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

====

Scroll down for more

blog posts.

CHRONICLES AT EIGHTY!

HELLO FRIENDS!

I've MOVED!

Here's my new little

patio apt. at Wesley Woods of Athens.
 I moved in on July 25.

This photo is from behind my long sofa.

~ ~ ~

This is what it looked like empty.

(friendly maintenance guys)

~ ~ ~

My door! Apt. 108

(framed Album covers print)

I'm trying to decorate it
in an interesting style.

Bedroom with my
dancing women creations.

(A crazy decor of an aging musical diva.)

Mirrors help make it feel larger.
~ ~ ~


Here's a journal entry after
three months:

Nov. 1, 2019:

Dear Diary,

A new journal begins, finally. May this next month be healing. I’ve been so low energy, nose stopped up, ear, too. The only thing saving me is reading old journals. Yes!

They are a saving grace.

                ~ ~ ~

Thank goodness I packed up

 all my old journals

 and brought them with me.

~ ~ ~

These three months have been

a huge adjustment.

~ ~ ~

Mon. Nov. 4, 2019

Dear Diary,

Am I better? Maybe. But my “can-do” has no muscle or will, focus, or inspiration!

What do I have to look forward to - to rev me up?

I can color in this page to inspire tomorrow. Maybe make a photo . . . a blog post . . . maybe Chronicles at Eighty?

~ ~ ~

Here's the tiny kitchen.

I was asked if I would submit

an art piece for the

Resident's Art Wall

Seeing my watercolor on the resident's wall was a life affirming experience.

I need it!

~ ~ ~

However, my energy can only go

to one place and I want to publish

Love Your Fate!

(Draft of a cover design)

stay tuned . . .

~~~

THANKS FOR READING!!

Scroll down for more posts:

(A Strangely Delicious Breakfast

Brave New CyberWorld

The Day My Car Died!)

Strangely Delicious Breakfast!!!

My day starts with 

A STRANGELY DELICIOUS BREAKFAST

See those sliced onions?

I buy them in bags now.

Maybe they keep me healthy

because I didn’t have a cold

 or any kind of illness all winter.

~ ~ ~

I thank all of you who sent me an email response to my blog

The Day My Car Died!!!

There she goes!

I donated my little blue car to GPB. 

~ ~ ~

I’ve been maudlin

 over my circumstances

with no car 

lying on the sofa

looking at this house I will soon

be leaving.

Yikes!!! Lying on the sofa I saw

a black snake on the carpet

at the end of the sofa!!

Scared me to death!

I slowly grabbed my cellphone

as it slithered to the closet door.

I knew it wasn’t poisonous

and got the broom

 and opened up the back door.

What kind of message is that?

Get OUT now?

~ ~ ~

The next week I got a message

a Lanier Gardens patio apt.

 will be available

 at the end of July.

Relief and throwing out more

memorabilia! Lots of clothes

which are like costumes to me.

Here are a few airing out last Spring!

 The long pink quilted  skirt

 goes back to the 60's!!

~ ~ ~

On a more productive note:

Yesterday my son Todd

 drove me to the Honda dealer

and I bought a used FIT.

EARTH DREAMS!

What a strangely delicious engine it has!

Maybe I'll be able to load my

 Album Cover Exhibit

 in the hatchback!

My Life In Album Covers

I envision this as a stage presentation!

But a blog post

will do

for now!

It's just another

Silent Dream.

In the meantime,

here’s the album cover I designed for

Because of Love 

a song on a CD album 

(CLICK TO HEAR)

(It's a crooner song!)

~ ~ ~ ~

Thanks so much for watching!

Scroll down for more posts

Brave New Cyber World

The Day My Car Died

Music, Ukulele and Love Your Fate!

Second Coming of Age

~ ~ ~ ~