Oh, I just lost it again!

Hi all. Sorry for two things: For 1. Not posting in quite a while. And, 2. For just making you lose the game twice (three times now).

«Sips tea, and sits back, shocked» What? You don’t know about The Game? (I lost again!)

Now, now, now, we can’t have that. For we are all playing The Game, even you. This isn’t the game that people have been trying to figure out for centuries, for æons, which isn’t really a game at all. I’m talking about a far more frivolous game, known as…«gong» The Game.

What’s The Game?

Well, there are only a few rules. It varies from area to area, so I’ll just share with you the rules that I live by.

Rule 1: Everyone is playing The Game. You, along with everyone else, plays The Game every single second of your life, whether you know it or not.

Rule 2: If you think of The Game, you lose. But don’t worry…once you forget about The Game, you’re back in. So start forgettin’.

Rule 3: If you lose The Game, you must tell someone. That person can be a loved one, a co-worker, a friend, or a travel agent. Some people hold to this religiously, that if you lose, you must tell someone, even if it means sending them a telegram from Siberia. So, after you make someone lose, you’ll probably hear the following words.

“Argh!!! I lost The Game!!!”

In my circles, typically one person will lose The Game, and instead of privately telling someone else of their misfortune, they will blurt out, “Argh!!! I lost The Game!” At which point, a ripple-effect of tragedy will take place, and all through the room, you will hear rounds of sad, frustrated exclamations:

“Doh!”

“Awww, I lost The Game!”

“I lost The Game, stop it!!!”

“ARGH!!! I LOST THE GAME, that’s SO ANNOYING!!!”

So, the whole world is playing a losing Game. The only way to win is to not play, as it were.

But wait, there’s hope!

There is one loophole. The Game ends when the Prime Minister of the UK declares on Television: “The Game is Up.”

Go figure.

Have you ever played or heard of The Game? Can you talk about it without losing?

(P.S. I just lost the game again!)

January 12, 1942

Our forces broke through the Nazis’ siege. Supplies are on their way. Had to bar door to cellar—Papa is secretly stockpiling rations. He says as long as it keeps us through the siege, it’s fine. Kirush is taken to pickpocketing. Pray for rain.

On this day, back in 1942, the siege of Leningrad finally had a breach. Before this, it was under siege for a year and a half. One can only imagine what was going on in the minds of the people there—who knows what was happening, with all these people locked in a city with their food supplies cut off? Without being able to leave for a year and a half?

Did insanity kick in after a while, simply from not being able to leave? Did they get lonely, in the middle of a city full of people? What does it feel like to starve, from food and from freedom?

I kept my illustration simple—I’ll let your imagination take it further.

How about your city? Are you blockaded in? See if you can break through the siege.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the thought for the day…Consider and appreciate what you have!

Under siege,
Sails are down.
Our motor’s stopped,
We’ve closed the shutters,
Slammed the gates,
And given up.
Under siege,
Our town.

Then I see your boat,
It’s coming down the Ladoga,
It’s packed with goods,
It’s packed with hope—
We wait on the shore,
With our feet in the cold water,
Waiting, waiting…
(And waiting, and waiting…)

And then you’re here.

And though the siege may last
Another year,
When the heart is free,
City walls
Are nothing but pictures
In an Earthly museum.

I think these thoughts
As I sip tea from a samovar
And listen to Prokofiev
On our radio.

Proof that God knew the definition of “Cute” before we even knew it was a word.

I  found this little gem by linking off of a Twitter tweet. And, as I sat there watching it, letting my time get sucked into this…this black hole, I thought to myself, “There’s gotta be a blog post in here somewhere.”

“There’s just gotta. Gotta.”

And guess what? There is!

Draw your own lessons from this post!

Now, I really don’t begrudge the fact that I wasn’t born in the USSR. But there’s something very skilled about this kind of dancing. The balance, the form, the total control of equilibrium (did you check out the accordion player at 4:25—amazing!!!) seem to be something I would love to master.

I’m not sure I need to say it—but I’ve had no luck in finding a Cossack dance group in my area. Since I don’t live in, say, New York City or L.A., my finding one would be more that a hat trick. So much so, that I’ve given up the search.

But someday, if I find myself in that part of the world, and someone asks me if I would by chance want to do some Hopak with them and a few friends…

Oh yes. Happiness.

Ever wish that you could reach back through a window in time, or across a sea, and grab a bit of another world?

Photo thanks to Stanitsa of Wikimedia Commons!

Do you remember Summer? Now that we’ve passed the Winter Solstice, we’re over halfway to that glorious point when the sun is shedding its rays on our fair planet.

My Plants remember summer too.

So, Summer, we anxiously await you.

I remember summer, when
The skies were bright and our hearts were too,
When the sun in our hair, and the blue in the sky
The birds flew there, and we left our aggravation
Our irritation and our malcontent
Back in the white snowdrifts of December,
Far behind us, as it were, forever.