MY HAPPINESS PROJECT!

 

WHAT CAN I DO

TO HANG ON

UNTIL THE ELECTION?

~~~

One day I'm up

One day I'm down.

I NEED A HAPPINESS PROJECT!

I sketch in my journal.

"A cupful of stars"

===

I LOVE MY APARTMENT!

I'm GRATEFUL to have a meal

hung on my apartment door

every day.

But how can I STAY happy???

I write to myself in my journal!

Dear Diary,

A new chord struck

from the tuning fork

in my heart . . .

I've answered my own question!

TODAY IS A VERY SPECIAL DAY!

IT'S THE ONLY DAY I HAVE.

~ ~ ~

This IS MY HAPPINESS PROJECT!

To heed my own words!

"This is the only day I have."

AND TO COLOR IN MY WORLD!

I begin to color in my sketches

with more color

and more

care.

I don't color in a sketch until later

this is what a sketch looks like

as I was writing earnestly 

in my journal.

"TRUST THE PROCESS!"

If I take time to color

I'll lose my train of thought!

-----

Before:

After:

~ ~ ~

IN THE MEANTIME

Here's our Wesley Looney Toons

Ukulele band

led by Rosemary Woodel

We played outside for Roland

who is 99 years old!

Here's our Ukulele song

TIPTOE THRU THE TULIPS!!

THIS IS A 

HAPPINESS PROJECT, TOO!

https://youtu.be/vwP4oeL_FJQ

Over My Head I Hear Music in the Air

 https://youtu.be/KR75GTYw9_w

(Rosemary's wonderful YouTube Channel!!)

Thanks for watching our videos

----

And now . . .

Here's an entry from my new

 self-published book, 

LOVE YOUR FATE

A Poetic Odyssey

Growing A Soul

During those wild, wilderness years,

I’d scrambled myself up a Fortune 500 ladder,

from mail room to corporate communications.

Honed a few skills I didn’t know I had.

Bought a leather briefcase.

Dressed for success.

Flown on a Lear jet to Jefferson City,

sitting behind the pilots,

watching the altimeter climb to 20,000.

After twelve years I started throwing up.

Is it food poisoning, I wondered?

Could it be undercooked chicken?

That smorgasbord at the Greenbrier conference

with Ben Bradlee as keynote speaker?

No, it is my soul vomiting.

Vested interests strangling me.

A new kind of meaning

has come my way,

through poetry mostly,

May Sarton,

Mary Oliver,

Marge Piercy.

Time to stop

and smell the roses

and grow a soul.

=====

=====

Thanks for reading this.

Scroll down for more posts

FOR THE DURATION

and more 

===

and more

===

FOR THE DURATION

"FOR THE DURATION"

By now all of you are 

weathering the constraints

placed on us in this

coronavirus pandemic.

When will it be over?

--------------

Back in WWII we had an expression

"For the Duration"

Some foods were rationed,
like sugar and coffee.
All you young folks can’t even

imagine how we

RECYCLED!! 

Grease, newspapers, tin foil wrappers

from cigarette packs, sticks of

chewing gum, and tooth paste tubes.

Even bubble gum was rationed!!

------------

We, Brown High Classmates of 1954

weathered that Storm.

To my classmates,

I send you love

from your classmate of 1954

Charlotte Ashurst.
Stay healthy and safe.

——

(a.k.a Chip McDaniel)

—-

I’ve been living in my

Retirement Apartment

for six months now.

I brought my keyboard, movie star photos

and strung up colored lights.

I've been playing in a Ukulele band.

Our Staff is keeping us safe from the

coronavirus.

Meals are delivered to our

rooms now.

Visitation is limited.

I’ve managed to finish a book

LOVE YOUR FATE:

A Poetic Odyssey

——

What if your life

came down to one book of poems?

What would they say?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Love  Your  Fate  takes you on a poetic journey of eighty years. These poems connect defining moments that led to an understanding of lifelong sadness and pain. Scenes depict wartime ration books, streetcars, singing on live TV, theater, marriage, children, divorce, the Women’s Movement, job at forty, early retirement, then finding the lost self through art, music, and poetry, and lastly, reflections on aging as part of the human condition.

===

First PROOFS arrive!!!

Love Your Fate:

A Poetic Odyssey

is up on

Amazon!

(paperback and ebook)

I worked hard to

transform the essence

 of my memoir,

Girdled and Gloved:

From Radio to Youtube

into a narrative poetic

storyline.

=====

Here’s a sample poem:

Jeep Rides

Oh, how I wanted to earn a Victory badge

to be part of the war effort,

so I collected empty Lucky Strike packs

at the streetcar stop.

I hunted for chewing gum wrappers by the curbs,

stripping off the tinfoil.

Mother saved the Ipana toothpaste tube.

Grandma saved her tin cans.

I smashed them fiercely

with a big hammer on a flat stone,

then stuffed them in an orange mesh bag.

Finally I have enough grease and newspapers

and mashed-up ball of tin

to earn a Victory badge plus a Lieutenant’s ribbon.

Our principal, Miss Kendrick says we will

soon get a Jeep ride with soldiers from Ft. McPherson.

One fine morning our teacher lines us up two by two

marching us outside just as a convoy

of Army jeeps drives onto our dusty playground.

We seven-year-olds are wild with excitement.

Two soldiers grab my arms, lift me up,

slinging me in the back seat

like a sack of potatoes.

They drive us straight off the curb

bouncing us up and down

like Mexican jumping beans.

We wave at people standing in their walkways.

They wave back, as if we’ve just returned from the war.

In my head I hear a marching band

playing The Stars and Stripes Forever.

Thanks for reading this:

Here’s a link to my book:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=charlotte+ashurst+mcdaniel+Love+Your+Fate&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss

====

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