Reality spins
into imagination
awakening dreams
long forgotten.
Reality whirls
through intimations
of what seems
downtrodden
Reality curls
into foundations
revealing themes
all new again.
poem- wishing January 7, 2014
What wasn’t
When she opened her eyes
Was what she’d wished for
For so long
That wishing was all she had.
What was
When she opened her eyes
Was what she’d been blind to
For so long
That wishing was all she’d had.
poem- if November 5, 2013
If he loved her,
….she thinks
he would greet her every day
with a heart heating hug
with a spine kindling kiss
with glowing eyes.
If he loved her,
….she thinks
he would bid her sleeping form farewell
with grieving eyes
with cuddling kiss
with a heart felt hug
longing to remain.
If he loved her,
….she thinks
he would harness his white horse
unsheath his sword,
charge down her demons,
She doesn’t see,
that he is her champion,
if he sees who she is
and stays to fight for her
when she’s not looking.
She doesn’t see,
that he loves her.
reminding yourself of who you are November 25, 2011
“You can spend a bit of yourself when you give yourself to a character. At the end of a job, you have to remind yourself who and what you are.”
Richard Armitage.
When I’ve been involved in musical productions, it’s always been depressing the first day after the show closes to find yourself again. Those with romantic roles tend to find themselves a little in love with their show paramour for awhile. The rest of the cast tends to wander about dazedly wondering what they’re going to do to fill their days now.
I’ve written previously about this feeling when emerging out of a particularly in depth literary immersion. I think this is true when you are a writer, as well. When you are wrapped up tightly in your in your alternate world, it can be a difficult transition to return to the mundane realities.
What power has the imagination to fuel such alternate visions, and to put them all into our heads. We carry our own ‘holodecks’ of possibility. We can create our own world of romance, joy, and comedy. We can create our own horror drama. How important it is to make the best choice, to make our lives the best we can imagine them to be! If reality doesn’t suit, we can imagine a better life.
Quatrain August 4, 2011
Reality is a dream awoken
Truth is perception spoken
Wisdom is a lifetime’s token
Grace is long love unbroken
after the Eclipse July 2, 2010
The problem with spending time in a fantasy world is that sometimes it’s very hard to leave and return to the world of reality.
I have a friend who was raised in a huge Catholic family. Her dad was an illiterate farmer. He valued farm chores. He did not value education, and he especially did not value reading. Being discovered shirking one’s chores with a book was asking for a beating. I can kind of appreciate the anger. When your children have escaped into a book or movie, they are out of your control. They are being exposed to ideas that may differ from your own. A lot of people fear ideas that are different from their own, and that is why we have censorship. Ideas are free. Control is not.
I came out of the Eclipse matinee today, lost in the world of love, hard decisions, glorious Pacific scenery (the very roads of the Fraser Valley that we were driving last spring break), and the passions of youth. I have felt a little bittersweet all day, as I fight not to go back and read through the series again. (I just read them all last weekend for about the twentieth time, afterall, and I watched the movies 3X this week already). My emotions have been highjacked by Twilight again. It doesn’t matter that it has been a long time since I was engulfed in those passions of new love and the difficult decisions that last a lifetime, but it doesn’t seem like it. Whether those feelings were thirty years ago or three years ago, the intensity of them doesn’t change. Auntie Bright and Grace discuss this at the end of Grace Awakening,
. “Have you heard how the archaeologists have excavated three thousand year old honey from within the pyramids?”
(Grace) nodded and whispered, “Yes, they discovered it was still perfect, because bacteria don’t grow on honey.”
“Exactly. Like ancient honey, a first love remains ever incorruptible despite the passage of time. Though the boy may no longer exist, the memory of him is always pure and sweet.”
Like Bright, I’m feeling somewhat lost at the moment in the ache and joy of nostalgia. Those intense feelings are always just below the surface, and the Twilight Saga has woken them for many women, of all ages. Whether our heads remember all the details, our hearts recall each nuance of confusion, joy and adoration. Stephenie Meyer’s created world pushes us back to that place. It can be a wonderful place to revisit. Being in love has a narcotic effect on the system. It does us good to re-awaken those passions by escaping from our dreary every day.
Perhaps someone watching my vacant stares and unexplained flashes of smiles might be distressed. Perhaps that fact that my thoughts are unknown would pain some people. Not being quite in control of your head can be a problem. On the other hand, it is amazing as a writer to know that words have that kind of power! I bow to the brilliance that can take control of my emotions away from me, and remind me of love’s power.
.
I am so glad to have spent the last twenty-five years with the amazing and brilliant man who happily attends Twilight movies with me, discusses books, gives me valuable writing critiques, tolerates my foibles, loves me beyond reason, and yes, does laundry. What a blessing I’ve been given. I am reminded of this whenever I float out of the cloud of love and adoration rekindled by Twilight.
.
I hope Grace Awakening leaves readers in a haze, wishing they were still lost in the story, spending time with Grace, Ben, Bright, Jim and the others. I hope they find themselves in the realm of memory, remembering the boys and men who first touched their hearts and awakened them to the grace of love. I hope the fantasy rekindles their hearts to their reality.
Shawn L. Bird 
standing stones at the solstice… December 21, 2011
Tags: Diana Gabaldon, dreams, postaday2011, reality, solstice, standing stones
I’m spending a lot of time the last couple of months reading Diana Gabaldon novels. The Outlander series is about standing stones, and the opportunity to time travel on the sun and fire feasts of assorted solstices. When I realised the day, I posted this on the Diana Gabaldon Facebook site, but I thought I’d share it with you as well.
What are your dreams?
What is standing in the way of achieving them? If your desires are attainable, just as a little more light is added to each day from today onward to summer, take a few moments daily to take steps to fulfilling those dreams. Write a few words, learn a few things, work out a few minutes. Each small step leads closer to reality. Then the stones of your reality won’t be blocking you, they will be the doors to your destiny.
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