She Thanked Her Sorrow

 The title of this post is from a poem by Terri St.Cloud called Driving Home.  It’s part of a collection of her poems in a book called “Over Tea“.   I received this jewel in the mail the other day, a thoughtful gift from my dear friend, Sorrow,  who by the grace of friendship must have sensed that  I needed a picker-upper. 

So I have this wondrous book that I keep very close at hand, like my own private cheering section, with its poetry of comfort and reassurance.    I’m not sure if Terri’s full intent was to put into words what so many of us are lacking in courage to say to ourselves, let alone to others, but she does so with great sensitivity.  Even her name,  Terri St.Cloud,  evokes a soft blue, fluffy bathrobe that envelops you in assurance and caring.

Some poems are a dozen lines or more, some are just one powerful sentence, but each is set on its own page, a small island of solace in an expanse of creamy hushed paper.    I’m refraining from the urge of getting my kids’ colouring pencils out and drawing in the emotions I feel in the space around those poems.   I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold out!    I’ve read it cover to cover, and now I return to it often, reading at random Terri’s thoughts on friendship and on discovering the beauty of the other.  

You know, beauty is often something we overlook, especially in this world where our focus is pulled in so many different (and un-beautiful) directions.  We think we know what makes up a beautiful person, a beautiful character, a beautiful mind.   But letting the media, or anyone else for that matter, dictate to you what is and is not beautiful, is a path of soul destruction.   Be careful, though, it’s not by closing up or censoring that beauty emerges.   Opening my mind has been a way for me to see that in fact, it’s the “not beautiful” that truly is.   If you see the beauty in others but not in yourself, does that count?  Does seeing the beauty in others make you beautiful?   If who or what you see makes you feel beautiful just by being in its presence or just by looking at it, isn’t that true beauty?  Isn’t being moved by someone’s spirit or the light in their eyes, or soaking up the four thousand shades of green that you see at this time of the year, isn’t that the kind of beauty that transforms a person?   Doesn’t  beauty, and recognition of it,  sometimes come from pain and sorrow?   Terri’s poetry is about discovering that beauty in yourself and in others. 

http://www.robinlassiterart.blogspot.com/

I thank my Sorrow, tuck it away, and continue my drive Home.

Love,

Chantal  xoxoxoxo

Peaceful Tomorrows

Everyone knows where they were and what they were doing on this day seven years ago.  Since that time,  alot of really bad policies and destructive actions have emerged from September 11th, but there has also been much good that we sometimes cannot see until some healing takes place.

There is an advocacy group who has turned this catalyctical event into a channel for peace.  What resonates with me is the desire of these families of September 11th to keep their personal losses from becoming a basis for justification for more violence and revenge. 

That takes alot of inner peace and courage. 

http://peacefultomorrows.org/index.php

Love,

Chantal xoxoxo

Blossoming

I came across this link  http://www.chriswetherell.com/hobbit/   on Mental Floss, and being as I loved the Lord of The Rings trilogy, and I love Hobbits (because they’re nice & they read) I thought, hey this might be fun.  So what you do is you enter your name and it spits out what your Hobbit name would be.  This is my Hobbit name: 

Orangeblossom Bracegirdle of Nobottom

Of course, it’s hilarious!  Especially the Bracegirdle part! 

But I loved the Orangeblossom part…….Orange blossoms are Florida’s state flower, land of sun and warmth….orange blossoms are also delicate and fragrant.  But I was especially pleased by the Orangeblossom part of my Hobbit name, and this is why:

In Glamour magazine, there is a column entitled “Jake:  A Man’s Opinion”.  This column has appeared in the magazine since forever.  ”Jake” is a pseudonym under which different men over the years have written, providing women with their takes on relationships, dating, observations of women, etc….The “Jake” that I’ve been reading for the past few years had a girlfriend whom he talked about in the most glowing terms.  And to protect her anonymity, he called her “Orange Blossoms”.  I could just picture this woman in my mind, quiet, determined, independent, intelligent, in love with her Jake.  He named her Orange Blossoms because he adored her scent.  So Jake would sometimes write about his life with Orange Blossoms, how he was grateful for her, how much he loved her, all that nice fuzzy stuff.  Then one day, Jake announced that Orange Blossoms had broken off with him.  He continued to write the column, but would inject some comment every once in a while about how much he missed this woman.  It was really quite sad, reading it.  I’m not sure how long, but maybe a year or so later, Orange Blossoms came back into Jake’s life, they reconciled and are now getting married. 

The point of this whole thing is to say that whenever I would read Jake’s column, and he would talk about Orange Blossoms, I would think to myself how wonderful it would be to have a man so enraptured and in love with me that he would give me a name related to how much he loved my scent.  So when I saw that my Hobbit name contained Orangeblossom, I was tickled pink…..or orange in this case!  It was a hopeful little sign to my soul, letting me know that maybe one day, I will find myself in that special kind of nurturing relationship, where it’s all mutual:  respect, cherishment (is that a word?), passion, affection, love, support.  The kind of relationship that moves the other person to call me by a special name, attributed only to me…..like Fair Chantal, or something like that. 

As long as it’s not Onion Bunion……

Have fun checking out what your Hobbit name would be, and if you want, come back here to share it.  

Love, Chantal xoxoox