The Barefoot Heart

today, a wordless altar.

“I’ve stopped for some ice cream,” he said into his cell phone,
standing in the center of the ice cream shop,
talking loud enough for all of us
and those in the sandwich shop next door to hear.
“Do you want me to bring you something, hon?”
And in that single question
from the lips of a man I’ve never seen before
and will never see again,
I missed my Daddy in what can only be called
a tsunami of tremendous ache
that lingers right beneath the surface,
regardless of how many calendar pages I’ve torn off.

~~ :: ~~

and then the day came
when she opened her fingers,
relaxing the chokehold she had
on things that no longer seemed
so important.

and in that releasing,
the fronds of her heart unfurled,
the leaves becoming steps
allowing entry to
more goodness
than she’d dared
dream possible.

~~ :: ~~

today’s altar: release

for my friend
karen sharp
and other women
who find themselves in need
of gentle hugs
and heart balm:
an altar.

pansies
for thought,
blue bird
for happiness,
a clock to say
“all in good time,”
and a sparkly, boro’ed bird
to remind us that
there’s art in mending.

~~ :: ~~

some days
all it takes
is to simply
rewind
and start
again.

Dear #reverb10 nation,

Please excuse the Fairy Godmother today. She misses you terribly but needed to be elsewhere. If all goes according to plan, she’ll be back by late tomorrow with a full pouch of her special brew fairy dust.

Signed,

The Fairy Godmother’s Fairy Godmother

my response to each #reverb10 daily prompt is a tip, a suggestion you might find useful in juicing every single succulent drop out of this month-long experience. some of the tips are things i learned over the past year; some are answers to questions reverbers have asked me privately; some are things i just pull out of thin air.

at the end of each day (or roughly thereabouts), the tip will be folded into the comprehensive list, a.k.a. the marrow. and hey, if a tip sparks another idea, i’d sure appreciate it if you’d drop me a note in the comments section so i can sprinkle it out to others. and do some sprinkling of your own: point others to the marrow in case there’s something here they can use.

now let’s get on with it cause my wand’s a wastin’ . . .

today’s prompt (from author Susannah Conway, creator of Unravelling, the e-course that i’m gonna’ sign up for one day before it sells out): Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

today’s tip: when you’re stumped, (decide to) ask for help. the assistance is a gift you receive, and the opportunity to help is a gift you give. funny how that happens.

and hey, consider saying “thank you” publicly – in a tweet or a mention (complete with a link to them) in your blog post or both.

today’s tip is enkindled by these 2 tweets from this past week: “RT @traceyclark: good idea! RT @pixie658: Having a hard time on today’s #reverb10 prompt? Ask close friends what they find unique about u”

AND

from thesdcowgirl: “can i cheat on #reverb10 and ask someone what it is that makes me beautifully different? lol.”

. . . and i’ll fly if i want to.

change of plans, my #reverb10 friends. after today’s weekly check-in with my writing partner, julie daley (always a party), i was just plain tickled, giddy, bubbling over. so today’s tip (from @shauna: What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.) comes with a story:

i’m still hung over from the times when all my selves show up. which is, coincidentally, usually at the party on the page – you know, the one happening whenever i sit down to write . . .

there’s good girl who makes me dizzy in her constant frothy motion making sure everybody’s glass is at least half full (if not brimming) and that the spotlight shines on Everybody Else (though never so much that they glisten, mind you). she says she doesn’t want to take up too much space, professes the last thing she wants to do is be a bother, and tries to make herself believe that all she really, really, really wants to do is make Everybody Else comfortable. good girl knows – she flat-out knows – that the secret to good writing is to never use i, me, mine or any other personal reference.

there’s down-to-business girl who spends gazoodles of prep time making outlines and clearing the desk and making sure there’s ample ink. before arriving, she passes out treats to the dog and cats, gets a load of laundry on to wash, and cleans every single toilet. again. it’s all she can do to keep from charting the arrival and departure times of the party guests and documenting leftovers for future reference.

trophy girl wants Everybody to love every single word . . . and beg for more.

martyr girl nails herself to the cross at least three times a day. her to do list is so voluminous, she spends her best creativity justifying 15 (measly) minutes of writing time.

reticent girl entertains herself by listening in on conversations and wishing she had something blazingly new and noticeably worthwhile to add to the conversation. she vows right then and there to read more – to smarten herself up before writing another word. (i mean, really. who does she think she is?) fortunately for her, she has an ipad and can stop right then and order a hefty supply of books from knowledgeable authors. it’s a quick, easy, and (actually enjoyable, if expensive) penance.

there’s mischievous girl who fantasizes about, well, i can’t really tell you that. not yet anyway.

obedient girl came because she said she would. and actually, now that it’s feeling more like a party, she’s not showing up as much any more. which makes the other guests just about as happy as it makes her.

then there’s wannabe girl who lives in a lush, colorful, vibrant landscape where it’s Very Much okay to blurt things out without worrying-up a single wrinkle from fretting about how to defend them. wannabe girl chokes on statistics, numbers confuse her, and she stalls out on facts wondering why such silly hand-me-down things matter so much to other people when they just seem to get in her way. she is fluent in JustBecause and speaks it with an accent that’s prone to change three times in a single short sentence. and just so you know, JustBecause isn’t only spoken, it’s the language of action, too. wannabe girl writes books JustBecause. she dances JustBecause. she wears what she wants to – you guessed it – JustBecause. wannabe girl can fill a minute with eggs of laughter AND tears that sparkle so you want to take them to the jeweler and have them mounted. there are even things she does NOT do JustBecause . . . and it all makes perfect sense to wannabe girl.

if you want to know the truth, wannabe girl has a standing invitation, and when she shows up, she is always – and i mean always – the ravishing guest of honor.

~~~::~~~::~~~::~~~::~~~::~~~::~~~

today’s tip: make every prompt a party and delight in who (or what) shows up on the page. if you’re delighted, we’ll be delighted, too.

you know how it goes: every day i post a tip, a suggestion you might find useful in juicing every single succulent drop out of this month-long experience. some of the tips are things i learned over the past year; some are answers to questions reverbers have asked me privately; some are things i just pull out of thin air.

at the end of each day (or roughly thereabouts), the tip will be folded into the comprehensive list, a.k.a. the marrow. and hey, if a tip sparks another idea, i’d sure appreciate it if you’d drop me a note in the comments section so i can sprinkle it out to others. and do some sprinkling of your own: point others to the marrow in case there’s something there they can use.

my response to each #reverb10 daily prompt is a tip, a suggestion you might find useful in juicing every single succulent drop out of this month-long experience. some of the tips are things i learned over the past year; some are answers to questions reverbers have asked me privately; some are things i just pull out of thin air.

at the end of each day (or roughly thereabouts), the tip will be folded into the comprehensive list, a.k.a. the marrow. and hey, if a tip sparks another idea, i’d sure appreciate it if you’d drop me a note in the comments section so i can sprinkle it out to others. and do some sprinkling of your own: point others to the marrow in case there’s something here they can use.

now let’s get on with it cause my wand’s a wastin’ . . .

today’s prompt: Beautifully Different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful. (Author: Karen Walrond)

today’s tip: reach out to at least 3 people every day and smack ‘em with a smile, sprinkle a compliment, dabble out a spot of encouragement. twitter brings out the nice in people, and let’s face it: nice breeds nice.

—:::—

something new: recap i don’t know about you, but cali‘s prompt on community really revved up my circuits and lit up my board. i didn’t make it around to everybody, but here, in no particular order, are some of the blogs that i especially enjoyed on yesterday’s blog crawl:

any last word
julie unplugged
this space intentionally left blank
sally g: lighting up the heart of ordinary
first pages
amy oscar
mrsmediocrity

my response to each #reverb10 daily prompt is a tip, a suggestion you might find useful in juicing every single succulent drop out of this month-long experience. some of the tips are things i learned over the past year; some are answers to questions reverbers have asked me privately; some are things i just pull out of thin air.

at the end of each day (or roughly thereabouts), the tip will be folded into the comprehensive list, a.k.a. the marrow. and hey, if a tip sparks another idea, i’d sure appreciate it if you’d drop me a note in the comments section so i can sprinkle it out to others. and do some sprinkling of your own: point others to the marrow in case there’s something here they can use.

now let’s get on with it cause my wand’s a wastin’ . . .

today’s prompt: community. where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? what community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (author: cali harris, @caligater)

today’s tip comes from the effervescent @tiasparkles, solopreneur coach that you’ll definitely want to get to know. and hey, before we go any further, let me take a moment to offer another red-faced apology to tia and to give you the correct link to a post that just lit up my night a coupla nights ago. i meant for it to light up yours, too, but i had so many windows open, what with so many reverberations and all, i guess i inhaled some of my fairy dust cause something went wonkers and i tweeted out the link to another spectacular #reverb10 post. anyway, here you go: the right way to get to tia’s post you do not want to miss.

and tia’s tip: Pick 10 different peeps daily. Say hi & read & comment on their posts. You’ll be AMAZED at the community you create via #reverb10.

now get on out there and reverberate. and don’t forget to bear witness to others doing the same.