"A Little Bit Bluegrass"

I'm getting to where I really like posting videos!!Sometimes I'm really in the mood for something Bluegrassy.. Enjoy!!

An Injustice

 I'm not sure why I'm posting this.. I found this song on my Ipod and I don't remember putting it on there, maybe I did for my sister. Not sure.. But it's about a touchy issue and for some reason I like this song!!
 

                                                                                   "Caleb Meyer"

Caleb Meyer, he lived alone
In them hollarin' pines
He made a little whiskey for himself
Said it helped to pass the time

On one evening in back of my house,
Caleb came around
And he called my name 'til I came out
with no one else around

Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna
wear them rattlin' chains.
but when I go to sleep at night,
Don't you call my name

Where's your husband, Nellie Kane
Where's your darling gone?
Did he go on down the mountain side
and leave you all alone?

Yes, my husband's gone to Bowlin' Green
to do some business there.
Then Caleb threw that bottle down 
and grabbed me by my hair.

Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna
wear them rattlin' chains.
but when I go to sleep at night,
Don't you call my name

He threw me on the needle bed,
and on my dress he lay
he held my hands above my head
and I commenced to pray.

I cried My God, I am your child
send your angels down
Then feelin' with my fingertips,
           I felt the bottle neck            

  I pulled that glass across his neck

 as fine as any blade,
and I felt his blood run fast and hot
around me where I laid.

Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna
wear them rattlin' chains.
But when I go to sleep at night,
Don't you call my name

Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna
wear them rattlin' chains.
But when I go to sleep at night,
Don't you call my name

 

 

Affirmations

If you believe the phrase you are what you think, then life truly stems from your thoughts. But we cannot rely purely on thoughts; we must translate thoughts into words and eventually into actions in order to manifest our intentions. This means we have to be very careful with our words, choosing to speak only those which work towards our benefit and cultivate our highest good. Affirmations help purify our thoughts and restructure the dynamic of our brains so that we truly begin to think nothing is impossible. The word affirmation comes from the Latin affirmare, originally meaning "to make steady, strengthen." "Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time." --J. Lubbock

"In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive."
--Lee Iacocca quotes

"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are."
--Chinese Proverb

"Things could be a lot worse, the stress of the situation always could be worse, but I am alive and I have a lot to be thankful for - so I shall not waste my days with stress and frustrations - Life is too short"
--Catherine Pulsifer

"Releasing the pressure, it's good for the teapot and the water. Try it sometime."
--Jeb Dickerson

 

Today, I abandon my old habits and take up new, more positive ones.

I am courageous and I stand up for myself.

Though these times are difficult, they are only a short phase of life.

My fears of tomorrow are simply melting away.

A Highlanders Angel

1278 Scotland, Highlands
Sileas wore plain brown garb as she hung clothes to dry by the fire. It stuck her it was foolish to think her life would be any better than it was. She realized she was lucky to not be making her living on her back after she ran away from her home because she refused to marry the horrible man her father told her to marry. The man was as old as her father and had daughter older then she was. Her father told her she would marry him no matter for as alliance. Before dawn Sileas was lost and wondering when she came across an old healer that took her in. The healer taught her everything she knew. By the next fall the old healer was dead and she was alone in the deep woods cabin. Many of the people still traveled to seek healing teas and salves from her. And if they could not pay with coins they would leave her food and goods.Yes, her life could have been a lot worse. It was stupid to dwell on what she didn't have. But she was lonely and winter would even more alone for her.
She was about to step up on the wooden box to hang some clothes when something slammed against her door. When she opened it, a man was slumped against it. His blood ran steadily under her feet. She knelled and started pulling at his clothes to see where the blood was running from. She saw the rive places in his shirt and when she pulled it open, tears filled her eyes.The warrior was gashed from his shoulder to his hips.The flesh was laid open and would need sown up but it would take a miracle from God that he didn't succumb to a fervor and die from it. It was a cold night and the winds were picking up from the north telling her more snow was on its way. She had to get him inside.
He was huge, lean, well muscled and she had no ideal how she would move him. Her cunning nature had her laying down her bed covers to roll him onto so she could pull him out of the cold while praying for physical strength as she tugged the covers over her shoulder and pulled with all she had. When she finely got him in enough to close the door. She started tending him. She mixed herbs and made a paste and bandages and than went back to him to wash the wound. She pressed the flesh together and began sewing him. Cleaned him and lay his head on a pillow. She pushed back the hair from his forehead fingered the braid that hung to his waist. He was truly a perfect warrior. By the time she was done her back ached and she was exhausted. She headed out to the stream for fresh water. As she splashed her face with the cold water she realized there was but one set of foot prints in the snow leading to her door. She walked back looking for some tracks of how he would had gotten there. No horse tracks, no foot tracks, and no blood any where but at her door. A chill came over her. But Sileas knew it wasn't just the cold. 

For Fire.. with Love..

A Remembering Part 2

Honestly as a person who should have some insight into her..smile. I think she was a person born a Queen..and sent away as a child to make an alliance with France to further her families political agenda.. But she was a child.. I don't imagine she had a agenda of her own at age 5. I think she grew up with Francis the future King of France, and grew very close to him...almost like a brother, only she knew she would one day marry him. Once they were married he died not long after.. By age 18 she had basically experienced the full measure of any happiness her small yet important life would ever hold. I believe she was sent away from her home in France because after the Kings death, The queen, Catherine DE Medici of France saw her as a threat to her own rule in France.. It seems like everyone was all about insuring they maintained Power!! GEE..Takes me back to that show the White Queen..such harsh times they were...Everyone was a social climber.. As a woman today in 2014..why would anyone want to be royalty??? But I guess when you were a starving peasant..being royalty looked pretty good. Once back in Scotland I believe her family pushed her to remarry..to produce a heir, and once again establish a political alliance. This Darnley man she married was actually her first cousin and the grandson, of the King of England as was she..Why would you WANT to marry your first cousin..but times were different then and for royals your life really wasn't your own.. okkk, I see where this is going..marrying her first cousin..and blood of a king gives her more claim to the English throne. I believe her new husband was a drunk, and rough man, who only married her as a means to a end..I think that is sad for her..I read her child was taken from her a age 10 months and that she would never see him again.. Wow!! I' don;t even know why that would happen..maybe so James could be raised or groomed to be the political figure he would eventually become. Maybe they didn't trust her with that duty. I read that her new husband wanted to be king of Scotland..and was pushing for that.. I think her family probably had him killed..he was digging to deep and an heir was already produced, he'd served his purpose.. She later married another man, I read he basically raped her so she'd have to marry him..Sigh..he later was run out of Scotland because the people didn't like him..

 I can only speak to what I know now..and really who I am now.. I don't remember the past to clearly.. I think there was a reason I started thinking of her..on the day of her execution..and I guess dreaming of a book where she wrote all these secret love letters, and poems about some man... Which according to everything I can find on the net never existed??? Perhaps that's a true memory..I'm privy too, I'm not certain. But I don't believe Mary was a wicked woman..hell bent on killing her cousin Elizabeth..simply because I wouldn't do that now..but I can see how I could have been manipulated much as I can be now...into things that weren't of my making or design. I think Mary wanted to be free, and wanted to be happy, just like we all do.. If she did plot to do away with Elizabeth I think it was out of a sense of wanting that freedom..I'm sure others behind these plots were in it for others things, power, money, the throne, and religion. But I don't believe Mary was orchestrating all these plots.From what I've read Mary didn't even know Elizabeth..probably because they were never allowed to know each other. I mean Elizabeth grew up knowing her mother was executed by her own father...basically over power, religion, and he wanted someone else.. Once again GEEEE!! Elizabeth I'm sure was just a pawn as was Mary moved around on a chess board to further, Their Sides..political ends.. Elizabeth had her own throne, and the people behind her to worry about.. I really don't blame either of them..I think they were both in impossible situations, manipulated, and driven by forces beyond their control..that culminated in an unfortunate end. I don't believe either of them experienced "Good" lives, and both had all the power, money, and riches in the world..goes to show none of that matters when your not in control of your own life, and you are unloved and unhappy.. Now you can say this is a watered down romanticized notion of who these two women were..Many would say they were both cruel, and ruthless soldiers in a battle between religion and state..But I don't believe that..not because I don't want too, but because I know who we are now..and I don't believe either of us capable of such wickedness. I believe history tells tales of how awful people were because it makes them appear strong, or mesmerizing and its a good story. To often we overlook the truth..of how it really was, because the true story isn't as fantastical!! I believe we all grow and change and hopefully such a tragic past is behind us, and the shortcomings of our past can become strengths in the present.. To my sister:You will always defend the protestant faith, because that is how you were raised..it is your roots as I will always defend the Catholic Church to a point..because that is how I was raised..It's not about who was right then or even now..its about the future...of what is to become..I believe everyone is right in their own way.. Regardless of their faith..As D said yet another tragic battle fought over religion. Every religion out there believes they are right..and that everyone else is crazy or wrong..My challenge to anyone reading this is to love your neighbor as yourself, to not judge, to not look for the worst in a friends faith, but to point out the similarities between those faiths, not exasperate the differences. Find that common ground..we are all people, we all love, we all hurt..we all suffer.. we experience the same plethora of human emotions. Inside we are all the same, despite, religion or race.. If we remembered that we would love one another as we were meant to. 

A Remembering

Alas what am I? What use has my life?
I am but a body whose heart's torn away,
A vain shadow, an object of misery
Who has nothing left but death-in-life.
O my enemies, set your envy all aside;
I've no more eagerness for high domain;
I've borne too long the burden of my pain
To see your anger swiftly satisfied.
And you, my friends who have loved me so true,
Remember, lacking health and heart and peace,
There is nothing worthwhile that I can do;
Ask only that my misery should cease
And that, being punished in a world like this,
I have my portion in eternal bliss.

Mary, Queen of Scots was born on December 8, 1542, daughter of King James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise. Her father died just a week after her birth. She was betrothed to the Dauphin of France and educated at the French Court. Her husband, who succeeded as Francis II, died within a year of his accession and Mary left France in 1560 never to return. She married Henry, Lord Darnley, son of Margaret Stewart, Countess of Lennox, in 1565 and had one son who became King James VI of Scotland and I of England. After Darnley's mysterious murder she married James, Earl of Bothwell but divorced him after a short time. A fervent Roman Catholic and a claimant to the English Crown, Mary was a great danger to Elizabeth I.
She was captured in 1568 and after 19 years of confinement, executed at Fotheringhay Castle on February 8, 1587. She was first buried in Peterborough Cathedral with great solemnity by Elizabeth's orders but James I brought the remains to Westminster in 1612. He had erected a magnificent marble tomb for her in the south aisle of the Lady Chapel on which there is a fine white marble effigy under an elaborate canopy. She wears a close-fitting coif, a laced ruff, and a long mantle fastened by a brooch. At her feet is the Scottish lion crowned. The sculptors were William and Cornelius Cure. So the two queens rest opposite one another in the aisles of Henry VII's chapel. Next to Mary is the tomb of Margaret, Countess of Lennox on which is a kneeling figure of Lord Darnley.
Translation of the Latin inscriptions on her tomb:
“To God, the best and greatest. To her good memory, and in eternal hope. MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS, Dowager Queen of France, daughter of James V of Scotland, sole heir and great granddaughter of Henry VII, King of England, through his elder daughter Margaret, (who was joined in marriage to James IV of Scotland): great-great-granddaughter of Edward IV, King of England through his eldest daughter of Elizabeth [of York]: wife of Francis II, King of France: sure and certain heiress to the crown of England while she lived: mother of James, most puissant sovereign of Great Britain. She was sprung from royal and most ancient stock, linked on both paternal and maternal side with the greatest princes of Europe, abundantly endowed with most excellent gifts and adornments both of soul and body; yet, such are the manifold changes of human fortune, that, after she had been detained in custody for more or less twenty years, and had courageously and vigorously, (but vainly), fought against the obloquies of her foes, the mistrust of the faint-hearted, and the crafty devices of her mortal enemies, she was at last struck down by the axe (an unheard-of precedent, outrageous to royalty) and, despising the world, conquering death (the executioner being wearied), commending to Christ her Saviour the salvation of her soul; to James he son the hope of a kingdom and posterity, and to all who witnessed her unhappy murder an ensample of endurance, she piously, patiently and courageously submitted her royal neck to the accursed axe, and exchanged the fate of a transitory life for the eternity of an heavenly kingdom, on 8 February, year of Christ 1587, in the 46th year of her age.
"Love"

Marie and Francois had been informally betrothed when she was five and he was four. He was an object of ridicule and pity. He had a sallow complexion, distorted posture and a constantly runny nose. He was small for his age and dominated by his mother, the redoubtable Catherine de’Medici.

Marie, on the other hand was very tall and, by the time of their wedding, was nearly six feet in height. Her ivory complexion and striking coloring were legendary. She was a notable beauty long before she was a bride. They were a physical mismatch, but in spite of it, they were soul mates.

A poem Mary wrote after Francis's death..

 

 shall cease my song now
My sad lament shall end
Whose burden aye shall show
True love can not pretend
And, though we are apart
Grows no less in my heart.