Great way to start the new year!

I didn't really make a resolution this year. I just decided to resolve to focus on self-development. Part of that is committing to doing the things that make ME feel good. What I have nailed down: being a good wife, being a good mom, volunteering in my community. What I DON'T have nailed down: doing the things that nourish my soul and make me feel great, inside and out. I feel guilty, plain and simple, to do things that solely benefit me. However...when I think about it a little more in depth, if I feel better and happier, won't that benefit everyone around me as well? I just need to work on reminding myself of that. My home and family will not fall apart if I take a little bit of time for myself. I forget this. Every now and then I get a little reminder, a nudge. I did. I haven't written in a while, wholly consumed by the duties of a domestic goddess and super mom. However, a few days ago, I got an email, a congratulatory email, stating that a piece that I had written and submitted has been accepted for submission in an upcoming Anthology! I also have a different piece being published in a different Anthology in March of this year! I read this good news email and then the words morphed into: "See girl, what is the matter with you? Your words matter, you have a skill, a gift. You need to stop complaining about not having the time, and MAKE the time. Writing is your thing, and you are being very neglectful! Get back to it, woman!" Or something like that... So it's a good start to 2011. A little more me time is in order, and I think that everything will still be okay in the home! (chanting, "abandon the feelings of guilt and be your best selllllllllf....")

~MG~

*New Year, New Challenges*

Another year of life! Fantastic, thanks God!! What will this year bring? I don't know that anymore than I knew ahead of time last year that I'd be moving to Texas, that my mini-van would break down in the middle of TN, that my husband will need major knee surgery, etc...you just NEVER know. What I DO know is that I have the power to choose what I want to challenge myself with this year! I love a good challenge. I have come to learn that all, great and small, can empower me and/or enhance my life in some way. A fun challenge I am starting this year is taking a photo everyday for a whole year, 365 days of snapshots! (I found a page on FB called SNAP 365 and it sounded like fun!) I am also challenging myself to use my voice more this year. We often think that as one person, we can't do much. But if each ONE did, it would have an effect. I believe that my ability to write is a gift. What am I to do with this precious gift that was given to me? I intend to find out this year! What is your natural gift? What do YOU plan to do with it this year?? Find challenges for yourself, great and small! Commit to being a better version of yourself this year. That's my plan!

~MG~

Called to Do

I've always been the type of person to try to accomplish things. I have many diverse interests, and (neither you nor) I never what hobby, project, idea or endeavor I will want to try next! I usually just go for it. I don't really believe in the word "can't" unless I've actually tried it and found that I absolutely CANNOT accomplish the mission at hand! Here's the thing...my mind is pretty much non-stop, and there are always ideas brewing in my head, so I am pretty much always into something! Once I get an idea/thought, I go full-on. The project I am currently so passionate about is starting this group called Journaling Army Wives! I'm incredibly excited about it and believe in the good it will do. But, I truly feel that this idea found its way to me, from somewhere, someone higher than me. I feel so compelled to bring this to success and fruition. I believe we, as humans, are here to execute master plans, details great and small. Every incidence of progress, creates the space for change and advancement of human kind. No one who does something from the goodness of their heart should feel like their contribution is too small, because all of those small things add up to something grand. So people I urge you to go, do, try and don't submit to thinking you can't before you've attempted. Wishing everyone success in any endeavor they are passionate about!

MG/LPS

Journal Grp For Deployed Spouses-HELP~

Hello all! I will be creating a journaling group at my local installation here. My intention is to facilitate a group with journaling prompts followed by coffee & tea. It will be a way to meet & bring together women who are going through a deployment, and a way to realease some of the stresses related to it. I am quite excited and passionate about this project & I think it will do a lot of good! Here's how YOU can help the spouses of deployed service members!



***I would like for these spouses to be able to come in with nothing but themselves; I'd like to be able to provide a journal to start with, for each participant.
**If you want to or know someone who may want to donate a simple blank journal, please get in touch with me.** It does not have to be fancy, and every little bit counts. Even if YOU cannot, you may know somone who can donate a journal. :-)



Thank you so much in advance to everyone! Spread the word!



You can reach me here or via email, poeticseamstress@gmail.com

Tomorrow (A Military Spouses Poem)

TOMORROW (a military spouses’ poem)

Tomorrow, we'll be up before dawn
Tomorrow will be the morning that haunts me
Tomorrow I'll go numb
Tomorrow, the color of my world will be grey
Tomorrow, I'll wish you could stay

Tomorrow, I'll lose my crutches
And it will take me a while to learn to walk correctly
Tomorrow, I'll walk on stilts while holding a weight in each hand
Tomorrow, my toes will be pricked with pins
And my finger tips will become needles
Tomorrow, my wingspan will grow
To cover and protect our nest
Tomorrow, I'll try my best

Tomorrow is the opening day
Of The Year of Loneliness
Tomorrow, I must put on a grand show
For the miniature spectators need to believe
It will all be okay, because every play
Should have a happy ending

Tomorrow, I will be impermeable
Tomorrow, I will shun the voices
Of soothers, and the well meaning kind
This pain is mine
One I refuse to share
And have a right to bear

Tomorrow, I'll start drawing X's in squares
And filling boxes with care
And I will wash my pillowcase every day
To wash the tearful mascara marks away
And I'll pray
And pray
And pray

Until tomorrow becomes the day
When I can
Stop counting
Stop crossing out squares
Stop carrying weights
Stop buying Kleenex in bulk sizes
Stop trying to stuff my love in a box

And have my toes and fingers back
And exhale
And you
Come back
To Us
To me.

~M.G.~

Writing through it...

My mentor and fellow writer, Alicia Anabel, took some time to workshop with me. We worked through my writers block. What did I realize? I write; it's just what I do. Sometimes I write from my own perspective, my feelings. But, a lot of times I try to put myself in the shoes of others and write from how they may be feeling. Or, I write from my experiences and how they affect and inspire me. My block was writing from MY pain. Writing from and through a painful feeling or experience leaves one incredibly vulnerable. It's like having a huge gash and leaving it open, susceptible to all kinds of mess. I tend to close the painful things off, not open them, not allow any mess in. It always heals, but it also always leaves a scar.

Today, I wrote a poem about deployment. My soldier is preparing to deploy to a not-so-friendly area, and I am not one bit excited about that. He's leaving, I'm staying. Each aspect of the transition carries stressful experiences. I decided to write through it, or at least scratch the surface of what I am feeling. A comfort in the whole matter is knowing that for each line I type, I KNOW there is some other military spouse out there who is feeling the very same way. It is a thread that weaves us all together, regardless of race, religion or region. So I write for myself, to purge and heal. I also write for my fellow spouses who feel these same things, but maybe cannot put it into words.

~LPS~

Instant Gratification

I like things like the quarter machines, where you put a quarter in, turn the dial and out comes a prize or gumball or whatever. Instantly, bam! There it is! I love that! But of course, most of real life is not like a quarter machine. It takes a grand amount of patience sometimes. Tying this into my writing...I'm blocked. Actually, it feels more like stalled. Perhaps it's even sidetracked. There is a lot going on in my life. That is NO excuse. I need to learn how to manage my time and focus more clearly. I want to write, so I want it to come out NOW! The words, the stanzas, the rhymes, but they won't. Here is one thing that I have learned though, through the years. I cannot will the words. They come when they are ready to come, when the words are clear. This is true in every day life as well. When we obsess over wanting things that we don't have at the moment, it makes all of things we DO have pale in comparison. What is meant to be ours will make its arrival into our pocket of the universe when it is our time to receive it.

~LPS~