Advice + A Poem For My Son, "J"

J, I wrote this for you on April 29, 1993. I don’t know if I ever gave this to you....but I am giving it to you now, and to the world, too!

J, my son, your time has now come

--- and mine, too, for that matter.

Now listen closely, and understand these points,

For what I’m saying is not meaningless chatter.

You’re leaving home --- my how you’ve grown ---

And are about to be alone in this world.

Please accept gratefully the following advice,

And live by it, as you should.

Think before you speak.

Look before you leap.

Be friendly and kind; never be obscene.

Be generous to others; never be mean.

Beware of those who will use you.

Be strong, sure, and steady.

Do not procrastinate;

Always be ready.

Listen carefully, with a wise ear.

Do not believe everything you hear.

Spend your money wisely, on things that you need.

At least once a day, do a good deed.

Persevere, and don’t let life get you down.

Wear a warm smile; try not to frown.

Remain determined and ambitious; your rewards will be great.

Always be punctual; never be late.

Do not discriminate, nor treat people bad.

Be happy to be alive; try not to be sad.

Remember your friends, and your family, and keep them close to your heart.

Always --- always --- finish anything you start.

Do not borrow, and do not lend.

Do not fight, nor contend.

Discipline yourself to reach each goal.

Strive for excellence, but don’t taint your soul.

Accept disappointment; take it in stride.

Face confrontations head-on; try not to hide.

Enjoy yourself, and indulge once in awhile.

Be cautious of those who are filled with guile.

Treat others the way you’d want them to treat you.

Above all else, be honest and true.

If you follow this advice, you’ll never have to pay the price

That bad an unlawful people do.

Instead, happiness will be yours through and through.

Please remember all I’ve said,

And store it forever, in your head.

For, now, my dear and precious son,

The time, for you, has finally come

To be on your own, to shed your dependent shell,

And, for me, from my heart, to bid you farewell.

Here, for you, is one last rhyme.

Carry this poem all the time.

When you are feeling down or blue,

Read it again, and remember

That I LOVE YOU.

Sincerely from,

Your friend,

Your Mom.

xxxxoooo

My Relationship Dream Fulfilled

I now have a relationship and a friendship that is true.

No fights, no secrets, and no lies---
there’s nothing bad between me and you.

There is only caring, sharing, and love,

And those come straight from the heart.

We have so much love between us

That nothing seems to keep us apart.

When you’re not with me, I am waiting

For the time for us to be together,

And when the time comes to be with you,

I want those moments to last forever.

When we are separated from each other,

I long to feel your gentle touch,

Your body close, your sweet warm kisses;

Whispering, “I love you very much.”

For I do love you, with all my heart,

And this kind of love I am going to keep,

And because you are very dear to me,

My love for you is deep.

I will always love you, until the very end,

And even then, from that time on;

My love for you will never fade;

It’s going to last an eternity long.

And when we are up there in Heaven,

Lying side by side, in love,

We will know that we’ve fulfilled each other,

And received our blessing from Almighty God above.

But, until the day that we join together,

Until the day we shall see the light,

We don’t need to worry or feel afraid,

Because things always have a way of turning out right.

A Poem and An Award(...and some rule-breaking!)

I have to say, I am pretty impressed with the people I have met online in the last six months. One of them even gave me the "Shine On" award! Of course, I have developed a good relationship with her during this time, and even had her guest post for me on my other blog, Lorraine Reguly's Life, which is a WordPress blog where I share (probably way too much) information about me, my life, and my experiences, and which also showcases many author interviews and guest posts.

In honor of receiving this award, I have written a poem, which I hope you will enjoy.

There is no greater gift than 
the smile of a baby,
the hug from a friend,
the encouragement of a co-worker,
the laugh of a child,
the purr of a cat,
the nuzzling of a dog,
the blossoming of a flower,
the shade of a tree on a hot day,
the coolness of a breeze flowing through the window of a warm apartment,
the gentleness of a nurse changing the dressing on your wound after an operation,
the first word spoken by an toddler,
the raindrops falling on the roof while you are curled up in bed with a good book,
the brightness of the stars in the sky on a dark night,
the moon glowing over a river or lake, providing mirrored reflection,
the aroma of fresh bread or chocolate chip cookies, 
the smile of pride on the faces of parents on graduation day,
the moment you fall in love, or
the art of a poem.

THE RULES FOR ACCEPTING THE "SHINE ON" AWARD ARE:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.

2. Link back to the person who nominated you.

3. State 7 things about yourself

4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award and link to them.

5. Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award requirements.

7 THINGS ABOUT ME:

1. I am an avid reader.
2. I love writing.
3. I prefer poetry that rhymes.
4. I am a university graduate.
5. I am a single mom, and have been for about 23 years.
6. Both my parents are still alive.
7. All of my grandparents have passed on.

7 MORE THINGS ABOUT ME

1. I don't like following a bunch of rules all of the time, so I am adding this list of seven more things about me.
2. I like chocolate, lobster, pizza, and steak.
3. I enjoy crime dramas on TV.
4. I taught high school math and English for over 3 years.
5. I think many teenagers are misunderstood.
6. I am bipolar.
7. I am bisexual.

The 15 Blogs I Am Nominating Are:

https://kjpgarcia.wordpress.com/

http://lauriewriting.com/ Laurie Kozlowski's blog

http://chaoticsurvivorship.com/ Angela Current's blog

http://pinkwoods.wordpress.com/category/my-writings/poems/

http://thereporterandthegirl.com/ (Since I noticed you did not have this award!)

http://cheryllynnroberts.wordpress.com/ "Cher Shares" is the title of this blog.

https://verajackson.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/the-sun/ "Everyone is Welcome!
Ms. Vee's Blogs..Anything Goes." is the title of this blog.

http://littlegirlstory.wordpress.com/

http://doreenpendgracs.com/ I met Doreen in one of my LinkedIn groups, but don't  know if she will accept this award...

http://heather-insidemyhead.blogspot.ca/

http://kurtrees.wordpress.com/ Kurt writes some really good poetry on his blog. I really like it; it has its own unique flavour!

I found these blogs via a poetry community on Google+, and wanted to give them a mention, since this is a poetry blog, after all!

http://afrodamusjonz.blogspot.ca/ Michael David Saunders Hall's blog of poetry

http://lovepainandothercatastrophes.blogspot.com.au/ Poetry is shared on Google+ by this poet, Yobial Marin, all the time!


http://marcystyleoriginals.blogspot.ca/2013/06/dont-know-what-to-do.html Marcy Roth-Richardson's poetry blog

http://t-rytes.blogspot.ca/2013/06/break-free.html Tineeka De Silva's poetry blog

http://alparryblog.wordpress.com/poetry/ Al Parry's blog, which includes poetry!





Much thanks to Aleshia Clarke for this award!


I love comments, too, so please don't be shy about leaving one! Thank you!

Once In A Lifetime

This poem is pretty neat, if I do say so myself. I have decided to accompany it with a picture of some artwork that I did years ago, since I also wrote this poem years ago.

Here is the poem:


In one’s lifetime, one meets many;
One has many different lovers and friends,
And usually one meets another
With whom all the time together one spends.
In my lifetime, I’ve met many,
And have had many different lovers and friends.
I’ve met one other one already
With whom all my time together was spent.

But in one’s lifetime, when one meets many,
One wants only one lover and many friends;
One wants to be with only one other
WIth whom all the time together one spends.
I’ve now met one, after meeting many,
And only want one lover, and many friends.
I want to be with only one other
With whom all my time together is spent.

But in one’s lifetime, before one meets many;
Before one has many different lovers and friends;
One must have one’s first lover
With whom some time together spent.
In my lifetime, after meeting many, 
And having many different lovers and friends,
I found myself to be another one’s first lover
With whom some time together was spent.

And in one’s lifetime, after one meets many;
After one has only one lover and many friends;
One wants to be with other lovers
With whom some time together is spent.

But in one’s lifetime, after one meets many,
And was the first to be one’s only lover, as well as a friend,
One sometimes wants to continue on that way,
And be the only one with whom one’s time together is spent.
And in my lifetime, after being one’s first and and only lover,
As well as one’s friend,
I wanted to continue on that way;
To be the only one with whom one’s time together was spent.

But in one’s lifetime, one learns much
About one’s friends, and one’s lovers.
One wants to spend time together with one,
But only with this one and no others.

However, one must understand
That one’s friends and one’s lovers
Are in one’s life at only one time
And different times are spent together with others.

In my lifetime, I’ve learned much
About one’s friends, and no other lovers.
I want to spend time together with one,
But only with this one and no other.

However, I do understand
That one’s friends and one’s first lover
Are in one’s life at only one time,
And different times are spent together with others.

In one’s lifetime, one also learns much
And understands one’s friends and lovers,
Even if one cannot have what one wants,
One always remembers one’s first lover.

And in my lifetime, I’ve also learned much;
Always understanding my friends and lovers;
Knowing, right now, I cannot have what I want,
Only remembering my one in a lifetime...
My friend first, and then once-virgin lover.  

Cat Love - A Poem + Cat Photo Collage

Today is a special day. It's Father's Day!

This year, I decided to give my father something that he wanted: the gift of memories.

I accomplished this by making a Cat Photo Collage for him, because he loves cats. I also wrote the poem, Cat Love, for him, which I included in the collage.

Here is a photo of the collage:

Here is the poem, which is pasted into the collage:

Cats provide companionship,

semi-conditional love and joy;

Purring when happy,

growling when annoyed.

They each have personalities

and unique characteristics.

They have an amazing ability to heal

using their purrs and licks.

Cats are just like little children,

and will eat wet food on command.

They’ll ask to go outside

so they can roam and play.

They’ll bring home mice as presents,

whether cats are orange, black, white or grey.

Cats are adorable little creatures

- I think this is something we all know -

For all the reasons listed here,

this is why we love them so!

My father has owned many cats over the years, beginning with Lucky, a kitten who escaped death more than once, until she eventually died of old age.

Lucky was a kitten who climbed into my dad's car one morning as he was leaving for an out-of-town work trip. Lucky got stuck in the space where the gas and brake pedals join with the frame of the car. His hands were too large to free her, and she had to ride for four hours, stuck there, until he arrived at his destination and found a young boy who had hands small enough to retrieve her.

That night, while laying in his hotel room bed, my dad fell asleep while smoking. His cigarette landed on Lucky, because he had brought her to bed and was cuddling her.

My dad began calling her Lucky, since, after these two incidents, she was lucky to be alive!

Thus began the ownership of multiple cats.

The following is a list of the cats my parents owned, with a few words about each of them. (They are also the captions for the collage I made.)

• Lucky survived against all odds, maybe because she had more than 9 lives! Loved sex, too; her many babies were proof of this!
• Neebs was a fat cat with an attitude, who took no guff from anyone; she was the alpha female of the house! She was always underfoot! She was also sometimes anti-social, but happy she was rescued!
• Swiper was a brave, friendly, fearless boy who had the loudest purr ever! He was an outdoor cat who got dirty all the time, too! Clean was not in his vocabulary. He got used to taking baths, but he never liked them!
• Pounce was Princess’s playful little buddy, and was protective of her. She’s a Princess, after all.
• Princess is a patient cat who takes her sweet time thinking about things, except when she’s doing her aerobics or running from the litter box!
• Jacoby loves to eat treats, lay on his back, and chase invisible “ghosts”. He should have been called “Prince” or “King”.
• Blackie is friendly but impatient. She is a treat lover with bad table manners who likes rooftops and breaking into houses. She hates baths, and will use your head as a springboard to get away from the water! She’s a free spirit who used to go by the name C-A-T until we re-named her.
• Missing: Zorro, who broke his leg and healed himself, without the help of a $1500 vet. He only came home to “hang his hat”, since he preferred the outdoors. He never came home, and we don’t know what happened to him.
• Missing: Hootie, who loved “pets”, was super-sweet, and lost his life to poison he consumed while out in the neighbourhood one day.
• Missing: Sam, one of Lucky’s kittens, who would take your finger off when you fed her from your hand. She was a good mouser who ended up having kittens of her own.

If anyone is interested in the "how-to" process, these are the steps I followed to make this collage:

1. I selected specific pictures to include. I chose some old photographs, and some digital ones that I took with my phone.
2. I emailed the digital ones to Japan Camera, and then went there. The woman that worked there printed them out for me once I chose the size I wanted.
3. I bought a piece of bristol board, washable markers, and a glue stick.
4. I used a pencil and a ruler to draw lines on the bristol board.
5. I used the markers to colour the bristol board, first experimenting with the order of the colours on a small piece of cardboard. Both are shown in this picture:
6. I sprayed water on the bristol board and used paper towels to "blend" the colours, to give a muted effect to the boldness.
7. I printed out the captions, then used scissors to cut them and trim them.
8. I arranged the photos and captions on the bristol board, trying different arrangements until I found one I liked.
9. I trimmed the photos in the middle using scissors. Three photos had their corners trimmed off, and two I "rounded".
10. I glued the photos and captions down using a glue stick. I was going to use white, wet glue, but thought that the moisture would warp the photos.
11. On a piece of cardboard, I drew a paw print.
12. Using a pen, I outlined the paw print repeatedly until holes were eventually made. (I did not have an Exacto knife to cut with, so I improvised!)
13. I used permanent marker and the stencil to add a bunch of paw prints to the collage.
14. I went to the UPS store to get the collage laminated.
15. I hung it on the wall using four nails, one in each corner.

My dad loved his gift! It was the best gift I could've given him, he said. It brought back many memories. My dad is not generally prone to shedding tears, but he did once he took a good look at all of the pictures. Some memories were not so pleasant, since many cats have died, or have been put to sleep due to illness or accidents.

However, he loved the tribute!

I even used a homemade stencil to add pawprints to the collage:

I took a photo of the collage when I was finished making it, before it was laminated, too.

The total cost for making this gift was less than $30.

Here is a breakdown:

$9.25 pictures printed out

$1.13 bristol board ($1.00 + .13 tax)

$2.26 markers ($2.00 + .26 tax)

$2.26 glue stick ($2.00 + .26 tax)

$13.00 laminating (this could have been $6.50 if I chose the thinner laminate)

Total $27.90

I already had scissors, so I did not have to buy them. I also printed out the poem on my sister's printer for free.

I have estimated that the time involved to make this collage was a total of about 5 or 6 hours, since my activities were spread out over a few days.

All in all, it was worth the time and the cost involved to see my dad both smile and cry, and now he has something that he can enjoy for the rest of his life!