Courage!

I attended a lecture and a panel of six members spoke on the meaning of courage. They compared courage to the roar of a lion king. I started jotting down some of the words and phrases that rolled off of their lists. With the audience’s help, they came up with the following:

Strong
Fearing nothing
Triumphant over adversity
Acting courageously
Standing alone with Spirit
Not retreating
Trusting the law
Determination
Perseverance
Taking action
Facing fear
Not giving in
Not becoming stagnant
Not being swayed
Holding on to one’s belief or faith.

All I could do was scribble notes as fast as my fingers would move. With each pen stroke, my own personal courage seemed to surge. I started affirming things like, “I can do this.” or “Yes, I can.” I could see some of my mountains crumbling down into small ant hills. I left the lecture feeling more hopeful and knew that I needed to devise a plan of action when I got home.

We all need to be reminded that we can face some feat and tackle it with a degree of composure and grace. We have to take a leap of faith and as Ray Bradbury said, “Jump and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.”

Lynn M.                                                                                                  August 29, 2016

Refreshed, Renewed & Ready to Move!

Sometimes we need to take a step back.  We hear the new buzz phrase, “Stand down.”  In essence, we need to stop, breathe and let life go by as we step to the sidelines.

As on a highway, we let those in a hurry pass to the left while we hold steady and keep both eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel. Let them go on!

Let the hurried, the worried thoughts go as we reconnect to our Source.  It is  the giver of all life and our mainstay.  We listen to the phrase,”Easy does it.”

We can remain in the slower lane as we reflect, refurbish and mostly remember.  We can recall the fluid motion of our younger selves and how we were more fearless as we faced those new daunting tasks.

It seemed as if we were braver then because we were less aware of how fleeting this precious life can be.  We were less likely to become petrified beings constantly searching for feelings of safety and security.

As we hold steady and rejuvenate, our confidence soars.  We may move a little slower but with each breath, we are refreshed.  We take in our surroundings in a more mindful manner. Each beautiful sunrise or sunset reminds us that we are still here.

We can hear the soft guidance of our loved ones and former teachers who are no longer visible to us.  We can feel them nudging us in the right direction.  We remember the many lessons they have taught us and we can review the roadmaps that they left behind for us to follow.

As we continue our journey, we relinquish what we no longer need.  We let go of the old beliefs, attitudes and people who combine to hold us back.  And when we are ready to move forward, we can confidently switch our speeds and flow into the faster traffic.  We set our own paces to coincide with our comfort zones.

Maxwell Maltz wrote, “Man maintains his balance, poise and sense of security only as he is moving forward.”

Lynn M.                                                                                                                August 22, 2016

Mid-August: A Poem

Mid -August is all abound,
With high movement all around.

Prepping for return to school,
Limited time in the pool.

Rolling along with the change,
Knowing when to switch that lane.

Those new ventures do surround,
Making a most joyous sound.

Lynn M. Dixon                                                                             August 15, 2016

It’s On!

It’s on, is a coined phrase that means that things are happening.  One of my recording teacher’s referred to it as live stage.  This meant that the activity was at its peak.

It is August!  The summer party is drawing to a close.  Soon, it will be time to put the beach balls away, pack up the swimwear, the inner tubes and the other pool items. School is about to start and this time of the year is not to be taken lightly.

Students will be getting new school supplies and meeting new teachers.  New clothes, pencils, paper, tablets, laptops, book bags, shoes, socks, the works are on the agenda.

Principals will be looking for new teachers.  They must have that staffing in place because a classroom full of students without a teacher would  be a travesty. Simply unthinkable!

Anxiousness and anxiety are about to fill the air.  Thank goodness we have the Summer Olympics from Rio.  Watching the athletes perform is a calming hiatus during this season of  high energy and uncertainty.

There will be registrations and the hope of getting into the right classes for those on the college scene.  New dorm mates will be met and searches for housing will push this group into a frenzied state.  Everything has to be in place before that first day of classes.

Parents will scramble to buy new uniforms and wardrobes.  They may have to get medical forms filled out or take the little ones in for those annual shots.  They will be rechecking those school lists to make sure that they have everything that the school has asked them to provide for their children.

Summer camps will end.  Summer workers will be calculating because they know that the last check is a stone throw away.  It’s been fun but seasonal work is seasonal work.  Summer is pulling into its last stop.

Even businesses are affected.  Yes, they were exhausted from the throngs of kids coming in and out of the revolving doors. It was trying and taxing, but after all, the sales did add up.   Some of the cash flow that they enjoyed counting will vanish as the kids go back to school.

Fewer security guards will be needed at those malls that the teens use as a meeting place.  The parks won’t be filled for endless hours nor will there be a need for manpower at those outdoor concerts.

As the children and young adults  go back to school,  many will let out a huge sigh of  relief. Yet, after a little while, they may feel a sense of boredom because they  miss the drama and constant motion from the children. No one will remain unaffected because it is truly on!

Lynn M.                                                                                                                         August 9, 2016

 

 

A Saga is Born!

As a writer, I first met Trey and Phoenix in a novel that I started to develop over twenty years ago.    I had the desire to write a great love story.  The idea came to me after having a conversation with a friend. She talked about the stresses that professionals face in the work world.  Much is expected and sometimes, even more is expected of minorities who have climbed the corporate and career ladders.

They not only have an image to maintain, but they are often under greater scrutiny.  Combine that with a troubled romance and a job can go down the drain quite quickly. I originally wrote A Golden Leaf in Time where Trey is trying to keep it together while he argues with his insecure girlfriend. She constantly accuses him of being with others when they are not together. His job as a college professor takes a hit.

Phoenix, an African American, is a librarian.  She, too, is under the microscope and being observed by both staff and public patrons.  But her love life is in shambles and she privately medicates with beer to try to deal with it all.  Their lives run parallel and both have a hard time balancing the world of work and their love lives.

As I grew, I decided to take some of the salty language out of parts of that book.  I softened it by revising and the second title is called A Golden Leaf in Time Revised.  Plus, the original copy was filled with typos and mistakes because it was my first edition and I did not know how the self-publishing industry worked.  Now I do.

I thought that these characters had had their say, but they had not.  A few years later after leaving a job, I wrote Warm Intrigues.  The story continues about Trey (Tyre), who now goes by his given name and Phoenix.  They are dating throughout Chicagoland.  I say Chicagoland because he lives all the way in Evanston and she lives in the south suburb of Homewood.  They had met at the end of A Golden Leaf in Time Revised and they have to travel very long distances just to see each other.

They must still keep their jobs intact along with the new romance.   Anyone who knows the size of Chicago can understand that the miles between the two locations could easily make a couple simply pass on a relationship.  But, the spark is there and they weather the challenge.

I had another hiatus, last summer and I realized that I had left them on a Hawaiian beach.  It was as if they were saying, “We are still sheltered in place and waiting for you to come and get us.”  I remember seeing Mildred Pitts Walter, a children’s author of Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World.  When asked when she was going to write more about Justin, she replied, “Justin has not spoken to me yet.”  Writers do have their own code.

So, during the summer of 2015, I picked up my pen and I went and got Tyre and Phoenix off of the Hawaiian Beach.  A Continuum:  Tyre and Phoenix opens with them flying back to Chicago from Hawaii.  It is about the ups and downs of their first year of marriage. They must still maintain those high profile positions as they bond and support each other.

Here we are in the midst of the summer of 2016.  I am an educator and after school got out, I took a short trip to Boston.  Sitting on the Charles River cleared my mind and upon return, I started to write and continue more about Tyre and Phoenix.  They had waited for a whole year to share their story and once their voices started, I recorded page after page.

In the Throes of Progress just came out a couple of weeks ago.  In the past, I always had a writing plan or outline.  With this one, I just let them speak and I was merely their medium.  Somehow, it all came together and the puzzles pieces fell into place.

Robert Frost wrote, “No surprises in the writer, no surprises in the reader.”  I surprised myself as events unfolded.  I believe there will be even more about Tyre and Phoenix because a saga has been born!

Lynn M.                                                                                                                           August 2, 2016