Phoenix’s Poem

Excerpt from:  Boston and Beyond: Tyre and Phoenix

One day, Phoenix was in an artistic mode so she decided to write
down one of her favorite poems called Waiting by John Burroughs. She
went to get her blank canvas from the closet along with her charcoal
pencils and pastel paints.

She was about to copy the poem and then, she paused. She thought,
“Why not create my own poem on Waiting?” She relied on her muses
and the first line flowed with eight beats. The others had to be in eights
as well, she thought.  She wrote,

“As I wait, I busy my hands,
No time for playing in the sands.

Things happen underneath the seen,
Until it appears, I stay keen.

I cannot force it to spring up,
I must wait on the fountain’s cup.

When the time is right, it will pour,
Like salt spread on the ocean’s floor.”

Lynn M.                                                                                                                      April 29, 2017
#National Poetry Month

April Flow!

April makes me think of the color yellow and it means wisdom. Wisdom reminds us that  life moves in cycles.  There are many beginnings and endings during this time.

Winter has drawn to a close. Flowers bloom, dogwood trees show forth their colorful beauty and lawns of green are spread across the earth’s floor. Birds sing sweetly as they coax us out of bed in the morning with their heavenly songs. Woodpeckers tap away on some private project and mourning doves make low, sad woeful sounds. We are made aware of the newness and freshness of life after long periods of silence and dormancy.

April also signals the end of things. There are many memorable dates of passings during this month and both President Lincoln and William Shakespeare immediately come to mind. Their missions were complete and they left a host of footprints in the sand. The pebbles that they threw upon the path make it that much easier for those of us in search of our own individual purposes.

Everything moves in cycles and just like entering into a revolving door, timing is essential. We must learn to synchronize our movements so that we can flow into the right spheres and land in the right place at the right time.

The scriptural verse from Ecclesiastes gently reminds us:

“To everything there is a season,
And a time for every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted…
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
A time to mourn and a time to dance.”

Flow with ease!

Lynn M.                                                                                                      April 22, 2017

Fruits of Our Labor

The other day, I saw my students that I taught a year ago.  I checked the calendar and the classes began exactly a year ago to date.  Time flies and I realized that we had not seen each other in a  year.

Their reactions ranged from OMG to I miss you.  They were happy to see me and I was equally happy to see them.  The reunions were brief and in passing, we said our Hello’s and How are you’s?

I heard a couple of them tell others, “She gave me an A.”  I silently thought, “No.  You earned an A.  You followed my directions and you fulfilled the bill.  You adhered to the guidelines as you walked the walk and talked the talk, so to speak.  You stayed the course and you crossed your t’s and dotted your i’s.”

But I just smiled in acknowledgement as they discovered their own potential and self-worth.  They had followed my lead and as an educator, I can inaudibly sigh, “Mission Accomplished.”

When we are given a task to do, we often have private feelings of uncertainty as well.   We educators also get butterflies in our stomachs the night before we meet a new group of students.  We hope that we can successfully usher the train of students into that final stop which is the end of the term.

Once, we have all safely arrived, will those that have been transported be filled with resentment?  Will they hate to see the conductor coming? Or will they disembark and leave the train platform filled with joyous memories?

Fortunately for me, I saw waves and smiles which symbolized fond remembrances.  I was warmed as I celebrated the fruits of my labor.

I then saw the teacher who had been out on maternity leave. She had entrusted her students to me last year and when she told me that her daughter is now a year old, all I could say was, “My, my, my.”

Lynn M.                                                                                     April 15, 2017

Digital Marketing

The other day, I further stepped into the 21^st century by using another facet of digital marketing for my books.  I had joined Twitter, obtained an author website and regularly blog through Word Press but I had not figured out how to use the popular site You Tube.

So, I finally did a little research on how to make a video with my limited equipment.  I saw that I could use the camera and microphone on my Smartphone or tablet. Then, I sat up a display showing the cover of the book.  I propped it up and used some fabric as a backdrop.

The biggest challenge was holding the phone or tablet focusing on the cover and speaking into the microphone.  Then, I had to use the other hand to hold the book from which I was reading.

I felt like The Cat in the Hat when he was riding a bike, balancing a fish bowl and an umbrella.  He finally fell but I was fortunate enough to balance it all as I made seven audio readings.

They are not perfect but life is not either.  So, I accept the imperfections and it is a start in the use of You Tube. It is the beginning of my use of another form of media that is wildly popular today. Baby steps, baby steps, I reminded myself.

After recording, there was the task of uploading.  I looked up a how-to video and my teacher was probably about ten, but she gave good instructions.  Even though each reading is about two minutes, it took about two hours to upload one video.

Yet, each was well worth the wait.  It was rewarding to hear myself read my own works.  Only the author knows exactly how certain conversations were intended to sound.

There are no perfections, shortcuts nor pat answers in life. It’s just one brush stroke at a time like a painter takes until there is a finished product.

Push play and listen to my reading from A Golden Leaf in Time Revised– the first in a series of five about Tyre and Phoenix.

 

Lynn M.                                                         April 8, 2017

Stay Upon the Wall

Have you ever found yourself running your race with such a sense of purpose that you lost track of the miles?  Perhaps you were so busy laying down the tracks that you did not realize what you were accomplishing.

And then you reached a destination or a pit stop and you paused and turned around and said to yourself, “Wow!”   You could not believe the body of work you produced nor the abundant fruits of your toil and labor.

It reminds me of a children’s book called  Anansi the Spider.  Anansi often got into trouble and  his seven sons would go to his rescue.  Each had a unique gift and they combined their efforts to save him on several occasions.  The son Road Builder comes to mind because he had to build the road so that they could travel to help their father.

Review some of those pet projects and you too may find yourself saying, ‘Aha.’  Pause and take a look at what you have already done. Whether it is painting, writing, carpentry, speaking or teaching, to name a few, you should never totally rest on your laurels. However, it never hurts to give yourself a pat on the back and acknowledge what you have been able to get done.

Like Nehemiah in the Bible, you should stay upon the wall because there is too much work to do.  You don’t have time to lose focus and come down and hang out with the naysayers.  Keep your tempo, pace yourself and run your race like no one else.  Create what you can and leave those footprints in the sand by staying upon the wall!

“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12: 1

Lynn M.                                                                                                       April 1, 2017