No Place Like Home?

Brave, gotta call it brave to chase that dream across the sea. Names, then they signed their names for something they believed. Red, how the blood ran red; we laid our dead in sacred ground. Just think, wonder what they’d think if they could see us now. ~ Dierks Bentley

Click, click, click. I was walking through the magical land of Toys “R” Us with my parents one night when all of the sudden something glittery and red on a low shelf caught an eye behind my large pink glasses. It was a pair of slip-on heels with red bows across the toes. I reached for the sparkling ruby slippers which were just my size, bound up in Wizard of Oz packaging. I had never seen anything like them, and they may as well have been made of real rubies. In all actuality, they were plastic and designed for a little girl to dance and prance around in; not actually wear out anywhere, much to my chagrin. It was the first pair of shoes I remember buying, and I was tickled pink! This purchase by my seven year old self was made possible from an allowance after helping out with chores at home. Right then and there I became head over heels for red shoes, and the affinity remains. Isn’t it amazing how seemingly insignificant moments in childhood can have a lasting impact…

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Lipstick, Fitness, and Things Like Horror Movies

“I hope they’ll know how hard I tried to live in love, to love in depth, let wonder take away my breath, to give until there’s nothing more, this is what I want to be remembered for. Everything else you can set it on fire.” ~ Colony House

“I want your lips to be the first thing people see when they walk through that door!” my boss exclaimed while we young ladies were gathered around for a staff meeting. I’ll never forget that line or the fire in her voice as long as I live. Think Devil Wears Prada with the southern allure of Dolly Parton. At the time, I was in sales training at a high-end makeup and formal dress store for brides and beauty queens in a large micropolitan area just outside Brad Paisley’s southern comfort zone. I’d always loved makeup and dressing up, but the energetic owners of the store gave a new meaning to my previously held visions of a glam up. Plump, vibrant, impossible-to-resist lips were a requirement. Lips that could sell anything. I won’t deny the power of the right lipstick, but maybe I didn’t want my lips to be the talk of the town. In all FAIRness, I love a bold COLOURPOP. It just seemed VANITY to me regarding what my priority was supposed to be; not a genuine smile, but sales lips. I learned a lot during my time there. About fashion, cosmetics, and the not-so-glamorous side of sales. Life lessons that still resonate and fill me with gratitude many years later…

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Letter to Helen

To my great-grandma Helen ~ Mother of my grandma. Matriarch of the family. Lady of mystique.

Dear Helen ~ You don’t know me, but I’ve heard stories about you all my life. I’m your daughter Sheri’s oldest granddaughter. I wish I could have met you; you’re the missing person I’m often wondering about. The older I get, the more I think about you and your impact on our family, and how at age 36, I’m a year older than you were when you were gone way too soon from this life. I often wonder how different our lives would have been had you been here with us. I think your story in particular is why I feel emotions so deeply. Why I have always thought about life and death so seriously. Why I want to live life to the fullest amount of joy and passion possible. We aren’t guaranteed a long life on this earth: we only have this present moment…

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Wild Dreaming

Some say it’s the darkest before the dawn…the stormiest before the calm…

Domicile disarray abounds around, but I’m feeling introspective and only slightly sentimental on this rainy afternoon. The organizational demands are just going to have to be patient a little while longer, for alas, the writing mode strikes whenever it fancies. Follow me away into…

…a maze of greenery. And a tangled up enchanted opal apple orchard. It’s a wonder one could ever find one’s way out. A last dance in the moonlight with that dashingly handsome man. There’s something about the way he looked that evening. Wild daydream blue eyes. His voice and smile were so familiar, like I’d known him half my life. Enraptured distant memories came to the forefront of my mind, as the large clock on the castle wall sounded an alarmingly loud alarm. Midnight! And it was just getting good. My heart beat swiftly as he kissed my red lips, brushed my hair back from my rosy cheek, and whispered in my ear, “I’ll see you again.” I made it to the door a fraction before the twelfth stroke. Continue reading “Wild Dreaming”

Peace, Epiphany, and the Present

“And in despair I bowed my head, there is no peace on earth I said, for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth goodwill to men…”

 “What do you want for Christmas?” It’s the question that starts circulating every Thanksgiving. Would it come across as derisive to ask for peace on earth? Listening to the news on any given day, all I should ask for is peace and an end to human suffering. Maybe it’s ridiculous to think of putting lofty idealistic notions on our Christmas lists and expecting anyone to actually do anything about it. Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic. Or maybe I just feel the need to be facetious right now, due to that Christmas exhaustion setting in. It’s the Eve of Christmas, and while I’m currently baking a cake which I’m totally jazzed about, I have a multitude of thoughts running through my mind. And so I shall put the proverbial pen to the paper whilst the aroma of spice fills the space in which I dwell.

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