Weather...or not

So...yesterday we were all set up for a "dynamic" weather system to churn through the Ohio River Valley.

By late evening/early morning the wind was roaring fierce and ferocious-like, and we were pretty sure we were in for a real "walloping."

Then...the storm was past us. in like, a matter of moments. ummm...where did it go? Where was all the rain? Where was the thunder and severe weather? and it's not like it didn't exist...there were several funnel clouds nearby and 65+ mile an hour winds, warnings and watches...it just...it was the storm that wasn't.

Not that I'm sad about it. I'm not a big fan of tornadoes. I mean, I appreciate their awesome power, and I'm totally wowed by the dynamics which must be in place in order to create this awesome, turbulent force of nature, I just don't particularly want to be in the path of that power.

Prompt #44: Write about the power of the weather. Write about storms. real storms, life storms, emotional storms.

Lean on me...

I'm a lucky girl.

I am blessed with some of the most amazing women in my life, women I am more than proud to call "friend."

A few weeks ago I was transitioning through a rough patch, and I tend to be the type of person who walks through those woods alone. I don't ask for help, I don't like to cry, and I don't want the people I love to know when I've had a bad day. I usually wait until after the fact and then share my dismay.

so a few days ago, when my touchstone girl called and asked how I've been, I told her I'm good now, but a few weeks ago I felt like a disaster. She wondered why I didn't call her. I told her what I just said above.  I didn't want her to know how bad off I'd been.

She said:

as the song goes, "lean on me when you’re not strong and I’ll be your friend.  I’ll help you carry on."

Oh yah. That's what friends are for. I guess sometimes we all need a reminder, and we all need to know there are those who love us endlessly, even when we are at our weakest.

Prompt #43: Who do you lean on? Do you sometimes need a reminder that you're not alone - that there are people willing to help carry that load when it gets too heavy?

Change your life...

Archaic Torso of Apollo

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast’s fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life. 

~ Rainer Maria Rilke 

I love this poem. I love the last line. It's what echoes in my head when I feel disconnected...I remind myself that my happiness, my glee, my light, is all in my hands.   

Prompt #42: Write a piece about changing your life.

Head in the Clouds...

...it's better to find
your center of gravity
and have it be the place
you radiate out from. ~ Ron Padgett

This past year has been a veritable roller coaster. monumental highs and lows.
and so I have this to say...what I said to a friend earlier:

Life changes. and it demands that we change with it or remain still. I've never been one to remain still. so I change too. some changes are just tougher to swallow than others.
but this is when we find out what we are really made of...

I am finding my center of gravity again...that place I radiate from.

Prompt #41: Where to you radiate from?