HOPE – See those pretty flowers? Those are in Texas. I hope they will be soon seeing sunny days and the ice melt away and have safe water and heat as needed. I am glad we always have hope.
YOU! I am jumping straight to it to ask you for your thankfuls for this week, because I can and I wanna hear your great news, we all do in this TTOT hop. And I bet your Aunt Sally does too.
3. Music. I have been doing an exercise each morning. I am on Day 3 of 40 Days, 40 Writes. And I play music when I write, when I am not listening to sounds of silence. Here is one of my favorite channels which updates for the day of the week.
4. My article was published for Okra Magazine. I interviewed Madison Woods. She is amazing! We met because I was researching about making watercolors from nature and found her in my internet search. I wrote her and starting following her blog. And I decided I wanted to get her wonderful work out there, so I got her permission and the rest is history.
5. Exercise. I was able to walk more this week. It’s a slow process, but I may have overdone it on Wednesday because I could manage just 10 minutes yesterday. But, I am happy to report that effort is paying off. And I signed up for weekly Yoga, and had my first chair yoga session last week. It is through You Call This Yoga I have attended their live classes and they are very nice. They help people who are having challenges and a most compassionate group.
6. Daughter says Thank You for all your lovely messages for her birthday. I am thankful she read my blog and saw them.
7. I was able to, thanks to the stimulus, buy a new computer. This morning, I had to update the audio drivers so I could hear on my headphones. I am in heaven! It is a double win as my daughter was the heir of my other computer, which I cleaned up so she could have one without the issues I was having. She is often the heir, which works out with budgets. And she is over the moon because it’s one with a built in CD player.
8. The art work for the book cover came in the mail yesterday. I am over the moon thrilled with the beautiful work of Kay Doiron. There will be a reveal coming soon. Heart Beats is in production.
9. People who are committed to share the value of poetry. I reached out and the responses are wonderful!
10. Reading. I am grateful for so many wonderful things to read and that I am able to read them.
And that’s that. Scroll on up there and join us… You will be glad you did. Or leave your thankfuls in the comments.
This is my Six Sentence Story, a continuation about Clarabelle and Shandy, which has been a running story for a few weeks. I have not decided if this is the end, but I will see what happens as the week goes by. Perhaps the other story members will call out to me and ask me to tell more about them. Thanks to Denise for putting up with my attempt at serializing this story and for being less than concise. Yes, I push those six sentences to the limit, guilty as charged. So, are you thinking you want to join Denise’s Six Sentence Story blog hop? Well, hop to it by going to this LINK
*****
The Strength of Hope and Faith
Shandy continued with her story about he husband, away, serving in Vietnam, “Clair, I was so religious about writing to Marcus and it would be spurts where I didn’t hear from him, before I would be several letters in one day, so it was just the way it was where he was serving, he was on the front lines and I couldn’t really expect instant letters every day,” Shandy paused, starting to tear up, Clarabelle reached over and patted her hand, and poured another cup of tea for Shandy, “and then the letters slowed down, real slow, sometimes for weeks, and I got really worried that there was something wrong, and then I got a letter from him that there was a bad storm and it was more than difficult to get letters out, so he was okay and, well, I was surely relieved, a lot of the letters he had ready to mail, ended up in a mess of mud and they pretty much had to plow through all the muck to get to a clear path, so those were long gone.”
“Oh, my dear girl, that must have been quite the ordeal for you, as I remember how it was for my family, it sure could be hard to get those letters back and forth, I suppose wars have a way about making it hard, too bad there was no easy way to make a phone call.”
“That’s just the thing, Clair, I did get a phone call from Marcus, he sounded so distraught, and said that he had to take some time to sort things out, and in the meantime, he was put on medic assistance duty, so he could clear his head, although, I will tell you that in a war zone, it’s hard to clear your head in a medical camp, so it was hard for him, but he took to the work, and he did so well with it that they kept him there for the duration, so, you see, that worked out; and when he came back home he decided to pursue medicine and went to school for emergency medical technician training, not really wanting to be a doctor, but an emergency worker, since he found out that was where he did his best work,” pausing to catch her breath, Shandy sipped her tea before continuing, “while Marcus studied, I worked as a waitress, because I was good at it and was not ready to consider going to school or start a family, not until he was solid with his job, so I was able to bring in a lot of tips, because that’s where waitresses make their real money, and we managed well, even if it was tight, but we had our love and it all worked out.”
“That’s an adventure you have had with learning to be patient and survive what must have been one of the most difficult times of your life and look how you came through with helping your husband do well and pursue his goals, for the best of both of you.”
“Thank you, Clair, it was nice, like a real-life honeymoon in a way as we just worked well together, like a team, so after he graduated and was working full-time, I was able to think about my own goals, and that was when I got pregnant, not really planned, but not unwanted either, so there I was pregnant and that’s when things changed, and not for the better, mind you, and I finally got it out of him about his experiences in Vietnam and things he saw, and how he was afraid he would not be a good father; of which I assured him that such a kind soul could be nothing less than a great dad; but he started pulling back, became less affectionate and the nightmares he had were more frequent, they were always about something to do with the war, and I was so afraid for him, knowing it must have been painful to see things and not forget, but I was always there for him, no matter what, and we gradually worked on things with a counselor, I mean, he was invested, for sure, and the counselor helped us get past these things, and when we had our little boy, he was the best father to him, always careful with handling him, and affectionate, like all his worries went away,” pausing for a tissue, the wells of pain flooded and Shandy shook, trembling and collapsed in Clair’s arms, eventually, with the comfort of Clair, Shandy was able to go on, “Marcus was the best father to our son, Gerald, and loved him until his last days, as, Marcus had a heart attack while he was working on a run and he did not make it, and it turned out he may have had a heart condition, but at that point, we just knew that he was gone and Gerald and I carried on, as best as we could, Gerald was 19 when his father passed away and he is doing well with college, but when he decided to go away to school, I decided I needed to get away from all the memories and moved to Iowa, so while the war did not ruin us, life had another plan, and I rely on the presence of his spirit to keep Marcus alive, but, to tell you the honest truth, I just could not longer live in a town where we made many happy memories, so just like my dad live after he lost mom, I moved.”
“Sweetheart, life surely does turn things around unexpectedly, but it looks like you are a get on up and get to it kind of person, look at how you have done with your life, you serve others, you are compassionate, you have a strength which is calm, yet mighty, and I certainly do understand the desire to move to new memories, as I had to do similar when I lost Herbie, I could no longer live in the house we made into a home, so I made a move to an apartment, and now, my dear Shandy, I have a beautiful, inside and out, friend, and we are not that much different, just in age, but not much different in clarity, we will plow through life and find that at the end of the road, is a heap of heap of muck, but that muck is what we have to go through to find the treasures.”
7. Technical problem solving is becoming a skill. At least, for me, but I am not putting out a shingle, nope, no way… it’s just a way for me to get back to what I love to do.
9. Do you ever put on your headphones and not have any music? I call it my Sounds of Silence. It helped me to stay focus. Thankful for headphones which really do cancel out noise. And if you want to listen to beautiful music, I suggest checking this out:
10. You! What are you feeling warm and fuzzy about? Let’s hear it.
Writer Talk with Darls Centola as she talks about her debut memoir "Finding Truth with Michael" –
Prolific Pulse Press Podcast
Trauma therapist Darls Centola has written a unique, never-before-told story of young Michael Jackson and the relationship that changed both their lives, in FINDING TRUTH WITH MICHAEL: A Memoir of Friendship, Faith, and First Love, coming out on April 7th. Darls recounts her and Michael’s close, tender friendship forged during their time spent in a small, private high school in Los Angeles, where they held private Bible study sessions as teenage Jehovah’s Witnesses. Part memoir chronicling Darls’ and Michael’s secret friendship and spiritual bond as they both struggled under the weight of high-control religion, and part cultural lens, this book traces Centola’s path into—and eventually out of—an environment of high-control faith and spiritual abuse that shaped their lives. The memoir arrives amid a cultural shift toward understanding spiritual abuse, purity culture, and religious deconstruction. As a therapist, Centola has spent decades working with the complex impacts of adverse religious experiences and the restoration of personal sovereignty from authoritarian belief systems. As an author, she offers clarity, compassion, and an insider’s perspective on a rarely explored chapter in pop history. Centola would also love to discuss the intersection of celebrity, religious drama, and the clinical path to reclaiming one’s voice. About the author:Darls Centola is a licensed clinical social worker, educator, and EMDR consultant whose professional path has been shaped by the lived experiences explored in this memoir. She holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Hawaii and is based in Los Angeles, where she works as a trauma-informed therapist. Much of her work explores the impact of high-control belief systems and the process of reconnecting with self and self-trust.Learn more at http://www.findingtruthwithmichael.com
As a teacher, I will always remain a student. In the classroom of life, l wish to work with and educate others. Whether you’re a teacher, student, or just your average person, here are a few of my "TEACHERble" moments.
Hi! my name is Sebastian (You can call me Seb!) ...welcome to my Blog. I'm a photographer from Worcester, Worcestershire, England. Thanks for dropping by! I hope you enjoy my work.
Prolific Pulse Blog 