Category Archives: blogging
Excuse me while I expose myself
5 CommentsThe title of this post conjures up several images. Some of those images are quite flattering and sexy and others are the images that I wish I could wipe from my memory. Spoiler alert – this post has nothing to do with anything remotely related to nudity, apart from the flagrant display of flashing in the image below. (sorry)
When we are authentically naked, when we truly bare ourselves, we are baring our souls, not our bodies. We let others into our hearts, our minds and our dreams. All of the hypocrisy is stripped away and we are left naked with no false fronts to hide behind. We bare ourselves here on our blog sites, with our words, and we run naked through the blogosphere. We put more honesty and integrity into our words because, here, we feel comfortable in our skin. Here, we feel like we are representing our true selves. Here, we feel a kinship with like-minds and we feel a comfort level that truly allows us to just be who we are, stripped of any preconceived notions.
Our thoughts and prose give us permission to expose ourselves. The only shroud we hide behind is the blanket of our truth and our musings. We leave the most important part of ourselves open for all to read and, in that part, we find the inner strength to continue our journey. Our inhibitions are no longer stifling us from exposing our innermost thoughts and feelings. We feel accepted in our natural state.
We do ourselves a grave injustice and we add nothing to this world if we cloak ourselves in any cloth that hides who we truly are. To be completely ourselves, to be truly naked, we need to trust in the path we follow. We need to believe that the people who are near and dear to us know the true essence of what we represent, and we need to feel that the people meeting us here for the first time understand the inner workings of our brains.
Be honest in your writing, let it reflect who you are, and don’t deny your readers the opportunity to see you as you truly want to be seen. Let them into your mind. Let them see you naked.
The more things change, the more they are different
8 CommentsBlogging is a fickle mistress. Back when I started this journey I had no followers and no clue what I was doing. I just wanted to write.
With much persistence and an avid desire to keep writing, I did just that. Along the way, people began to read what I had to say and, not only that, took the time to make comments and leave their two cents about the words I had spent so many hours crafting into submission. Those were blissful times in my life and, as the momentum continued, I gained new followers and new friends throughout the process.
But as with all things that change, and contrary to the subjective saying, nothing every really stays the same. Life gets in the way and those little joys that were once so ingrained in our daily lives are shelved to make room for reality. During the last three summers, work has taken a front seat while my creativity has been stored in a tool box in the trunk of my life.
Every autumn, I find the key, open that trunk and hope my creativity has maintained some of its shape during the bumpy rides it has been made to withstand. Although the integrity of my imagination seems somewhat intact, the struggle to achieve the same level of contact with readers and followers seems to wane. It is the fault of no single circumstance and it simply means I have to delve back into the vigor of writing that I had when I began this wonderful pilgrimage through written expression.
I have sworn to be diligent, not only in my writing but, in my covenant to be a good follower of all the blogs I have chosen to support with my likes and comments. I have been inattentive, through no fault of my own, and have made a pact with myself to make up for my negligence and become more of a presence in this world of words, especially with those who have stuck by me on this ride.
Relationships of every kind take effort. I look forward to challenging myself to put forth my best effort to post things of meaning and to post them often. I look forward to mending fences, creating new connections and having my little typewriter appear in many areas of this blogosphere and throughout the other worlds of people who love to read.
Sometimes it feels like only your keyboard will listen to you, but if you keep at it your audience will grow and you will find your true voice. ~ SN
Putting the focus back on me
14 Comments“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” ~ George Lucas
I have been neglecting myself lately. And my 24-hour period of sleep last week was a glaring reminder that I must slow down and begin to put my needs ahead of everyone else’s needs. I am still fending off the same cold that knocked me down last week and I am hoping after two consecutive days off that my body will begin to heal itself.
My physical condition withstanding, I have also realized how many things I have put on the back burner over the last few months. My blog posts have been suffering. My blog reading has been non-existent. And the things I love doing, like making soup or reading a book, have been put on a shelf and left to collect dust.
But today, that momentum has shifted. I am making myself a “vision board” so I can focus on the things I want to do for myself. I have sketched and decided on a design that I am going to have tattooed on my wrist. I have been thinking about it for a while but have finally given myself permission to take that leap.
The infinity symbol is a message of empowerment – anything is possible. Carpe Diem is, not only my email address but, my mantra – seize the day, something I have been failing to do recently. The butterfly represents my mother and the owl represents my father. It is a perfect blend of all the things that have the most power over the person I am each day and the person I want to continue being.
On day one of my two days off, I currently have two different pots of soup simmering on the stove, the ingredients for a killer Chili in the fridge and my fingers are flying over the keyboard as I type this post. I feel like I am finding myself again. I feel happy knowing I have begun to assimilate to the creature I enjoy being. And I feel the most elation by knowing that I have retrained my focus and begun to put myself first.
I should have paid more attention to my Physics teacher
5 CommentsIt never ceases to amaze me – the amount of hours one works in the real world is directly proportionate to the eradication of the creative mind in the artistic world, especially following a long season of working in the hospitality business.
I remember my Physics teacher in Grade 11 throwing around words like ‘inertia’ and ‘for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’ but I don’t remember studying the direct correlation of physical exhaustion to prolific brain death. Sure, the basic functions in my body still happen – I breathe in and out, I walk and talk, but the rest of me seems to be on autopilot – like that object in motion that tends to stay in motion.
I want to be an object at rest and I want to remain at rest for at least 48 hours. I want to have my brain back – the brain that wakes me up at night, swirling words around in circles until I can grab them all from those cartoon word clouds above my head. I want the ability to form those words into whimsical, thoughtful or romantic lines and be able to feel that creative flow coursing through my veins.
I wonder what Newton’s theory would be on my chances of winning the lottery and being able to spend my precious moments writing a best-seller? Time + creativity = true bliss. Until that moment, I shall struggle through the hours required at my job and hope my brain can keep up the frantic pace until Thanksgiving comes and goes. Then, and only then, will I finally be able to strip myself of my frenzied schedule and bathe myself in lethargy.
The prodigious exultation of being a word-nerd
Leave a commentBlogging has allowed me to become a true, and very contented, word snob. I have always loved words. As a teenager, I kept a duo-tang (who remembers those?) filled with lined paper and would make note of all the unfamiliar words I came across while devouring all the books I used to read. Those words that eluded my pubescent mind became a staple of my vocabulary once I had defined them and cemented them into the library of my brain. They circled my imagination and urged my cerebrum to come out to play. They tickled my tongue and they began to flow like blood in my veins.
![IMG_1886[1]](https://polysyllabicprofundities.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/img_18861-e1428260559708.jpg)
(look at how lovely my penmanship was in high school)
I assiduously began to incorporate those words into as many scenarios as I could. My teachers were duly impressed. My fellow students merely looked at me like I had three heads. My flamboyant wordiness was an ephemeral fantasy and I had to tone down my elevated rhetoric to become a conventional high-school student filled with angst rather than synonyms.
Today I still continue to incorporate those words into my daily conversations, not to sound more intelligent but, because I enjoy the way those words sound when I say them aloud. I relish being able to use the phrase ‘alarmingly verbose’ instead of just saying “he talked a lot”. I enjoy describing winter as arduous and not just “shitty”, although shitty can truly encapsulate the past winter months and potentially the ones to come. And I will forever want to be mystified by language and not speak simply to communicate. I want to thrive in my love for words.
My enthusiasm for articulate phrases has never waned. It has followed me throughout my journey. It has haunted my sleep and clandestinely pursued me during my conscious hours. May those words forever churn in the maelstrom of my imagination and may I always be able to maintain my romance with the language of expression.
Thanks WordPress….do you have any tissues?
7 CommentsMy third year anniversary on WordPress is rapidly approaching. Since my timid foray into blogging, I have truly come into my own and really love this journey I am on. I have discovered so much about myself and thrown myself into an outlet where I find I can be really honest about my feelings and opinions.
Over the course of my presence here, WordPress has made many changes and upgrades to their program. The cause for my tears and subsequent request for tissues is the addition of “related posts” at the bottom of our existing posts. This subtle link at the bottom of my posts has caused me to click on one of my previous posts about my mom and my tears didn’t even have the option of staying or flowing – they started at full force and kept coming.
Once I cleared the blurry vision and was able to control myself, I realized what a great extension to my blog that this little tear-inducing gem had become. If readers are interested in the blog post that day, they can click on the links to previous posts they may have missed and be able to follow my earlier thought processes that may have some relevance to the entry I had recently posted.
I appreciate that WordPress is bringing my past into my present. They are connecting the dots of my artistic as well as my emotional journey and allowing others to participate in the history of my blogging adventure as well as the most recent part of my writing experience.
Tissues are available at the door.
What I might be
3 Comments“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” ~ Lao Tzu
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I have been so consumed by my job lately that I have begun to redefine myself by my career and not by the person who is performing that job. I give up small parts of myself to become a larger piece of the work puzzle and, although I thoroughly enjoy my job and the people I interact with on a daily basis, I lose sight of the potential success of my personal goals.
I saw this quote and the cogs in the wheels of my creativity began to align and click into perfect place. By allowing myself to become what I might be, I give myself permission to become all of the things I wish for myself. Work is a means to pay the bills but work will never be the summit of the mountain of my possibility.
Each day I write this blog, each day I allow the words to flow from my brain, is a day I step closer to what I might be. There is a part of me still lurking in the shadows. There is a creative mind waiting for the moment that reality does not quell its desire. When I finally am able to truly let go of what I am, that creative mind will become what it should be.
My spare time is a “write” off
2 CommentsKnowing the fall-out I may face, I’ll admit it – I miss the fall and winter nights but only because I miss the time I had to write and to read blogs. The summer months are unforgiving when it comes to spare time. I miss the words that used to come so easily and I miss being able to read the words of those I follow.
My imagination used to be ready and waiting as soon as I sat in front of the laptop but recently my muse has been accused of taking vacation and enjoying the summer weather along with the many guests at the resort where I work. The time I used to have to read the many blogs I follow seems to be non-existent and the pond of creativity I had the benefit of floating on is now a dry well of sand and I am stuck making angels in the dust.
But in those moments of creative drought, I have the good fortune of interacting with many smiling faces so all happiness is not lost. The forecast for my upcoming day off looks promising for a day on the couch, laptop in position and hopefully a few creative thoughts will drop like the rain that is supposed to fall on Monday.
Turn off the light on the vacancy sign
8 Comments
The hotel in my brain had been open but every room, on every floor, seemed to be empty. I got home from another 13-hour work day yesterday, opened the laptop and stared blankly at the screen. The lobby in my hotel was lifeless, the elevator was stuck on the ground floor and there was no movement in the confines of my cranium. The hotel in my head, for all intents and purposes, was closed for business. The hamster on the wheel of creativity was dead.
After a much-needed ten hours of sleep, the elevator is faintly humming once again. The front desk staff are present and smiling and the bellman is waiting patiently to assist me with my words. The neon vacancy sign still hums but the ideas are slowly coming to check in and the hotel is back in business. I’m hoping after a few coffee breaks the writing staff will be comfortably ensconced in their suites, ready to work, and the writing hotel will soon be sold out.
I have enjoyed the interaction with other people over the last five days but I will eagerly anticipate the required maintenance being finished at the hotel in my brain so I can hop on the elevator when I get home and reach the penthouse of idioms upon my return.
The vacancy sign of inspiration is flickering because the ideas have begun to occupy the rooms in the recesses of my brain. I’m hoping by tonight the prolific hotel in my mind will be sold out.
polysyllabic profundities 