.

I like napping in my car or waiting in line.

Some people think sleeping is not doing something. I strongly disagree. Napping is a skill and a joy. Napping is my friend.

Silent Lucitity by Queensryche

* I have tried a few times but have never made it through "Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance", Umberto Eco's "Island of the Day Before" and "The Body Farm". Sue me.

Who reads this and where are you?

A company called Rising Concepts has put out a tool/toy called Frapper (Friend Mapper) that allows a community group (in the virtual sense, not a real-space sense) to leverage Google Maps to shout out where you are.

I have always loved maps and atlases both real and digital. This is yet another toy that fits right in. So take a second and let me know where you are.

The Mighty Squirrels!

"ONE might squirrel might not strike fear into your heart, but add fourteen more
and you've got yourself a horror movie. GO SQUIRRELS!" - Ed Hrynowski

I'm coaching soccer again at the local YMCA. It is probably one of the most joyful things I do. Chasing 13 five-year-olds around for an hour twice a week is amazing fun. I'm blogging about them too.

What's Important

In my last post I mentioned that Susan found a journal of poems while preparing for hurricane Rita. It was on the bottom shelf in the Green room, a room prone to flooding if flooding was to be done.

I had forgotten it was there and was not too concerned about preserving it. I've never been tied to the past. Things happen . . . and then more things happen. Whole swathes of my youth I only remember through the stories my family tells. I don't remember them at all. I'm not bothered by it though. I find it interesting every once in a while when I see a photograph and some long unused synapse fires and I remember a piece of my history.

As we were preparing for the storm though Susan and I had to make judgments on what we wanted to spend time protecting and what we didn't.

I have boxes and boxes of Star Wars stuff. I spent most of my money before Susan and the girls on SW. I spent WAY too much money. I left it all in the garage as we prepared. I didn't move it up to a higher shelf. I didn't put it in plastic bags. I left it.

I did the same with all my juggling supplies. And I did the same with my library.

We took special care of three items (or types of items).

1. Susan's footlocker of memorabilia
2. My footlocker of same
3. Photographs of he family

We made sure that the house was safe. We made sure the girls would be safe. We stored up water and went shopping for non-perishable food. We bought gas and moved the van away from all the trees. We tested radios and flashlights. We took pictures of everything in the house and put them on a server in San Antonio. We put important paper in a water-proof, fire-proof box.

And then we were done.

Everything of value was taken care of. And everything of value turned out to be the things that made us family. The memories of who we are and where we have been, the place we call home, the means to get to family if needed were the things of value.

An old but very familiar friend

Susan found a journal last week while preparing for hurricane Rita that had poems in it that I had written more than a decade ago. Most of them were shit, still are in fact. Age has not seasoned them at all. But I remember them fondly. They are snapshots of who I was then and glimpses of who I was to become.

So here is "Cry Out the Joys of Life." It's one of the more positive things I wrote from that era. Almost everything else had a darker undertone or was teen love/angst drivel. I think this was written around Earth Day 1989.

Cry out the joys of life!
To Live
To Love
To merely see the beauty
To taste the air around you
This is Life!
Walk into the world
Look into it
See that twig?
Tomorrow it will be bursting with buds
CRY OUT THE JOYS OF LIVING!

Happiness is seeing the world
Seeing it as a living thing
To be cared for
To care for us

We are spawned from the Earth
Revel in the joy of seeing our mother live
CRY OUT THE JOYS OF LIFE!!