Arden's Garden

This poem is in a "quintilla" form, with a rhyme scheme AABBA.  “The Cost” 25 February 2025  ~form: quintilla, AABBA rhyme scheme~ The world is dark and cruel and cold Dims, dulls, and taints the heart of gold  Sordid motives and desire Stoke flames of forthcoming fire  Despite the warnings manifold    Though righteously once shone the light  Upon the earth, for all was right  And peace abound from east to west Each creature bountifully blessed All according to His good sight    Until the seed of darkness raised His ugly head, his red eyes blazed Disdained the work of sanctity  And plotted a calamity  The perfect world at once fell razed   Since that moment, all have toiled  Finite years of life now soiled In the dust and filth and mire  While, in our Maker's eyes, a fire Burned, as His holy blood boiled    His children, holy creation Now at risk of hell's damnation So, in His wisdom, He prepared A way ...

Ah, the pain. It seems as though every time I have free time to write, I don't want to, but as soon as my schedule is packed with other obligations, all I want to do is write.  So, how do you write when you have no time? This is a question I've struggled with for a while, and my answer is simply this: make time or be content.  How do you make time? I keep a planner in numerous forms to schedule the week's responsibilities, the day's, and then, if a particular day is very busy, I even schedule things down to the very hour I plan to complete them. It's a little chaotic and yes, I do spend a chunk of time simply making these schedules, but I think that they do more good than harm. Now, about scheduling in time for writing.  Step 1: Prioritize . I identify the most pressing items on my schedule, then I set strict guidelines for myself according to when I need to complete those things. Trust me, as a graduate student and soon-to-be medical student who still lives at home...

This isn't really a recipe, I guess. I wanted to make tea the other day, since it helps me focus on studying. When I have a cup of hot tea beside me, I find myself getting up less often and my studies are not as interrupted. Anyway, I wanted tea, but all we had in our bucket of tea bags were Earl Grey and some other flavors I don't particularly like very much.  I was about to abandon the idea, but then I remembered the little herb garden in the backyard. It had been started and largely forgotten by us, except to clip some sprigs of cilantro to go on top of rice. Oh, and Black Swallowtail butterflies laid eggs on the dill so we now have a lot of adorable chubby caterpillars.  Realizing that tea is simply tea leaves and that I didn't really need the caffeine in the tea anyway, I wandered out to the herb garden and took some clipping of peppermint, lemon balm, and spearmint. I ripped them up and place them in a glass container, then boiling water and poured it over top of the ...

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain  I heard this quote a long time ago and I think it's appropriate for how I feel right now.  I have an Instagram account, but I am constantly deleting the app for a couple of weeks, then downloading it again. This is because I have poor self-control when it comes to social media and will spend hours scrolling endlessly. So, when life and studies pick up and I know that I don't have extra time to squander, I delete it to focus on the pressing matters. Then, inevitably, I download it again to snoop on the lives of my family and few friends.  Anyway, all that's nearly besides the point.  I recently re-downloaded it again but, a few days ago, I realized that I am now seeing many ads for summer internships, summer jobs at national ...

I decided to post this poem because it was either the first or the longest (one of those, LOL - definitely the longest, maybe also the first?) poem that I ever memorized. I still have it memorized, actually. Back when I was younger and determined to become an ornithologist (bird scientist), my mom showed this poem to me and I absolutely loved it. I had just begun to write my own poetry, so such a beautiful poem about a bird and the deeper connection really struck me. Anyway, I hope that anyone reading this poem loves it as much as I do.  Image Credit: "The Bedside Book of Birds" by Graeme Gibson ~ "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow  or reap or store away in barns, and yet your  heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much  more valuable than they?" Matthew 6:26

This is a totally random post. I was on my own to figure out dinner a few nights ago, so I made a super easy (very unhealthy) meal. I made elbow noodles and, while the water was boiling, I melted slices of American cheese in a bowl in the microwave with a splash of milk in the bowl too. I let those melt until it made a cheese sauce, then I added a small amount of hot sauce to the cheese sauce and stirred it up and *voila*, buffalo cheese sauce. When the noodles were done, I mixed them into the buffalo cheese sauce and topped the whole thing with diced tomatoes and diced bologna. Oh, and I sprinkled some cilantro on top just to give a fake appearance of health. It was so good, and super easy to make.  So whether you eat or drink or whatever  you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31