Some Poetry for you

I am not very inspired today so I thought I would leave you with two poems by one of my favorite poets, Edna St. Vincent Millay:

First Fig

by Edna St. Vincent Millay
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!

EXILED
Searching my heart for its true sorrow, This is the thing I find to be:That I am weary of words and people, Sick of the city, wanting the sea;
Wanting the sticky, salty sweetness Of the strong wind and shattered spray;Wanting the loud sound and the soft sound Of the big surf that breaks all day.
Always before about my dooryard, Marking the reach of the winter sea,Rooted in sand and dragging drift-wood, Straggled the purple wild sweet-pea;
Always I climbed the wave at morning, Shook the sand from my shoes at night,That now am caught beneath great buildings, Stricken with noise, confused with light.
If I could hear the green piles groaning Under the windy wooden piers,See once again the bobbing barrels, And the black sticks that fence the weirs,
If I could see the weedy mussels Crusting the wrecked and rotting hulls,Hear once again the hungry crying Overhead, of the wheeling gulls,
Feel once again the shanty straining Under the turning of the tide,Fear once again the rising freshet, Dread the bell in the fog outside,--
I should be happy,--that was happy All day long on the coast of Maine!I have a need to hold and handle Shells and anchors and ships again!
I should be happy, that am happy Never at all since I came here.I am too long away from water. I have a need of water near.

Some food for thought!

If you watch the news at all ,or read the paper, or get your 411 over the web...then I am sure that you have heard about the situation brewing in Iran. I don't know how you feel, but I have not been able to get the Iranian people out of my head and have been glued to my T.V. watching for any new developments. A flood of mixed emotions is flowing through me and my feelings run the gamut of hope, fear, and helplessness. It makes me feel humbled and proud of the people who are risking their very lives to stand up and say..." NO! This is not right...we are tired of your harshness, your oppression, your ignoring our basic rights. We will be heard!" I am even more proud of seeing the great numbers of women that are right there marching with the men. I fear for them too though and wish that a corrupt regime was not resorting to violence to try and crush these brave people. I suppose though, that's one of the very reasons these men and women are marching in the first place! I also hope and pray that this won't have all been in vain and that some positive outcome can be produced. I feel helpless though because all I know to do right now and sit and watch and pray. It really has touched me because here in America each and everyone of us has been given the freedom to claim our basic human rights, and it angers and saddens me to know that there are people out there suffering under the cruel thumbs of dictators. What I believe I will take away from this moment in time is, a desire and a determination to in some way reach out to those that are oppressed, down-trodden, and stripped of their rights to life. I hope too that in even some small way, you'll join with me in a movement to show those who are suffering under the cruel hand of oppression that there are those out here that want to help...that care about each and everyone of them!

I've got a million and one things to tell you...okay maybe just 5!

I'll go ahead and ask your forgiveness for the yo-yoing I will probably be doing with this post. I feel as if I have a million and one things that I want to tell you all about, but I'll try to keep it into some kind of cohesive whole.

1.) My mom and I have been discussing the possibility of she and my niece coming down for a week. I would enjoy this beyond measure and hope that we'll find a way to make it happen. My niece has been telling my mom that she really wants to come see me and you can probably tell how much that gets to a big ole' softy like me. The dear husband and I have been so inspired by the idea that they might come see us, that we have decided to write and illustrate a fairytale with my niece as the heroine. I'll keep you up to date on how that turns out.

2.)I've decided to do my own little summer reading project and, as silly as this may sound, I'm hoping to be able to have read 100 books by the 14th of Sept. I've got 5 down so far and I just started on the 14th of this month. So wish me luck! It maybe over-stretching just a bit, but hey ya gotta have a goal...right?!

3.)A few of the books I've been reading have really begun a process of self-reflection, culminating in a moment of clarity this morning. I've been trying to figure out why I allowed myself to gain back almost all of the 100+ lbs that I had lost a year or two ago and why I still haven't gotten my sorry self back into school. I realized they both have a common problem at their roots...namely that I'm afraid. Now I know that may sound strange to you, but I've never really been one to take chances, rock the boat, or done well with big changes and I realize now, that I have allowed certain things to happen as a way of letting me off of what I really want. As crazy as it may sound, I think secretly the idea of actually achieving the life- long dream I've had of being a healthy weight sent me reeling and scrambling for the other direction. It's also allowed me to criticize myself, as I've always done, for failing myself. I think it's so ironic that the very thing I seem to want the most...a chance to really live...is the thing I'm running from the fastest. I'm tired of running though and I'm tired of allowing every single thing I do to be controlled by fear...fear of the unknown, fear of what could and should be. So, I've decided to do my best to pick myself back up, shake myself off, and go for it! It's gonna be baby steps I'm sure, but I know I can do it. And to show you how serious I am about this, when the dear husband gets home, I'm gonna have him take some pictures of me so that I can have some before and after and even as much as it may kill me to post them, I'm gonna. I think of it as a way of helping to hold me responsible to myself and to you for going through with something that I really need to! Besides...who doesn't want to be eye candy on their husband's arm?? LOL!

4.)As I go about trying to make the physical changes that I need to, I also have to take care of my mental health as well. I am bi-polar and I know this and I also know that I need to be on medication to control it and help me not to hit those ups and downs that would cause me to fail. So, in order to have an over-all sense of well being, I am determined to start making sure that I regularly take my medication. I want to set myself up to succeed, not leave an open door for failure to slip in.

5.) Which brings me to my final point and I'll try to be as brief as possible. I have decided to start up a new love affair...that's right...I said a NEW love affair. I've decided that it's time that I actually start courting myself a little bit....take a chance to get to know who I am and what I want from life...what I truly enjoy and what I can do without. So, I'm not only going to be going on dates with my husband, but starting this weekend(probably tomorrow night) I'm gonna take myself out on a date with myself. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do just yet, maybe I'll just get myself a nice bottle of wine and have a sunset picnic...who knows...but I'm sure it'll be fun! Oh and flowers...I'll have to get flowers...I know I love em! LOL!

Well, I hope that hasn't been too silly or rambly for ya. I hope each and everyone of you have a fantastic weekend and don't forget to take a little time to pamper yourself! Oh and I'll post those pictures as soon as I can take em!

Unexpected blessings....

I've been having a hard time trying to figure out exactly how I want to start this, so I think the best way will be just to say Thank-you! Thank-you to my 4 year-old niece Elena, for sending me these really cute pictures that she drew just for her Uncle Paul and me. They're gonna hang right next to my inspiration board and I know that every time I look at them, I'll have a big, goofy grin spreading all over my face. I hope that you'll enjoy the mermaid picture your Uncle Paul and I are working on for you. I love you so much baby girl!

Thank you Shauna over at http://trying2staycalm.blogspot.com/ for the book I won. It came in the mail today and I'm really looking forward to diving right into the middle of it. Thank-you hun for having such great giveaways! May you be truly blessed!

And finally, Thank-you Angie at http://angie-ledbetter.blogspot.com/ for picking my caption as one of the winners! I am truly honored and very thankful for being allowed that privilege. It means a lot to me and I look up to you as a writing mentor. Thank-you again!

I hope you all will be blessed this week with unexpected blessings!

Adventures in the backyard!

I want to first wish each and everyone of you a good morning! I hope that your weekends have been filled with all the wonderful bits that make life worth living!

The dear husband and I have had quite a lot of fun around here. Yesterday afternoon we(okay so mostly him) set up the tent in our backyard for the first of what will hopefully become our summer-monthly outdoor movie/camp-out night.

I have to confess that I absolutely love our little tent. The roof is a sheer screen and it allows you to lay back and stare straight up at all the stars(which we did with utter delight!) And oh yeah, it does have a covering you can put over to keep the rain out...so put your worries to rest...we shouldn't drown....I hope!

I had to take the cutesy picture of me and our tent... it wouldn't be me without trying to fit in some kind of cutesy picture! Oh and um yeah, we let the grass grow so high to give us that jungle feeling...yeah that's it...jungle atmosphere!

For any respectable outdoor movie/camp out, you have to have cracker jacks(or the equivalent). Did I mention that you will have to watch out for wild puppies though? Somehow they can sense when caramel-covered popcorn is in the vicinity and they come right out of the wood work!

And just because you need a morning after shot here it is...

We had a really great time and even if we weren't off camping in the great wild somewhere, we still got to sleep beneath the stars! What makes it worthwhile is being with someone you love and the new memories that you make. Plus, who wouldn't love waking up to a sunrise like this???

Some pictures of the pier

Some of you asked that I post pictures of the pier where I like to walk to in the evenings. So tonight ,I took along the camera and here are the results. The wind was really whipping out there and my poor ole camera isn't the best, so the shots aren't going to be of the highest quality. Hope you enjoy them anyway!

This is the pier, obviously! LOL!

See...Gold and silver!!

I've loved this boat and I'm going to have to go around sometime during the day to get better shots of it!

A friendly little visitor that I took about a million pictures of and only this one turned out! LOL!

To Sleep, perchance to dream...

Last night I dreamed that my husband and I were visiting the town were my sister and mother live and we decided to check out the little gift store/bookshop that's actually there. As we walked in, my husband disappeared into the realm of the books, but I stopped to scope out the front section of the store. The owner then began to talk to me and eventually asked if I cared to have my tarot read. With a bit of mischief in me, I said yes and though now I don't remember all the cards she pulled, I do remember my last one was The Fool. So when I woke up this morning, I decided to find out what that particular card is supposed to symbolize and was a little shocked to learn that it represents new beginnings and infinite possibilities. Now I don't necessarily believe in the whole tarot idea, but I do think it funny that I have been looking to new things and for fresh starts and that the one card I remember is the one that represents that! Hmm guess you never can tell what your heart will say in your dreams....