Category Archives: happiness

What we’ve got here is failure to communicate

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Cool Hand Luke – so cool, and so right.  Good communication is the cornerstone to any relationship.  Whether it be a work situation or an intimate kinship, the ability to be able to convey an idea through honest and open dialogue is the key to any successful alliance.

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(image credit: 123rf.com)

Most human beings like to avoid conflict as much as possible.  The thought of an open discussion, face to face, with the person you need to deal with is unbearable.  We tend to alleviate the anxiety of that topic by discussing it with a multitude of other people rather than facing the dragon head on.  But we fail to realize we are only delaying the inevitable and that myriad of other people we share our dilemma with will only add fuel to the original fire, giving it the potential to burn uncontrollably.

Life could be so much less complicated if we always had the nerve to face our problems head on and communicate our issues with the person that is at the root of our predicament.  I have been guilty of avoiding confrontation myself but the end result was always exponentially worse because I was not dealing with the quandary first hand and I let outside influences sway my judgement.

I have made a much more conscious effort to communicate my thoughts and deal directly with situations before they spiral out of control.  Sure, summoning the courage to take the first step is difficult but ultimately clearing the air at the very beginning of the conflict will allow you to breathe easier in the long run.  The conflict can be easily resolved if it’s not allowed to take on a life of its own and the weight of the problem that sits on your shoulders is assuaged.

I am slowly building the courage to face my demons directly and not allow other voices to be my own.  Only I can have the most honest discussion about the issue that I am faced with and I am learning to have faith in my ability to communicate.  One honest voice is louder than a crowd.

What do you do when faced with a situation that requires confrontation?

Ethereal beauty

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Mother Nature can be a divine creature.  Every day she amazes us with her beauty and she presents us with images that may last for only a visual moment, but they are able to be photographed and conjured up at the click of a button.  Technology helps us hold those moments and preserve them to be enjoyed again.  These are some of the beautiful images I was presented with yesterday.  Although I was having reservations about Mother Nature’s sanity, she has restored my faith in her.

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I love the sunlight shining from behind the clouds.

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The sky changed so quickly in a matter of minutes.

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Although the cold temperatures are back, the clouds look like they are on fire.

Mirror, mirror

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This post is written for the weekend Trifecta Challenge:  This weekend we’re asking for exactly 33 words inspired by the following photo.  Please remember that if you use the photo on your own blog, you must give proper credit (with clickable links).

Photo credit: Bérenger ZYLA / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

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Life’s mirror reflects the things that I hold close.  It may not involve truth, but it involves dreams.  My dreams.  And it will only make me see the things I want to see.

Comes a time

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The morning air was crisp and it shocked my lungs as I inhaled.   The sun was doing its best to warm the day but the cold still bit at my face as I walked.  The tears kept flowing and froze to my cheeks.  The all-too-familiar saline tasted bitter as I licked the frozen tears from the corner of my mouth.

I could still hear him shouting as I reached the end of the driveway and tried to drown him out by listening to the snow crunching under my feet.  The road welcomed me and the freedom of the open air embraced me.  I had made this walk many times and the path was becoming worn with my pain.

The argument played in my head like a movie trailer.  Scattered pieces of the screaming match from this morning and all of the other fights combined into a three-minute synopsis of an unhealthy relationship.  There were no physical marks but the emotional scars ran so deep I could almost feel them etched in my skin.

From my hiding spot, I could hear the engine of his car come to life.  Peace was only moments away and I involuntarily held my breath as I watched him speed down the road.  An immense sense of relief poured over me as I followed my well-carved path back to the house.

I knew in my heart what the next step was and I finally had the courage to see it through.  I was ready to put myself first, ready to see the value in my happiness.  I was ready to find a love that I could accept and one that I deserved.

The time had come to tell him it was over.

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(photo credit: tomorrowstheme.blogspot.com)

This post was written for the Trifecta Challenge:

TIME (noun)

1a : the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues : duration
b : a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future
c : leisure <time for reading>
2: the point or period when something occurs : occasion
3a : an appointed, fixed, or customary moment or hour for something to happen, begin, or end <arrived ahead of time>
b : an opportune or suitable moment <decided it was time to retire> —often used in the phrase about time <about time for a change>

Please remember:

  • Your response must be between 33 and 333 words.
  • You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.
  • The word itself needs to be included in your response.
  • You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above.
  • Only one entry per writer.
  • If your post doesn’t meet our requirements, please leave your link in the comments section, not in the linkz.
  • Trifecta is open to everyone. Please join us.

Morning is broken

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As the days get warmer I have a renewed sense of faith in nature, but the person responsible for daylight savings time has a very perverse sense of humor.  I know the typical lyrics of the song are “Morning has broken”, but in my case, sitting in my living room at 6:00 am, that is not the case. Morning seems to be broken. The blackness that swallowed my house in the night still holds these four walls in its confines and my outside world is invisible.

black  (this is a photo of my front lawn taken with no flash….isn’t it beautiful?)

After several cups of coffee and much patience, that darkness gives way to the day and the world is brought to life again.  When the sun finally graces the sky in our hemisphere, its heat seems to increase in intensity each day.  The dank smell of dirt pushing its way through the melting snow permeates my nose and the morning darkness no longer holds the same power it once had.  Light breathes life into the day and the earth stretches and yawns.

Soon the mornings will become brighter and rising to greet the day will require much less effort.  The days will become longer and the seasonal creatures will poke their heads from hibernation to inhabit the freshly revealed landscapes.  Blades of grass will breathe deeply after being suffocated under the weight of the snow, flowers will bloom and allergens will perform their invisible dance .

Within the morning darkness, the promise of spring awaits.

Only You – Romantic Monday

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Technically it is still Sunday, but Romantic Monday has captured me again!  Thank you Edward Hotspur for encouraging us to pour our hearts out.

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Only you can make my heart skip a beat with one look.  You see me like no other person ever will because you don’t look at me, you look into me.  You see my beauty beyond the boundaries of flesh.  You see my soul.  You see the love and happiness that I hold close, but you also see the pain and heartache that balances me.

Only you can light my skin on fire with a single touch.  A simple gesture, a hand gently tracing my cheek and my body warms to your touch.  Your lips barely graze mine but I feel a slight quiver sensing the emotion of that moment.  I know the passion that lurks behind that kiss.

Only you make me want to dream of the impossible because everything seems attainable with you by my side.  There is no limit to imagination.  There is only you, encouraging my dreams and wanting to be a part of them.  You understand when I hear whispers in the wind.  You enjoy my child-like excitement when I discover new stories in my head and you appreciate that I have to put them to paper as soon as I have them.

Only you know my need to be accepted for who I am and not who people want me to be.  You encourage me to be an individual and embrace the quirks that have created the person I have become.  You appreciate that I feel like a Raggedy-Ann in a Barbie Doll world, but you would rather be Raggedy-Andy than Ken any day of the week.

Only you are the part of me I didn’t know I was missing.  It will always be only you.

If only I knew where to find you.

Varying degrees of interpretation

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I love blogging. It allows me to truly be myself, to express words and feelings that come to mind without having to think about them. Stories that would be otherwise untold rise to the surface and hurtle themselves at the page through my fingertips.

When I jumped into this creative ocean, I had no idea what to expect and absolutely no realization that I would cast myself into a sea of churning drops of water that, although they combine to create a large body of water, each possess qualities that make them truly unique.  The vast array of blogs that I read allows me to look at the world through different eyes and see things in a way that may have escaped my attention.  They create a path for me to follow through a portal into an inspired world that I may never have found on my own.

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(image courtesy of naturealive.asia)

The Trifecta Challenges embody these varying degrees of interpretation.  A great number of bloggers are given the same challenge and no two entries are similar in any respect, apart from following the rules for submitting posts.  Each writer is struck by a lightning bolt of creativity but that bolt is generated from a completely exclusive storm and the raindrops of ideas saturate only their mind.

When I post an idea I look forward to the comments I receive.  Initially I would have child-like reaction if a comment held an opposing view, but I have come to appreciate being able to see my thoughts from another perspective.  Each comment is like a golden pin of light shining through the words, altering the original picture and making me look at my own thoughts in a different way.

This blogging journey has expanded my mind, not only in my writing but also my ability to ingest words from other writers and see the world through their eyes.  And whether their world is dripping in sarcasm, prolific with poetry or fraught with haunting truths I enjoy being a part of their journey as well as having them be a part of my literary pilgrimage.

How has blogging changed your world?

Blue eyes – Trifecta Challenge

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This is written for the Trifecta Challenge – This weekend, we want you to give us a thirty-three response using the word stone as one of your thirty-three words.  You can use any definition of the word that you’d like, but we are specifically looking for serious, well-conceived entries.  This isn’t the weekend for light-hearted posts about the difficulty of posting before the linkz close, and we are not looking for hilarious commentary about your cats (THIS time).  We want something serious and deep from you guys this weekend, because the sun is starting to shine a bit more, and we think we can handle it now.  Take your time with it and give us your very best work.

(image courtesy of Shutterstock)

blue eyes

Please love me.  Hold me close and tell me I’m your forever.  Your stone face reveals no emotion, but your blue eyes cannot lie.   They see me the way nobody else ever will.

Santa’s not real?

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The Daily Prompt today is this – The Tooth Fairy (or Easter Bunny, or Santa Claus . . .) : a fun and harmless fiction, or a pointless justification for lying to children?

Some of my fondest childhood memories involved these mystical creatures.  There was an untainted enjoyment and a childlike sense of wonder that reality had not yet jaded.

I can certainly remember being horrified when my big brother dashed my illusory beliefs in these magical beings, but I didn’t hold any ill-will towards my parents for “lying” to me about their existence.  My childhood was kept childlike because of that continued facade.

I think of how my impressionable years would have been corrupted with reality and my imagination would have been stifled had I known the truth.  Believing in those fictitious characters allowed my creativity to plant a seed that continued to grow.  Even after I was told these creatures did not exist in physical bodies, the spirit they embrace remains the same.

Would I have wanted to grow up knowing the truth?  No way.  Those make-believe characters are still as much a part of my heart today as they were when I was a kid.  See you at Christmas, Santa!

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(image courtesy of Google)

Setting aside the time

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Finding time to set aside precious hours, or even minutes, for those things we truly love to do seems to be more difficult as we get older.  Responsibilities pressure us into doing the right thing and prioritizing family, work and chores leaving little time to do the things we yearn to do.  Hobby items collect dust and ideas for great stories become trapped in the vault of our mind waiting for that large iron door to swing open and let the ideas tumble into the forefront of our thoughts.

vault

(image courtesy of Google)

I am learning to make more time for myself.  In the winter months it is much easier to make that time since I work the normal Monday to Friday hours that an office job dictates.  However, when the resort opens for the season, I am back to six days a week and generally my work days start at 7:00 am and ends at 6:00 pm, if I’m lucky.  The summer affords me one day off a week which is spent catching up on the aforementioned priorities, leaving little time for recreation or writing.  I am an avid golfer and at the end of last summer had not even played one full round of golf.  My gazebo waved at me from my front lawn as I passed it on my way to work and simply sighed as I dragged my weary body into the house on my way back from work.

This summer will be different.  Life is far to short to spend all of my time making someone else happy and forgetting about my own happiness.  Changing patterns and routines is difficult, but I have already begun the process to alter my patterns.  With the help and advice of friends I am slowly learning to make myself my first priority.  My alarm encourages me to rise an hour earlier than normal and my laptop is eagerly awaiting the gentle touch of my fingers on its keyboard.  My golf bag smiles knowingly at me every time I pass it on my way to work, somehow sensing that this golf season will be the pendulum swing our relationship needs to get back on track.  And my gazebo seems more inviting than ever.

I have finally come to realize that the change can only begin with me.  If I don’t make time to do the things I love to do, nobody else is going to make that time for me.  I am going to print this post and put it on the wall in my office to remind me that life is not all about work.  Although I enjoy my job, work is a means to an income.  Nothing will ever be as satisfying as writing a paragraph rich in imagery or hitting that perfect drive down the middle of the fairway.

Do you make a point to set aside time for the things you love?