OLW #74: WANT

I laughed out loud when I checked out the August "Word Up" at One Little Word and saw that Karla had posted a video of the classic scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where Veruca Salt demands a golden goose:  "I want it NOW!!!"  Yes, a classic for sure, and oft quoted in a fit of jest with, perhaps, a pinch of sincerity in an effort to loose the internal pressure of impatience.

WANT.

I closed my eyes and focused on the word.  Thoughts of wanting for myself quickly rippled out to encompass more and more people, things, my family, the nation, the world.   Ideas discarded one after another as being too small for such a powerful word.  Kind of like being careful not to waste one of the Genie's three granted wishes.

I collaged bits of a paper towel I had been using to blot and wipe ink and paint from another project.
 I love the texture, and enhanced the red radiating lines left from a stencil with red paint.

And then, my thoughts drawn back in again. To me.  What do I want?  What could make me a more powerful center that sends ripples into the world?  Well, something has been invading my peace, my ease of being, my ability - even my desire - to interact with the world.  My hips.  My hips don't lie.  

I'm actually embarrassed and feel quite vulnerable admitting it here. :(  Yes, my hips, especially the left one are in constant, CONSTANT pain.  I think it's because I am physically crooked.  My hair stylists have always had to deal with my off-horizontal shoulder line.  Since Junior High I always thought I had a knack for picking out pants in which the right leg was an inch or so shorter than the left.  I can only sling a purse on my left shoulder; it just slides off the right.  

Sitting at a desk job seems to exacerbate the condition, and stretching, yoga, walking, and ibuprofen don't seem to be making a lick of difference.  I feel like such an old lady.  I try to mask the pain in public, but when I get home my family gets to hear me whine and wince and groan.  It's debilitating.  I'm so over it.

So here's what I WANT:

"I want my pain to go away.  I want my strength and flexibility restored.  I want a solid plan of action.  I want to know my intentions are rightly focused on the path to health.  I want to dance and run and leap.  I want my life back.  I want to feel like myself.  I want to know that there is "getting to the other side" of this, because I want out."

Sometimes I feel like world peace would be easier…

Thanks for listening.

A Tale From 6 Year Old Me

I found a book at Goodwill the other day.  Actually, it's more like it found me.  It wasn't shelved; it was "randomly" sitting out on a piece of furniture as I walked by.  ("Randomly" in quotes because I don't believe The Universe deals in randomness.)

"Living Artfully" by Sandra Magsamen at Amazon.com

Naturally, the title drew me in, but when I sat down to read the preface, to see if it was indeed a book meant for me, I was surprised that the story there was one I had read on a blog (I apologize for not being able to find which) just a day or two before.  And if that wasn't a big enough sign that I was to buy and read this book, the half-price-tag-color of the day was yellow, and so was the $3.99 sticker on the spine. :)

So, I'm reading it, and I'm liking it, and on page 56 in Chapter 2 "Imagine the Possibilities: Rediscovering Your Creative Power" there is a quote by Pablo Casals:

Which brings me to this post's title, A Tale From 6 Year Old Me.

This is not an "uncovered" memory, but rather one that I've always remembered.  I think because I felt so misunderstood by my 1st Grade teacher, whom I liked a lot and trusted.  Do you remember this sort of paper?  Newsprint with a blank area for drawing and a few lines below on which to write a sentence or two?

Available at www.teacherssupplycloset.com

Well, on one particular homework assignment, I wrote like this:

as opposed to this:

Note the letters of each are the same height, and differ only in width.

Why did I do it?  Did I have a longer story to tell and needed to make sure I could fit it all in the confines of the paper?  Was I experimenting with developing my own unique font?  Or was I merely bored and messing around?

What I remember is Mrs. Crosby pulling my mom aside when she picked me up from school and asking her what table I did this work on (huh????) and telling her not to allow me to do my work there anymore.  My guess is that she assumed a grainy wood table was to blame for corralling my pencil into such a penmanship atrocity.  (Um, it was a laminate table if I remember correctly…)  

The memory inspired me to write dear Mrs. Crosby a letter:

Mom, I know you were just as perplexed by Mrs. C's demand.  And you have always told me that I am a marvel.  Thank you for that.  I love you!

Mad Haiku Skills

One of my favorite things in life (besides my aforementioned devotion to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) is word play.

Oh my gosh!  Rhyming, alliteration, puns, double entendre, clever slang, speaking in accents, mispronunciations, spoonerisms, etc.:   I LOVE IT!!

So, when we had dinner with friends a few weeks ago I was highly entertained:

My hidden journaling.  

That "Like" stamp is from Urban Outfitters.  It comes in a set of two,

 the second being a "Dislike" stamp.  I had to have it!

I emailed Mrs. H., or K-dog as she is sometimes known, to get a recent picture of her men-folk to memorialize the Haiku Hijinx--I was still laughing about it 2 weeks after the event, surely a sign that a scrapbook page was in order!

5-7-5 is the number of syllables in the three lines of a haiku poem.

Most of the products here are from Cocoa Daisy's May Kit, "Record Label".

Also loving Ronda Palazzari's Kaleidoscope stencil--the yellow painty areas. 

Here's a closer look at the haiku I wrote to capture that moment in time:

Todd sent me a text earlier this week from a number I didn't recognize, asking for my email address.  I asked who it was requesting this personal information from me.  His response?

 Yep!  All in haiku!!!!!

He's an unstoppable force!!!

And I so love it!!

(See what I did there?
That is also in haiku
Friggin' addicting!)

Comments accepted 

in haiku or otherwise. ;)

Have a great weekend!

(Booya!  I did it again!)