Getting out or Getting Away (SoCS July 12’14)

Originally written July 14th for SoCS, Getting out or Getting Away

Getting out or getting away are two very defined activities. The first is to treat yourself, to go out with a friend or your significant other; perhaps it is a night out clubbing, dancing or bar hopping…whatever your pleasures may be that is what “getting out” means to me.

Getting away is distancing perhaps from family, friends, or BOTH! Maybe it’s going on a long overdue trip to recharge those weak Duracell batteries.

This past week I had planned to get away to do something for me. I needed to recharge my rechargeable batteries but anything “local” or “ordinary” just would not be able to replenish those batteries.

I had not taken a real vacation in a hotel…a “getaway” since 2002 when I went to San Francisco with a significant other or later that year my solo trip to Orange County.

So, overdue you say?  Yes, indeed!  Not wanting to just getaway to just read on a beach {I can read just fine at home and pop in a CD of ocean waves}…granted I would miss breathing in the salt air…but still.  I was itching for something more and my body, mind, soul and heart ALL needed a good reboot.

So my getaway was a retreat but not just “OMing” for three to four days…no siree, it was jam packed with music, colours, dancing, joy, pure unconditional love and messages of peace and love. I know, I know, some of you reading are shaking your heads thinking, oh that hippie stuff. Granted, I do come from that era, but I was never EVER a true hippie. I just liked to dress like one. I always stayed pretty close to home until I was 45! So call me a late bloomer.

The days  filled with lots for the active mind but no pressure to join anything. Meditation training broken down in digestible slots, music until the wee hours of the morning…orations of depth and the messages that attracted me to begin with love and compassion.  It felt like coming home.

Now when can one “getaway”, refuel the mind, the heart and the soul in 4 days? Okay the body lagged a bit with 5a.m. celebrations. But my other three elements made up for it!

© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/07/17

Emotes to manhood (haibun) (SoCS)

The drama teacher told us the other  day that the boys do not emote enough and asked me and Francine to give examples. Is she kidding?  I am a bundle of emotions. My soul and heart are like a bunch of elastics that pile one on to the other building a ball bigger than a golf ball.  Each elastic can snap at the knowledge of sadness, pain and suffering.  An elastic or two will snap if there is hatred and bitterness.    I am the most ridiculous example of someone you should NOT be like. But these guys need examples, she said.

Well, I beg to differ, Mrs. Messier!  These boys know how to emote alright.  They did it just fine when they were babies, even as toddlers but when they got to nursery school at the ripe OLD age of 3 and 4, they were laughed at for showing emotions.  If they dared show any signs that remotely looked or sounded like a kid with a sad face or wanting to cry…well, the boys would call them sissy.  The girls were allowed to cry if someone called them stupid or told them, “I hate you!”   A boy had to cross his arms, pout, scrunch up his nose and narrow his gaze with eyebrows trained to make a high V.  That was how they emote alright. The hid it in their hearts and sometimes it got too big, it slipped into their fist especially if they felt a tear escaping…

So how can I show these 16-year-old boys how to emote tomorrow in drama class?

Hmmm, I think I will tell them a story about a little boy going off in the forest to hunt deer with his father, grandfather and uncles.  And suddenly it starts raining and thundering. And then lightning strikes and hits a tree and falls on his uncles, striking them dead!   Lightening did not let up, yet, though, no sirree!  Lightening hit his father and his grandfather and all he had left was his little rifle and a knife and a deer that was off to the side staring at him with those big doe eyes!  He stared back…he bit his lips, he scrunched his nose, he narrowed his gaze and the dear gently sauntered up closer to him and nudged him with its nose.  The doe had also lost her mom and dad and brothers. The boy understood right there.  He put down his rifle and knife and knelt next to the deer and hugged it and cried… he wept with it in his arms until nightfall.

When the moon came out from behind the clouds, he could see his way back home.  He had an apple in his rucksack and gave it to the deer and whispered to it, “Run and hide, dear one. Thank you for healing my heart. I have become a man today. I am not afraid to cry and to show compassion.”

Deviant Art-Boy and Deer

robbed of his loved ones

nature teaches him how

becoming a man.

© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/06/30

Submitted for LindaGHill’s Friday Reminder SoCS – Prompt “Emote”

A bit late but life got in the way …again.

These are Linda’s instructions and it’s a fun prompt…just let it go, write until your thoughts stop, then you’ve reached the end, then publish.

 

Linda says: 
This week’s prompt word is “emote.” Feel free to add a suffix to it, or not, and just let it flow.
After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at the prompt page in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Don’t hesitate to join in!
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people will come and read your post! The way to ping back, is to just copy and paste the URL of my post somewhere on your post. Then your URL will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. For example, in your post you can copy and paste the following: This post is part of SoCS:http://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-2814/  The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. Have fun!

Now, how come I didn’t think of that?

 

Now how come I didn`t think of that?

How come I don’t think of listening to my favourite on-line radio station? I am on-line so much with work, with blogging and today I realized when I am home weekends, I often write in silence.  Granted, sometimes I do prefer to shut out any distractions for my thoughts are enough and if I add lyrics and melody, I get overwhelmed and cannot concentrate.  It`s different at work, however. If I am writing a “story to share” or on-line counselling, I may put in my ear buds and listen to music to block out the business and voices heard on crisis call centres.

Today I was chatting with a cyber friend/writer/poet extraordinaire/blogger and sharing how I also love music and how it can impact on my mood. No surprise there, right?  Look at folks who listen to music on the street, on the bus, train and Métro. You see some bobbing their heads, swaying, lip singing, moving their shoulders and walking is sort of cool too.  Oh, Oh, That reminds me!  Have you ever noticed when you are driving in the car especially in the city during a busy time and you are listening to funky music or rock and roll (whatever is your pleasure)?  Observing the pace of some pedestrians seem to match just perfectly the beat of a song you are listening to.  That is so cool!  Haha, it is funny when it is a fast upbeat tune and you see some people pick up their pace to beat the light or of course if you are a Montrealer, well, we just jaywalk…sometimes quickly sometimes not so quickly. If you`re the driver being cut off by a warm body, well, you have to stop…so that may interrupt your music mood for a few seconds. Just crank up the volume and let it go and enjoy the harmony and not your inner frustration…It`s Montreal! deal with it (smiles) it is part of our culture.

I think that is something I may want to work on a bit now…patience and driving. The cyclists especially are out and in the city they usually do not think of motorists, so I need to be mindful of that and pretend I have a twin that is on her bike just as I am leaving for work in my car. Oh, yeah, and leaving a bit earlier may help to avoid that “road rage”. {Gotta work on that one!}

Back to my original question, why didn`t I think of that?  Since I am so often on-line, I must remember to log on to Jango.com  a free radio station that you can add ONLY your music delights, favs and no commercials.  I guess I stopped a few years ago when our agency put in a firewall that blocked that site…but still, I can use it at home…and that is exactly what I am doing now as I write this post. I am listening to Phoebe Snow right now crooning Poetry Man. Now how appropriate is that, that I am ending this with this song playing?   Serendipity? Coincidence? Nah, I’ll leave those questions for another question for Linda Hill`s Stream of consciousness prompts {wink wink}.

© Cheryl-Lynn 2014/04/26

“This post is part of SoCS: http://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-2614/

 

Phoebe Snow – Poetry Man