Stephen King, George R.R. Martin and Me

I have a blank bucket list because honestly

I can't concentrate long enough

to believe what I want to do right now

is what I want to do tomorrow

or next week..

so when I do something that makes me

happy or excites me in some way

I add it to my 'things I didn't know I wanted to do'

non-bucket list..

I have tickets to the auditorium in June

to listen to Stephen King

and George R.R. Martin discuss whatever

the hell they want to discuss

because I just want to be there.

I know rock and roll moves me to the point

that I love to go to concerts

and I did go to one Comicon which

definitely was checked off the list of those things

I really don't want to redo.

At the Comicon we listened

to several comic writers/artists including

Stan Lee

He was funny and entertaining

but it has been years since I have read a comic.

So take in all the bands

excluding The Eagles who are still on my

list despite seeing them so many times

but this upcoming event

has blown my socks away.

Stoked...totally, totally stoked!

barb

Bookmarking My Place in Time

"Youth is wasted on the Young"

it isn't that they do not appreciate those wonderful

vigorous days and years

that window in one's life where everything

is new and exciting sometime scary

it's really not that at all

it is an observation when one gets on in years

when the body slows down

and the days seem to just melt together

it is at that moment

you realize

that with age comes wisdom

understanding and clarity of the hourglass

it is when

you develop hindsight

based on years of living and absorbing

based on experimentation

or denial of abilities and desires

it is at that time

that pure minute of life

that you go through the 'what if I had' thoughts

'what I could have done'

that you pick up the brass lantern

rubbing it with a spit and shine of hindsight

'please let me try again'

just one more time around the track

with the knowledge

gathered like a basket of wildflowers

on a rainy morn'

it is not that it is wasted

for it is a fresh adventure of the heart and mind

a learning curve of life

without a playbook, without an idea

of the powers

deep inside of us hide

I shall bookmark this very moment

savoring each thing I have learned

never regretting but always

wishing

for more time

let me not forget.

barb

Moral throught the Compass of Time

There is nothing that I read that does not make me explore

my feelings, the message or just my curiosity

That being said...I was reading a post on my feed

it was from a distance relative but we're not friends so I couldn't respond

or maybe it was good because it contained one of those

personal buttons that should not be pushed in public

So much, so very much of what we believe or what we think

should not ever be put out in public in black and white

sure you can delete when you realize that it was not a necessary

opinion in the world of a million and one opinions a minute

but then the WTF kicks in and you just want to take a stand

for what I am not sure but your fingers itch as the hover

Morality is tossed around as a 'thing' - is it a thing or is it even

something that can be assigned a definition

"concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior

and the goodness or badness of human character"

Of course, you find morality in fiction, in movies and the lips

of those who believe they are morality checkers

When did one's behavior start to be defined as good or bad

Certainly if you walk up to someone and kill them

you might be considered to have a bad moral basis but

we train millions of people to kill, we come from an ancestral

pool where killing was acceptable, where be strong and cold

meant that you were powerful and good

Morality is alive and well
but despite the fact that it is used in many ways
morality is something that each of us must define for ourselves
and yet I find if you just do what comes naturally that
you don't have to define it for the smug, sanctimoniously
people will assign you a place on their compass of judgement

If you do it, accept it
If you do it, take responsibility for it
If you do it, don't explain it
If you do it, accept that some will not accept it
Follow your own compass for it is yours and yours alone.


barb

Simplicity of Life

I think we have been here before...

but whatever

welcome to another spring

The earth rotates and tips

spinning on some invisible axis

just floating in space

Giving some thought

taking the time to scratch the surface

of the scientific explanation

How do we float

how do we stay on the path

when space has no gravity

No explanation

of the negative existence

known as out there somewhere

Falling into the trap

boggling the minuscule mind

of how things work

Really what is the universe

how did it become

in the very first place

How...do we exist?

Are we in a Petri-dish

can we be the only thing

the only thing...really?

barb

Ides of March

Writing is something we all do but English Class was something few relished at the tender ages of 'life' - youth is truly a two sided blade where you are a sponge for information and yet your other side just wants to explore and play in the social arena.

I learned to read from encyclopedias before I was 'taught' to read in school.  My first reader, of course, was "Dick and Jane".  I brought it home and went into my room reading the entire book.  I know impressive since it had at least 6 to 12 words on a page but I devoured it like a Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket Chocolate Bar.  Do children love to read because they learn how or are they born with the gene?  Later in life I learned that my father was an insatiable reader.  I never knew that because I was not raised with near him or I was out in that social arena.

I can't remember a time that I didn't have a library card or didn't spend an enormous amount of time in a library reading or researching.  I was lousy at researching because I didn't slow down my brain long enough to absorb the 'non-interesting' subjects like I should have done but that is another story.

The Ides of March brings back my 9th grade year in High School.  I had a great English teacher and our desks were in a horseshoe facing him but honestly I can't tell you what he even looked like or his name but he introduced us to the classics like Caesar.  It wasn't until my senior year that I had a teacher who loved Shakespeare.   He was a very cool teacher and I didn't realize then but it is hard to teach teenagers the things you love and the reason that you are a teacher.  In seventh grade, my History teacher was a Civil War buff who formed my love of American History.

School is very important and teachers who love teaching are vital to forming a life long journey in one's soul.  Reading the classics today has a bigger impact on me than it did at fifteen because I see so much more now than I did then.  "E tu Brute."  is one of my favorite expressions - one of betrayal of a close trusted confidant and friend.  This is a sincere part of living - and why trust given so openly can not be mended once it is broken.

We are fragile even when we build that metal shield to stop the bad from rising out of what we hold dear - the Ides of March is about the ultimate betrayal, the ultimate inability to understand that our strength is not complete control but in accepting the feelings and beliefs of others.  Uniqueness is what each of us are and what we should protect but to accept difference is what makes us humble.

Writing is something tangible that controls a writer's thirst - creation is something that soothes a writer's soul - there is never a beginning or ending of a writer.  Long past the dust to dust of our being lives our words, our thoughts and over essence - words are our legacy.

barb

Tolerance and Reward

I have put My Wild Irish Rose up for free download today

and Saturday - link down below.

And I just downloaded Volume II of Echo which is a fast paced

Sci-Fi story of a new writer that I think is very good.

The reason for the free download is that I really, really cannot take much

more of the constant newsfeed on the elections.

Turn off the news?

I can only watch so much Chopped and old movies

while I am writing but I am going to start using my Ipod so I can

tune out the craziness of what our world has become.

I have two books in the works.

One is set in the Pacific Theater of WWII

and it is shelved at the moment because I have to do an

awful lot of research about the war and the people who fought

in the Pacific.  Even though the war is just the backdrop the characters

must be painted with accuracy.

My other story goes back to the Civil War in Virginia

but it is based on the men of the war with a love story that intertwines

through the hardships of the women who were

left to their own devices.  Women have always been the backbone

of life, some have risen to the challenges, some have buckled under the

weight of life and some have taken the wrong road

to survive.  The difference in the men and women is sometimes

elusive.

barb

LOST

I don't really get lost as much as parts of my life seem to dominate

my days and soon I realize that I am neglecting

posting things.  I have cut way back on posting on Facebook

because the politics are driving me crazy and that

is all I see anymore though it is more interesting then the latest

cat picture.

Yes I love cats and have always owned one or three

except at the moment when I am without

a pet of any kind or color...

but I do so regress in my thoughts this morning.

As a glass artist, I have started to work with boro glass

for those who don't work with glass - boro is boroscilica glass

that is just harder...harder to melt.

It is harder to make details because until soft glass

I don't have a million colors of enamels or powdered glass

to use on my flowers but I love the ability to

create a flower.   Every time I am at the torch I learn a new method

to make a flower petal.

Yesterday I attempted two boro glass pendants

they both came out really well and hopefully I can make

enough to put in my Etsy shop.

Of course, glass has not taken up much of my greymatter

We have been to Florida for a week to celebrate

my mother's birthday then went to Las Vegas

to a bazaar show of artists who make glass pipes and other things

Good artists - crazy young kids who made me

feel old.

After returning we had to have the sewer and water lines

replaced from the house to the street and

retire the workhorse van for a newer SUV that hopefully

will get us through the next ten years or more.

In between all those personal things, I have been working on my next

romance story.

Life has been crazy but good.

barb