The original writing on this little piece of cyber real estate was published on October 3, 2016. It came to life when I was seven months sober, so it has been parked on WordPress for nearly five years—and it has served as the second mini-chapter of the tale of my recovery—a story that was titled “Unteach Me.”
Continue reading “Rewriting Your Story”
“Walk outside on a clear night and just look up into the sky. You are sitting on a planet spinning around in the middle of absolutely nowhere.”
Michael A. Singer
I’m back for my series Life: From A to Z and I’m nearing the end now… with the useful letter “U.” I’ve decided to combine the letters X, Y, and Z, so I have just three more posts to go and then I’ll be moving on to something totally new and different. Hip Hip Hooray! I love new things.
Continue reading “Untethered”
“You have to look beyond the face,
To see the person true,
Deep down within my inner space,
I am the same as you.”
“I’ve seen compassion from the blind,
Who think with open eyes.
It’s those that judge me quick you’ll find,
Are those that are unwise.”
—Two excerpts from the poem Faceless, by Benjamin Zephaniah
I think we all feel faceless at times. Sometimes it’s a good thing—like when our introversion kicks into overdrive and we want to hide from the world—and we choose to converse behind the anonymity of our computer screen as opposed to getting out for some face to face interactions (GUILTY AS CHARGED!).
Getting out is hard to do right now anyway, thanks to the pandemic, which is another story for another day. But even still, we wear those masks when we leave the house so we’re faceless—to a certain degree—even when we go out!
Which brings me to my next thought on the word faceless. Sometimes feeling faceless is not a good thing, which I tried to portray in my image. It’s like being out in the big city or amongst a crowd, and feeling like you are invisible—or faceless. No one looks at you, or talks to you… nor do they care to. It’s as if they don’t even see you.
My favorite thing to do, as far as socializing, is to sit down and have a one on one conversation with someone. It’s almost impossible to feel faceless when there are only two of you and neither one can ignore the other (except for those annoying cellphones!). Even when I was young I felt like that. If there was a third wheel, or a fourth, or a fifth… it was like I started to fade… and eventually, I was not really there. Even my mind would drift away.
Maybe it’s because people can be loud, fast-talking, and aggressive, and I was never really one to talk loud or interrupt (not while I was sober anyway). So, I’d just start to disappear. I thought there was something wrong with me for years. Then I read about introversion and I was like “OHH… THAT’S WHAT I AM!” So now I know. One on one is good—more than that is exhausting and I’ll just end up fading away and being faceless.
On another note, I don’t think that Zephaniah’s poem has anything to do with either one of the things that I mentioned. His words are more about the inner person vs. the outward appearance, which is extremely important and pertinent these days. It applies to all kinds of things including racism, ageism, and plain old shallowness and ignorance.
Nevertheless, faces are pretty important. We lift our faces to the sky and feel the glorious rays of the sun as they hit our skin, and—best of all—we use our faces to offer smiles to our friends, our family, and to strangers in need.
—William Arthur Wood
I hope you enjoyed the image and my thoughts on the letter “F!” On another note, when I started this series I was going to do alphabet illustrations for every post, like I did for the letter “A,” and I realized last night that I had forgotten all about that. So… we’ll see what happens for the letter G.
Keep smiling!!
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
Plutarch
I didn’t plan to use our cat “Gypsy” for my featured image, but when I thought about the word curiosity, the old phrase “curiosity killed the cat” came to mind. I’ve never cared for that idiom because I think curiosity is a wonderful thing (and I love cats).
But, I’ve learned that the expression is more about nosiness—sticking your nose into other people’s business where it doesn’t belong. Now THAT I understand. So, it looks like curiosity is another one of those double edged words.
Curiosity, to me, is very similar to awe and wonder. It challenges our minds to ask questions and it makes us want to learn about things. When I got caught up in the rat race—working hard and playing hard—I lost my curiosity. Honestly, I think that losing curiosity may be one of the first steps people take toward losing hope. It’s like a total lack of interest in life and the world around you, and it breeds complacency and indifference.
Having no curiosity can also lead to taking things (even LIFE) for granted. It makes me think of a young teen (or even some young adults) sulking in his (or her) room—sitting next to a laptop, an iPhone, and a television—complaining because life is sooo BORING. On a side note… I think I actually did that when I was a teenager (minus the laptop and iPhone). Oh, the things I could have been learning if I had only been more curious!
I think curiosity is a bit like engine fuel. When we pay attention to what’s going on around us, or when we look at the world with awe and wonder, we realize that there is so much more to know, and so many things we can learn about. Curiosity sparks up that ignition and gets those old gears and wheels turning (and I know nothing about cars so please excuse me if my car analogies make you auto buffs cringe).
Come to think of it, if curiosity is like fuel then it’s one fuel that we can never run out of. EVER. There’ll always be more questions to ask, more things to be curious about, and more to learn because we’ll never know it all. So, unless you’re planning on sticking your nose into someone else’s business…
Stay Curious!
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
Walt Disney
That’s about all for now.
Thanks for joining me for the letter “C” in my series Life: From A to Z.
When arms open wide,
To welcome in the broken,
Solace is embraced.
Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge: Open & Solace
Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL
I thought about JOY all day, ever since I saw the prompt for RDP Saturday. I had visions of a glorious stained glass window—and what I imagined was quite beautiful.
My mom and I finished our shopping today so we experienced great joy, but our feet were tired and not much else was accomplished. I didn’t sit down to work on this until an hour before midnight, as with many nights, and let’s just say it’s been a long evening.
My featured image tonight is nothing like what I imagined, but it has grown on me. I think it’s an emotional piece, because I worked very hard at making lines and symmetry—and then I just let loose and started spinning and changing colors (you would really understand that comment if you saw the original).
I imagined myself like a child, you know… like how they are when they get upset at their coloring project and they start making long hard scribbles all over the page. I think I totally get it now. It’s a release of some sort.
Needless to say, I like it. You can find joy in it if you look for it. I think that’s what I like the most about it. It’s just like life. Joy isn’t always sitting atop your nose, staring you in the face and shouting, “Hey, look at me! I am JOY!”
No… I don’t think joy is like that. Joy is quiet, unassuming, and abstract. And it’s not without it’s downsides, just like my mom and I finding joy in our shopping today, but coming home with tired feet.
And with the current state of the world, JOY is not easy to spot, but it’s there…. Just waiting for you to find it.
