VernetteOutLoud

XLIII

XLIII

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men might strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,–I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!–and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
from Sonnets from the Portuguese

Your smile.
Your drive.
Your love for God.
Your left earlobe…
In fact the skin under your left ear lobe.
That mole on your collar-bone.
And the one on your leg too.
The way the light hits your eyes just so.
The way you light the world with your inner light.
The curve of your lower lip
And that little curve on your hip
…you know the one.
Your fire.
Your calm.
Your peace…
in all most things.
The past…it was all worth it.
Your presence is my present.
The future…we will create.
Together.

You accept me.
Flaws and claws.
Soft under-belly too.
You are my anchor.
You are my adventure.
I see you.
I love you.
You are my enough.
All of you.

…Always.
Me.

Castaway

I’m killing two birds with one stone today. I’m using today’s Daily Prompt to complete my NaBloPoMo post today.

If I were stuck on a deserted island the 5 items I’d want to have:

1. My Kindle. I thought about this in last four minutes of writing and realized that I’ll burn through the battery in no time. So not my kindle. I’ll bring a water bottle instead.

2. A knife or machete – I could protect myself, feed myself and shelter myself with this one.

3. Matches – Until I develop the patience to rub two sticks together I’ll need some help. A jumbo box of matches will help with building fires to alert passing boats.

4. A blanket – I went camping once on a small island off Trinidad some years ago and when the sun went down, that breeze coming off the ocean was deadly. I’ll need to be warm and a blanket will shelter me from the sun too.

5. A pair of crocs – I’ll need to explore said island and my feet need to be protected.

My phone rang and interrupted my last two minutes. So I’m using my last five minutes to complain about how the loud ticking of my timer was a distraction. I felt rushed trying to think and write coherently for 10 minutes. I was tempted to use “text speak” shortening my words. And I admit that I think I cheated using the Daily Prompt. Oh and I still want to take my Kindle. Even though the battery will die after 4 hours…I’ll be happy reading for 4 hours. And the timer buzzing literally shocked my brain and made me jump outta my skin!

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I’m participating in BlogHer’s NaBloPoMo Challenge for the month of December:

NaBloPoMo_MoreLess

You can read some awesome entries here: NaBloPoMo December.

Not broken…just bent

My EARWORM these days is P!nk’s collab with Nate Ruess – Just Give Me a Reason.

From the opening lines…P!nk is speaking to me…

“Right from the start
You were a thief
You stole my heart
And I’m your willing victim…”

Only I don’t think my heart was stolen…I gave it away willingly. But like this song’s theme…my love life’s loop is that there is always some breakdown in communication.

But there is hope and my absolute favourite line is:

“It’s been written in the scars on our hearts
That we’re not broken just bent
And we can learn to love again”

…cuz no matter how your love story ends, how scarred you may be…you can always love again. And when this song is turned up loud…I can shout the lyrics as loud as I want and it still sounds great. True Story!

Shipwrecked: Taking one for the team

Sketch of the Mignonette by Tom Dudley (1853-1900)

Sketch of the Mignonette by Tom Dudley (1853-1900)

Daily post prompt: Read the story of Richard Parker and Tom Dudley. Is what Dudley did defensible? What would you have done?

I was riveted reading this story.

I kept moving between oh my gosh I can’t believe this really happened and oh my gosh this is so gross but I can’t stop reading and wow this is sooo Life of Pi.

Here’s a quick summary:


Four sailors: Tom Dudley, captain, Edwin Stephens, Edmund Brooks, and Richard Parker, the cabin boy were shipwrecked. After many days at sea with no food, or clean water, they draw lots to see who will take “one” for the team. Nature intervenes and Parker gets really sick. He slips into a coma. The decision is made. Dudley kills Parker. All three eat and drink and survive. They are eventually rescued and subsequently charged with Parker’s murder.

My thoughts:

I still can’t get over that this really happened.

What Dudley did was defensible in my eyes. Yes, I subscribe to “Thou shall not kill” and I am also no expert on law and while it may be “reason free from passion” (thanks Legally Blonde), I believe that until we are in that moment, going though the experience of hunger to the point of madness, we cannot pass judgement.

So I endorse what the panel of judges said:

To preserve one’s life is generally speaking a duty, but it may be the plainest and the highest duty to sacrifice it. War is full of instances in which it is a man’s duty not to live, but to die. The duty, in case of shipwreck, of a captain to his crew, of the crew to the passengers, of soldiers to women and children, as in the noble case of the Birkenhead; these duties impose on men the moral necessity, not of the preservation, but of the sacrifice of their lives for others, from which in no country, least of all, it is to be hoped, in England, will men ever shrink, as indeed, they have not shrunk. – R v. Dudley and Stephens [1884] 14 QBD 273 DC

What Would Vernette Do?

What Would Vernette Do?

What would I have done?

I have learned through taking care of my mother during the final stages of cancer, that you don’t know how strong you are, until you have to be. That was the only option I had. So, would I take one for the team?

Would I take a knife to someone for my own survival…would I offer myself, so that others could survive? On either side of the knife…I would have to be strong.

I know strong. Strong I can definitely do.

But man was it tough being a Richard Parker in the 1800s!!!