My Poetry Slam: Freestyle Fridays
People wonder where I get my energy from.
I wish I knew. Because if I did, then I would bottle it up and monetize that stuff for $47 a bottle! 😉
But what I do know is that when you feel a zest for life, and you’ve got things that energize you, makes you feel excited and passionate…. that, my friends, is key!
But this week……my energy was zapped!
Things took a turn for the worse at my “day job” this week.
Yes, it’s true. And this, folks, is why…..Yep, all these reasons right here. Especially #5. LOL
Source Unknown
I was one foot away from the unemployment line. And I was oddly excited about that. 🙂
(Finally the excuse I needed to blog full-time….??!!!)
But my husband, my responsibilities, and….well…my husband, talked me into staying. At least temporarily until I have a big colorful spreadsheet in hand showing him that we won’t be homeless two months later. LOL
So that stress robbed me of my zest for DIY and I accomplished very little this week.
But don’t you worry, friends! I’ve got the fabric pulled off of those beautiful thrifted chairs I found and I’m hoping to finish them up this week! Full steam ahead here at Thrift Diving!
Freestyle Fridays!
I started something a couple weeks ago called Freestyle Fridays, and (ahem) someone didn’t post last Friday. The idea is that I can take off from DIY and thrift and just talk about whatever I want. So today I wanted to share with you a poem I wrote called Zestful Life, about living with passion and seeing through the storm. It’s sooo fitting for me this week, huh? 😉
Zestful Life
I ask myself if I am normal,
This zestful spirit moving my limbs,
Fluid beats soaking my ears and skin,
Rhythmic motions vibrating my body, akin to
a melodic convulsion.
It’s a compulsion, really.
This need to dance, to move,
to drink it in, and groove
to the beat of life,
High, thinking everything’s goin’ be aight,
This desire to grab it by the horns
and ride it to past 8 seconds,
While the world shuffles past me,
faces full of complaints and scorn,
But LIFE pulses through my veins,
And I relish in the fact
That nothing remains the same,
That today is an opportunity for change,
And I am responsible to create this life–to hell with lamenting and blame.
This zestful spirit makes me yearn for distant lands,
Rough terrain, as well as golden sands,
To experience new sensations and tastes,
Sipping its sweetness, not slurping in sloppy haste.
But…what if I am just naïve?
Not seeing the millions suffering from loss and disease?
Or those trapped in an unbalanced life, who are unable to see the forest for
the trees?
How can I stand here and act like LIFE should be a happy fairy tale,
Deluded by my erroneous perception that their life is stale?
They’re in pain.
Feeling weighed down by the never-ending “SAME.”
Wanting sunshine, but tormented by thunderstorms–torrential rain.
But the beauty of LIFE is that above the clouds, the sun is forever shining,
And the clouds eventually dissipate with perfect timing.
In reality, this zestful life is inherent in all,
It’s just a matter of finding balance and threads of happiness,
And into place everything will fall.
~Serena Appiah
How’s your week been going, by the way? Leave a comment below and let me know what’s good in your world! Are you ready for the holidays?
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Sometimes I’d like to have oh a 5″x5″ of your poetry in a slim pretty book that I could have and look upon just when’ere I’m in my chair. I’d smile or maybe weep but I know I’d feel some pride…in this grad of university who is writing now instead. I’d sit and smile as I would think back on the year she painted her entry door. The shutters too and stuck a pumpkin too upon the barren step. But no. This gal would not accept the accolades of reward Well Done!! You did a challenge! You completed the task! Now go ahead and take that bow!!! No oh no. This gal’s too shy. She only sees her weeds. She’s afraid to say in a voice too loud IVE DONE IT! And all is well
I’m so sorry about your bad work day. Sometimes we do need a wake up call to decide what is the path we should be on. I can only bet what you can do with your full time blog and all those projects you would get out, and all your creative posts, etc. Something always gives when we want work, play and hobbies and not to mention our home and family, then there is hubby. However, we women can do all that, but just have to learn to balance it all. Pray you have a good weeks to come.
You are a very passionate, young lady… An artist.
Right brained person as yourself, feels constricted by the demands of our left brain society.
Relax. Take a breath. Use your creativity to balance that spreadsheet your husband
Talked about. You can do work it out. Maybe it will take some time, though.
In the meantime, you need your sleep. Sleep is very important. You will be able to think straight.
The world needs more sincere and lovely people like you. God bless you
Awwww….Debbie, you are so kind and thoughtful! Thank you so much! You have totally summed me up with “right brained person as yourself, feels constricted by the demands of our left brain society.” YES! My right brain gets me in trouble a lot! LOL. But now that I know what I need to do (show hubby “the money” and a plan), I can work on it. Thanks for the support! I truly love knowing that I have people like you waving me on. Oh–and sleep, I know…..I was doing so well with the midnight bedtimes. But I started hustling too much and threw it aside. I’ll do my best to get back to that! Sleep deprived = error prone! 🙂
Hi Serena,
Thank you for sharing such a lovely poem. I loved it! I read it four times!
I think sometimes we just have to take a step back, inhale, exhale, look around and enjoy where we are in the moment. See how far we’ve traveled. The destination will arrive, due to good planning and determination. In the meantime, let’s remember to be present and enjoy the journey!
“And into place everything will fall.” (Loved that!!)
Carol
Hi Carol! You are so right! You said a key word: PLANNING. I was just listening to a webinar the other day that said when you plan, you can relax, because you’ve already laid out the steps you need to do to make your dream come true (or something to that effect). And it’s like what you’re saying, too. Once you have a plan in place, you just DO the plan, and –VOILA!–it’s likely to happen (well, unless life throws you a curve ball. LOL).
I’m so glad you liked my poem! I have more on another blog of mine. I don’t keep it up regularly. I have only written when I am inspired. But this is one of my favorites!!! Thanks for reading it!
I hung in with my job until I could take early retirement, but I know exactly how you feel. I can remember days I cried all the way to work because I so did not want to go there! I’ve been retired since 2000 and I’m able to tackle all the projects that I wanted to do before but didn’t have time for. The latest is getting new roofs put on a couple of the original buildings in my community…to finance this, I started my very own thrift store! If you want, you can check us out on Facebook at Summers Thrifty Flea or Save the Summers School House and Church. The roofers started on the church roof this week!
That is so cool!!! I have always wanted to own a thrift store! Actually, an art center, too. I even had the name picked out. It will be called Thou Art Creative. Nice, huh? 🙂 Okay, I’m going to check you out. I haven’t gotten close to tears, but nashing of the teeth is now in order. HA!
Serena, the tears came in the last year…when I knew I just had to hang in a little longer. They were a pressure relief valve!
Love the name, hope you get to start it!
Hi Serena – I know just how you feel! I kept that “leave or stay” conversation in my head going for 2 of the last 4 years until finally, one day, I was driving home from work – it’s a 25 mile drive one way each way with the worst traffic in the state on the highway I drive. I clearly remember swerving on the railroad tracks – same swerve every day to miss the pothole and it became clear as a bell “it’s time to leave this job”. I had been working at the agency (but moving up through promotions) for 19+ years! I came home and told my husband then my daughter and the next day I told my boss. That was a little over 4 months ago and while we now have limited funds and I sometimes worry about where the money will come from some days – I sleep at night and I laugh and I enjoy life again………….and I haven’t done any of those in a long long time.
Kelli, that is AWESOME! Congrats to you!!! You must have been so unhappy. And to be brave enough to decide to do it just like that with no hesitation, you’re my hero. What sort of changes and cut-backs did you decide to make in order to make it work?
Oh, a couple of things only for us because we don’t have iPhones with huge data plans like most people. I just won’t pay huge prices for a phone bill. so we have regular ATT phones that text and that’s it. we also got HULU and Netflix for a total of about $25 per month instead of the $150 we were paying for cable. One last thing: we got rid of one of our cars. That made insurance go down and really cut down on gas purchases………we have to work it out and if you need the car for the kids, you may have to drive your husband to work some days, which is inconvenient but a small price not to have to work……….we don’t eat out much because my husband’s aversion to eating food he cannot see being cooked (I don’t know why) so………….that’s about it. Of course we don’t have small children who need soccer shoes and music lessons either!
Wow, you really did make some changes. That’s awesome. I love seeing people going after the things they want instead of making excuses! Way to go!