Word Play - A Writing Exercise

Changes
Hefty
Attitude
Log-jam
Levees
Electrify
Necessary
Gifts
Enliven
Sparks

“I’ve got the key to my castle in the air, but 

whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.”

~ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Book Review - Love Walked In by Marisa De Los Santos

Cornelia Brown manages a small trendy coffee shop in Philadelphia. A young woman, she is full of dreams and cherishes vintage decor and their storied past. Denying that she is a movie buff, Cornelia sprinkles her story with reference to many movies and movie stars from the past.

Clare Hobbs, 11 years old, is abandoned by Grace, her beautiful mother. She is estranged from Martin, her father and organizes her life so she can manage to survive without either of them. 

Along the way Teo, Cornelia's brother-in-law, enters and seems almost out of place, but takes up his place in the narrative for this unlikely cast of characters.

This is not a usual love story, although you may have guessed some of it. Where and when did love walk in? Charming, and very heartfelt, Marisa de los Santos exposes the entanglements that love brings when belief in people vanishes, or grows, or maybe is never there. There was a time when I could cry at the drop of a hat in stories like this, but that seemed to have been long over. This story challenged such dry eyed reading.

“Even if someone wasn’t perfect or even especially good, 

you couldn’t dismiss the love they felt. Love was 

always love; it had a rightness all it’s own, even if 

the person feeling the love was full of wrongness.”

~ Marisa de los Santos,  Love Walked In

Title:  Love Walked In
Author:  Marisa de los Santos
Publisher: Plume - Penguin Group
Publication Date: 2006
Format:  Soft Cover
ISBN: 0-525-94917 (hc.)
ISBN: 978-0-452-28789-1 (pbk.)
Type:  Fiction

Keep On, Keepin' On

Racing up to the finish line 

that was never there 

then running 

laps and laps and laps and laps 

until community came from all around

with supports and encouragement

until one day 

she became part of the community
and the race became a steady walk 

into a life of belief in herself.

“I don’t need anyone else to distract me from myself 

anymore, like I always thought I would.”

~ Charlotte Eriksson

Oak Bay Gallery Tour

Art, lunch and a teeny, tiny bit 

of shopping was the order of the day and provided a much needed break from my rental search. I set off with friends in the morning for a tour of art galleries and small art installations on the sidewalks of Oak Bay Avenue, not returning home til almost four o'clock! It’s been a hot day ~ good for walking and enjoying the air conditioned comfort of the small galleries on the Avenue.

I’ve included a couple of photos of two of the small art installations. On The Ice Princess by sculptor Armando Barbon, a shiny black crow posed on this magnificent brass sculpture for a picture in perfect profile. (No respect!) Anyone who has been to Sidney may also know of the sculpture Pure Energy, by the same artist, placed close to the boardwalk.

The art cards shown on this post are replicas of the paintings of Joanne Thomson, works titled Bottled Series. We found them (cards and paintings) at the Gage Gallery - Arts Collective.  The Gage Gallery is a small, but growing gallery for local artists.  Three other galleries we visited were the Winchester Gallery, Eclectic and The Red Gallery. At the Winchester Gallery were paintings by very well known artists - some from my home province of Saskatchewan. (Did I write down their names? No, sadly I didn’t think to.) Eclectic offered not just paintings but local pottery and jewelly. At The Red Gallery we were greeted by a lovely golden retriever. I was, admittedly, exhausted by this time so have little to offer about this gallery. 

In the middle of all this touring and travelling, we stopped for lunch outside at Vis à Vis - Wine & Charcuterie Bar. On such a lovely day, dining and critiquing the many magnificent artworks at a shady patio table, was just what was needed. 

It is my belief, that the stressors of life do need to be balanced with the joys of life. The light and dark in artworks are always balanced and flowing, even if abstract and skewed, which is as life should be experienced.

“Artistry, perhaps, is at its core being able 
to control change in interesting ways.”
~ Jeff Ryan

(Poetry) Slam by the Sea

Coming in from the coldness of feeling
Blue and dejected about being tossed and torn
Belief that as sure as the sun was going down
Relief and release in my head was on the way
Formality left out on the dock to be
Picked over by gulls and crows
While an ageless, colourful audience gathered to 
Listen to five youthful poets slamming words
Tossed into delicious salads
Green leafed with ripe tomatoes
Drenched with rich vinaigrettes
Raised laughter and snapping fingers
Til I was warmed in my heart
Even though cold evening air 
Buttoned up my sweater and put roses on my cheeks

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and 

poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”

~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Games of Chance

Imagining excitement as a ‘golden snitch’.
You know. From Harry Potter?
Flitting, dipping and dodging
Harry always trying to snitch  the ‘snitch’ out of the air ~
claim that little golden bit of excitement

And yet…..for me excitement is pretty scary
Fun scary….but scary
‘What if’s’ are flitting, dipping and dodging
all around until my head is spinning
just wanting to grab one, and then another….another
to make the whole game of searching for just the right answer end.

The biggest what if?
What if I make the wrong decision,
on the wrong day,
at the wrong time,
for the wrong reasons????

And so the game goes until I remember that
belief in my own wisdom is the real 'golden snitch'

“Do not bother yourself with what if’s”

~ Jocelyn Murray, Corfe Castle

Bringing Home Beliefs

I have never been homeless.
I’ll be without a home at September’s end.

I’ve never been homeless.
I have many home choices at my disposal.

I’ve never been homeless.
I have a job and a paycheque to acquire a home.

I’ve never been homeless.
The roof over my head will be different, but my beliefs will remain.

I’ve never been homeless.
What I bring under that roof will make up my home.

“Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless 

fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.”

~ Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose