Reblogs – 50 Shades of Gray Hair

Peanutize Yourself

This was a good way to start the day…something fun!
Here’s my version and if you have to ask…I’m Lucy’s Grandmother. Where do you think she learned her evil ways? LOL

Cee's Photo Challenges

Hi, Chris here. I haven’t written for a while, but I found something that is just plain fun and had to share it with you. To promote the new Peanuts movie that is coming out, they’ve set up a site where you can create yourself as a Peanuts character. What would you look like if you were a BFF with Charlie Brown, Lucy , Linus, Peppermint Patty and the rest of the gang? Here is what I think I’d look like: a red-headed tomboy in mismatched clothes with a big grin.

If you would like to create your own character, go to PeanutizeMe and have fun being a child again.

For all of you who didn’t grow up in the US, I apologize if you don’t know what I’m talking about. I don’t know how widely traveled Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip is, but I suspect it’s quite well known around…

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The Eye of the Human Storm – Repost

As you know, Superman passed away Sunday, February 15. I am re-posting what I wrote for him back in July because, though I thought I understood the emotions of what was looming…I couldn’t have known how I’d feel at this moment.

But, this comes as close to my feelings now as anything I’ve ever written about my father. About how it was more about how we live than how, or when, we die.

I love this man even more for leaving me with a deeper appreciation of the life he lived, than fear for the sorrow at the loss of his life.

I love you Superman and I thank you with all my heart.

You truly were…

My First Love ♥ My Only Hero

Today’s forecast
Pain with a chance of happiness
Life – It hurts
Our first breath
Born in and out of Pain
Our last breath
Born in and out of the fear of Death
Beginning to end
The human struggle to keep moving
Beyond the current pain so we may endure the next
To begin again
The circle, the cycle of life, of pain
To reach our destination – Death
So what is the point?
When one ends where one begins?
What is the point?
The middle is the point
To feel the heart beat
Of a lover
To hear the laughter
Of a child
To know the touch of another
The touch that completes our circle
Ones who will rejoice with us
And for us
And those who will mourn us
But more – Remember
That we were here
That we mattered
That we made the difference
That we closed a part of their circle
As they too, closed a part of ours
To gather at the end of the day
To hear the sounds of silence
The human sounds we make without knowing
The sounds of love
And life
The middle
Those sounds our ears miss
But that our hearts hear
These are the sounds of silence
So loud we are compelled – T0 listen
Struggle to keep moving
From one pain to another
For in the end It is not the pain
We Remember – It is
Love
Our circles have no true beginning
They meld with our ending
We only have what is in
The middle
Today’s forecast
Pain with a chance of happiness
Take an umbrella if you must
Wear your raincoat and galoshes if you have to
But
Prepare more for getting swept into the middle
‘Cause that’s where life happens
In the middle
Never be afraid to get wet
Put the fear aside
Go beyond the tropical storm of prologue
Fear not the hurricane of the epilogue
Walk into the wind
Get pummeled by the rain
Get to the eye
The middle
Where the calm allows us to hear
The human sounds of silence

The sounds of Love

For My Father

My First Love ~ My Only Hero

Do you know why?

In preparation for Memorial Day, May 26th, I’d like to share with you an event that happened in September 2013.

In France.

An event that was not overly (if at all) publicized in the US, though it should have been.

Thankfully, we have friends here and abroad who believe we need to see.

To visualize…just what it is we are memorializing.

Excellent History Lesson

A large percentage of our country doesn’t know of (or therefore, care) about Normandy during WWII.

Has it been removed from the History Books? Do they still teach about D-Day?

British artist Jamie Wardley, Andy Moss, and nearly 600 volunteers, took to the beaches of Normandy with rakes and stencils in hand to etch 9,000 silhouettes representing fallen people into the sand.

Titled: The Fallen 9000 [http://thefallen9000.info/]

The piece is meant as a stark visual reminder of those who died during the D-Day beach landings at Arromanches on June 6th, 1944 during WWII. The original team consisted of 60 volunteers, but as word spread nearly 500 additional local residents arrived to help with the temporary installation that lasted only a few hours before being washed away by the tide.

9,000 Fallen Soldiers Etched into the Sand on Normandy Beach to Commemorate Peace Day on September 25, 2013

A visually stunning reminder of why.

Don’t you agree?

Save a moment during the upcoming ‘Holiday’ to say a word of thanks to all who have, do, and will…serve their countries with one thought in mind…

Our Freedom

God Bless and Godspeed

It’s Good Friday Unless You Are Getting Nailed To A Cross

I could warn those that follow ME, that the following is not your typical G rated with bad language Rhonda post. This may be the end of my blog reputation as I know it…and that’s okay, because this is one of the best “in your effin face ‘reason for the season’ posts” I’ve ever read. I’m re-blogging, with pride, and be damned. thank you kat…you are one amazing dudette! you’ve been through your share, you’ve shared through it all, and I think you are a star. xo

Survivors

Of the many reasons I blog, this is at the top of the list: Meeting, befriending, supporting, and being supported by a woman like Susan. Thank you for this amazing piece my friend…I love your voice and am honored to stand beside you…

Susan Daniels Poetry

There is choice. We can die
from the shame of what is done
to us. We can wear the names
like letters branded into our skin
and quietly disappear,
become the nothings
they say we are, banished and vanished,
or we can wear our own words.

We can show them
women are not sheep.
Girls are not fruit.
There is no shearing of hair
or reaping a harvest from us.

We learn through breath
the difference between being a victim
and becoming a survivor
is subtle, delicate
before it grows strength:

That shift across the line
of being versus agency
is a thing danced, not learned;
sidestepping guilt and spinning it
back where it belongs
with something simple as a lifted head,
a turn around to shout back
at what is muttered under breath,
or the woman who did not stand in shame, wordless,
but blocked a door shouting for police,

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Demon

There are times, quite often in fact, when we let our experiences dictate the path of our lives. Usually, the bad ones, or the self-destructive ones…it’s surprisingly harder to stand up than it is to fall down. I’m sharing Kyle’s post DEMON for the very reason that I struggle daily with my own demons and it’s always comforting to know I am not alone. Equally so, to have a friend who can bear the naked truth of the dark side of some of our choices yet show there is light to be found…IF we are willing to look. Thank you Kyle.

kyle mew

they’re a bunch of fucking natives, and they spout all this hippie shit about self-discovery and journeys into my soul and what-not. i nod politely and agree, but just so as to be polite. i don’t want to offend them, but its all a load of crap as far as i’m concerned. i’m here for the trip of my life. i’ve heard about these mushrooms, ever since i started taking drugs. the most powerful hallucinogenic on the planet. the trip of a lifetime. they are legendary and until now, i wasn’t even sure they existed at all.
i look at the pile of goo the old woman spits onto the plate. i understand why she has to chew the mushrooms first. she has been doing this for years, and there are enzymes in her saliva that will break down the mushrooms and prevent me from vomiting too much. novices have…

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Your Words Have Power, Use Them Wisely

After reading Tink’s post about the power of words, it occurs to me that my recent departure from the airwaves was selfish and short sighted. And of course, being reminded of the great words of Albert Einstein didn’t hurt…

“The world is a dangerous place not because of the evil that men do but because of those that look on and do nothing”

It’s true and I want to thank Tink for yanking the cord of my ‘black-out shade’ to let the light in.

We can only control what we can control, but it is our responsibility, as adults, to use the tools we have in the best way we can. These tools are worthless sitting silently in the tool-shed collecting dust.

Our words, our voices, our compassion for our fellow-man…powerful tools indeed…but only if we use them.

Crazy Train To Tinky Town

No doubt you have all seen in the press recently another beautiful young person has taken her life as a result of bullying cowardly internet trolls. It saddens me that with the amazing technology that we now have access to in our homes and at our finger tips, there are those cowardly souls that would abuse this medium, hiding behind their anonymity to slander and disparage more vulnerable individuals.

We have all been members of social media groups where particular discussion threads have descended quickly into public slanging matches where accusations are made and vitriolic statements written. I have left many a group appalled that so-called intelligent and fortunate people have found it necessary to take advantage of these opportunities to denigrate others with insults becoming unnecessarily offensive.

This week was no exception, whilst taking part in a Twitter event an individual took this opportunity to air some personal grievances…

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Bridges

A twist on the twister lovingly known as crazytraintotinkytown. Dallas and I have collaborated twice before this one…her stories, my photos. This time…my photos first, and she wrote the story around them. I love it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do…it’s one of my favorites so far.

I hope you notice the header on Tink’s page as THAT was the original challenge photo. A series of photos of Bridges. The photos in the story were inspired by Tink’s writing.

If you’ve not picked up the gauntlet and collaborated yet….do it! It’s G R E A T! So, without further adieu, “Bridges” by Dallas Dyson at Crazytraintotinkytown.

Crazy Train To Tinky Town

This is another of my collaborations with the stylish and very elegant Rhonda over at 50 Shades of Gray Hair. This one was more of a challenge for me as Rhonda supplied the pictures and I wrote the story around them. I have loved working with her and not only is she a great photographer and a perfectionist but a generous spirited soul too. So on behalf of myself and my team-mate we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

I opened the letter with trembling hands; the one that I had been waiting weeks for. It had arrived in the morning post but I had crumpled it into my pocket and delayed reading it until my Mum had left for work. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to share it with her but I just didn’t want to feel guilty either.

Mum and…

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The Nanny

I promised another tantalizing tale from Deb at Tinky Town…and here it is. Our second writer/photog collaboration! I highly recommend working with another blogger in this way – whether it’s choosing photos for a story or writing a story from a photo…it’s a fun and creative challenge. Here is “The Nanny”…

Crazy Train To Tinky Town

This is the second of my collaborations and my second with the lovely Rhonda over at Fifty Shades of Gray Hair and I think she’s possibly outdone herself this time! It has been a joy working with her on both projects and I have loved how each time I have given her a story she just creates these amazing pictures. So thank you Rhonda, you’re an inspiration!

Jen smiled indulgently across the breakfast table, over the heads of 6-year-old Jake and his sister 4-year-old Emily, at a bemused Richard, and mouthed “I love you”. Their secret smile that they saved for one another, and said that all was right with the world. Jen quickly set about clearing up the breakfast debris when Anna joined them – no matter how hard Jen tried, she just couldn’t warm to this woman. There was an air of detachment and aloofness about her that…

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The Homecoming

Ever thought of collaborating with a fellow blogger? No? You should…it’s fun and gets those creative juices flowing in a whole new direction. This is the first collaboration for me, with the talented and wonderful writer Deb at crazytraintotinkytown, a favorite of mine since the beginning. She’s a twister. Want to know what that means? Read her…you’ll get it. Hope you enjoy, but better yet…hope you try this for yourselves. Deb and I are working on another piece together, so stay tuned for that…it’s another wonderful tale.

🙂