I am mentally preparing myself for the five-year-old mind. I want to come down to their physical limitations and up to their sense of wonder and awe.”–Shinichi Suzuki
Month: January 2019
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #8
Be certain of this: when honest love speaks, went true admiration begins, when excitement rises, when hate curls like smoke, you need never doubt that creativity will stay with you for a lifetime. ~ Ray Bradbury
Finding Love ~ Quote by Kojouri
“You have no choice. You must leave your ego on the doorstep before you enter love.” ~ Kamand Kojouri
The Fighter ~ Poem by S.E. Kiser
The Fighter
by S. E. Kiser
I fight a battle every day
Against discouragement and fear;
Some foe stands always in my way,
The path ahead is never clear!
I must forever be on guard
Against the doubts that skulk along;
I get ahead by fighting hard,
But fighting keeps my spirit strong.
I hear the croakings of Despair,
The dark predictions of the weak;
I find myself pursued by Care,
No matter what the end I seek;
My victories are small and few,
It matters not how hard I strive;
Each day the fight begins anew,
But fighting keeps my hopes alive.
My dreams are spoiled by circumstance,
My plans are wrecked by Fate or Luck;
Some hour, perhaps, will bring my chance,
But that great hour has never struck;
My progress has been slow and hard,
I’ve had to climb and crawl and swim,
Fighting for every stubborn yard,
But I have kept in fighting trim.
I have to fight my doubts away,
And be on guard against my fears;
The feeble croaking of Dismay
Has been familiar through the years;
My dearest plans keep going wrong,
Events combine to thwart my will,
But fighting keeps my spirit strong,
And I am undefeated still[…]”
Excerpt From
It Can Be Done / Poems of Inspiration
When Grieving, There Are No Vacations
Grieving is tough work. There are no vacations. M used the metaphor of fish swimming upstream to spawn to help me out. Here is an excerpt from Dancing Alone: Learning to Live Again:
“M placed her drink on the table and leaned forward as she said, “Swimming upstream is a courageous act, but you understand it’s built into our DNA if we trust life. The herring and salmon intuitively trust life. The life force is within them. As humans, the life force is present. It is just as strong in us as it is in the herring and salmon. Yet, it becomes complicated because we have the freedom of choice. We can say yes to life or we can quit and fold the tent. Swim upstream, Ray. Swim upstream.”
Dancing Alone: Learning to Live Again is available in print and eBook formats worldwide. eBooks can be downloaded from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, iBooks, Kobo and eBooks2go.com
Excerpt From Dancing Alone: Learning to Live Again by Ray Calabrese. This material is protected by copyright.
Song of the Statue ~ by Rilke
Song of the Statue ~ Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke
Who so loveth me that he
Will give his precious life for me?
I shall be set free from the stone
If some one drowns for me in the sea,
I shall have life, life of my own,—
For life I ache.
I long for the singing blood,
The stone is so still and cold.
I dream of life, life is good.
Will no one love me and be bold
And me awake?
. . . .
I weep and weep alone,
Weep always for my stone.
What joy is my blood to me
If it ripens like red wine?
It cannot call back from the sea
The life that was given for mine,
Given for Love’s sake.
Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #7
When people ask me where I get my ideas, I laugh. How strange, we’re so busy looking out, to find ways and means, we forget to look in. ~ Ray Bradbury
About Living ~ Quote by Guy Clark
Some days you write the song. Some days the song writes you. ~ Guy Clark
An Emotional Tug of War
While I grieved, M spoke with me about the emotional tug of war I experienced. One side pulling me into the darkness, the other side pulling me toward the light. Here is an excerpt from Dancing Alone: Learning to Live Again:
“You ever play tug of war when you were a kid?” asked M.
“I imagine most kids did. Tug of war was even part of gym class in high school. It was something I did during basic training when I was in the Army as well. What does this have to do with our conversation?”
M raised her eyebrows and replied, “It has everything to do with our conversation. I’m not speaking only about you, Ray. I include myself and every person who grieves. Inside each of us, a tug of war is going on. One side pulls us toward the darkness, and the other side pulls us toward the light. Every day, the battle rages within us. The only thing we can do is opt to choose the side we want to help win. You can’t run from memories. You can’t run from emotional storms. You can let them tug you into the darkness, or you can let them tug you into the light. It’s always your choice.”
Have you experienced this emotional tug of war? What was it like?
Dancing Alone: Learning to Live Again. Available in paperback and ebook formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Kobo.
Excerpt From Dancing Alone: Learning to Live Again. Raymond Calabrese. This material is copyright protected
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Ray Bradbury’s Writing Wisdom #6
What can we writers learn from lizards, lift from the birds? In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon truth, which is the only style with deadfalling or tiger-trapping.~ Ray Bradbury
