ALL THOSE JOURNALS

(Taking a break to write this blog post.
I love coffee and dark chocolate!)

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Who remembers the soap opera

“All My Children?”

My soap opera is called

"All My Journals"

THE DIARY THAT TELLS THE STORY OF

 A torturous, torrid, tremulous

dire, disappointed, devastated, heroine, 

gnashing her teeth with chagrin, envy, and jealousy.

Along with rainbows and humor.

Or giving myself some writing advice.

My daily writing has been scrawled 

in spiral notebooks

and beautiful bound journals.

Sometimes a poem begins
 on a journal page.

The finished poem:

I'm Not From Good Stock

I’m not from good stock

There’s the rub.

I’m Eliza Doolittle

dropping my h’s.

I’m the sow’s ear from which

no silk purse shall ever be made.

If I were a kind of wood,

it would be the cheapest yellow pine.

A Georgia Loblolly

growing up fast

with thin roots.

The bark stripped for mulch.

The boards for a pauper’s coffin.

No time even to tap the pungent resin

which, left alone,

might yield some greater value,

say paint thinner for an artist.

What can you make with cheap pine?

Not a violin or a grand piano

or a baseball bat

or castanets.

Not a curly maple dresser

or a cedar hope chest.

But if you strip away everything else,

there is the heart of the pine,

fire starter wood,

and even a cheap heart

can burn with a blue passion.

~~~

A favorite sketch.

(Grandma loved Eight O'clock coffee)

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I love the handcrafted journal
 below with purple beading 

along the spine.

~ ~ ~
Sometimes my journal entries

give me comfort as much

as a therapist.

I write about my mistakes

my follies, my doubts, and fears.

I believe I do this to quell

the anxiety from living alone

and being responsible

for my ongoing old age!

~ ~ ~

I color in a coffee cup!
Magic!

~ ~ ~

Living alone for ever so long,
and being an only child,
I've become my own best friend,

my own guide and counselor,

playmate, workmate,

mindmate, and soulmate.

So, in a way I am in love

with my "Dear Diary,"

~ ~ ~

My soul and spirit is scrawled

in cursive or manuscript
in these journals,

so I dumped them all on the
sofa and gave a blessing. 

(BFF's Best Friends Forever)

~ ~ ~

My latest journal I gave myself
for my birthday
from Peter Pauper Press.

I've used it for a graphic design 
for the ending of the
"All Those Journals"
music video I added.

Do you Follow Your Bliss?
~~~

Click on You Tube Photo
to hear a beautiful Piano Solo
I recorded years ago:
"That Endless Summer."

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Thanks so much dear viewer
for reading and listening to this
Blue Tomato Blog Post.

scroll down for earlier posts

(A Search for Meaning at 82)

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The Search for Meaning at 82

September Sky

~ ~ ~

She was born on the cusp of Autumn

when Virgo was shading her eyes

against the sun

casting long shadows

across a Georgia landscape.

It is the cusp of beauty,

longing for the ideal,

for goals worthy of her effort.

Meanwhile -- roses fade,

once green leaves

turn brilliant . . . and fall.

The warmth and freedom of summer

drops quickly

 like crackly brown leaves

parched by too much sun.

In the end all she has is her own story

and the way she chooses

to reflect it

and live it to it’s end.

~ ~ ~

Today, on her 82nd birthday

She is still writing questions on the

pages of her journals.

“Dear Diary,

What is the meaning of life?”

And then a funny response

will pop up and she must to draw a cartoon.

~ ~ ~

Back in the 80s reading

Victor Frankl’s book

Man’s Search for Meaning

influenced the direction of her thinking.

Now she’s reading

The Pursuit of Meaning

She is pretty sure she has created

 the life she needs

to have the freedom to be herself.

like draw more journal sketches!

Yet, with freedom comes responsibility

which brings on a low grade anxiety

knowing that she must 

take care of herself, pay the bills,

tend the garden, make the bed,

empty the dish drain, and the garbage,

bake the bread like the Little Red Hen.

(Oops! The Little Red Hen now goes to

Trader Joe's or EarthFare)

~ ~ ~

Once she felt proud to be able

to tie her Buster Brown Saddle oxfords.

Now, she is proud to have

figured out how to

Click and Drag on a laptop

in which she can “email” a friend. 

And figure out a keyboard!

~ ~ ~

Inadvertently she has been answering

the Meaning of Life question

all along by just being creative

in her own way,

like making the music video:

Shakespeare’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow with a Twist!

  ~ ~ ~

Producing this music video

used a lot of her skills:

like uploading her own music.

"Still Entranced" an instrumental piece.

and adding a garden photograph

and a bit of humor.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow still surprises her

every time she watches it!

And IS the meaning of her life.

Very fitting as she turns 82.

(thanks for watching)

CLICK HERE

Shakespeare’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow with a Twist!

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