Where I Am From
I am from handwashed dishes and diapers, from Campbell's soup and Tide Detergent.
I am from the dirt with red specks, from the wild onions and blackberries and lightning bugs in mason jars.
I am from red carpet and rainbow stars.
I am from the mimosa flowers that float on the lake waters, the weeping willow trees that sway in the wind.
I am from the smell of honeysuckle vines in the spring.
I am from fishing poles and water skis, from vegetable gardens and wrinkled foreheads.
I am from the cabin in the woods and from the rocky waters of Smith Lake.
I am from farms that I never even saw.
I am from Virginia, Luria, and Ruby - the creative, the strong, the faithful.
I am from the independant, the stubborn, the hardworking and proud.
I am from the wheelers and dealers and the worry warts, too.
I am from strong willed women and diligent, patient men.
I am from blood parents and from parents who took me as their own.
I am from chocolate and biscuits, from barbecued pork marinated in the earth.
I am from dill pickles and watermelon seeds, from tickled feet and sunbathing.
I am from go-carts and beauty pageants and lazy summer days.
I am from sand dollars and salty ocean air.
I am from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and Sesame Street.
I am from the sack man and Ol' Wooly, too.
I am from the Leroy Baptist Church pews, the Baptist hymnal, and the gravestones at the old cemetary.
I am from a clear plastic tub of photos in my grandmother's closet, from the albums in mom's old china cabinet that is now mine.
I am from the reel to reel silent films of my family, I am from the souls of the faces who are in them all.
Writing activity found at:http://www.swva.net/fred1st/wif.htm
Saturday, December 29, 2012
20 Things I Used to Do (from 2007 writing exercise)
A writing excercise I got from some other place. But sounded like fun so I'm doing it. 20 things that I used to always do or enjoyed doing, but I never do anymore for whatever reason. These are things I did in my early adulthood, not neccessarily childhood. But some I did in both.
1. Sleep with the radio on.
2. Talk on the phone a lot and gossip.
3. Go for walks - through the woods or down the street.
4. Watch TV shows regularly, sitcoms, soap operas and such.
5. Put together jigsaw puzzles for fun.
6. Take sightseeing drives when spring comes, through the country, or to places I rarely drive near.
7. Take 2 hours to get ready to go somewhere.
8. Perm my hair.
9. Take naps every single day after school or work.
10.Read novels.
11.Play the saxophone.
12.Go to church.
13.Write poetry.
14.Eat candy and Coke for breakfast.
15.Play video games.
16.Play lots of board games.
17.Think think think, uninterrupted thinking and pondering and having the time to do so.
18.Go outside at night time and look at the moon and stars and sky and feel all dreamy and stuff.
19.Water ski.
20.Shell peas and butterbeans and snap beans.
1. Sleep with the radio on.
2. Talk on the phone a lot and gossip.
3. Go for walks - through the woods or down the street.
4. Watch TV shows regularly, sitcoms, soap operas and such.
5. Put together jigsaw puzzles for fun.
6. Take sightseeing drives when spring comes, through the country, or to places I rarely drive near.
7. Take 2 hours to get ready to go somewhere.
8. Perm my hair.
9. Take naps every single day after school or work.
10.Read novels.
11.Play the saxophone.
12.Go to church.
13.Write poetry.
14.Eat candy and Coke for breakfast.
15.Play video games.
16.Play lots of board games.
17.Think think think, uninterrupted thinking and pondering and having the time to do so.
18.Go outside at night time and look at the moon and stars and sky and feel all dreamy and stuff.
19.Water ski.
20.Shell peas and butterbeans and snap beans.
Words that have lost their meaning
Words that have lost their meaning during my years of teaching school:
Awesome, amazing, cool, fake, messy, musty, swagger, wrong, good/bad, blessed, tapped, smash, real, tight, boo, awkward, random, ironic, creeper, posse, rap, sweet, mane, tripping, player, digits, epic, swerve
Awesome, amazing, cool, fake, messy, musty, swagger, wrong, good/bad, blessed, tapped, smash, real, tight, boo, awkward, random, ironic, creeper, posse, rap, sweet, mane, tripping, player, digits, epic, swerve
Life is....
Life is just one long vicious battle between my belief that the world is about peace, love, harmony, serenity, and beauty vs. the world's constant persistent and relentless efforts to prove that I'm completely wrong about every single thing. That's what life is.
Monday, September 17, 2012
When Facebook gets on my nerves
FB pet peeved:
Those who refer to "stupid people", thereby exalting themselves somehow above others. Ex: "repost this if you know any stupid people, etc"
2. People asking you to pray fr things that they refuse to name what it is, who it involves, or anything at all that could possibly give you an inkling as to where to begin your "prayer". Although its usually done out of sincerity I'm sure - I can't escape the belief that when people post a prayer request for this person r that, for this reason or that, it's done simply to spread gossip. Somehow publicizing someone's problems and asking people to pray for them is an acceptable way of spreading news of bad luck, illness, deaths, divorces, and other bad things that happen to people. An better yet, posting those "unspoken prayer requests" - leading people to simply guess, predict, assume, and deduct whatever possible terrible thing it MIGHT could be that's gone wrong. That's always fun.
3. People who post how they "hate drama!!!". Because they are always the very ones who are carrying on some sort of drama, filling your news feed with ridiculous junk.
4. Posts that fuss about God or the pledge not being allowed in our schools. Unless you live in some other state besides MS, if you post that God and the pledge aren't allowed in our schools you're only showing how little you even KNOW about what goes on in our schools.
4. Political posts that try to gain credit for their particular belief by referring to people of the opposing opinion as "stupid, idiotic, blind followers, sheep, crazy" or various other derogatory names. You miserably fail to prove or to even MAKE your point if you do so by immediately claiming to be smarter or otherwise more exalted than anyone else.
5. Posts that don't actually say anything but are designed to make people ask questions that the author doesn't intend to answer for at least an hour, if ever. Such as "OMG I can't believe this happened!" or "Oh my I am SO shocked!" or "This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me".
6. Jokes. I mean - really? Reading your jokes makes me feel like a 3rd grader.
7. FML. Or any version of the sort. "My life sucks!", "I hate my life!", "Why does my life have to suck so bad??", "My luck is so terrible!". Etc.
8. This one bugs me the MOST. People stuck in some sort of exaggerated overblown time machine where they think everything back in "their day" was so much more awesome than anything these days. People in this town can not get past this. "I remember back when our schools NEVER lost football games", "Vicksburg used to be fun, now it sucks", "All that music these kids listen too these days ain't nowhere near as good as it was in our day", I could go on for days with examples. Some people can never appreciate what is being done today because they are so self-centered that all they can think of is how they believe it to have been back in the day. Ugh.
9. People who constantly post what they eat, or what their kids eat. I just don't feel any further explanation is needed.
10. TMI people. The ones who broadcast things you're just not comfortable knowing. Like how they caught their wife:husband cheating on them. Or how they found out they were adopted. Or any other soap opera worthy family and personal business.
Those who refer to "stupid people", thereby exalting themselves somehow above others. Ex: "repost this if you know any stupid people, etc"
2. People asking you to pray fr things that they refuse to name what it is, who it involves, or anything at all that could possibly give you an inkling as to where to begin your "prayer". Although its usually done out of sincerity I'm sure - I can't escape the belief that when people post a prayer request for this person r that, for this reason or that, it's done simply to spread gossip. Somehow publicizing someone's problems and asking people to pray for them is an acceptable way of spreading news of bad luck, illness, deaths, divorces, and other bad things that happen to people. An better yet, posting those "unspoken prayer requests" - leading people to simply guess, predict, assume, and deduct whatever possible terrible thing it MIGHT could be that's gone wrong. That's always fun.
3. People who post how they "hate drama!!!". Because they are always the very ones who are carrying on some sort of drama, filling your news feed with ridiculous junk.
4. Posts that fuss about God or the pledge not being allowed in our schools. Unless you live in some other state besides MS, if you post that God and the pledge aren't allowed in our schools you're only showing how little you even KNOW about what goes on in our schools.
4. Political posts that try to gain credit for their particular belief by referring to people of the opposing opinion as "stupid, idiotic, blind followers, sheep, crazy" or various other derogatory names. You miserably fail to prove or to even MAKE your point if you do so by immediately claiming to be smarter or otherwise more exalted than anyone else.
5. Posts that don't actually say anything but are designed to make people ask questions that the author doesn't intend to answer for at least an hour, if ever. Such as "OMG I can't believe this happened!" or "Oh my I am SO shocked!" or "This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me".
6. Jokes. I mean - really? Reading your jokes makes me feel like a 3rd grader.
7. FML. Or any version of the sort. "My life sucks!", "I hate my life!", "Why does my life have to suck so bad??", "My luck is so terrible!". Etc.
8. This one bugs me the MOST. People stuck in some sort of exaggerated overblown time machine where they think everything back in "their day" was so much more awesome than anything these days. People in this town can not get past this. "I remember back when our schools NEVER lost football games", "Vicksburg used to be fun, now it sucks", "All that music these kids listen too these days ain't nowhere near as good as it was in our day", I could go on for days with examples. Some people can never appreciate what is being done today because they are so self-centered that all they can think of is how they believe it to have been back in the day. Ugh.
9. People who constantly post what they eat, or what their kids eat. I just don't feel any further explanation is needed.
10. TMI people. The ones who broadcast things you're just not comfortable knowing. Like how they caught their wife:husband cheating on them. Or how they found out they were adopted. Or any other soap opera worthy family and personal business.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Results of many years of people watching. Or otherwise known as "the beginnings of my manifesto"
I first started writing these things down in July 2011.
1. If you gotta tellsomenody how you are...then you're not really that way - you just WISH you were. If you're really that way, no one has to be told.
2. To hate is to care. The way not NOT care is to neither love nor hate but to simply consider something or someone as of absolutely no consequence or influence.
3. No matter what your excuse is for nit being there, the real story is priority. Your priorities speak volumes about who you are.
4. You'll never convince anyone with words, only actions
5. People who get mad for not being thanked were doing it for the wrong reasons in the first place.
6. Best way to destroy something is from the inside out.
7. Being mean Is not the same as being tough or firm.
8. One of lifes hardest lessons is learning to accept and appreciate your talents with grace AND learning to accept that others may be more or less talentedthn you. Amdto be gracious about it in either direction.
9. Most people never take the time to see something from the other side. Seeing more than one point of view doesn't mean you agree with it. Just makes you wise.
10. If you're always preaching something then the one you're trying to convince is yourself.
11. Putting someone else down or talking about them is always with the intent to make a person feel better about their ownselves. Or feel more justified about their own way of being.
12. Discrimination is alive and well and apparently something humans will never get past. wish I knew the answer to this one.
13. No one is better than anybody else, no matter how desperately they want to believe they are.
14. People usually will not take the time to understand how a person got the way they are, they simply write them off. "You're not like me so you'll have to leave"
15. If you surround yourself with people who are only like yourself, you will never grow as a person. If you don't fraternize with people because of this, that, the other, you will never receive anything and will never be more than you are. And you will miss out on learning OHSO much.
16. Some people pretend to know what they don't know. Never be that person,
17. If your feelings are ever hurt, it's usually your own fault because somewhere along the way you incorrectly assumed something. Back it up and rethink it. And don't let it happen again
18. To hate someone is to give them power over you.
19. Yelling at a kid destroys raport and takes away any effectiveness you might have otherwise been able to accomplish. And it shows weakness and loss of control within yourself
20. The number one thing all humans of any age want is to NOT be ridiculed, embarrassed, left out, cast aside, or made to feel unworthy in some way. If you make them feel acknowledged, important, worthy, and included as a necessary part of something then 99% of your interactions will be positiv and productive. And really you should treat people as worthy because it's the truth.
21. Nothing heals the mind like hard work. Particularly physical labor, or some kind if work that deprives you of sustained comfort
22. What goes around really does come around.
23. People who say things like "kids today are just awful, i fear for the future!" are telling you that they do not personally know many, if any, kids today and that they have no idea anything about the current generation of youngsters NOR the future for that matter. It's always fun to think that ones own generation was a better bunch than others. But most of us have selective memories, not to mention selective opinions.
24. Family gatherings are far too complicated.
25. You can not orchestrate a change in something without first accepting it's current reality.
26. There is nothing worthwhile that you don't have time for. If you find it a priority then you will make time for it.
27. Never allow someone to paralyze you and especially don't paralyze yourself
28. Always allow people around you to be who they are. For hell on earth is having to be someone you are not.
29. People who cause you physical pain do not love you. No matter what they say. No ifs ands or buts. Under no circumstances.
30. Four Fables you should always keep in mind: the little red hen, the little engine that could, the crow and the pitcher, the lion and the mouse
31. Never let your crazy show
32. In all things if you forget YOURSELF then you will never be forgotten. ACT without effort, TEACH by quiet example, accept things as they come, CREATE without possessing, nourish without demanding, accomplish without taking credit - (This I got from Sam Stacy)
33. Recognize jealousy the moment it hits you and toss it aside. No matter how you try to conceal it, everyone else around you sees it plain as day. It damages you and your effectiveness in anything you're trying to accomplish
34. Who you are shouts so loudly in my ear, that I can not hear what you are saying - Ralph Waldo Emerson
35. Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor
36. Everyone always seems to know a better way to do what you're doing than you do and they love to tell people all about it when you're not around. This is particularly true with people who have never actually DONE the thing you are doing.
37. A person who challenges your authority or your knowledge but then backs away when you offer your rebuttal without anger, was only looking for attention or trying to assert some sort of "worthiness" of their own. When it doesn't piss you off, they become aware of how foolish they look. And they then try to make up for it by back peddling. If you respond in anger, you have joined their game and they continue on with sheer delight.
1. If you gotta tellsomenody how you are...then you're not really that way - you just WISH you were. If you're really that way, no one has to be told.
2. To hate is to care. The way not NOT care is to neither love nor hate but to simply consider something or someone as of absolutely no consequence or influence.
3. No matter what your excuse is for nit being there, the real story is priority. Your priorities speak volumes about who you are.
4. You'll never convince anyone with words, only actions
5. People who get mad for not being thanked were doing it for the wrong reasons in the first place.
6. Best way to destroy something is from the inside out.
7. Being mean Is not the same as being tough or firm.
8. One of lifes hardest lessons is learning to accept and appreciate your talents with grace AND learning to accept that others may be more or less talentedthn you. Amdto be gracious about it in either direction.
9. Most people never take the time to see something from the other side. Seeing more than one point of view doesn't mean you agree with it. Just makes you wise.
10. If you're always preaching something then the one you're trying to convince is yourself.
11. Putting someone else down or talking about them is always with the intent to make a person feel better about their ownselves. Or feel more justified about their own way of being.
12. Discrimination is alive and well and apparently something humans will never get past. wish I knew the answer to this one.
13. No one is better than anybody else, no matter how desperately they want to believe they are.
14. People usually will not take the time to understand how a person got the way they are, they simply write them off. "You're not like me so you'll have to leave"
15. If you surround yourself with people who are only like yourself, you will never grow as a person. If you don't fraternize with people because of this, that, the other, you will never receive anything and will never be more than you are. And you will miss out on learning OHSO much.
16. Some people pretend to know what they don't know. Never be that person,
17. If your feelings are ever hurt, it's usually your own fault because somewhere along the way you incorrectly assumed something. Back it up and rethink it. And don't let it happen again
18. To hate someone is to give them power over you.
19. Yelling at a kid destroys raport and takes away any effectiveness you might have otherwise been able to accomplish. And it shows weakness and loss of control within yourself
20. The number one thing all humans of any age want is to NOT be ridiculed, embarrassed, left out, cast aside, or made to feel unworthy in some way. If you make them feel acknowledged, important, worthy, and included as a necessary part of something then 99% of your interactions will be positiv and productive. And really you should treat people as worthy because it's the truth.
21. Nothing heals the mind like hard work. Particularly physical labor, or some kind if work that deprives you of sustained comfort
22. What goes around really does come around.
23. People who say things like "kids today are just awful, i fear for the future!" are telling you that they do not personally know many, if any, kids today and that they have no idea anything about the current generation of youngsters NOR the future for that matter. It's always fun to think that ones own generation was a better bunch than others. But most of us have selective memories, not to mention selective opinions.
24. Family gatherings are far too complicated.
25. You can not orchestrate a change in something without first accepting it's current reality.
26. There is nothing worthwhile that you don't have time for. If you find it a priority then you will make time for it.
27. Never allow someone to paralyze you and especially don't paralyze yourself
28. Always allow people around you to be who they are. For hell on earth is having to be someone you are not.
29. People who cause you physical pain do not love you. No matter what they say. No ifs ands or buts. Under no circumstances.
30. Four Fables you should always keep in mind: the little red hen, the little engine that could, the crow and the pitcher, the lion and the mouse
31. Never let your crazy show
32. In all things if you forget YOURSELF then you will never be forgotten. ACT without effort, TEACH by quiet example, accept things as they come, CREATE without possessing, nourish without demanding, accomplish without taking credit - (This I got from Sam Stacy)
33. Recognize jealousy the moment it hits you and toss it aside. No matter how you try to conceal it, everyone else around you sees it plain as day. It damages you and your effectiveness in anything you're trying to accomplish
34. Who you are shouts so loudly in my ear, that I can not hear what you are saying - Ralph Waldo Emerson
35. Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor
36. Everyone always seems to know a better way to do what you're doing than you do and they love to tell people all about it when you're not around. This is particularly true with people who have never actually DONE the thing you are doing.
37. A person who challenges your authority or your knowledge but then backs away when you offer your rebuttal without anger, was only looking for attention or trying to assert some sort of "worthiness" of their own. When it doesn't piss you off, they become aware of how foolish they look. And they then try to make up for it by back peddling. If you respond in anger, you have joined their game and they continue on with sheer delight.
Family vs Isolation
When a person spends large amounts of time away from family and family activity, the psyche/subconscious begins to behave as though the person actually has no family. The outlook, esteem, and sense of normalcy erodes extremely quickly. A person can not function at optimum capacity because they are constantly in a state of subconscious mourning and loss. Little by little, things that used to matter stop mattering and life is a black hole of emptiness. And there seems to be no point or purpose in anything. There is no sense of being "rooted in the ground".
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
People
People treat you differently according to how you look. It's a fact. Proven to me my whole life. I shall someday expand upon this observation.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
I think everyday
I think about things to write in here everyday. But I don't think nearly enough. That was my original hope for this blog. Was to learn to think again. To stop. To NOT live full blast and unconsciously from one day to the next. I'm still thinking about it. Which for me is the first step (however long of a step it may be) to getting something done that I want to do. I'm thinking.
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