Petals

Pretty pink petals

Pitter patter

Without pittance

Pretty much proving

That pangs of prittle

Probably pray

To prodding prattles

Dare to be bold

Day 7 prompt of the #Trust30 challenge by Matt Cheuvront

Realistic

I wish I was

But not really

Overcoming fear

Is fun and exciting

My head is too often in the clouds

Trying to find my heart

I frequently fall

Luckily there are always

Trampolines

To soften the thump

And send me right back

Up

Daring to fly

Again

What I need is not

To dare

But to know

Where

My heart will settle.

Bonus: This writing challenge is making me discover – and accept – my pace as a writer, my need for reflection... And that I dare publish something before I think it is good!

#Trust30 - One week left to live?

Come Alive by Jonathan Mead

Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you had one week left to live, would you still be doing what you’re doing now? In what areas of your life are you preparing to live? Take them off your To Do list and add them to a To Stop list. Resolve to only do what makes you come alive.

Bonus: How can your goals improve the present and not keep you in a perpetual “always something better” spiral?

(Author: Jonathan Mead)

If I knew I only had one week left to live, I would want to have a huge gathering, have my children and husband and family and friends around me. We'd all be in a beautiful sunny resort. Spacious, light, calm surroundings. Wonderful meals would be served, no dishes to do, no cleaning. Just following our whims and inspiration. Relaxing, laughing, playing, running because we are so happy to get to the next delicious thing we're doing or experiencing.

Now I have to hurry and figure out how to afford that week :-)

#Trust30 - One place in the world I'd like to visit before I die

Travel by Chris Guillebeau

If we live truly, we shall see truly. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not everyone wants to travel the world, but most people can identify at least one place in the world they’d like to visit before they die. Where is that place for you, and what will you do to make sure you get there?

(Author: Chris Guillebeau)

My response to the 5th prompt of the #Trust30 writing/self-reliance challenge:

I do not know all countries of the world. I have visited 18 of them on 3 continents. And lived in a few. Not anywhere near Chris Guillebeau, but still... I am not attracted by all countries and ironically, I ended up living in the one which has challenged me the most (talk about constant opportunity for learning!). I have felt so at home most places, that I am the one tourists would approach for questions, even though I would be just passing, like them. Many countries I have no desire at all to visit, but the one which has always attracted me is Japan.

I would love to go to Japan.

That is probably the one place where I think I will feel “dépaysée”, a wonderful French word which literally could be translated as 'de-countrified' , but which actually conveys that feeling of being transplanted out of your usual environment and habits to find yourself in a completely strange place (Google translates it as homesick or bewildered).

Japan would probably be the place where everything would feel new to me, where I would be out of my element, where I would not have any bearings, where I would not know the rules of conduct, but where my ignorance would probably be excused because I will look so foreign (am I hoping too much?). A place where I will see everything with 'fresh' eyes. Where I don't know the language and where I would probably – and hopefully – feel like a child in awe.

#Trust30 - One Strong belief?

My response to the 3rd prompt of the #Trust30 so day writing challenge by the Domino Project.

What strong belief do I possess that isn't shared by my closest friends or family?

I've been thinking and thinking, and I can't really come up with one. My family all have different beliefs. My closest friends all have different beliefs. I am very different from every one of them, but then, so are they.

My strongest belief is that my strongest belief can be challenged at any moment, and that I should not off-handedly dismiss whatever contradicts whatever I think I know for sure. Always keep an open mind. And then make a choice. There is not one truth. There are infinite truths. Infinite angles to look from at any situation.

All I wish for is clarity in the moment, and the courage and stamina to act on that.

#Trust30 - Day 2

Today's prompt for the 30-day writing challenge was by Liz Danzico:

How would you describe today using only one sentence?

Today was the day I really felt the need to think of how I could translate the satisfaction of helping out into a livelihood. Hmmm...

#Trust30 by The Domino Project

I committed to the challenge of writing or creating something for the next 30 days on the Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Reliance #Trsut30 project initiated be The Domino Project. I will probably do some of it offline, as I will have trouble getting online for 15 of the 30 days.

The first prompt is by Gwen Bell: You discover that you have 15 minutes left to live, and in these 15 minutes, you write the story that has to be written.

Here is my entry:

Dear Jon ,

It seems I only have 15 minutes left to live (you'll find out why and how when you find my body) and since I can't reach you on your phone to say how much I love you and thank you for our time together, here are some useful things to know or things I wish you to continue for me:

First, my computer access code is XXXXXXXXX. In it you will find all kinds of helpful documents that you might need.

You will also find all my digital photos. You know where all the non-digital ones are. Hopefully one day you will find someone to distill a “body of work” from them, a task that has really eluded me all those years.

You will also find some of my writing: the poems, the essays, the stories. But only the ones that I have taken the trouble to type into the computer. The others are scattered in my notebooks. Oh I know... a big job to distill those too, especially when you've always said that poetry was not your thing...

What else do I wish I had time to do? Let me see...

You know I love you, the kids know I love them, my parents know I love them, my friends know I love them... Growing up in a war torn country has long ago made me aware of the fragility of certainty and has taught me the importance of striving to be at peace within myself at all times. But I have neglected a few things, like playing more often. I've waited too long to dare shine, have waited too long to consider myself a 'real' artist, have waited too long … or you know what... maybe I haven't... Now is as good a time as any to drop perfectionism, isn't it? Just tell our daughters to be aware not to lose their real selves for too long before they own being themselves again. Seems to be some kind of twisted game in life.

The world will continue fine without me. I know that I have left some kind of (good) mark on many of the people I have been in contact with. What more can I ask for?

Tell the kids I will always be there when they need me, just in another wa

(The 15 minutes are up and of course I die).

Reacting to images

I was looking through my photo files and I accidentally fell upon this picture from 2004.

It wasn't a picture I remembered I had taken. But for some reason, today it caught my attention.

How do you decide which are your 'good' photographs? Do you have different opinions/feelings about individual pictures when you've have had some time distance to them?

Poetry reading at Atheneum Bookstore in Copenhagen

On Friday June 3rd, 2011, Lynne Hjelmgaard and Marlene R. Edelstein will read from their respective poetry books, The Ring and Believe Everything Believe Nothing, at the Atheneum Bookstore, on Nørregade 6, near Vor Frue Kirke (Church of Our Lady) in the heart of Copenhagen.

Come and enjoy some wonderful poetry and get your book signed (if you don't have the books, you can buy them there).

Christian Lemmerz – First Aid Sculpture, 1985

Ouch

I'm broke

Someone help me

A plaster on my wound

Please (I'm provocative but brittle)

A cotton to soak

My white blood

Thick

Stoned as lead

Refusing to flow art.