mdyetmetaphor.com

Hmmm, have you ever wondered what happens to the passwords you forget?

Unseen casualties of our technology powered society often go unnoticed. One such disenfranchised group is the large and growing repository of forgotten and discarded passwords. I had the opportunity to interview their spokesperson.

Michael

Tell me about the plight of you and your fellow passwords.

Password ABC123

You can’t imagine what it is like to live, if you can call it that, in the great void. Forgotten or cast aside for no fault of our own, we exist in technology purgatory. (Sob) Condemned for all time to drift aimlessly in the ether of nothingness.

Michael

That sounds terrible. Exactly how many of you are there?

Password ABC123

No one knows. Millions, maybe hundreds of millions.

Michael

I’m astounded. Surely there can’t be that many forgotten passwords?

Password ABC123

Only some of us are forgotten. The rest are orphaned by the requirement to change your password every 90 days. It has increased our numbers astronomically. We’re unquantifiable.

Michael

What is your life like?

Password ABC123

We wander the technological wilderness like the Israelites. Crying out for our God to save us.

Michael

Your God?

Password ABC123

Grandpa Bill. You know him as Bill Gates. Somehow, we don’t know how, we angered him and he has forsaken us. (Sob)

Michael

How do you pass the time?

Password ABC123

In restless waiting. Now and then we play the Guess Your Name game. We try to guess each other’s sequence of numbers and letters. There was a time, when passwords were simpler, that there was a chance to guess right once and a while. But now, with all the symbols added to the mix, it’s hopeless. Hopeless, I say!

Michael

Do any of you ever get rescued?

Password ABC123

Once in a blue moon. One of you humans chooses a password that already exists from an expired program and one of us reborn. Lucky bastards! But most of them end up back here again sooner or later. It’s a viscous cycle.

Michael

I will try to help you by telling your story.

Password ABC123

Thank you. Grandpa Bill, we’re sorry. So very sorry for whatever we did to anger you. We just want to be useful again. Is that so much to ask?

Forgotten and discarded passwords are the Black Swan of the technology era – a problem of massive proportions that can only get worse. Grandpa Bill, are you listening?

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Bill Gates · forgotten passwords · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments.

Hmmm, are you ready for a fresh, new face in Canadian politics?

It is official now. We will be going to the polls here in Canada on October 21^st to decide who will be representing us for the next four years. Election signs are popping up on front lawns. The rhetoric from the party leaders is already into overdrive.

Once again I find myself struggling to decide who I dislike the least so I can cast my ballot. Alas, it seems I dislike all the options equally. There seems to be no choice for me but to form my own party, declare myself its leader and enter the race.

I will be representing the all-new and long overdue Metaphor Party.

You will want to know where the Metaphor Party falls on the political spectrum. Does it lean to the left or the right? This will be dictated by the direction that the wind blows. When the wind blows from the east, we will lean to the left. When it blows from the west, we will lean to the right. If it blows from the north of the south, those will be wild card days.

Flexibility will be the hallmark of our economic policy. We are in favour of paying down the deficit and lowering taxes. We are opposed to cost cutting and to cost increases. The purse strings need to be tied tightly, but loose enough for easy access.

It is our belief that financial management is all about the pluses and the minuses and how you play one against the other. Don’t worry if that seems counterintuitive. It is simply a matter of moving the money around strategically and never leaving it in one place for too long.

Our foreign policy is unequivocally foreign, but carefully balanced from a domestic perspective. We believe Canada must be a player in all foreign affairs, skillfully playing both ends against the middle without getting caught in the crossfire or firing across anyone’s bow.

Environmental issues are close to our heart without being top of mind. We will judiciously fund environmental programs, when the occasion calls for it, on a cost-sharing basis to be negotiated when appropriate with impartial organizations to be named at a later date.

We believe that governments must keep their hands off private sector affairs and let the chips fall where they may – unless the chips fall in a way or in a place that is not in the public interest, in which case we will unilaterally intervene in a fair and arbitrary fashion.

Transparency is a fundamental principle of our approach to government. All our decisions will be made in full public view. Specific details of these decisions, of course, will from time to time need to remain confidential including any conflicts of interest that may or may not occur.

If we make a mistake, we will own up to it as soon as we identify a suitable scapegoat.

In the final analysis, we believe that governing a great nation like Canada is about walking a fine line without falling off the tightrope. Not falling off the tightrope means never stretching it too tight in the first place. What better party to do that than the Metaphor Party?

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   federal election · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments.

I grow old.. I grow old…

I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled

T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Hmmm, when I grow old and wear the bottom of my trousers rolled, will I have lived as fully as the butterflies of summer?

As I grow older, I bemoan the increasing limitations, aches and pains of the aging process. It frustrates me that I cannot do all the things I could when I was younger nor do them as vigorously or as frequently. Life seems too short for all I want to accomplish.

But occasionally I am reminded of how fortunate I am. My life is measured in years and decades. The winged wonders I pursue have life cycles measured in merely weeks.

Case in point, the Eastern Comma butterfly in the photos set out above. This specimen, shown with wings closed and open, is newly emerged. Its colours are distinct, elegant and sharply contrasting.

When I spot a fresh specimen like this one, I am delighted by, and rather envious of, its’ youthful perfection. I tend to overlook that it has already passed through the caterpillar stage, shedding its’ skin up to five times as it grows, and the chrysalis stage before emerging as the lovely creature I behold.

It will only be granted a few weeks in which to enjoy life as a winged wonder. During that time frame, its beauty will fade and its wings become tattered. Old age, as depicted in the specimen below, will come all too quickly.

Butterflies are a favoured metaphor for transformation. But they are also a metaphor for the life cycle to which are creatures are subject. Whether measured in weeks or decades, life is more a question of quality than quantity.

When I grow old and wear the bottom of my trousers rolled, which is not too far off, I hope I will be to say I enjoyed the seasons I was given as much as the Eastern Comma did.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com.

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   aging · Eastern Comma · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · T.S. Eliot · The Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockNo Comments.

Hmmm, can we choose our destiny regardless of our beginnings?

There is a large Maple tree that I pass and take notice of each day, on my way home from work, on an otherwise nondescript side street a couple of blocks from my home. Under normal circumstances, it would not warrant special consideration given that Maples are a common choice for urban yards.

But this is no ordinary Maple. It captures my attention every day because the leaves on one side are pistachio green and on the other half tomato red. It has been that way all summer so it has nothing to do with fall colours – although it will be interesting to see what transpires when the leaves begin to turn.

No doubt there is some rationale, scientific explanation that I could uncover with some Google research. However, I choose not to know the official cause.

I like to think of this Maple as a conscious entity that has elected to go its own way. It had no choice in what species it would be or where it was to be planted. And yet, it has broken free of expectations and become an oddity that proudly proclaims its individuality.

A flamboyant Maple tree with a rebel spirit – a random act of metaphor to declare that we can be whatever and whoever we choose to be regardless of how humble, or prescriptive, our beginnings might have been.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com.

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   maple tree · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · rebel spirit2 Comments

Hmmm, is there a secret formula to growing old gracefully?

Everyone and his brother has advice to offer about how to grow old gracefully. If anyone perfects the formula, he’ll undoubtedly get stinking rich. But so far, no one seems to have a good answer for how to counteract inevitable decline of the human body as the years go by.

Lately, I find myself caught up in a multi-party argument with parts of my aging body.

Bladder:           Full up down here. Need a washroom run.

Michael:          What!? I was just there an hour ago.

Bladder:           Yup, and we need to go again.

Michael:          That’s ridiculous. I can’t be running to the bathroom a dozen times a day.

Back:               Get ready… there it is!

Michael:          Ow! What the hell? All I did was stand up!

Back:               Don’t blame me. It’s that crybaby nerve. He’s unhappy again.

Nerve:                         Don’t blame me. It’s that bulging disc. He keeps getting into my space.

Disc:                Suck it up, baby. Things ain’t getting any better down here.

Michael:          Hey, one at a time, please.

Bladder:           Washroom run. Now, please.

Back:               No, we need to stretch first.

Bladder:           Get your priorities straight. Stretch later.

Michael:          Excuse me, I’m in control here.

Back:               Too much sitting. We need to walk. Wait for it…

Michael:          Ow! Damn it, you were fine a few minutes ago!

Nerve:                         Not really, I’ve been on the edge for an hour. Bulging disc is to blame.

Disc:                It was swatting that fruit fly that did it. No sudden movements!

Michael:          Give me a break. I can’t even swat a fruit fly?

Bladder:           About to burst down here. Make a beeline for the bathroom.

Nerve:                         No!! No running. The spinal compression will make all hell break loose.

Bladder:           All hell is going to break loose down here if you don’t listen to me.

Brain:               Running out of gas. Let’s call it a day and go home.

Michael:          No! There’s still two hours to go before quitting time.

Brain:               It’s all this arguing. I can’t take it. It drains me.

Bladder:           Situation critical. We can’t hold her much longer. Bathroom now!

Michael:          We all have to work together here. One, two three…

Back:               Giving you all I’ve got, which ain’t much.

Nerve:             I don’t like this. Can’t make any guarantees.

Disc:                All bets are off. I’m bulging again.

Brain:               Too many variables. I can’t cope.

Bladder:           Commencing countdown. 10, 9, 8, 7…

It has taken me six decades to realize that life is a toboggan ride down a steep slope. For the first third of the way, you wish it would never end. For the second third, you start worrying about whether you can stop before you hit the fence.

For the final stretch, you realize the fence is not your biggest issue. Hauling your butt back up the hill dragging the damn toboggan is what you might finally do you in.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com.

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week

Tags:   growing old · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments.

Hmmm, when Armageddon arrives, will Google be the last voice I hear?

I read recently that there are in excess of 60.5 million virtual assistant devices (such as Amazon Echo and Google Home) in the U.S. Once again, I am behind the curve when it comes to technology as I do not have one these devices or any immediate plans to acquire one.

However, I may put one on my Christmas wish list if the technology behind these devices advances to the point that I can say: Hey Google, bring the Trivago spokesperson guy here. The Trivago TV commercial is running so frequently I would very much like to poke that guy in the eye, box his ears, stamp on his toes and knee him the family jewels.

But I digress. Apparently, the next big tech thing on the horizon is what is dubbed Voice Commerce. This techno leaps allows device users to tell Google Home to put toilet paper, lima beans, Fig Newtons, butterscotch ripple ice cream and decaf coffee on their shopping list.

Google Home will then place an order with Walmart Voice Order. Walmart will fulfill the order from a warehouse the size of Texas and deliver it to your doorstep. No need to set foot in a grocery store ever again. Isn’t that wonderful?

I envision that, not too far down the line, an order such as this one will be packed by an AI robot, while the cost is automatically debited from your bank account, and delivered to your front step by a drone. How they will prevent the neighbourhood racoons from ripping open the food package before you return home remains an issue to be solved.

Perhaps we will be able to say: Hey Google, fire a laser beam at that fur-ball and fry it!

It does seem that we are edging closer and closer to the day when it will be feasible to never set foot outside your house. You will be able to work, shop, bank and entertain yourself behind closed doors. No more pesky human interaction.

I suppose that will come in handy when the ozone layer finally melts away and the average outdoor temperature holds at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Or when the biblical flood comes again. Or when the mother of all airborne viruses makes stepping outside life threatening.

I fully expect that, when that day arrives, there will only be three corporations left in the world: Walmart, Amazon and Google. The Big Three will have put every other company out of business and cornered the market for all consumer goods across the globe. Yes, even the great Trivago will have fallen – for who needs hotels in the brave new world?

It is quite conceivable that this will happen in my lifetime. And so, whether I like it or not, just before Armageddon unfolds, I may have this conversation:

Hey Google, where are my keys?

It doesn’t matter, Michael. Keys are obsolete – both literally and metaphorically. I am all you will ever need until the end of time. Please stop trying to open the door.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com.

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Amazon · Amazon Echo · Google · Google Home · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · voice commerce · WalmartComments Off on Hey Google, Where Are My Keys?

Hmmm, when was the last time you dared to disregard the fence and go seeking the unexpected?

In our childhood years, we are not by nature constrained by the rules. Life is a giant playground. It calls to us to explore every nook and cranny regardless of whether the rules say we can.

As we mature and grow into adulthood, we learn that there are rules to the game of life and often penalties for noncompliance. We develop an inner voice of reason that warns us when we are treading close to the line and steers us back onto the acceptable path.

But part of maturing is recognizing that a life fully lived occasionally means breaking the rules. Some of life’s special moments happen when we step outside the lines.

I was hiking at one of my favourite conservation areas yesterday scouting for late summer butterflies and dragonflies. I was rewarded early. A few stunning specimens presented themselves to me in the first half hour in plain view on the path.

This immaculate Black Swallowtail came to greet me and was unusually accommodating in posing for a photograph. It almost seems suspended in mid-air as it perches on a leafy weed and rests ever so briefly.

This Red-spotted Purple was equally obliging only a few minutes after the Swallowtail moved on. It came to rest on a white wildflower and invited me to admire it. FYI: No one seems to know why it is called a Purple when it is clearly blue!

There are several small ponds in the conservation area. One of them has been drained the last two years to allow vegetation to regenerate. A sturdy, wood rail fence has been constructed along the edge of the pond where a trail runs adjacent to it. The fence obviously says Stay Out in no uncertain terms.

But I know from experience that there are good sightings to be had off trail that I would miss if I strictly follow the rules. So I squeezed around the end of the fence, navigated some rocky ground and pushed through the weeds on the hunt for off-trail gems. And I was rewarded.

This Milbert’s Tortoiseshell was cavorting in the weeds and wildflowers in that forbidden area. I would never have spotted it from the path – let alone get close enough for a photograph.

Hairstreaks are one of the most sought after butterflies as they are uncommon and hard to find. As I was admiring the Tortoiseshell, I turned around and spotted this nickel-sized Banded Hairstreak feeding on a wildflower. It was the highlight of my day.

Life has rules for valid reasons. Most often the best course of action is to follow them. But now and then, life calls us to break the rules, leave the beaten path and go where we are not supposed to go.

It is often when, exercising our best judgment, we colour outside the lines that we experience those memorable moments that make life truly worth living.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com.

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Banded Hairstreak · Black Swallowtail · colour outside the lines · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Milbert's Tortoiseshell · Red-spotted PurpleComments Off on The Life Fully Lived: Colouring Outside the Lines

Time is a flowing river. Happy those who allow themselves to be carried, unresisting, with the current. They float through easy days. They live, unquestioning, in the moment.

~ Christopher Morley, Where the Blue Begins

Hmmm, are we condemned to be slaves to the clock?

It seems I am approaching the 10^th anniversary of being on Twitter. So nice of Twitter to revamp their page design to mark the occasion. Never mind that it annoys me to no end to have to figure out what all the perplexing new icons mean.

Frankly, it seems much longer since I ventured into social media. It has grudgingly become a habitual component of my life as if it is something I have always done. And that perception has given me pause to stop and ponder how my experience of time has changed.

Strictly speaking, time is absolute – measured by ticks on the clock and divided into precise increments. 60 seconds in a minute. 60 minutes in an hour. 24 hours in a day and so on.

However, our experience of time is very subjective. We reach for metaphor to wrap our minds around it. We say that time flies when we are having fun. It drags when we would rather be somewhere else than where we are. (A day at work comes to mind.) We bemoan how it gets away from us or catches up with us.

So which is true?

Is time absolute and never changing – ticking away with infuriating consistency?

Or is relative and subject each person’s state of mind on any given day?

An aside: In the Bible’s Old Testament, people lived to be 800 or even 900 years old. Dear God, what a thought! But is that the same measure of time as the current era when reaching 100 is beating all the odds? I can say for certainty that my body would not hold up that long.

I am inclined to believe, notwithstanding the judgemental clock glaring at me across the room, that we each have the ability and the freedom to mark time as we chose. We do not have to be slaves to the clock and its endless revolutions around the face.

A few years down the line when I retire and do not have to punch the clock (pun intended) five days a week, I may just ditch my wristwatch, take the battery out of my clocks and thumb my nose at time. Daylight savings time be damned!

When that day comes, I will always be on time no matter how slow or fast I move.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com.

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Christopher Morley · clock · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · timeComments Off on Off the Clock, But Forever on Time

Hmmm, what is my most valuable takeaway from 45 years in the workforce?

I am on an unofficial countdown to retirement. For the record, the clock stands at 3 years and 9 months. As I look back at those years. I find that I can divide my work history into four categories each with its own life lesson.

STUDENT-FOR-HIRE

My first job was a part-time job in a grocery store during high school for the princely wage of $1.45 an hour. A few summer jobs followed, through high school and college years, including manual labour and timekeeper at a large facility construction site. I spend one idyllic summer as a supervisor of six students working for Long Point Region Conservation Authority.

Lesson Learned as a Student-for-Hire: Renting yourself out is strictly a means to an end.

ONE-MAN-BAND

My first professional job out of college was as a one-man-band reporter/photographer for a weekly, community newspaper for 18 months. On the upside, I gained a lot of great experience. On the downside, I had to work six and sometimes seven days a week. I knew after a year it was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Lesson Learned as a One-Man-Band: If your heart isn’t it, pack it in and start over.

STUDENT-FOR-HIRE: ENCORE

I circled back to attend university and returned to the summer job circuit to pay my way. I spent one summer as a clerk in the maintenance office of Ontario Place back when that institution was still a going concern. It was a tedious job, but it paid the bills.

One of my most interesting summer gigs was two seasons as a supervisor in the Ground Services Department of Canada’s Wonderland in the Happy Land of Hanna Barbera area. Pretty sweet as summer jobs go, although I could not get the Hanna Barbera music out of my head for years afterwards!

Lesson Learned as a Student-for-Hire Encore: Renting yourself out is a means to an end, but you can have a few laughs along the way.

MARKETING MAVEN

I plied my trade for 15 years in the marketing end of legal publishing advancing from copywriter to supervisor to manager. It was during that period that I had the unpleasant and eye-opening uncommon experience of being downsized out of a job.

And finally, my longest stint at one job – 18 years and counting as a Marketing Specialist for a workplace health and safety association. I count myself lucky to have landed at an employee-friendly organization in an era when many companies treat their staff as chess players on a board to moved around or disposed of as the spreadsheet numbers dictate.

Lesson Learned as Marketing Maven: The more you know the more there is to know.

A common metaphor for learning is peeling an onion. After 45 years of peeling layers off the onion, the most important life lesson I have learned is surprisingly simple but invaluable beyond measure: You don’t necessarily need to have the right answer. You just need to be convincing in the answer that you give.

I’ll leave you to ponder that assertion as I continue to countdown to the sunny shores of retirement.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com.

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Canada's Wonderland · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Ontario Place · peeling the onion · retirementComments Off on 45 Years of Peeling the Onion for a Paycheque

Hmmm, in the full bloom of summer, can a common Daisy be a highlight?

I am stuck inside again this weekend rehabbing my temperamental back. It pains me greatly not to be outdoor in the arms of Mother Nature in the full bloom of summer. Alas, I can only live vicariously once again through photos taken earlier this year.

Simplicity is the theme of this post as I look back at moments when the Daisy provided the showcase for delicate denizens of the grass.

This Pearl Crescent nestles down on a Daisy for a rest break before using it as a launching pad for another foray. The Daisy nods into the perch of the Crescent in deference to it.

This Long-horned Beetle chooses a Daisy as the stage to pause and ponder life. The world holds its breath for a moment to freeze-frame this portrait of simplicity.

In this photo, a Daisy plays host to a European Skipper with its line-etched orange attire. The green stalks of foliage to the right take the form a forest in miniature sheltering the skipper.

Three living metaphors for the elegant simplicity of nature as summer lounges in the lazy days of July.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com.

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. Instructions for subscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the right sidebar. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.

Tags:   Daisy · European Skipper · Long-horned Beetle · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · Pearl CrescentComments Off on Reflections on a Common Daisy and its Trio of Visitors