Tard

When I think I am tired and have worked so hard, I think of Loretta Lynn and her words to the Coal Miner's Daughter. In the old versions she rhymned hard and tard (tired) and I will always understand the word tard.

I do not think another word can quite describe the essence of being tired as the word tard. It takes all the hoopla out of just being a little tired when you are tard...tard to the bones. There is not a single thing a tard person wants to do but eat and go to bed and hope they dream some nice dream. Sometimes eating is not in there as a want. Just flopping down, mouth open, breathing in and out. I understand tard.

Love,
Betty

Stop working so hard! You won't get so tard
Whatever you don't get done today will wait for you.

So true, Betty. Take it easy for a while.

I think of my favorite fictional character of the moment: Ruby Thewes of Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain. Ruby worked from the time she got up in the morning until she went to bed at night. She didn't count a day's success by the tasks she had completed. She stopped when she was to tired to go on. If that happened before the work that needed to be done was complete, she still felt satisfied that she had done what she should have done. "Do just as much as you could do and still be able to get up and do again tomorrow. No more, no less."

Betty, you remind me of Ruby.

Ann

Dear Ann,
I will name a spider, Ruby. I have watched an argiope for a week or two. she has a web in the african iris. When it rains, she reconstructs and in doing so she has a lot of motion up and down and sideways. In the finish she has a zipper in the middle of the web. She is a lovely striped spider, legs and all, about two inches head to end. I have named her Gloria. She hangs near the wind chimes and when the wind blows the chimes ring and the threads of her web vibrate.

I consider that she is a little bored with hanging around upside down waiting for dinner to fly in and has entertained herself with the construction of a spider web to duplicate the tones of the wind chimes. She has gotten as far as figuring out that the shorter the web string the higher the tone. I imagine in a week or two she will have an insturment to entertain herself and many a spider beside.
Love,
Betty

Betty, remember the story of how Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeated the English in battle after watching a determined spider spin a web? He saw the spider fail several times before he won, and decided that it didn't matter how many times he had been defeated, he could still win.

You have taught us so often how much we can learn from those "lesser" creatures.

Ann