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 |  It’s basically my brain vomiting through my fingertips. Bring a poncho. Splash zone… |
| I’m the kind of guy we all look at and unintentionally describe as “Oh, bless his heart”… |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  by Fivesixer  prompt:Everyone seems to be pretty health conscious in today's world. What health tips have worked for you. If you can't think of any, or are like me and haven't pursued any, what would you like to do to improve your health? Ohhh…yeah, about that…my lungs are shot. At thirty-eight years old, they told me my lungs were that of a 65-year old man. That’s been a few years ago. There’s not anything I can do to help that at this point. I’m staring down the end as hard as it’s staring at me. All I can do while learning to die is learn to live. That’s not too difficult. Physical health is kinda moot, but emotional health, mental health…these are now just as important if not a little more. I might struggle some days, but I can guarantee you won’t see me mired down for too long. I don’t have time for that. Especially when the Muse is wearing spurs. I’ve come to understand in the last few weeks that I’ve been hard on myself, excessively mean. And while I feel like I deserve it, I know I really don’t, nor do I have time for that, either. In trying to comprehend this, though, I’ve also seen how much happier life is through the lenses of appreciation, in learning how to ease up off myself. I just want to live happy within myself, for myself, and because of myself. And it’s not that I don’t need others to help and support me on some days, but it’s easier to learn to hug your own inner peace every once in a while, to remember our power, not our weakness; our progress, not our failing; who we are, not how others peg us. Life isn’t always so happy, but it’s not as difficult once we realize how we speak to ourselves. My physical health is done for, but my life, what I can see just over the horizon still has so much good coming. And writing saved me. Thank you, WDC, for giving a place for all of us to find ourselves, to learn how to like who we are. I think that’s all I could really ask for. And to see you guys doing the same, it’s an honor. I love it. |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" by Fivesixer prompt: A practice I can begin to help me let go of negative emotions and return to a state of peace is… …realize where I”m headed in my mind, to try and deour the mood with music and writing and reading. Especially since finding this site, since realizing the tools and pieces are all there for me to put together, I’ve been opened to understanding the situation as it is. It’s become easier to step aside from the feelings to understand how to work with my abilities to control where I’m headed. And after to speaking with someone on this site about inner peace, I’ve realized I just keep leaving the door open on that so it’s ineffectual. I’m finding myself, though, discovering hills only to find new valleys, and I’m certain we all are. But I’m experiencing me, and I’m learning how to take things in and let them stew around before I respond…I understand now how angry I’ve been to myself for…you know, being human…but with the understanding comes the obligation to change what hasn’t been working. It’s okay to be serious about the things I do, but it’s not always that serious. It doesn’t have to be. There’s still so much joy and magic left in the world, and I think all one has to do to find it is be receptive to the idea. Self-reliance is probably the most important to me, in that I want to be able to amuse myself and keep myself in the world I deserve. That sounds crazy when I read it back, but it doesn’t make it any less true. I’ve lived a lot of life in forty years, and I don’t have a whole lot longer left on this planet because of genetics and general deterioration. I’m not being dramatic…just an x-rayed fact. And I don’t want to waste any more time feeling bad about my life, oppressing myself with judgments and by focusing on failures. Maybe I should call my blog “Rhymer’s Therapist” at this point. I don’t know if it works the same for everyone else or if I just sound too close to gibberish, and I don’t think I’m fixated on that answer. I want to know I’m not alone, that maybe someone else has gone down a path similar to this, but I know I’m okay. I’m where I’m supposed to be, and things feel right. Even if the path hasn’t been the same, I know y’all are out there, and I’ve learned so much about myself because of y’all. Finding you guys is helping me find myself. And I’m digging that.  |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" by Fivesixer prompt: You have been chosen to speak at a Zoom conference concerning your chosen field. Over 500 people will attend. Each of them is new to your field and are waiting to hear words of advice from you about this field. What will you say to them to them concerning things you wish you’d known about the industry when you were getting started? My job now? ”Don’t do it! It’s not worth it!” But since my mood seems to go downhill when speaking of the mundane employment, I’m gonna pretend I’m a real writer. Job or purpose, the only difference between the two is the money. And maybe zeal. But as a writer? That’s pretty easy. 1) Instructional books and guides are great at naming and making examples of grammar; they are horrible at conveying any part of the experience of being a writer. 2) Take the hardest work you’ve ever done, and multiply it by your imagination. That’s not even half the work required by the craft. 3) Your muse may be a metaphor or personification, but the result of the blasted thing is real. It doesn’t matter how you view it…it still causes the same itch to write, it requires a diet of books and movies and art, and, it’s more needy than anyone I’ve ever met…it also gives more rewards than anyone I’ve ever met. 4) Confidence, ego, and being easy on yourself are just as important to the writer as knowledge, practice, and saving your work. 5} Continuously save your work. Annoy yourself with how often you do it. 6) Real characters only need to be started…after you introduce them, they’ll take off and write the story exactly how he or she wants it…that’s not a metaphor…you’ll type, and the character will write. I don’t make the rules. 7) Prepare yourself for this one…the rules have rules, and the exceptions are all on a trial-and-error basis. Good luck. 8) When you become overwhelmed with knowledge as this craft opens itself up, it’s okay to whine, and it helps to keep writing, but it is never okay to complain. The difference? You can whine and still be thankful…no matter how you complain, it’s a complaint and disrespectful to your source of knowledge. 9) If you’re lucky enough to be introduced to someone who wants to help you evolve and who can substantiate their claims to do so, you drop your ego and listen and think. And appreciate him or her…she or he could be doing anything, especially when it comes to furthering themselves, and they don’t have time to waste…and neither do you. 10) If one person in your real life gets your love for writing, if they want to talk to you about what you’re doing and become involved with your experience, count yourself fortunate. For everyone else, that’s why we have each other. (Thank you, WDC.) 11) Good luck balancing what time you have. And I don’t know if I really believe any writer who claims to have things perfectly organized…I don’t trust it. And if you figure it out…please write about it, and tag me in it. 12) Strunk. And. White. 13) Omit these words and phrases without question: A. Literally B. “At the end of the day” C. very D. actually E. “I can’t describe it” (You, as a writer, have one job: describe) F. Literally. (I’m not kidding here.) G. Amazing 14) But seriously? Keep loving who you are, no matter what you find out about yourself or your writing because of your writing. Not everyone is gonna get you and what you want to say, and sometimes someone may even send you a review just to take their life out on you, and even that’s okay. Write because you want to, and if you find that desire is real, the Universe will reward you with more bits and pieces of the craft than you can handle at one time. Being overwhelmed and feeling small is a compliment: it means you’re growing and, at the very least, trying. 15) Be serious about the work, and laugh at everything. People may expect you to be perfect, but that’s their problem. The Universe (or God or however you see The Higher Spirit) expects us to be human, and from this experience come the stories that may become important to someone else, wringing emotion and thought inside the reader. Purpose. 16) Open your mind, and your world will open. |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" by Fivesixer prompt:Do you love your job/career? Tell us why you love it, and why did you choose this career and not something else. This is horrible, but I hate my job. I’m a third part owner of an alternative medicine store where we…dispense, if you will…pain-relieving herbal-based medicines. We were the first to open in our town in Oklahoma, and I can still remember how excited I was to research and learn, to pass this knowledge on to others so they could maybe figure out for themselves what they need. But that’s not how it’s worked out. It’s turned into something ugly, something where everybody believes they deserve every discount just for the honor of their business (not completely unfounded, I guess). It’s become an industry of looking for “what can I get for free”, illegal profits, vague laws nobody enforces…it’s the wild west. Boomer Sooner, I guess. It’s also more difficult to work with spousal equivalents than I thought. I’ve always been good at all jobs, but this one…this one presses me like no other. I don’t think I’d necessarily recommend it. But I don’t know what I’d want to do otherwise unless it was an aspect of storytelling. At this point in what I’ve learned from The Universe concerning writing, I’m pretty sure the one thing that drives man is the story…the past, or maybe what people are doing now, or what we hope to see in the future…we talk to our friends because we want to know how they see the world, their version of your story. And it’s always been this way. We’ve always been on the hunt for the next story, no matter what avenue we take to get there. Maybe I wouldn’t appreciate writing so much if it was a job to me. Maybe that’s just how I am. To be fair, I’m in the middle of an identity crisis right now. It may seem dramatic, but right now, right here, it’s so real. The philosophies I built in my twenties didn’t work in my thirties, and what has made it through doesn’t work now…I’m not complaining, just explaining. I’m working my way to a point of finding myself, both as a person and as a writer. And I can see it, just over there, the person I’m supposed to crawl into and be. Home. |
"30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" by Fivesixer prompt:What is the Hardest Part of Your Job? Tell us how you deal with it. I’m pretty lucky as far as jobs go…my tribe and I own a business, and it’s pretty easy. The most difficult part is dealing with human beings. When they come into our store, it’s as if they leave logic outside in their purse in the car. I only work one or two days a week, and I have issues when remembering faces. They become frustrated when I don’t instantly recognize them, their name, their lineage…but they’re silent when I ask them what my name is. Or when we’re wearing a mask as they walk in because we believe in science, and they ask if they need to put a mask on. Why do they look to me for moral guidance in that instance? If you’re not gonna care enough about anyone to wear a mask, why would you ask just because I have one on? We’re almost two years into a pandemic…I refuse to believe anyone “forgets” their mask at this point. Maybe being forty years old has ruined some of my perspective to the point changes need to be made within myself. I don’t have the same love for humanity I grasped when I was in my twenties, the belief that peace and love would save the world. I just don’t have much faith anymore, and it makes me sad. I’m sure that’ll change again, I’m certain I’ll find magiv in the world amongst the humans. But for now, the hardest part of my life also happens to be the hardest part of my job: humans. |
| "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" by Fivesixer prompt: What room in your home do you use the most? The least? The busiest room in the house, I think, is always gonna be the bathroom, and why not? Great things happen in there. Shaving, combing, the brushing of teeth, all while listening to music. Listening to music while I’m waking up, especially Kelly Clarkson, starts the day off right. Everybody should have a space where they can blare their morning anthem, a place to find the motivation to charge through the day, to conquer or die! The least used room? Ugh…the kitchen. I mean, I use it, but not for cooking…I’m usually the one to clean up, and as long as I don’t have to put more insecurities into learning to cook, I’ll clean every chance I get. |
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