Creation

Messy Is As Messy Does

Aside ~ ~ Beyond the Skinny Branches ~ 11 Comments

Messiness has gotten a bad rap.

From childhood on, I was taught to value tidy and clean over cluttered and dirty.

Being seen as a “mess” is something to avoid at all costs today. There is shame in being seen as messy.

Look at any social media feed. Selfie taking has been developed into an art form. There’s been an increase in nose jobs, and the reason for them? It is people wanting to look better for their selfies! No one, for the most part, is proudly posting their mess. Unless it is an apartment reno in process or a confessional “staged mess” to make a humorous point of some kind.

With such socio-cultural pressure, it is no wonder that I learned to strive for perfection in all things, especially the presentation of my self.

I literally dreaded being seen without makeup or with a hair out of place.

And God forbid I was to have a negative emotion! Shove that way down, baby! Slap a grin on it and pose.

Trouble is, the very nature of life is change. And change, my friends, is messy.

Ergo, life is messy.

It has been quite an unraveling, this perfection mechanism. I’ve had to unpack a load to get to my mess.

And once I found my mess, I had to come to love it.

I will be honest. at first, all I wanted to do was get rid of it!

Thankfully, I have some teachers in my life who are artists. Artists know the value of mess. They helped me understand that it is in my mess that my talent lives.

And so began an embracing. Of my mess. Of change. Of life.

It has been challenging at tines, sure. This is not an overnight process.

But boy is it incredible.

My home is neat and tidy. I am an organized woman. I crave order.

But I relish getting messy and allowing myself to be seen in my mess too. And the most fulfilling parts of my creativity are gloriously messy!

Today, I am a love-able mess living a messy, wonderful, creatively fulfilling life. And I say that with pride, not apology.

Messy is as messy does is more than fine for me.

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: messy

Hand-Me-Down Dreams

Aside ~ ~ Beyond the Skinny Branches ~ 7 Comments

I take a deep breath

Connect to all who’ve been before

Feel my mother’s mother’s heartbeat in mine

What I yearn for

I don’t always understand

Whose dreams am I living

Are they of the present or the past

Inspired by The Daily Post: present

Rosebud

Aside ~ ~ Beyond the Skinny Branches ~ 3 Comments

“Have courage,”

The ladybug whispered to the budding rose

Whose hesitation expressed itself in a tight bud

And just that, that little bit of encouragement

Made all the difference in the world

And with that, she began to bloom

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: courage

Done is Better Than Perfect

Aside ~ ~ Beyond the Skinny Branches ~ 7 Comments

Well, it happened.

I thought I published yesterday’s post, but I just saw that I did not.

There is a part of me devastated by this error.

I call this part of me “Perfectionista.”

If I am not vigilant, she drives me. She wants to get things right. She wants to be the best at whatever she does, all the time. To be seen as the best. Perfect.

She hates making mistakes.

So breaking my daily posting streak of many months? Not going over well with her.

I try to reason with her. Technically, I did write it yesterday, and though clearly I messed up and only thought I published it, I created it yesterday. And after all, the point of me doing it daily is so that I do at least one creative act daily to stay connected to my creativity. That’s it.

So cool. I did that. Yay me!

But that part of me, Perfectionista, she wants more. And what she wants has to do with what she thinks others think of her.

And she is loud.

She creates suffering for me. She is going to incessantly remind me of this flaw, trying to create a very unsettled feeling that will saturate my system.

“You blew it,” she says.

Hers is a world of extremes, of black and white thinking, of a self-generated pressure to meet somewhat randomly selected standards and performance deadlines and levels or else…

She lives in world with an almost life and death internal pressure to seem perfect to others.

I cannot live from her world view. It’s too exhausting, too exacting. And empty.

I. Just. Can’t.

My world? I try to simplify these days. What a waste of precious time, worrying what others will think about me missing a randomly-decided goal.

More and more, it’s about doing my best on any given day and letting that be more than enough.

Don’t get me wrong: I still strive to be “the best.”

The best I can be on any given day.

As for what others think of that? No longer my business, thank you very much.

Inspired by The Daily Word Prompt: simplify

Beyond the Pale

Aside ~ ~ Beyond the Skinny Branches ~ Leave a comment

Broaden my horizons

Been looking for the same old things so long

From the views of this self-made prison I call my life

If I close my eyes and hold your hand

Can we leap into a whole new world

I want to stretch to see new sights

My heart is pounding, my body, so alive

I’m ready – let’s jump – and see where we land

Inspired by The Daily Word prompt: horizon

Compost

Aside ~ ~ Beyond the Skinny Branches ~ 2 Comments

Lay me down on a bed of pine needles

Remove my clothing, piece by piece

Place twigs and moss in my hair

And put daisies on my eyes

Evoke the spirits of the trees

Invite my ancestors to be in attendance

Sing from a place within you that has no name

Leave me knowing I am free now

Let my body return to the earth

Mingle with the leaves and the forest life

Know me, leaving, that I am everywhere

Inspired by The Daily Word Prompt: evoke

Blank Page

Aside ~ ~ Beyond the Skinny Branches ~ 3 Comments

The legend of me

Changes daily

Sometimes hourly

Sometimes rooted in the past

Sometimes projected into the future

Sometimes whispered, often shouted

I have allowed ghostwriters

Free reign for far too long

Time to write my own story

I know it best, after all

Gonna get quiet and listen

For the voice that is my own

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: legend

37 Degrees

Aside ~ ~ Beyond the Skinny Branches ~ 3 Comments

The snow whispered her secrets to the sea

And blanketed the shore with her silent song

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: degree

A Family Affair

Aside ~ ~ Beyond the Skinny Branches ~ 8 Comments

I am taking a wee break today.

Not from life. From post writing.

I have relatives in town and tonight they are gathering at my home, and I have created a meal from scratch. I do not do that often, but I love it! I have been running around all day from the kitchen to the store and back again! Cooking, cleaning. I am so excited to have loved ones in our home. But I am taking a moment before they come to sit and express gratitude for the abundance to do this, and to have a home in the first place.

I would love to be writing about how much I love the underdogs of the world. My tag line is “Fan of the Underdog.” I am an underdog. I believe in us. In our strength and our spirit. We are not the obvious choice, but we are a wonderful one.

Tonight I hold all of you underdogs out there in a special place in my heart. I hope wherever you are, you know that you are important and your life is important.

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: underdog

Brood

Aside ~ ~ Beyond the Skinny Branches ~ 2 Comments

I carry my hurt as if it were an egg

‘Tis a delicately shelled precious part

In incubation, of me, but of its own, too

And if broken, my pain would spill

Thick yellow yolk to mix with clear

And what it could become would be lost forever

To the hardened mess of a premature birth

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: egg