Your assignment:
1. create a poem, story, or article based on this photo.
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Cut and paste the photo onto your post (leaving the Monday Meme text).
4. Put a link to your post in the comments to this post below so we can visit your blog.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with! (I will leave a comment on your blog post itself, rather than posting in response to your link here).
.
For many years
your love
was an ocean:
pacific,
glorious.
Your dreams
flowed around you like fish,
swirling with life
joy
terror
and companionship.
The storms came
upon tropic seas
but
blue waves
rocked you
back to
comfortable
complacency.
Firey red
tropical nights
bathed you in
beauty.
.
All was well
on the surface.
.
Beneath
the waves
lava
bubbled.
You didn’t understand
when steam
purcolated
on schedule
releasing the stress
beneath the surface
that the day
was coming when it’d
erupt in
turbulent
broil and
form a solitary island
with a different
perspective on
the ocean.
.
Love
is still
a vast ocean.
Possibility
spreads upon a
limitless horizon.
Climb into your boat:
go fish.
There are many
dreams swirling
in the ocean.
The scent of salt tousles
hair and jackets. It paints waves and
caresses the dunes
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, has just passed away. In 2005 he told the Stanford graduating class,
”Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
“If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”
Wise man. Don’t waste your life doing a job ‘just for the money.’ It’s not worth it if it kills your soul and steals your joy. Confucius is credited with the aphorism “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
I am lucky to love…
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Soft words
across my pillow:
promises,
light,
dreams,
on the breath
of possibility.
The ability to speak a second language isn’t the only thing that distinguishes bilingual people from their monolingual counterparts—their brains work differently, too. … A new study published in Psychological Science reveals that knowledge of a second language—even one learned in adolescence—affects how people read in their native tongue. The findings suggest that after learning a second language, people never look at words the same way again.
Melinda Wenner’s article in Scientific American fascinates me for many reasons. I have friends whose children were born in bilingual environments, and it has always amazed me how fluidly these children move between languages. It has frequently been observed that students in French Immersion tend to be among the strongest in the school. Is this because they were already so, or have their brains been improved by second language…
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Flying oilslick
on thrumming wings
collapses on my pine tree
and stares at me
daring me.
My protectors
bark their disapproval
and it languidly lifts off
trailing them behind.
Until they reach the fence,
then, tails
immensely satisfied,
lope back to me,
for their reward.
Black garbed intimidators
with steely eyes
do not impress
the wolf clan.
This is a comfort.
I wear my celebrations
sassily, upon my feet.
Stutting to the future,
prancing forward.
No dark days or dreary feet,
in the walk to destiny,
just delightful dancing shoes
shepherding me onward.
.
.
.
My “I finally got a continuing teaching contract!” celebration shoes: Bellevue Sally Skull
My “I survived the slowest drive to and from Vancouver on the TransCanada” celebration shoes: Bellevue Laura Hart. (Yeah. Sometimes any excuse for celebration will do! lol)
They’re both Fluevogs, of course. More particularly they’re both part of the brilliant Bellevue heel family. Bellevues are my favourite Vog style because of their very soft leathers, comfortable height for working all day, and for their fun style that stretches comfortably into the evening. Their motto is “Keeping pushing West beyond your imagination” and they’re named after real Wild West entrepreneurial ladies (ech hem) with very interesting stories.
Here’s Sally Skull’s bio and here is Laura Evan’s. Feisty girls!
The scenic route was lovely
and when I attempted to return to the highway
I took a wrong turn and found myself
above it all.
Beautiful blue sky day
The lake vividly stretching before me.
I savour the view as a serendipitous
opportunity to slow down
and look around.
No hurry.
Look.
.
.
Kalamalka Lake. Taken with my iPhone.
Through the grass you can see the highway I was supposed to have been on.
Instead, I ended up on a cul de sac of nice homes.
A thought worth re-visiting. What do you think about this concept? Is it about talent or perseverance.
“You don’t believe in natural talent?”
“The premise can be insidious. If we find something doesn’t come naturally, we might conclude we have no talent for it and abandon the pursuit, even if it’s to our detriment.”
“So what causes success?”
“If you believe in deliberate practice, artfully designed hard work and always stretching beyond your abilities. It’s not as simple as ‘Practice makes perfect.’ It’s continually focusing on your weakest elements and trying to improve them. Those who persevere are high achievers.”
“…The key lies in knowing what you deeply want. The more you want something, the easier it is to sweat through the deliberate practice.”
“So you make your own luck?…”
Kerry Reichs in Leaving Unknown
Kerry seems to be describing Gladwell’s Rule of 10,000. The concept is quite simple. If you put 10,000 hours into something–anything–you will be successful. Whether you begin with ‘natural talent’ or…
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Shawn L. Bird 