Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Shades of Grey


Google Images


 Life is life, and death is life, and everything in between. ~Terri Guillemets


Its all about the shades in between.  Nothing is completely black and white.  We draw the lines in black and the areas around are white but there is always shades of grey that connect the two and in the world of sketching where one tries to portray what they see, it is all about knowing what not to fill in and what to accentuate.
Then there are the tools that help us do this.  The pencils of life that fill the page, and the erasers that help when there is a mistake.  One line connecting to the next in form to complete a picture for all to see.   So how we depict the artistry and what the world ends up seeing is ultimately at the end of our own pencils edge.
 Hold it how you will.


Linking with Imaginary Gardens "Tuesday Platform".


Tuesday, February 17, 2015

When Zombies Speak

pic from Google Images

Dreams are answers to questions we haven't yet figured out how to ask.
 ~X-Files



Sometimes there are things we go through in this life that roar like monsters, but in our struggle through the abyss of day to day living they seem to whisper like a shy child.  We become blinded and unaware of the battle within our hands. So we keep stumbling forward unaware of the danger of complacency that lurks around every corner of our lives.

It has been a while now, but I had a dream one night that I felt spoke to me loud and clear about boundaries and responsibilities.  I cannot recall all the details of the dream now, since I have waited so long to document it, but the gut of the meaning behind it is still fresh like a wound that needs tending.  So I will do my best to reveal it here.

As you may be expecting there were zombies in my dream.  Like I have said before, my dreams have many times been stressful if not borderline nightmares, and this one was no different.    I regret now, that I have waited so long to re-tell the dream, because my memory of it has faded greatly, but I do remember the message I got from it. 

I was dealing with zombies all around.  I don't recall the actual plot of what was going on, except there was blood, gore, stress and chaos at every corner.  I was trying to handle the situation.  Taking care of what was right before me, and then it happened; a zombie spoke to me.

A zombie's head was completely off and on the ground.  Yes, I know, kill the brain= kill the zombie, but this is a dream not "zombies 101".  Anyway something in the dream told me to pick up the head.  I wanted to resist, but my pride would not let me.  I had to prove I was brave enough to do it, but as I reached down to pick it up a voice spoke and urgently said, "DON'T that's NOT your head. I CAN pick up my own, you can pick up YOURS!" That is where I woke up.

I realized that I have been futilely trying to pick up the zombie heads in my life.  (All the troubles of those around me that I am not able to fix.)  I could no more replace their heads than buy a Mercedes Benz or solve world peace, but somehow I keep trying anyway.  It is like the bible verse in Matthew 7:5, "Though hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." 

I suppose there are all kinds of ways we get messages in life.  People around us, the bible, situations that we face, and zombies in our dreams. The only trick is, we have to be willing to truly listen.





Linking with Imaginary Gardens for "The Tuesday Platform"
Hi beautiful Toads! :-)

Monday, February 16, 2015

The Echo of Silence



Also linking with Poetry Jam for the prompt "Silence".



Silence is a text easy to misread.  ~A.A. Attanasio



Ignorance is a dark hall that seems to have no doors.
Where wisdom has no voice that fools can soon ignore.
And truth can be a luxury when it is nowhere to be found
as secrets can deceive like lies when they do abound.
For the truth holds a certain power like a shelter in the rain
and when it is abandoned it leaves one vulnerable to more pain.




When I was around 4 years old we had a gold fish that lived in a bowl on top of our console television.  One day I was left in the house alone while the family was doing some yard work.  I got the wonderful idea to feed the fish.  Everyone else was doing something productive and I wanted to do something to.  So I decided to get the little shaker bottle of fish food and make myself useful.  Once I started pouring it seemed that more would be better than less, after all, it was probably very hungry.  The rest of the story speaks for itself.  You know the outcome.  Too much dinner for fish is a certain death indeed.  A few hours later I heard the sad gasp of my mother as she discovered the fish floating on the top of the water.  At the time I did not realize what I had actually done.  It was not until I was older that I put two and two together.  You see, ignorance is not always kind.  At least not for the poor gold fish in a fish bowl.  Not knowing what I had done, was less painful for me at 4 years old, but if someone had shown me how to feed them and why, maybe little Goldie would have lived a longer life.  The echo of silence tends to be a sad sound indeed.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

True Testament



Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. ~Leo Tolstoy



Any man can tell the story of what he has learned upon his way and those around him will listen, but it is the account shared by the one that has emerged from the grips of the agony of life's hardest obstacles, faced their demons eye to eye and risen from the depths of deep despair that have a voice that reaches more than just ears.  They speak through the creaking of steps taken on the hardest of floors.  It is that sound that our soul  hears, and then hearkening begins.  It is the echo of sound that reoccurs from this that proves to me the miracles that are born from adversity.  For it seems that it is the evidence of recovery that comes from true redemption that reveals the greatest miracles of all.



Linking with Imaginary Gardens and "The Tuesday Platform".