About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write. Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground. Kiya's gift. I love it!
Everyday Canvas
Kathleen-613's creation for my blog

"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."
CHARLIE CHAPLIN


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Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

David Whyte


Marci's gift sig










This is my supplementary blog in which I will post entries written for prompts.

December 17, 2014 at 12:26am
December 17, 2014 at 12:26am
#836470
* ( deleted the original one by mistake) So here's my December 16 entry, again. Duh!

Prompt: About the strangers you meet every day, in the supermarket, while shopping, on the road, etc. How do their offhand words, random gestures, or thoughtful or thoughtless actions affect your mood (or someone else's)?

The world can be a fun place and at times a scary one. Lots of people are upset and they need to drag others to their level.

Something funny always happens on the road, for example. When someone gives my hubby the finger or says something nasty, he becomes so upset that I end up picking up the shards of his emotions. Our whole approach is funny in a way.

The other day, a woman cut us off on the road, flipping him the bird; I guess hubby was driving too slow for her liking. Then whatever else happened, our lane got stuck. She switched to the lane to the right of me. Then our lane opened up and her lane got stuck. In the meantime, my one and only kept complaining of women who thought they were from the Wild West. While we were passing her by, she looked at us. I smiled and gave her a little friendly wave. "Don't bug her!" hubby said, "She is a nut." But the woman started laughing and I laughed, too. It turned into a friendly fleeting moment from car to car.

I think being funny or smiling at a cranky person works, depending of course that the other person doesn't have a gun. At least someone else's bad day doesn't end up controlling my mind.

I learned this trick from a newscaster that we old-timers would know. I am talking about Walter Cronkite. Anytime an interviewee became testy, Walter Cronkite became extremely polite. The nastier the other person was, the more chivalrous Cronkite acted. I guess that is killing someone with kindness, but it works most of the time, as often my good humor makes them realize how big of a jerk they are being.

Then on the positive side, especially during Christmas season, people smile and say hello, Merry Christmas, or any other kind word, open the doors for others, let them pass in front of them at a line. Those things really brighten my day up, not necessarily because someone has been nice to me, but because that someone has the niceness and good spirit in them and they are spreading the cheer around. Around Christmas, there is more of that, but then for some nice folks, Christmas is in every day, which is so comforting to find out with all the negatives going on in the world.
December 17, 2014 at 12:17am
December 17, 2014 at 12:17am
#836468
Prompt: "Sometimes, if you aren't sure about something, you have to jump off the bridge and grow wings on your way down." Danielle Steel
What is your take on this?


--------------------------

Truth be told, I am not good at jumping off bridges. Even watching bungee jumpers on TV makes my head spin. I also doubt that I'll ever grow wings. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am way too far from being an angel or a bird. Now that I have swept the physical phenomena aside, let me check on the metaphoric meaning of what this author means to say.

My guess is, this quote has to do with dreams. The author means to say that we should try every possible path, no matter how un-doable, and just jump into making a dream reality. On the plus side, to pursue a dream gives life a purpose and hope for the future. If a person doesn't strive for his dream, what is the purpose of his life?

Still, all life has a purpose, I would say, even a seemingly purposeless one because of the effect it has on those surrounding it. So what if we live because the others want us to? What is wrong with that? Isn't living for others a dream in itself?

My question is, in order to reach an impossible dream, do we have to fight windmills, a la Don Quixote? Wouldn't it make more sense to dream a difficult yet possible dream? By this, I don't mean we should settle for something easy to do, but we shouldn't aim so high that, like Icarus, we get our wings burned and fall back to earth.

For example, if I dreamt of exploring Alpha Centauri in a spaceship in this day and age, I don't think I could find anyone or anything willing to catapult me into space. Even if I did, I'd probably perish on the way over.

On the other hand, no matter how ridiculous or silly a dream might be, it’s never okay to just throw it out the window. If I have the dream of exploring Alpha Centauri, who can stop me from studying astronomy and watching the skies through telescopes, even at my age?

Giving up on our dreams is like giving up on life. Besides, working toward a dream is healthy as it builds up character. Also, in time, we learn we have a responsibility to that dream. It may just be that the dream we work toward may open other avenues to explore, other dreams to dream. Then, who knows, maybe even the most impossible dream can be possible, and one day people may travel to Alpha Centauri, based on the technological discoveries before them that someone like me might have initiated.


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