On Success

Apology Not Accepted

In the summer before the final year of my MFA program, I hid in my parents’ basement while Caleb, Reed, and I were visiting, and, in a frenzy, I wrote the first draft of an essay titled “Like Mourners’ Bread.” It was a numbered essay about my sexual history, but it was about so much more than that. Ultimately, it was an essay about forgiveness.

I wrote:
The man I married slept with other women when we were dating.  He didn’t call me for weeks at a time.  He showed up at my apartment drunk after the bar closed, acting as though he wanted to see me, but really just wanting a place to sleep.  He lied to me many times.  About many things. 

I didn’t hurt then, because I didn’t want to know what was happening.  His friends tried to warn me.  My friends tried to warn me.  Strangers…

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For all the money in the world

Small Steps To A Long Life

Having to pay for something that you desire is a basic way of life, but what if that something is not material things, but involves raising a child.  The cost of rearing a child in today’s society has increased dramatically.  We all know that having a family is one of the greatest things in the world, it gives you a sense of purpose, not to mention someone to love, honor and cherish, but it comes with a steep price tag.

According to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) a report from 2015 on the amount of money spent on children by families reveals that the cost of rearing a child from birth to age 17 is $233,610.   For a child in a two child family with a married couple and a before tax income between $59,200 and $107,400 that averages out to be about 12 to 13,000 dollars…

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Reconnecting to our Inner Light.

Dreamwalker's Sanctuary

I wrote the below post two years ago.. I thought it perfect to re-share it again in full here. Along with another Mandala of Cynthia Sageleaf ‘s who shared her drawing with me which I painted in.. You can find  her wonderful blog over at http://intuitiveandspiritual.com/  Along with her creations of Mandala’s

  I painted this Mandala in watercolour last week..

 Today I have been painting one of my own original paintings.. Sometimes we have to step away from the chaos being churned out in our world and reconnect back within our own Lights..

The below post goes on to explain more.. The original post was entitled 

Finding our Light 

I am still amazed at how many of you resonated with a previous post Cracking our Inner Shells. And I am so grateful for your responses and for those who shared this post with their own readers.. 

Knowing that…

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corrugated light

The art of Photography

Donald Trump, Your Message to Blacks is Insulting

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident

In the last several days, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has made speeches before predominately White supporters asking African-American citizens to vote for him.  Not only did he paint with a broad brush, he also told people that Democrats are bad for Blacks.  He talked about the Republican party, the party of Lincoln, being the best choice for Black voters.

I am blessed to have been born to older parents, and 23 years after the first-born.  My dad was born in 1897.  He died when I was 16-years old and it’s as if I can hear him today talking about politics.  I wish that I could hear him today.  You see, one of the things my dad used to talk about was how colored people supported the Republican party, and how that would change with the 1960 presidential election.

Many black leaders, including Martin Luther King, Sr.,and Jackie Robinson…

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#writephoto – The marzipan witch and the golden swans by Robbie Cheadle

Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

The marzipan witch and the golden swans

In Chocolate land, there lives a marzipan witch;

She lives under a hedge in a chocolate mud ditch;

Her housekeeper is her grey, fondant cat;

Who keeps their home tidy and sweeps the mat.

This pair are always busy and do lots of kind deeds;

They help the squirrels collect their winter seeds;

They tend the bluebells that grow wild in the wood;

And encourage them to grow where they should.

The marzipan witch knows an amazing spell;

That she keeps to herself, and others won’t tell;

With it, she can assist any creature, bad or good;

That is lonely and sad and feels misunderstood.

The spell overcomes obstacles and finds a way;

For love and happiness to be found without delay;

The witch is friendly and kind with a very good heart;

She’s always there to help creatures make a new start.

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Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end’ – Seneca

My Life as an Artist (2)

‘Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end’  Seneca

watercolour/gouache

Since I last posted on the 15th December – on the one hand it has been a whirlwind and on the other a very special time of reflection.

My daughter Christie arrived on the 29th for the Funeral which was on the 30th and stayed with me until this past Friday when she flew back to Boston.       As always our time together was very special.

After the Funeral,  Christie and I went to Wellington in Somerset with very good friends for three days, which was the perfect thing to do.

watercolour/gouache

It is now time to move gently into the new year where I plan to establish more fluidity and flow to my work, always taking my cue from the creative process and of course the magical hummingbirds:)

I also plan to add more colours to my…

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words

This is elegant. Your words are beautiful and the images you paint are clear and vibrant. xoxo

johnpoetflanagan

colourful footmen adjectives
attending in green blue and red
grass sky sunset

strapping chaps adverbs
smartly purposefully marching with
action heroes bodybuilders amazons

up where? what in? and but the a or ah!
seamsters and welders with names
prepositions conjunctions exclamations interrogatives
five times longer than themselves

words unconscionable pranksters
faulty alarms that go off in the small hours
charmers deceivers kneetremblers quakemakers
one-time offenders and recidivists
imps winking on the windowsills of imagination
formal and casual friday
crawling across a page or gallivanting to nowhere
discouragers fillips partners

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15

Nice really nice

Noir

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1337. Of winter’s lifeless world each tree now seems a perfect part; yet each one holds spring’s secret deep down within its heart. ~Edited quote by Charles G. Stater

YOur post is terridic

Sacred Touches

Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers…
~Thomas Campion

Gray, foggy dreariness
ushered in the day;
A mist, a cold, frigid drizzle,
fell from on high;
Bare, starkly austere, lay everything
I could see; and
Silence, a stilled quietude, blanketed
my wintry garden.
Bleakly naked, towered tall trees that
stood above all else,
But underneath them from the secret place
murmured a voice,
The sacred, almost indistinguishable, faint
whisper emerged amid
The fog and fine rain to go forward undetected
past the woody sentinels
To allow the utterances to break into morn’s reverie
so they could  tell of signs,
Of tiny sparks of life that are preparing to push up
despite the gloominess
And ‘twas this message that stirred embers in my spirit
to keep their glimmer from
Becoming far too dim to continue sustaining my hope,
expectations, and “joie de vie.”

Don’t think the…

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