Words

I have watched this horrible event evolve and cannot believe in two months time that we haven't found a way to make what is happening in the gulf stop. As we drink our morning coffee or tea, a way of life and a sea is dying. Words will not change the situation. Action will. How can we as a country stop this from happening again? Food for thought. There is nothing natural about this disaster and we as a people should be standing up and demanding not only answers but solutions.

Monday Morning Wake Up Call--State of Mind

Doesn't matter where your 'state' of mind is--look as these faces as they sing --that's our future and here's hoping there is a teacher where you live that engages and educates like this teacher... get up, make it happen and pay it forward....;=) Have a great week!

PS-Kudos to PS 22 Chorus for winning the Webby Artist of the Year Award

Flash 55-Firefly my way

Like glitter strewn

On the warm
Emerald green grass
Fireflies begin their dance
Rising and falling
Twinkling like stars
As the sun sets
Peach and rose mingling
With an azure blue sky
Night approaches
Like a lover’s kiss
A warm breeze stirs
The soul
Awakens the mind
To memories and
Possibilities
Of a summer night

Can you tell a story in 55 words?  Go see the g-man.Yeah, it is that time again--Friday Flash 55! Enjoy!

Theme Thursday-Camera

The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.  Henri Cartier-Bresson

Once again it is Theme Thursday--focus and look here!

Magpie Tales-The House

When his Majesty was forced to choose love over the throne, my grandfather, Daniel, was one of four hundred carpenters who readied the house, Buckingham Palace and the city, London for the coronation of his Majesty's brother, Albert soon to be George VI.

My grandmother, Mary and father, Frances lived on the grounds of the house but rarely saw him as he worked 18 to 20 hours a day. Mary, would wake as Daniel returned each evening to serve him some dinner before he fell into bed. On May 12, 1937, with Mary at his side, Daniel held Frances on his shoulders, his toolbelt still round his waist, as the new King and Queen's procession left Buckingham Palace for Westminister Abbey, the roar of the crowd vibrating in his ears. Long live the King! Long live the King!

I try to imagine the sound and the time as I sit at my drawing board in DC, designing the living quarters for the new president, his wife and girls,my dad, Frances watching from heaven his words of encouragement, "That's it Beth" making my heart pound as I draw.

This moment in time is courtesy of Magpie Tales--enjoy and create the magic here!

Monday Morning Wake Up Call- Play your hand

New week...make it a good one!

Happy Birthday Little Sister

Hope you had a great day! May the coming year bring you all that you wish and dream!

Meaning

Books are amazing in their ability to educate and transport. A truly gratifying experience is when I return to the same book and gain a different meaning or gift from that time spent re-turning the pages. I can't predict when I will pick up a book I've read, because there are so many to be read.

I am uncertain as to why I chose to pick up Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning again. Perhaps, it was because I knew I would not have time for anything but work and needed some inspiration to remind me of my higher pursuits, that being time for writing and creativity or maybe, it was that I am a time in my life where I am thinking about where I am I going? Not certain,but I am better for having pulled it off the shelf.

Mr. Frankl was neurologist, a psychologist and a survivor of the Holocaust. When I first read Mr. Frankl's book I was 19 and it was part of a literature course syllabus. My focus at that time was his survival of the Holocaust and his ability to overcome the loss of his parents, his wife and their unborn child. At 19, the thought of losing everything and everyone was incomprehensible. When he wrote this book, he was trying to regain the life and book he had lost before the camps. Frankl was in four. With his writing, he was very concerned about mentioning the Holocaust and his experiences, not wanting it to be about his singular experience but rather all who had survived. Frankl, however, realized without this discussion he could not make clear his ultimate belief about man's ability to find meaning in life's existence.

So, now some thirty years later, I understand it is about the why. Frankl believed and counseled people about the why we survive and how. It is because we have a goal, a hope and therefore, can survive anything once we recognize that one thing. It could be as simple as a flower in a meadow, work that is important, family,an interest in art or music.

At a particularly dark time in my life, I told a dear friend who questioned my state, "I would find happiness anywhere." Meaning whatever life sent me I somehow found a way to see a flower in the meadow or the kindness in another soul's heart. I have and never will let negativity grab hold of me. I shake and fight it off, keeping my eye on the wonder of life, whether it be Mr. Jackson, my family, my friends, Max or just a flower in the field.

Perhaps, I didn't miss Frankl's point after all. My hope going forward is the ability to connect and create with an understanding of the past and an eye on the future.

Flash 55-Moments Matter

A thank you card acknowledged what we hoped to achieve after many years of loving and angry words, sometimes all in the same sentence. A boy grew to be a man who finally understands what we were fighting for. Today, opportunity knocks at his door. We are thrilled and thankful, today and for a lifetime.

It is Flash Friday--if you can tell a story in 55 words, then go see the g-man. Happy weekend to all!

Magpie Tales-Siren Song

Long Island Sound was like a blue green mirror frosted on its edges. An azure cloudless sky the ceiling of a vast room framed by land as we sat talking and laughing. Three friends recently graduated from high school and celebrating the first day of summer and freedom.We had always been together since kindergarten.

My best friend, Gwen, who was everything I was not, tall, blond and rich, was off to Brown. Meghan, a redhead, who could curse like a sailor much to her mother's dismay, would be going to SUNY. I would be waiting tables for the crowds at Southampton working for my cousin's catering company hoping to earn enough to pay my way to county college.

We were moving at nice clip when the wind suddenly died down and Gwen noticed the clouds coming over the horizon. Life vests on, we moved into position, just as we had been taught. Meghan stood to look for the shore and I pushed her down, shouting to Gwen to point us home. We sat in the boat as it rocked, manning the sails as the sky grew dark, the hail raining down as a curious song rang in our ears. Cold and shaken, we finally docked the boat in Port Jeff. The dock felt different when our feet hit the wood this time, hands clasped and staring out into the horizon, soaked, lightning flashing and thunder rolling across the sound.

We meet each year, twenty-five and counting, but rarely talk about the song we heard that day.

This siren song is courtesy of Magpie Tales!

Flash 55-Now

There are times when I can be here and there. Moving back and forth enjoying the view of many facets of life. Lately I have had to focus on there despite wanting be here. Job’s done, so I can now look through the kaleidoscope and see beyond my desk. I’m here, happy, ready to play.

Welcome to Flash Friday - If you can say it in 55 words go tell the g-man! Happy Friday all!