poetry, Short Fiction, TTOT

10 Things of Thankful – August 23

balance business cobblestone conceptual
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It’s time for Ten Things of Thankful AKA TTOT and I’m gonna jump in!

  1. Swimming Lessons for the kid! I found out that my daughter will start swimming lessons in September! YAY!!!
  2. Completed Art projects. I have had a little character I have played around with for a long time and I decided to take a writing break and complete her. After all, she needed color and more character. The result was Fairy Cat. Here she is: flying kitty
  3. Haiku for Fairy Cat can be seen here: Fairy Cat I hope to take her on some more adventures.
  4. Poundage is still falling off.
  5. Goals – I have a writing goal to complete by month end and I like knowing there is something to meet.
  6. Support – I am so grateful for the support I get in so many ways, between my family, friends, writing community and artist community, to just name a few.
  7. Air Conditioning and Ceiling Fans – it’s been a long, hot summer and I am grateful to have these luxuries.
  8. Six Sentence Story – keeping at it and this week I actually added to the prior week’s story as I was not pleased with leaving it open.  Here is what I did: SSS
  9. New Challenges. I have joined with another weekly challenge for haiku/senryu. Here’s this weeks: Yoga Dreams I am also trying to write one haiku per day. So far, so good. I go to my free photos and find random pics and write to them or come up with an idea.
  10. Last – but not least – I have written a story inspired partly by real life, but in a fiction form. It was hard to write as it brought up many emotions, but it was waiting to be told. So, here it is and I am grateful to get it done. Blue Blanket
  11. Because I can do more than 10 things as it’s my post to do what I want HAHAHAHA I want to invite you to join us in the opportunity to share your thankfuls. There a link down there to click and join in!

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poetry

Ripping the Soul

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Ripping the Soul

ripping apart the nucleus of love
tearing at the riptide of shame
pressing into the soul
oozing from the pain
seeping into the decaying brain
cells are left with no release
but to grow less and fester more
such is the diseased brain
such is the life with loss
there’s shame where there should not be shame
there’s blame where there should not be blame
there’s hate where there should not be hate
so much else dies with the loss
so much else goes with the pain of decay
so much leaves
so much goes away
never to come back
taking the time to release these pains
taking the time to allow healing
taking the time to promote growth
renews the soul

short story, TTOT

10 Things of Thankful – August 2

barefoot beach blur break
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Good Morning! It’s time to share about all the wonderful things for which we are grateful. Namely, 10 Thinks of Thankful or TTOT! This week, I have the pleasure of co-hosting TTOT, joining a wonderful group of dedicated peeps. It’s an honor to be asked. There are no hard and fast rules, just make a list or not a list, but mainly share ten things for which you are thankful, more or less. I promise there will be no head bonking if you can’t come up with ten, or listing, numbering yada yada yada… Just hop in. There’s a link at the bottom of this post and you can link up by going there and adding your post link. It’s easy and always wonderful to add more to the gratefuls. So, without further chatter, here are my 10!

  1. Poetry Dive – I dove into a month of poetry with Jena Schwartz. It was a great way to write to prompts on a regular basis and write it raw, no edits, just write your poetry and post. It’s a vulnerable and empowering experience and I am grateful to have done this. The feedback from other poets was helpful to encourage me to take those poems and develop them. Who knows? I may have another secret project…well, you know I do!
  2. art artistic blank page book
    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
  3. Laughter – Last Saturday I got together with a couple of Blog Squad members and we had a blog working session. Whenever I am with this group I always find funny things to laugh about. One of the women in the group, also the founder, Missy Cheney Farrow, has a fun blog, often poignant humor about her kiddos, and I look forward to reading her posts right away. They are the kind that make me stop what I am doing and read. So here’s her link so you can LOL and go AWWW with me: Midlife Margaritas
  4. Six Sentence Story – This weeks prompt word was Pad and I saw so many variations from this word. I have a lot of fun with this group. Here is my STORY
  5. Family – This should be #1, but regardless, it’s important to have family and friends who become family. I may have mentioned before that I have two children. One is my daughter who is grown and the other is my son, also grown. And my daughter was adopted by me when she was 10 and my son adopted me about six years ago, no official paper or date, but as a grown man he decided I would be his mother. His wife is like a daughter to me and we met before I met my son. There is also a third child, one I think was a boy and I have written a couple of poems about him, he didn’t come into this world alive, but he grew in my womb and in my heart and would be 19 by now. Another time, in another way, I will tell more about his story, but suffice it to say, I am grateful for the time we had.
  6. Celebrations – August is my birthday month and I will be 65 next week. I have a good friend who has her birthday next week, as well. We get together and have a birthday dinner, just the two of us, each year. Once we work out our schedules, this will likely happen next week. I also get a lot of freebies for my birthday, so I look forward to the fun yums this month.
  7. Weight is still slip sliding away. YAY
  8. blue tape measuring on clear glass square weighing scale
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  9. Air Conditioning – What would we do without this? I remember back in the day (yeah I am THAT old) when you could get by without A/C When we lived in Texas we had air coolers which were like glorified fans. We ran them in the living room and made pallets on the floor. It looked like we were camping.
  10. Swimming – It’s been a rough week of not being able to get to the pool as much, but oh it has been so nice when I have gotten in that water. It’s not soupy hot and sooo refreshing. I am soooooo grateful for this and wish I could invite everybody to join.
  11. Tea – This week I tried a new tea, recommended by my friend and oh boy is it a game changer. Plus, I got it free because of a special this week at one of my grocers. It’s a Cinnamon Chai by Paromi. I like the other chai I have, as well, but this is another lovely treat. It’s also caffeine free.
  12. Appliances – As I sit here listening to my washing machine running, I feel ever so grateful not to have to run to the laundromat. Hopefully, those days are behind me. It seems that more apartment complexes are furnishing these and I am so happy. If they did not, I would have to get them, but oh isn’t it nice that I don’t have to do that.

So there you have it. Those are my TTOTs – Come join in!

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poetry, short story, TTOT

10 Things of Thankful – July 5

human hands and us flag
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It’s that time again to be thinking of all things thankful! Here are my 10 and I hope you will join in with yours. You can go to this LINK to join in!

1. Remember the Secret Project? Well, here it is. This is an article I wrote for Midtown Magazine in Raleigh. New Bern Article

2. Six Sentence Story and a celebration. It’s that time of year to remember my special someone and I when we decided to be a couple. Here’s the story HERE

3. Family. It’s been the time for daughter to join for a weekend and it’s a holiday weekend. I’m sure I will have more to post about it next week, but, for now, let’s just say it’s bound to be fun!

4. Poetry Reading – Remember last week when I posted about the upcoming poetry reading? Well, it happened and here’s a picture of the audience and the poet Aruna Gurumurthy. Nice turnout and lovely words of expression.

5. Poundage has me 20 # less than when I rebooted and a total of just over 60# from my all time high. It’s a long process, for sure, but I am happy with where I am going.

6. Dive Into Poetry – I joined the July Dive Into Poetry group and it has been doing daily poems. Yay!!

7. Tea – Again? Yes, my journey into teas has become fun and I am grateful as I am finding the natural medicinal qualities are helping my zzzzs

8. Reading – I am currently reading a book for the book club we started. I hope it picks up as I have no problem putting it down. How is this good news? Well, when you read something that is questionable, it makes you appreciate when you read something interesting. I have three of those on my back burner, but I can’t wait to shift the pots.

9. Mammogram Results – Every year I have to get a mammogram because one year I had a benign lump removed, so I am on the watch for further developments and the good news is that I made it through this year with no issues.

10. Other tests. It is that time of year when I also get blood work done and I am happy to report my A1C is still looking good. I had to changed my eye prescription, but it’s all good as the words “diabetic myopathy” are not being spoken.

That’s that and there you go! Hope your week was awesome!!

TTOT

Ten Things of Thankful – June 14

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It’s time again for the TTOT!! Be sure and join us by going to this LINK

I’m one day late to post, but it looks like I’m not alone, nonetheless, I will do my best to help get the party started!!

1. The Pool and The Sunshine. Both are helping my spirits. There’s a pool party today, but I have other responsibilities, but they will have to carry on without me. It’s all good. I hit the pool this morning.

2. Sweet presents! I received the TTOT sticky note pad from Kristi yesterday. And she put in the sweetest note! I love when I get something in the real mail and such kind words.

purple petaled flower and thank you card
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3. Nice Weather. It has been pleasantly cool and sunny with not so much rain. This also helps me SMILE!!

4. & 5. Venues – Adobe Spark – I am organizing a poetry reading for this month and I asked a place I love to go to for coffee, writing and reading and they said YES!!! Here’s the poster I made on Adobe Spark And I will give them a shout out of THANKS too!!
Aruna Poster Red

6. My surprise is still cooking.

7. Challenges – Six Sentence Story always challenges my brain. Here’s this weeks on this LINK

8. Fathers or in my case “Daddy” and how can I not pay my respects to the man and his life devoted to all of us? And on top of Father’s Day, his birthday is coming up. Happy Heavenly Birthday and Father’s Day to Daddy.
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9. My TTOT Family who have become so important to my life. I read every post and this past week took me 3 days to get through all of them!

10. New Adventures! Summer brings with it many opportunities to explore the various offerings. Why not shake off the cares and enjoy the world!

close up of tree against sky
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