Time Flies.

Several weeks and many clovers later I find my mission to document and share each one is somewhat of a failure. I just don't seem to find the time or even the inspiration these days. I'll try to recap.

A couple of weeks ago we had a nice rainfall followed by a nice mild day, perfect for yard work. Actually, just something to pass the time while the girls play with sidewalk chalk (I can't stand to touch the stuff). I was surprised to find another fiver. The day was May 2nd.
Another one I managed to get a shot of shortly afterward. We showed it to the cat (our newest addition, by the way, his mane is TommyBilly) who promptly ate it. It happened so quickly I barely managed to snap a photo while he chewed it up. It looks like he enjoyed it.








Last night I pulled double duty on our way out to see some live entertainment in the neighborhood where i work. Found two within moments of each other. We tried to beat the incoming storm but it started raining shortly after we arrived. The girls were in charge of giving them to whoever they liked. Katie gave hers to a nice woman passing by, and Josie gave hers to the juggler. Soon after we left, the weather got really ugly. Forgot to get pictures.

Addict

I couldn't help it. I looked. Took a moment before getting in the car on the way to work. I imagined myself bringing a four leaf clover with me and everyone oohing and ahhing. Of course I found one. Brought it in. Gave it to my boss. His reaction was funny, he asks me how do I find time to look for four leaf clovers. Insert opportunity to flaunt supernatural four leaf clover searching power. I can't help it. If you had magical powers, wouldn't you want to share them with the world?

I have to remember all the clovers that were truly intentional. Hang on a sec I want to go grab a clover real quick intentional. Often they are found with that mindframe. Like there is no trick to it, just something I want and it happens. Last year it was Uncle's birthday at Carlyle. I wanted to give him one for his birthday so I did. Another was when Joe and Ralphie were getting ready to leave on a roadtrip to the F1 races. Wanted to grab one up for a lucky talisman to keep them safe. So I just went and grabbed one. Hardly took any time at all.

insert record of Easter Sunday four leaf clover finding HERE.

Pics to follow. Stuck in the phone.

Rattling my philosiphies of life.

At least how they relate to the sport of four leaf hunting. I have enlisted the help of my two young girls and have begun training them to seek them out. It has been raining a lot and with the lawnmower still broken I have been taking advantage of the opportunity to search through the jungles of clover that have cropped up over the last few weeks. We expect to receive a complaint from the city any day now, but in the meantime the growth is lush and I have no complaints whatsoever. I could continue searching, and what a treasure it would be to find something grown as large as these! Growing ankle high and tall end dense enough to hide small rabbits as they graze (though not hidden well enough to escape the jaws of young Timmy, I am afraid). Still, the inevitability of the chore of cutting down this growth to the acceptable height as indicated by city ordinances adds a sense of urgency to the search, leaching out all pleasurable aspects of it.

Today is a good day, in between bouts of rain and hot weather so I brought the girls outside with me to try to clear up some of this jungle mess. Leave the mowing to another member of the family, but at least we can clear some weeds from our neglected flowerbeds in preparation for some sort of intentional growth. We got to work. The earth was soft. Bugs crawled out. Good bugs. As I worked I focused in on the spaces of earth that were just growing before my eyes as I pulled out rocks and leaves and tossed it all aside. I was surprised to find exposed a single clover, who just narrowly escaped my deadly grip. This single clover had four leaves on it! I called the girls over to see, and gently plucked it and brought it inside. I am beginning to wonder though, what exactly is the purpose of the plucking? It feels so violating and wrong these days. Where do I need to carry it to? How could I do such a thing without considering the consequences or have the tiniest inkling of a plan for its demise? I rushed it inside, thinking that the deed had been done, and at the very least I could prevent it from being trampled or blown away while I think about the future of today's find.

As I am getting back to the business of weed pulling and herding children, bug saving and dandelion blowing, I am perplexed by this nagging feeling that things are different just now. This is not at all how it happens or how I feel. This is not a great trophy or accomplishment. This was the senseless murder of a helpless four leaved plant for the purpose of my own sick sense of pleasure and pride. Above all else this represents how today my philosophies of life and how they relate to the art of four leaf clover hunting have been compromised. You see, this clover I found today, I did not search for it. It appeared. It surprised. How can I find in life these things I do not search for? How serendipitous should I expect all other aspects of my life to be? Is this a fluke, or a sign of change? A catalyst to usher in the shift of the energies that rule my universe out of my own two hands and back into the hands of fate? Is my life no longer under my own control?

I may just take a break from the search. May just let fate hold the wheel for a while. We'll see how it goes.

In the meantime I found a lovely resting spot for today's clover.

..includes Saturday, April 11

I actually thought I was jinxed. Either it was the fiver or maybe going public but I was really worried. Went "camping" for a night in Carlyle bur everything was waterlogged or torn up from the two days rain. Searched and didn't expect anything. But I did. All's well. Back to normal.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the clover posted was actually found the day before entry was posted.

Lucid dreaming in the afternoon

Just nap-dreamt about a small secret society who used mirrors and water as tools to time travel and inhabit the bodies of cats in order to solve mysteries. In this episode, someone follows out of curiosity who happened to be present at the destined past. Realizing what was going on, he slinks in for a closer look and inadvertently changes history by distracting his friend and preventing his death from the runaway train that crashes into the garage. His Friend appears in the future as an old man released from a prison, relishing in the joys of the future and bicycles and children. Oddly, the time lapsed for these characters was from an untainted youth to teenhood, and why the victim returned aged so I cannot understand.

We celebrated by a quick jaunt to the sixties to shop for dinnerware.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley

...or whatever that was. Well, that was supremely disappointing. Not a bit scary, ridiculous costuming, and an ending that totally deflated what could almost have been a decent plot. Nice brainchild, but would have been better in different hands.



*note to producer(s)*



Dressing teenagers in schoolgirl outfits inspired by pulp fiction novels does not give your poorly written "thriller" that little extra bit of spice. Were you expecting that boost of endorphins from the early twenties male demographic to be mistaken for fear if you add one of those quick and dirty flashes of creepiness in the mirror with a Jasonesque singsong screech snuck into the score? Way to half assedly build a string of supporting roles only to pick an ending out of a hat. "Well, that character doesn't work with this ending. We'll just pretend nothing happened... That girl? I guess she just disappears. We really don't need more material at this point. This zit has already been popped."

If I was an eighteen year old boy looking for a sexed up, "I'll hold you if you get scared honey" sort of date movie with a freshman that swears she won't tell her parents, then sure. But for a real scare, I wouldn't even take my four year old. Who by the way, already thinks Poltergeist is the best scary movie. So fellas, if y'all need advice on the next one, I am sure she would be available for consultation.

The Fiver of '09

It is known by some (but not most) that I am the Master Queen of finding four leaf clovers. This lucky talent has its benefits and drawbacks. While it is considered quite lucky and most people are awed by my skill, I view it as a social status of sorts that I must live up to. And I do fear with the beginning of each new Spring as the crocuses emerge and the dollar store flip flops are dusted off and inventoried, that soon I will be expected to live up to my potential. And with that self imposed expectation the self doubt and trepidation that this new season will be fruitless I am launched into a frenzy of searching... and hoping.

I do feel quite lucky, and I do feel that these little four leaf treasures hold a little magic. I feel guilt as I pluck them out of the ground, knowing their magic will soon fade, and their dried up carcasses will be discarded and forgotten. I have a few memories. One came to me by accident, that is to say, I really wasn't looking for it. About twelve years ago as I enjoyed a sunny picnic lunch with a boyfriend across the way from our small town's historic church. I ended up keeping it and putting it in a little frame, although the moment it was found didn't hold any special meaning. The boyfriend and I eventually broke up, and not even an amicable breakup but a sort of abrupt and painful chore, like peeling off a bandaid. Still, I have carried the thing with me all this time, and it has traveled with me as my life journey has taken me to many places and homes. It currently lives on top of the china cabinet in our dining room, looking down at us as we go about our business of living. Seasons pass and still it is there. Like a rock. Like a leaf.

There have been many others, and some I do remember. But, oh what a tragedy that so many of these mementos of luck and magic have faded with not even a memory to hold them in! I decided this would be a venue as good as any other to document this season's findings, to prepare a little resting place where as time goes by a little bit of their lucky essence is captured and held. I will begin this documentation with the Fiver of '09.

Spring came suddenly, while a moment ago we were still hunkered down in cozy socks and oven cooked casseroles to ward off the chills of a long and uneventful Winter. It had been cold and dry so long the bit of rain that came was not much to talk about, just a miserable nuisance as we waited for clear skies and dreamed of long days filled with iced teas and mosquito bites, lazily watching the fireflies as we skip the after dinner bath to enjoy a peaceful moment outdoors scratching absently at the afternoon's red hot trophies wherever we have forgotten to cover up. But, lo! What a surprise to see as the next few days unfolded and green began to multiply and we broke into the sun as if freshly born, cheeks pinking in the sun and feeling reassured that time will continue and this thing called Spring is indeed, happening.

It was on one of these first mornings that I casually decided to have a look, thinking it was still early in the season and at the very least I could stretch my legs and do some warmup laps around the front yard. We were packing the girls up for a day at the Zoo, and if I do not look back at the calendar now I am afraid the date would slip away in the midst of several others. It was March 13, 2009. And it was a Friday. But luck is where you find it, and on that day it was found just a few feet from the driveway. As I scanned and petted the lush little patch of growth I noticed what my eyes have been trained to see after so many seasons of searching. An irregularity in the number of leaves, the angle of one leaf to another cocked ever so slightly toward on another just a few degrees less than the norm, and I swiped gently to brush apart any neighboring growth that in proximity might create such an illusion.

Here it was! The first pick of the season, but can this be? Not four, but five? At first I did not believe it, and carefully moved away the surrounding foliage to have a closer look. And there it was. A perfect four leaf clover, it's leaves pointing to the four corners in perfect balance as they should, and a tiny little leaf sprouting out of the middle like a stamen. A little leaf flower. Into the house it was took, to be quickly pressed and prepared for an eternity of shameless display. And we were on our way, as if nothing had happened. A boastful moment of pride and then the thing was easily forgotten as we went about the day. But the little bit of magic was there, as a peace offering, lingering as the anticipation of warmer weather grew with each moment and the cold Winter faded into a distant memory. That day, the Fiver of '09 ushered in the Spring. Call it luck if you like, but with each new find I am reminded of my motto (as it applies to such things) that you cannot find what you do not search for.

challenge

My new challenge is to be more effective in what I do. No half assed rush jobs. No more too tired (although I am). That is all for now.