Early Morning Musings and Camera Critters

Morning Musings ...
shared in the Late Afternoon

Old Lessons Revisited Anew

I'm reading Wally Lamb's 3rd novel ... THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED. I started over at the beginning yesterday because it had been a while since I'd picked it up ... and I couldn't pick up the threads easily.

After reading the first 119 pages again, I set the book aside and did other things. This morning as I sat down with coffee & my journal, I realized that starting as he did with a compelling story line made me willing to read carefully through his 'stream of conscious' style childhood memories in Chapter 4 that I might otherwise have skimmed.

Although different in particular from my own childhood recollections, the ESSENCE of many RESONATE ... leaving me wondering whether such happenings are common to childhood per se ... and that led me to wonder ...

How much residual GUILT fuels my STUCKNESS?

What PRETENSES interfere with CLOSENESS even today?

In Lamb's story, the character Velvet Hoon 'sabotages' her writing success and 'wrecks' her relationship with Caelum. His silence adds to the shame through secrecy ... and with this in mind I picked up my pencil and wrote in my journal as follows:

Click to embiggen if you wish to read the text.

After writing, I took Molly for a walk and when we returned 'the pug trio' (shared previously in a March Camera Critters post at Small Reflections) stopped by for a visit.

When I came inside there I found a phone message from a friend and we made quick plans to walk down to the pier to watch the US Open Surf Championships for a few hours.

This afternoon, I spent a few hours reading the next 100 pages in Lamb's book before sitting down at the computer to create today's post ... hence my 'Morning Musings' showing up in the late afternoon rather than earlier today.

This is my 84thMisty Dawn started the meme and explains the rules here.

Jake has his eye on the smaller ball Molly's chewing on ...

but settles for this bigger tennis ball

surprising us all by being able to carry it in his mouth.

Meet Noah & Alle ... elderly pugs who

observed Molly & Jake from a distance ...

Ms. Kitty watched the doggies play

hidden safely behind the patio chairs ...

Molly & Jake wonder if Layla might come join them ...

while the neighbor's cat Daisy watches from her bench.

Click images to embiggen for better viewing
and for others participating in Camera Critters

Thought for Today
" Opportunity is a parade. Even as one chance passes, the next is a fife and drum echoing in the distance." Robert Brault