Life - grace grits and gardening

Ladybug

January 1, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

for Andie…

Maybe she was simply needed
In another place, too perfect for this one. The
Raw reality of her
Absence still fresh years later. Taken just after
Christmas—the sheer timing cruel. A
Loss so incomprehensible
Especially in
One so young. Life unrolls in delicate,
Fragile waves, ridden but not understood. We
Trust
He has a plan
Even while we
Languish, gasping for air. And then
A reminder. Hope, love, beauty touches the
Depths of a mother’s heart.
Yellow, raw pain soothed as hundreds of ladybugs—
Brilliant red dots of joy—
Uproot
Grief. If only for a moment.

morgueFile

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Yellow Brick Road New Year

December 30, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

New Year’s Eve was always a bit depressing to me—what a let down after the end of a magical Christmastime. Plus, the return to school loomed over the frozen cotton fields.

My sister and I spent the so-called most exciting night of the year watching television. We tried to stay up long enough to see the Times Square ball drop.

And what kind of fun was that?

Watching a disco ball drop from a place I’d never been and certainly couldn’t relate to was borrrr-ing. Times Square may as well have been the moon, although even the moon seemed closer to Mississippi County than New York City.

I could see the moon from my bedroom window. I watched it set and rise behind the pump house in our back yard. I studied the moon phases noting when it grew bright and full before shrinking back to a white sliver.

In 1974 I skipped the whole ball dropping thing to lie on the couch in Daddy’s office and listen to the entire Billboard Top 100 Hit countdown on the radio. I knew almost every single song by heart and loved them all. I was twelve years old and had only recently discovered music. Each month I devoured Tiger Beat Magazine and imagined all the amazing lucky entertainers were at glamorous parties dancing the night away (probably in Times Square) while I stared at the ceiling singing along to their songs and eating Jiffy Pop.

Elton John had THREE hits on the charts. That was beyond cool.

I couldn’t wait to be cool.

I couldn’t wait to grow up and be someone else. Someone different.

Turns out, I’m still the same person.

And I’m cool with that.