Bøger af John Wm Garand

I am a curious person. This is a fact I do not deny. I am a skeptical person. I have to discover truths in facts. I am an accepting person. I blindly trust when I should question. I am curious of how I can be a skeptic who accepts. I sense demeanors. I observe. I believe.I believe I will never sate my desire to learn. I know it is difficult for me to learn new languages. This is a disappointment. I will attempt to over come. How and When I do not know. I can only assume the answer is "to Live." Living introduces me to many new situations and ideas.Living, while we breathe, is a routine we all share. My eyes are open to view scenes my mind hoards.This past Spring, as these pages attest, I have been adding, and deleting, my personal hoards both mental and physical. Now, it is difficult to rid my mind of scenes which have been a constant for decades. Today, I realize much of what I have kept is of no importance. I will not divulge imprudent scenes for I do not know complete details. The only details I know are those which have been experienced by me.Travelling with my diary and pen I find advantageous for memories are cemented by ink on empty pages. Recording what I do and think has become a routine I cherish.Sprinkled throughout my diaries are sayings and fortunes I have gathered from tea tags and cookies. Recently, while going through one of those many boxes you have heard me talk about, I came across a tea tag I saved years ago. This tag says: "Success adores a prosperous attitude."That saying - "Success adores a prosperous attitude" - summons up my daily routine of scribbling in these diaries. My attitude grows more optimistic with each passing moment.Now, considering the situations in the World - this World - especially, those which are voted in by people - I will not add any adjective before "people," but, I do have plenty apt ones in my mind - I am astonished I can keep an optimistic attitude. Is it because I enjoy Living?Living an honest Life is not a trick. It is aa terrific achievement. It would be easy to hide - or lie. Yet, is it? Is it "easy" to hide and lie? I don't think so. Hiding infers fear of being found; lying of being found out.I am "out" for the World to see - and, now, read. My words are my thoughts. My thoughts may have come from the words of others which have been mulled over in the convolutions of my brain. I doubt, at this point, I have anything to say which is profoundly new. I don't doubt that what I say, and how I live, has become a routine which is achieving comfort and happiness.Today, I have few variations in how I think. I have become a person with convictions many of which have been with me my entire Life. I cannot deny my love and my words.I can, most easily, be optimistic due to a word I learned in first grade and never forgot. That word is a word often seen on the pages I scribble. That word is a word I often use as a greeting; and, now, many Friends have found the happy mystique of routinely using that hopeful word which brings a Smile to my face and Hope to my Heart. That Word? Aloha!Living Aloha has become my daily routine. I am in awe of its strength. I am determined to never lose its powerful meaning. I am happy I have learned - Aloha!

Volume 34 of the complete poetry of John Wm Garand was written between April 2, 2017 and January 20, 2019. Each of the 95 poems follows the same, strict syllabic pattern.

The Honolulu Diaries - Volume 5 - December 29, 2020 to June 26, 2021 JWGrum has just had a wonderful surprise. We were reading, well, I was reading aloud to René, entries entered on this day scribbled in each of my Zwerglipatch and Honolulu Diaries. We heard a knock on our front door. It was our mail-lady. (I asked her if she preferred "mail-lady" or "mail-person." ) She knew we had been away and was hesitant to bring up sixteen boxes that arrived from New York. I didn't expect these until Monday. She went down and brought up two loads of the boxes which we helped our Hauppauge mailman place in his truck this past Wednesday. Needless to say, I am excited.

Written in 2008-2009, volume 2 of the Zwerglipatch diaries brings us to Nasssau, Bahamas and San Juan, Puerto Rico where we try our hand at watercolors. There was just one limiting factor: we had to do it without using yellow.

John Wm Garand began scribbling well before he started first grade but what he envisioned as words, the world could not decipher. Five decades later, he moved to Zwerglipatch on Long Island, New York, and began a series that now numbers several dozen volumes. In "Personal Galaxy" he observes the present, recalls the past and speculates on the future from a vantage point starting in the Swiss Alps and settling comfortably back home among his friends, poetry, and numberless projects in his beloved quarter-acre garden at Zwerglipatch.

The final days in the life of John's parents are evident and we make several short trips back to Hancock to be with them. John is busy sorting out the stuff he's collected and he has a desire to create a little personal museum to display his treasures. It comes to light that we've visited more than 200 museums and galleries over the years.

John's 33rd volume of poetry, written between August and October of 2017 which finds him, among other places, on vacation in Palma de Mallorca.

John and René became the first same-sex couple to get married in Smithtown. The elder ladies down the block on Sarah Drive held a champagne reception. By the time John and René arrived, one bottle of champagne had already been emptied.

THE ZWERGLIPATCH DIARIES - VOLUME 27 JUNE 21 TO AUGUST 7, 2015Many, many, many Summers, in my past, and present, my fa- vorite Summer Read was, and is, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The edition I have of these books is copyrighted 1949 with illustrations by Leonard Weis- gard. This particular book is one of many I have lugged with me during my many decades. Not only do I adore Carroll's words and characters, the Weisgard illustrations are colorful, perky pick-me- ups when I, like Alice, am tired and hot and appreciate pictures. But, unlike Alice, I do like words. It fascinates me to turn a page. When a book is illustrated, especially in color, I adore the surprise. I contemplate the illustrator's choices.Today, as you will find out, I finished rereading for the fifth or sixth - or more - reads of Heidi by Johanna Spyri. Heidi may not be Alice, but, both young Women have heads on their shoulders. One can learn from the young.This Summer, again, as you will see, René and I took our nephew Timothy to Walt Disney World. Being in the presence of a Youth who was able to advise and listen and enjoy new surround- ings made years melt from these two Uncles' skeptic demeanors - even though our honest skepticism taught this Youth a lesson or two or three.I understand how the young learn from us elders. I understand how elders created both characters of Alice and Heidi. I understand how each person of any age is able to never cease learning - espe- cially, from books.5I may have trimmed the number of volumes in our Zwergli- patch Library during the past few years. I have not trimmed the es- sence of knowledge. In fact, there is an unending stack of books to read which, for me, is a delight to know. I look forward to a new book whose pages lie unread. I look forward to a used book whose pages were turned by an unknown person - perhaps, now a wraith.I have no idea who handed down the volume I have of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking- Glass to my family. Whoever it was: Thank You!This year, for the first time, I see how Leonard Weisgard's illus- trations could easily be framed and go with many of JWGrum's se- lected artworks. Have I looked so much at these Weisgard prints that my taste, today, was partially formed by staring at these illustra- tions when I was young? Is this the proof I need to know a child's likes will not alter? Has this child, JWG, changed during the past decades? Has my imagination been sculpted by Lewis Carroll and Walt Disney - never mind Aesop and the Brothers Grimm? Have the pages I read bolstered my will to Hope? To Believe? To Crave?Yes, I crave to read - new and old - good and bad - facts and fiction. I could honestly say my favorite exercise is to turn a page - many pages.I would, honestly, feel lost, if I didn't have my books. I should honestly state that I have learned, and follow, one of Life's best rules: I know enough to turn the page.