Create Something New

Show me the terror in your nights.
Demonstrate the courage
to face creating building making
something new.
Not some spread sheet projection~
a trembling thing in your hands~
now.

Golden Rules for Boys

My daughter is away in Ireland and I read an article about “The 20 things I have taught my son” and thought I might give my own take on this. Please add in the comments your advice you would offer as life lessons for boys. Feel free to be creative.

Sign in photograph above is from hiking this morning. This sign is actually twenty some feet from a very steep cliff that dives down into Laguna Canyon. In the fog this July 23^rd you could not see the drop, just a sign that makes no sense. Please leave some sense for teenage boys and share.

       1.       Be kind to everyone, all the time.

2.       Smile and look people in the eye when you extend your hand

3.       Learn to manage money, save half and invest in a variety of stocks, bonds and ideas

4.       Stand up straight every time you walk through a doorway

5.       Play team sports, prepare for game day with all your body and heart, learn to lose with gracious attitude then pick up and get ready for the next game

6.       Defend the weak, the bullied, and care for animals

7.       God and country mean something in your soul; understand what this is to you personally without preaching; show you care.

8.       Apologize when you are wrong, learn from you failures because understanding our big errors and changing is being great

9.       Tell the truth, it is always easier.

10.   Find a mate who is better, kinder and smarter than you are, her genetics will be important to your children, her goodness will keep together your extended family and your mutual respect will change the world.

11.   Read, learn, get good grades in everything, try college classes you might not think are exciting, school is about digging into subjects that are different from what you know and building who you are. Education is a lifetime gift you must continue to allow yourself.

12.   Keep your body in shape, don’t put junk into your mouth or lungs it needs to last through a whole bunch of trials

13.   Random things happen –good and bad, and they all pass over like a river in the big picture

14.   Friends come easy early in life, keep them around by communicating.

15.   Don’t cheat on those you love, don’t talk trash on those you love, and for heaven’s sake if you have friends of the opposite sex don’t cross that line

16.   People at work are your team to be cultivated, they are different than family

17.   Be creative it feeds everyone around you

18.   Find your passion and work a plan, a five year plan a ten year plan

19.   Manners are always important, don’t say or do anything in public you would not want your Grandmother to see or hear.

20.   The gentleman walks on the outside of the curb to protect ladies, children and the elderly.

Also on this same trail the high security dog watering bowl. Note: pot is chained to heavy rock that you would need to carry out. Or could the rock be used to smash the chain? Do I need to add never steal because it is just mean?

I love my heels sunk in astroturf

Hold Them To Your Chest

No worry, all doors are unlocked.

A block where fireflies are not in jars,

A cell phone left outside, is returned.

Look into evil eyes with superpowers to transform.

Under your bed is a shield that bounces bullets.

Hold children to your chest,

give them strength

to face a sad world today.

Prayers for the many families changed by a gunman in Colorado.

Find Your Truth

Finding Your truth

I read a number of posts about Comic-con as the celebration of nerds. Nerds are the new sexy, you know. Getting off the train in San Diego on Saturday I wished I had donned my old superwoman costume, just to scream without words that I also fit in.

We look upon each other as a label. My children are forming their own name tags; they are athletes, scholars and creative persons on a mission to find their prize  here on earth. When we look at a friend, or meet someone new, we ask them what they “do” in order to get a sense of who they are and what to call them. I’m not referring just to the politically incorrect skin color, ethnic heritage or status zip code where they originate. It is easier to give something a name, and context to not think carefully about what is inside.

I have reinvented myself a couple times in my life, by deciding to focus on a part of “me” that has ability. I've been an artist and performance poet who lived in an urban loft, I married my college sweetheart and became a business woman to support my next hat, being a single mother. Along the transformations, I was always creative, keeping journals, blogging, taking photographs, making paintings that I rarely shared with anyone, for fear it might tip the balance of the identity behind which I wore as a mask. The job circle of work partners saw me as only one thing- the leader lady who made them Be great. My children saw me as the Mother whose position was to drive, clean and arrange a fantasy, my ex-husband saw me as a pretty thing to control.

Being one thing when I give my elevator speech, “hi I’m C. G. I am Wonder Woman,” might not sound so crazy at Comic –con, an event where everyone is allowed a fantasy. Walking the talk, speaking only my own truth, every moment of my life, now that’s a challenge.

What if you hold the power to do anything, to make anything to be anything?
I believe you do already have it but just need a nudge. I’m whipping out my magic lasso and granting you four wishes, BUT, now you must do the work.

Be great today my friends, I need to get back to writing.

C. G.

Open Your Eyes and unzip all that is possible

Man Ray sculpture I really like the reflection of myself upon the glass taking the photo.

Pray Big

Dear God:
Keep my children safe on their journeys.
Thank you for the gift of great family.
Let my friends who read this know I care.
I appreciate every wonder moment on this earth.
Thank you for your love.

C. G.

P.S.
Please help me "write great."