This was wonderful, Fran, what a treasure of delights, your poetry, your musings on writing (and your encouragement to all of us to create! Create! Create!). And I love the hat!
Such profound poetry Fran..so thankful our paths crossed. I love the weekly 'Becoming' and the mantra. Copied it on paper and posted it in my heart dish by my coffee. ;-) Grasping; me thinks too much. Challenging Day and Feeling. Brings my world into focus. Thank you! and YES the universe is golden shining on you.
Wow! Thanks for the support. Sometimes I feel like I’m shoveling dirt into an empty hole. I write poems all the time and hardly anybody comments on them.
I love getting up when it's still dark and no one is stirring. But I always feel a bit guilty going to bed in daylight, like I shouldn't be squandering any of the light. But I do it anyway, because I wear out early these days. Your curtal sonnet is lovely, by the way.
I’ve been getting up to join a two-hour writing Zoom from 6-8 am weekdays. We check in, turn off our cameras and write, then check in again at the end. To do that, I have to go to bed by 9 or 9:30. It was just starting to get light during our sessions, but now DST has pushed the darkness forward.
The Zoom is sponsored by Mason Curry of Subtle Maneuvers on Substack for paying subscribers. I think it helps me focus.
That writing session sounds terrific and worth rising early for. I try to get a chunk of editing done between 4 and 6am, after which I get myself in gear to drive my grandchildren to school. The downside of rising so early is that I'm useless after dinner.
Thank you for another post with so many facets. Fran, you have extraordinary breadth of knowledge with retention. I like the multiple literary quotes and being sent to the dictionary (tares). Poetry and photography show more of your skills, and the hat serendipity was a bonus. Speaking of Papaccino's, and your recommendation, I started chair yoga. Thank you, again.
My Ma, first stepfather, brother, and I left my beloved Michigan and pulled a 35-foot mobile home down to Panama City, Florida, arriving on Christmas Eve, 1959.
When time change got started there it was chaotic, to say the least. Businesses were given the individual opportunities to choose whether or not to accept the time change.
When calling a business then it was necessary to ask, "Are you on old time or new?"
I hated Florida because it was segregated.
Meditation.
Back in Michigan during the 8th year of my life, I would spend the night with the woman next door, a delightful red-haired hillbilly from Kentucky.
Audrey was her name. She turned me on to reading murder mysteries. We would lie in her bed, each with a wonderful mystery, simply enjoying our silence and our friendship.
Audrey taught me how to meditate. It was such a treat to the body.
"Start with your toes," she instructed. "Think only of your toes and think, 'relax'."
I was amazed at what happened from the flesh into the bones. It was what ice might feel like when melting.
Audrey instructed me to work up from my toes into the next section. Toes already relaxed, the feet were next, etc. By the time I reached my head I found that to be the most difficult to relax. From the flesh and deep into my brain the tension fought against relaxation. Eyes, ears, nose and throat, all so tense from a day on earth; none of them wanted to allow me to get into my brain. Once accomplished I felt this must be what heaven would feel like.
I've used meditation to quickly heal me. Doctors and nurses were amazed.
Today, though, I've lost the will to live. Not a fan of suicide, I just wait, not caring if I greet another day. My country has been stolen. Being a Veteran is nothing but a huge regret now because the Veterans Administration is being ripped asunder by an evil mob of Fascists. I have to wait for the first of each month to see if my Social Security will arrive into my bank account.
Where are the massive amounts of protesters crowding the streets of every populated area? The corporations should all be boycotted and everyone should stop paying their taxes and going to work. Oh, yeah. If we do all that our own military along with Trump's private army will be turned against us and off to the camps we'll go. GITMO's already been populated with immigrants who were supposed to be sent to their own nations (many of them had become American citizens).
My heart feels like a flat tire. I wait for the Fourth Reich to turn this beautiful LGBTQ COMMUNITY where I live into a tumble of buildings like Ukraine and Gaza have experienced.
What good are arrest warrants against Putin or Netanyahu?
The difference from the vulgarities I used to splatter with my anger is that I'm trying my best to keep from offending those who don't approve.
I'm still an Atheist who believes that the beauty of all the major religions has been destroyed by religious leaders who've shattered that beauty into warmongering.
I don't believe in miracles or things like a precious, to me, Man who is said to have walked on water and certainly not a virgin birth. What I do believe is the message of Jesus' Word and Parables are Words to live by if combined with "The Book of Etiquette".
We were blessed with a nation that made it unnecessary to travel beyond our borders because we are the World! Sadly, my race has destroyed life for all the other beautiful races. My race takes what they want, usually by deadly force, and they're stupid enough to think there will be a Second Coming that will find them swept up into the Arms of God. They can't even admit that the religion they entirely misinterpreted was stolen from the Jews. Wanna buy a bible for $6.00?
What my race has done to all the others should not be tolerated. There are far more of you than of us. If your leaders don't protect you, religious or political, then they're cowards and you need to come together in love and respect and follow the examples of Ghandi, MLK, Jr., forgive my feeble old brain, the Man who led the people in South Africa, forming an organization that was so uniting that President Jimmy Carter became a member.
Let go of hatred and put all of your energy into rejecting your enemies, including those within your own countries. Hopefully Americans can do the same. We white folks aren't all bad.
Let's fix our world, forgetting flags and boundaries. We can do it. If I do die soon, I know you can do it. Think of the children, for crap sake.
This was wonderful, Fran, what a treasure of delights, your poetry, your musings on writing (and your encouragement to all of us to create! Create! Create!). And I love the hat!
Such profound poetry Fran..so thankful our paths crossed. I love the weekly 'Becoming' and the mantra. Copied it on paper and posted it in my heart dish by my coffee. ;-) Grasping; me thinks too much. Challenging Day and Feeling. Brings my world into focus. Thank you! and YES the universe is golden shining on you.
Wow! Thanks for the support. Sometimes I feel like I’m shoveling dirt into an empty hole. I write poems all the time and hardly anybody comments on them.
I am glad our pass crossed , too!
I love getting up when it's still dark and no one is stirring. But I always feel a bit guilty going to bed in daylight, like I shouldn't be squandering any of the light. But I do it anyway, because I wear out early these days. Your curtal sonnet is lovely, by the way.
I’ve been getting up to join a two-hour writing Zoom from 6-8 am weekdays. We check in, turn off our cameras and write, then check in again at the end. To do that, I have to go to bed by 9 or 9:30. It was just starting to get light during our sessions, but now DST has pushed the darkness forward.
The Zoom is sponsored by Mason Curry of Subtle Maneuvers on Substack for paying subscribers. I think it helps me focus.
That writing session sounds terrific and worth rising early for. I try to get a chunk of editing done between 4 and 6am, after which I get myself in gear to drive my grandchildren to school. The downside of rising so early is that I'm useless after dinner.
Thank you for another post with so many facets. Fran, you have extraordinary breadth of knowledge with retention. I like the multiple literary quotes and being sent to the dictionary (tares). Poetry and photography show more of your skills, and the hat serendipity was a bonus. Speaking of Papaccino's, and your recommendation, I started chair yoga. Thank you, again.
You mean you didn’t have to look up “ineluctable”? I did, when I first encountered it in “Ulysses.” “Fungible” is a big word, too, but a “fun” one.
It tickled me pink that you used those words!
Just a couple of things.
My Ma, first stepfather, brother, and I left my beloved Michigan and pulled a 35-foot mobile home down to Panama City, Florida, arriving on Christmas Eve, 1959.
When time change got started there it was chaotic, to say the least. Businesses were given the individual opportunities to choose whether or not to accept the time change.
When calling a business then it was necessary to ask, "Are you on old time or new?"
I hated Florida because it was segregated.
Meditation.
Back in Michigan during the 8th year of my life, I would spend the night with the woman next door, a delightful red-haired hillbilly from Kentucky.
Audrey was her name. She turned me on to reading murder mysteries. We would lie in her bed, each with a wonderful mystery, simply enjoying our silence and our friendship.
Audrey taught me how to meditate. It was such a treat to the body.
"Start with your toes," she instructed. "Think only of your toes and think, 'relax'."
I was amazed at what happened from the flesh into the bones. It was what ice might feel like when melting.
Audrey instructed me to work up from my toes into the next section. Toes already relaxed, the feet were next, etc. By the time I reached my head I found that to be the most difficult to relax. From the flesh and deep into my brain the tension fought against relaxation. Eyes, ears, nose and throat, all so tense from a day on earth; none of them wanted to allow me to get into my brain. Once accomplished I felt this must be what heaven would feel like.
I've used meditation to quickly heal me. Doctors and nurses were amazed.
Today, though, I've lost the will to live. Not a fan of suicide, I just wait, not caring if I greet another day. My country has been stolen. Being a Veteran is nothing but a huge regret now because the Veterans Administration is being ripped asunder by an evil mob of Fascists. I have to wait for the first of each month to see if my Social Security will arrive into my bank account.
Where are the massive amounts of protesters crowding the streets of every populated area? The corporations should all be boycotted and everyone should stop paying their taxes and going to work. Oh, yeah. If we do all that our own military along with Trump's private army will be turned against us and off to the camps we'll go. GITMO's already been populated with immigrants who were supposed to be sent to their own nations (many of them had become American citizens).
My heart feels like a flat tire. I wait for the Fourth Reich to turn this beautiful LGBTQ COMMUNITY where I live into a tumble of buildings like Ukraine and Gaza have experienced.
What good are arrest warrants against Putin or Netanyahu?
The difference from the vulgarities I used to splatter with my anger is that I'm trying my best to keep from offending those who don't approve.
I'm still an Atheist who believes that the beauty of all the major religions has been destroyed by religious leaders who've shattered that beauty into warmongering.
I don't believe in miracles or things like a precious, to me, Man who is said to have walked on water and certainly not a virgin birth. What I do believe is the message of Jesus' Word and Parables are Words to live by if combined with "The Book of Etiquette".
We were blessed with a nation that made it unnecessary to travel beyond our borders because we are the World! Sadly, my race has destroyed life for all the other beautiful races. My race takes what they want, usually by deadly force, and they're stupid enough to think there will be a Second Coming that will find them swept up into the Arms of God. They can't even admit that the religion they entirely misinterpreted was stolen from the Jews. Wanna buy a bible for $6.00?
What my race has done to all the others should not be tolerated. There are far more of you than of us. If your leaders don't protect you, religious or political, then they're cowards and you need to come together in love and respect and follow the examples of Ghandi, MLK, Jr., forgive my feeble old brain, the Man who led the people in South Africa, forming an organization that was so uniting that President Jimmy Carter became a member.
Let go of hatred and put all of your energy into rejecting your enemies, including those within your own countries. Hopefully Americans can do the same. We white folks aren't all bad.
Let's fix our world, forgetting flags and boundaries. We can do it. If I do die soon, I know you can do it. Think of the children, for crap sake.
Thank you for reading.
Richard La France
I never thought of relaxing for meditation from the toes up. I tried it and it is different from relaxing the face and head first. It works!
For an atheist, you do have spiritual view of the world.
I think you meant Nelson Mandela.
"Our undertow" is such a perfect description. I can feel the water rushing back out to sea.
Thank you!