Life IS a Poem!

It is time for it to be said. Life could very well be a poem. Sometimes it is somewhat musical, like William Shakespeare's works. Sometimes it is mildly terrifying (but creative!) like anything that Edgar Allan Poe wrote. Sometimes it is just plain silly unless you think about it like some of the things that Dr. Seuss wrote (like in "The Cat in the Hat" or "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"). All contain different emotions that the author may have felt once or twice during their life. Life is scary, but anyone can sing a song (or poem) to make their life serm less bleak (as they may go insane as a Raven stands upon their chamber door singing the lone song of "Nevermore" reminding you of lost love...maybe I don't understand Poe's work fully yet, but we all loose something important to us sometimes). On that note, I would like to talk about a poem by Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard titled "November" that is about how change is sometimes cruel to us all, but no one should stay down for that long, there is always a poem to read (or write 💙 ) or a new song to sing. The poem reads--

"Much have I spoken of the faded leaf;
Long have I listened to the wailing wind,
And watched it ploughing through the heavy clouds,
For autumn charms my melancholy mind.

When autumn comes, the poets sing a dirge:
The year must perish; all the flowers are dead;
The sheaves are gathered; and the mottled quail
Runs in the stubble, but the lark has fled!

Still, autumn ushers in the Christmas cheer,
The holly-berries and the ivy-tree:
They weave a chaplet for the Old Year's bier
These waiting mourners do not sing for me!

I find sweet peace in depths of autumn woods.
Where grow the ragged ferns and roughened moss;
The naked, silent trees have taught me this,—
The loss of beauty is not always loss!"

I resolutely agree with Stoddard in that the death of a season (or anything) is indeed sorrowful, but we may, or rather must always look to some better day (unless we have a million poems we could write about...I'm just saying that by poetic inspiration we still read it, and there also is Baltimore's NFL football team to consider 🪶). Now I am reminded of another song by Train (my husband may be playing it right now 😉) (a song is a poem too), now before I get too ahead of myself, here are my November goals, or aspirations. ❤

1) Get out of your house/office for at least 30 minutes a day. I'm sorry to say, but cabin fever is real. I don't know who in my setting is more likely to turn into a mini version of Jack Nicholson from The Shining (without the ax) but I don't want to find out. Just a step outside or a step anywhere that is different than usual could give me that much needed change of scenery and help to prevent tensions from rising. I'm at my highest level of stress with the walls of my apartment constantly mocking me (like in the poem "Yellow Wallpaper" by...could you remind me who that author is again? If you haven't read that poem before, though it is creative expression that I just don't understand, I don't recommend it). Now, don't get me wrong, Michael and I are still madly in love but to keep our sanity in check, we must make sure we are connected with the rest of the world for at least thirty minutes a day...time sure is a devil. 

2) Identify one thing that drains your day and cut it out. I am a firm believer in the precept of less being more. So, in that ideology, I plan to spend less of my time being just plain and stressful busy and more time just being enveloped in "me" time persay. I know that it could be a terrible idea considering how busy we are becoming at the store that I work at since the holidays are tiptoeing up to us (or already upon us, since Halloween was only a few days ago 😳) and already, in the way that I personally organized the store, most of the shelves that a customer (or potential customer) first sees are sprinkled with red and green holiday items (ITEMS-I need to remember to call them that). Also, if you ask the Hallmark Channel, Christmas started in July. (I will always be a fan, though I already found my prince charming. ❤) Now, before I get sidetracked with my busy life, I believe that we all deserve a break, whether the skies are getting drearier and drearier this autumn or not (it is a cloudy day up here in Idaho). I know that others deserve service, but we all need to realize that we are someone and we deserve that idea too (I was going somewhere with this...Sorry, I currently have a headache 🤕 maybe I could use that "me" time right now so I am not headed for another dysfunction). Who knows? Maybe my (or your) idea of "me" time happens to be serving someone. I do enjoy the activities of both cooking and knitting for others, and though I already have plans on how I am going to minister this month, I could put my shoulder to the wheel a little more and...here I go again! 🤭

3) Do something alone that you normally wouldn't. Before any of you naysayers speak up, trying to call my bluff, I am not talking about reading or going to the library more since I already do that often (thanks to a goal set in one of these past months--goals create habits and habits help to create ways of life). You should honestly see mine and Michael's personal library! You would be baffled by its size. It honestly should have been no surprise that I fell in love with a man who was a bookworm too. 🪱 (It only was a little bit...for me, personally.) This also is not an excuse to go the ice cream shop more often than I should, because I already do that more than I would like to admit. I guess I need to evaluate my life and see what I don't do all that often that I really should...which though it is hard, or I am bashful to myself sometimes (because I like to imagine myself as perfect, though I am far from it!). Since you asked (didn't you?) here are a few things that I don't do all that often by myself that I really should: learn a new language, visit a local museum, or gaze at the stars (of course, I would need to find a place where I can see the stars better than my husband and I's apartment). Do you have any suggestions of activities that I may look at? I guess I really am up for anything even learning to swim or hiking a mountain to spitballl a few more. I guess we all have things that we can do more often that we don't. 

4) Speak kindly to yourself. I could probably write a whole billion-paged novel on why doing this for yourself (or myself) is important, but let's see if I can sum things up. Ever since I was in a car accident close to ten years ago, things have been especially hard for me and though today things in my life are looking much brighter in that I don't wear any casts anymore, I have just a few scars on my arm that I don't think are ever going to fade, and I downgraded from therapy at the hospital almost every day to a massage that I get at my apartment to help relax my muscles once a week (or as often as I need it) (it's a massage--I'm not complaining 😎), but I still have that voice in the back of my mind that mocks anything and everything that I do and it just makes me feel crummy. I know that I can always do better, but I also know that some of these "better" requests laid upon me are impossible, and will always be impossible. I will never be able to run again. My handwriting will never be all that legible (you try switching your dominant hand halfway through your life!). I always was short, and that never is going to change. I wish I was able to look at these things more positively, but my confidence is like a candle; once the wind of something negative comes its way, it gets blown out. That is why I made this goal, to make making myself feel better much less of a giant task. Here are some pictures of the aforementioned scars (I promise that they are more defined in person!)--

5) Turn your home into a restful retreat. Looking at this goal right next to all of my other goals (I always write down my monthly aspirations--This month I did it on a bright yellow card...That does not match the outdoors in the least), I notice something. It is nice to be out of the house for a time during the day, but it is also nice to come home to where I will rest and find my solace in peace. It sure would be darn hard to cut out coming home at the end of the day, do I need to create a picture of paradise in my head, and make it in my house (uh oh...we're going to need a new bookshelf 🤓). Maybe my alone or my "me" time can take place in the peace of my house. Paradise would complement me, so it would only aid me in speaking kindly to myself. I presume that this last goal just sort of figures with all the others. It is how my mind works. 💡 Bring it.