#SummerSunSetting
#TimeToResetMyTables
#HarvestUntoUs
#SchoolBusYellowSTOP!
#MemoriesPastRushThroughMe
#ClocksCantControlTime
#ApplesFillTree
#ASweetSummerSmellSurroundsWe
#HandInHandAbundantly
Fall #Hashtagku 2016
Filed under Uncategorized
Current Poetry
“A Windows View Obstructed”
A Windows view obstructed
Blue skies flash
between landscapes.
Bridges and cars on highways
Pass, in a flicker,
Quicker than a blink.
Music streams through my mind,
Distracting, idling my time
From heartbeat a flutter,
And mind running amok.
Thoughts of you calm,
Smooth crevasses and cracks,
Strains of emotion.
Closing glow of the day
Fades, disappears into your touch,
miles away. So far away.
My view is beautiful.
Beautiful you.
“Fly Away”
Do not fly away so far dear one,
For we have only first met.
As night shadows on me dear one,
A coast at your back you’ll let.
The fates will be ours again dear one,
When feet on my soil you do set.
So fly with me, fly with me, fly with me dear one!
A future unloved our only regret.
“The Path Less Chosen”
Somewhere, along the way,
A long, long time ago….
I told myself it wasn’t safe,
That my feelings weren’t safe to show.
But then suddenly in my soul,
A place not many stood before,
Your presence opened up my light
And prompted me through your door.
And now I’m standing at a start,
of a roadway I don’t pretend to know.
But with you, this all feels right
So stay with me, stay with me in our flow.
“My life is yours….”
When your head is softly held on my shoulders and your breath warms my skin, my life is yours.
When your eyes burst my soul open with their sparkle and shine towards mine, my life is yours.
When our hands join in a loving union as we walk together down the street, my life is yours.
When we realize that our souls belong to each other as our lips sync in time, my life is yours.
Bring me your life my love, bring my life into it all.
Make me your wife my love, we are worth it all! ❤️
Filed under Uncategorized
What will you leave behind?
Loie Fuller, photo taken between 1890 and 1909
PHOTOGRAPHER: Marceau, Theodore C. (1860-1922)
I reposted this image from a private Facebook group for SO MANY reasons! I marvel at how far photography has come but in hindsight we were already experiencing BRILLIANCE even in the first years! I adore the current dance and artistic forms we now employ but realize just how much there really is “nothing new under the sun” for us. A reason why I believe we have such discontent for life in our societies now. Our species is missing those SPARKS, those bright candles which light the way for the new, the bizarre, the “unknown” for the rest to be shocked by anymore. Our shock is in the terror, not the Art lately…. we need to change that.
I invite you to just sit with this picture. It was taken OVER 100 years ago! By a novice, with crude instruments, using pure imagination to do nothing but try to capture a millisecond of real, life GREATNESS and with perfect orchestra!
Are we so far removed from this ideal? Are we so technologically spoiled, so socially numb that we cannot/will not venture out to create such significance in the world today?
I say NO! I say GO DO IT TODAY!
Don’t you want some other human in 100+ years to look, read, study or enjoy that ONE THING you produced in the world that had so much significance, so much LOVE & CARE for life that it sparked their hearts generations later? I will answer that question for you too…. YES. YOU. DO!!!!
So go be, do, seek your passions out! This world becomes better when we are our blessings for others. <3
Filed under Uncategorized
Freedom Net
In over 20 years of being in the Internet world and seeing every variation of software, application, usage, creation, redesign and mapping both individually and socially of the greatest open source tool humanity has known… I decided to let my poetic musings take over in a parody found at the feet of our nation’s prettiest lady, that of liberty.
Enjoy and keep the Internet FREE!
The Net Monsterous
“So give me your wired, your voyeurs,
Your hacker masses yearning to scroll freely,
The faulty YouTubes of your streaming online store.
Send these, the outcast, chaos-crossed to me,
I lift my Internet equality forever more!”
-Beautiful Existence
Filed under Uncategorized, Wisdom
#Hashtagku
For years now, I have been on Twitter and slowing growing to love the uses of this social media platform. Being a novice wordsmith, I adore the #Hashtag language the site offers and immediately started expanding the use and definition of such online.
Below are some of the many, many #Hastagku’s that I have written on Twitter over the years. A new “social media language” that I’m compiling into a book of sorts for self-publishing soon. Obviously I’m using the combination of #Hashtag and the Japanese art of Haiku to form this new type of poetic license, in a loosely-defined way. But I feel in the future this will be shown as the beginning of language evolution through online engagement, so I’m posting these now in here for posterity.
I hope you enjoy! I will post a link to the self-published book when I offer it up for purchase.
(the below #Hastagku’s are entirely of my own creation and any use of them without the author -Beautiful Existence- permission is illegal, immoral and should not be performed without artist consent)
#Longing
#WhatAmIToDo?
#WhenMyWorldSplitsInTwo?
#WhenMySoulsNowInYouToo?
#WhatAmISupposedToDo?
#WhatAmIToDoWithThisSpace?
#ThatNowExistsInYourPlace?
#ThatNowHasYouReplaced?
#WhatDoesOneDoInThisCase?
#ISearchForYouEverywhere!
#IWearYourTShirtAnywhere!
#ITsTooBigButIDontCare!
#JustSoYourScentLingersInMyAir!
#IReadYourTextsOverAndOver!
#JustToHearWordsFromMyLover!
#AndFindMessagesStillToUncover!
#FromOneSoulmateToAnother!
#IFlipThroughOurInstagramsSent!
#JustToSeeOneMoreTinyMoment!
#OfTimeWeSoLonginglySpent!
#InLoveThatFeltLikeItWasDreamt!
#IAskYou…
#WhatAmISupposedToDo?
#WhenAmericaApartYouJustFlew?
#WhenOneDoesntWantToBeTwo!
#ReturnMyLoveIReallyMissYou!
#IWantToBreakLawsWithYou
#IWantToBreakLawsWithYou!
#IWantTheRealLawsToApplyToo
#NaturesLawsThatArePrimitive
#ForThoseAreOnesThatWillLive!
#NaturalLawsAreNotMadeOfMan
#NaturalLawsWeDoNotCommand
#YetWeRevolveAroundThemLest
#OurInstinctualWaysWouldCeaseToExist
#NoIWantToBreakNATURALLawsWithYou
#LikeWildAnimalsDoBehindWallsAtTheZoo!
#AnimalsThatFeedOffCarnalKnowledge
#AnimalsThatDwellOnLustAndBondage
#WeWillTakeTheNightAndMakeItOurOwn
#WeWillRuleTheSunAndMakeHerOurHome
#ThisTimeAndDistanceBetweenUsWillStopInItsTracks
#AndIWillBeYoursAndYouWillBeMineEndlesslyBack!
#NoMyLoveIWantToBreakNatiralLawsWithYou
#IWantToShareASoulThatsAmazingTimesTwo!
#IWantMotherNatureToStopAndBlessOurLove
#AndShowTheUniverseWhatHansSoulsAreTrulyCapableOf!
#IWantToBreakNaturalLawsWithYou
#WeShallLiveInfamouslyMyHoneyAndHisBeau!
How?
#How?
#JustHow?
#HowDoIFindThem?
#BetterYet…
#HowDoTheyFindMe?!!!
#EveryLoveIveKnown…
#EverySingleOne
#EverythingWasMoreImportant
#EverythingButMe
#OneHadToProveHisPower
#OneWasFocusedOnBeingSuccess
#OneWasPurePassionForAnother
#OneWasFinanciallyObsessed
#IWasDoingJustFine
#IWasResolvedToLovingJustTwo
#IWasDoingJustFine
#IThoughtThatWasUntilYou…
#WhyWouldYouBringMeIn?
#WhyWouldYouLoveSoSelfishly?
#WhyAskMeWhenWeCantHave?
#WhyPutMyHeartOnAString?
#HowDidILetThisHappenAgain?
#HowCouldITrustWhenItCantBe?
#HowCouldIGiveInSoEasily?
#HowInTheWorldCanILiveWithYou?
But…
#HowCanILiveWITHOUTYou?!!
#How?
#JustHow?
#ItIsThose
#ItIsThose
#ThatCanOpenAHeart
#OnceMadeOfStone
#ToAHeartSoGolden
#AndPlaceOnAThrown
#ItIsThose
#ThatAdmitToTheirFaults
#ToMakeAWrongRight
#AskHumblyToForgive
#FrailHumanOversight
#ItIsThose
#ATruthBecomesStrength
#FromTheirErrorOfWays
#AndShinesGloryOnSadness
#TowardsBrightestOfDays
#ItIsThose
#ThatShallInheritTrueLove
#ThatShallFindTheirInnerPeace
#ThatWillAlwaysShineASun
#AndThatShallAlwaysBelieve!
#IAmByYourSide
#IAmByYourSide
#IWillTakeThisRide
#ToDiscoverAllOverAgain
#WhatCouldOfBeen
#IAmReadyToGlide
#RightByYourSide
#ToForgiveAndLoveAgain
#WhatWeHaveAlwaysBeen
This morning, on #MasterTweetsTheater…
#ItWasATale #FamiliarlyTold
#OfALoveAffair #ToUnfold
#WithAGoat #OnABoat
#AFamilyYacht #ToBehold!
#ThereWasDancingAbound
#WithThePianoAround
#AndTheWavesHelped
#WithTheRockAndRoll
#ButASirensGentleShove
#TurnedAToughSailorTowardsLove
#AndTheRestlessSeas #TurnedIntoGold!
#Snowboard #AllAboard!
#BlizzardOfAnticipation
#FreshPowder #MyFate
#HurryUpAndWait
#NewbieOfShred #NoMore
#TiredAndTrue #FromMeToYou
#FirstDayUpdate… #IAmSORE!
#OdeToHighSchool…
#OnceIsEnough
#OnceIsNeverAlone
#YouDoYourTime
#YouFlyTheNest
#YouMakeAHome
#YouWereDone
#YouThought
#NextThingYouKnow
#YourChildIsThere
#WelcomeBackHome!
#PrettyPinkUnicorn
#SittingAllByYourLonesome
#FunTodayGoPLAY
#WalkingHandInHand
#MyBodyComesChargedAlive
#CellsElectrified
#InLoveAndSideBySide
#FollowingYourEveryMove
#BeingCloseToYou = #Swoon
#Hashtagku
For more of my Twitter #Hashtagku updates visit my account at: @EvolveExistence
Filed under Uncategorized
I was HERE
I’ve been contemplating another post on this first blog site for awhile (because a year is just a ridiculous amount of time to wait) and I just haven’t felt the right time until NOW.
Last night I witnessed an end-of-an-era party at a local record store called Easy Street Records (Queen Anne location) and it was the second time in a month I’ve been bittersweet about something…
Last summer her last words on the phone to me were “I love you” and of course my reply to my grandmother was “I love you too!”. Little did I realize that less than 4 months later she would be gone and I would be standing in a record store thinking of her while watching a crowd full of DJ-dancing youth party like it’s 1999.
Grandma had led an interesting life… as most over 80-year old people can claim. If you think about it, your life will probably be somewhat interesting if you live for at least 80 years (or more) too! But my grandma had skeleton’s that hadn’t been known to the family or me until the end of 2012 when we opened up her jewelry case.
Like a lot of women I know (especially me), jewelry holds significance in our lives. It holds a place and time for the person we received it from, the environment in which it was given, the occasion and especially the memories of all three in our minds. My association with jewelry has had me triumphantly hawk a Tiffany & Co. 3 1/2 carat diamond and platinum wedding ring just to be able to rent a UHaul and leave him! I say triumphantly because I LOVED that ring! BUT, he told me I had no money (and no ability in his mind) to him. But through that significant piece of jewelry between us, that is just what I did!
Jewelry, especially if it is kept for a significant time in a woman’s life is certain to hold deep memories for her, and my grandmother was no different. One of her jewelry cases had photos of her old love from high school when he was a boy of only 7! She held her memories of voters cards, work pins and newspaper clippings of her youngest (my mother) with her other buried “treasures”. Almost as if we would find them and put together the pieces of her life through her jewelry.
And you know what? We did just that. While rummaging to see what this was and what that was and who might want to inherit it we pieced together a lifetime of love and loss (and some serious questions) from those pieces of metal, jewels, plastic, paper & decor. We pieced together a life that exchanged many different gifts for different occasions and different eras. Her love losses became bittersweet by adding the extra understanding of family diaries and stories to the mix… until her jewelry case became a way for me to cry and release her memory in my own moment. For a woman that lost husbands through divorce, suicide, accident and concious choice these pieces of jewelry were her story to read again each time she opened up the lid or held one in her hand.
From one of the diaries of others I surmised that this one bracelet, a charm bracelet, held a discovery that would eventually change the direction of her life forever. So when I came upon the bracelet I immediately wanted it to carry this realization into my own world by wearing it. But then I looked at it and the second box holding the charms and realized that she never had even opened it, let alone wore it?! This trip that started the collection of this jewelry bracelet was never fully realized by my grandmother, sadly. A woman that always told me that I was great at whatever I was doing… a woman that touted my praises everyday and made me feel 10 feet tall when I would talk to her. She never even opened up her own adventure and wore it for herself?
The charms are from all over the country, they come from different time periods with different costs from many different stores and tourist shops. They are all silver, all perfect and ALL just waiting, patiently for somebody to finally put them on!
So I did.
My favorite is a Space Needle charm that looks like it could have been from the World’s Fair by the price tag on it.
I almost couldn’t stand putting the bracelet together and wearing it for the first time, but the obstacle that my grandmother never realized in her own life by wearing her adventure wasn’t going to hold me back too! This woman who always told me that I was a strong person and could achieve anything made me realize that I HAD to wear it, if only for her!
Which leads me to the second bittersweet moment last night that made me realize this was my next post…
That Space Needle charm.
The Easy Street Record shop had been in this location for over a decade and grown quite a following in Seattle for having impromptu acts show up and perform as well as knowledgable staff who have become a welcome addition to many industries in the area.
I walked in off the street and toured the rummaged racks, the youthful grunge-esque style party crowd was drinking PBR and Rainier to the beats. The mature cliental gently looking over titles one by one as if drinking a fine scotch, sip by sip and savoring every moment.
I picked up my camera and started shooting odds and ends and found myself right in front of a pile of CD’s with New Order’s Substance 1987 sitting right on top. This was my GO-TO music way back when! One of my first loves of music was playing this cassette over and over again until I bought the CD in which I did the same thing for probably 20 years. But somehow I lost it a while ago and never thought about it again until now. So I reached to pick it up and my charm bracelet dangled in front of me, specifically the Space Needle charm. I immediately realized this store is right in the shadow of the Space Needle, I’m sitting here feeling melancholy about my youthful music choices and the closing of the store and WOAH! I had a major rush of bittersweet wave shock throughout my body! My face actually became flush and I sat there for a moment, in that loud-rowdy room full of strangers and sat with that feeling of love and loss.
In a sort of euphoric haze I walked around a bit more looking at the crowds, the mess, the empty Dicks hamburger wrappers on the displays and then the neon caught my eye and I snapped a picture.
It wasn’t until I came home and started editing the photo that I knew the caption for this post, this story, for my grandmother’s story, for Easy Street Record’s story. It wasn’t until now that I realized that it really is the story for all of us in the end whether it came from a CD, a record, a bracelet that was never worn… the story is still there, still realized by many people in many different ways. I just happened to capture the caption of so many people and places in life through this one picture, in this one place that both worlds seemed to collide for me last night. And all it said to me was…
I was HERE. (and that’s really all that matters in the end anyways)
Love you grandma! You will always be HERE, right in my heart (and sometimes on my wrist!)
Filed under Uncategorized
Gratitude
My father is a very smart man in both ways… read and in reality. I often wonder why he doesn’t become a college professor because he taught my brother everything he knows and my brother knew more than his professors in college.
One of the ways that my father has expanded his knowledge over the years is with what I call “tidbits of information” and the apple didn’t fall far from the tree because we both crave learning new things everyday and seek knowledge in all forms… written, verbal and electric. My father has an especial fondness of sitting in his Lazy Boy chair, warming up his laptop and receiving, reading and forwarding emails from numerous friends, family and websites at least twice a day. Luckily, I am one of the recipients of his vast emailed messages and often learn many things from my father’s emails such as how to preserve berries from molding, how to protect your car from theft by covering up the VIN # or how famous actresses like Martha Ray helped save soldiers in WWII (a favorite subject of my fathers).
The following story was forwarded to me by my father. I immediately Googled the man and the story behind it and found it all to be true, and in my eyes a very heart-warming story of TRUE appreciation of life and how humans perceive the world around us… very often you cannot judge a book by it’s cover and whether it’s the man in this story or my father… knowledge is everywhere, if you look.
“It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.
Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp.
Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.
Everybody’s gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts…and his bucket of shrimp.
Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.
Everybody’s gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts…and his bucket of shrimp.
Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.
Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds.
As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’
In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn’t leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.
When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.
If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like ‘a funny old duck,’ as my dad used to say. Or, ‘a guy who’s a sandwich shy of a picnic,’ as my kids might say. To onlookers, he’s just another old codger, lost in his own weird world,feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.
To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant …. Maybe even a lot of nonsense.
Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters. Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida.
In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn’t leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.
When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.
If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like ‘a funny old duck,’ as my dad used to say. Or, ‘a guy who’s a sandwich shy of a picnic,’ as my kids might say. To onlookers, he’s just another old codger, lost in his own weird world,feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.
To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant …. Maybe even a lot of nonsense.
Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters. Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida.
That’s too bad. They’d do well to know him better.
His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker.
His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker.
He was a famous hero back in World War II. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.
Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water.They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were. They needed a miracle.That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle.
Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water.They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were. They needed a miracle.That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle.
They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft.. Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!
Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck.. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal – a very slight meal for eight men – of it.
Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck.. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal – a very slight meal for eight men – of it.
Then they used the intestines for bait.. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait……and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued (after 24 days at sea…).
Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull..
Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull..
And he never stopped saying, ‘Thank you.’
That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.”
Reference: (Max Lucado, “In The Eye of the Storm”,Pp..221, 225-226)
Thanks Dad, for still schooling me after all these years!
Filed under Connecting, Wisdom
