The Traveling Bag

It's been awhile since I've written because I have been traveling. During this time, the people that I met on this trip were amazing.  We all connected on so many levels that there were many tearful good-byes as each person bid adieu. One of the guests brought down her extra daily necessities....like toothpaste, powder and shampoo. She put it in a shopping bag and offered it to my friend and I before she left.  We had just run out of toothpaste and were leaving in 2 days...so we thought why not. 

Two days later we added to the goodies and passed it to another guest.  She needed body lotion for she only had 3 more days of vacation, and that's one of the things we had just added to the bag.

It was interesting because none of us wanted to leave.  In fact, a few extended their vacations by a couple of days...Rather than the uncomfortable thought of saying good-bye to new friends, we kept ourselves alive with the "Adventures of the Traveling Necessity Bag."



Getting Back to Work

 To date, I do not know where the bag is....or who has possession of it.  But it is comforting to know that when someone looks into it, they see a bit of each of us.

Stay tuned...a lot happening.

Cannot Wait!

Atlantic City Competition After Party

It's been a couple of months since I danced because I am taking some time to rehab some old  injuries that reared their ugly head.  Good news is, I have this amazing physical therapist, Alex...who is going to start allowing me to do my exercises in my chunky practice heels.  Now what that means to me is simple....my strengthened muscles will now re-learn how to "fire" wearing the torturous foot covering required to rumba your way into a judges heart.....or an audience's heart.

Now I say torturous because wearing heels is tough enough....and then you add crazy dance steps and flips and splits just to make sure you really have your balance.  I was starting to see my balance was off from a knee injury....I have been their almost 4 months and joke that I might become  a "lifer" because it real has helped me completely turn things around.

The process reminds me of this....You are a small child and your mother makes you hold her hand to cross the street.  At a certain age, she teaches you how to do it safely and watches you.  Then you are old enough to do it with your friends...or teeth clenched...ALONE.  In the middle of all this, as the child you might not want to let go of your mother's hand....at first because you're afraid you can't do it alone. 

But you can do it alone...strength is yours...embrace it...learn from it...and get those darn muscles firing again!

As always, I try to relate my blog to how I make my characters.  I am better.  I feel wonderful.  At the end of the day, my life is great.  At the end of the war in my story....another war begins...the war of living with the circumstances that my children were dealt with being born during or even after the war.  They pay the price of the sins of their fathers, and grandfathers.....and on and on....

When Faced with the Enemy....Eat Em.... Nico Does!

While taking the dogs for an evening walk tonight, I noticed the sky was lit with the tiny sparkle of hundreds of lightning bugs!  I felt anxious knowing that Nico was at the end of one of the leashes....and his curiousity was getting the better of him.  At first his bushy head was swinging back and forth like a pendulum.  And then...it became a game.  How many lightning bugs can you eat in one night?

The air was thick with the bugs tonight, perhaps because of the humidity.  They were a force to be reckoned with, even for this human who was spitting them out of her mouth, and batting them out of her face.

I wondered something.  Could we apply Nico's reasoning to war?  The bugs became the enemy tonight.  They made it impossible for them to stroll happily.  They flew into their tiny little eyes and made it hard to see.  So when confronted with the enemy of the moment....Nico made a quick decision.  HE ATE THEM! Complete obliteration at the hands of a rambunctious cockapoo named Nico.

Nico doesn't have the power of reason, as my characters do...but sometimes his actions make more sense than theirs does.  But war isn't rational and either are paramilitaries.

Would You Walk Down This Path....what mystery is there?

This is a beautiful photo taken amidst some lovely pine trees.  It was mid afternoon and the sun lit the branches beautifully. Beyond these branches lies a mysterious path.  There is dirt and thick tree roots under my feet.  I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined that it was evening and I had to use other senses than my sight, to find my way. It was difficult because the path was sloping downward.  I peeked through my closed eyes to see a fence and a field of grass beyond.  A breeze tossed the ends of my hair across my back...and then it happened.  I felt fear.  I was alone....or was I?

When I turned around in the direction I had just walked from, I expected to see a neighbor or a cat scurrying away.  But alas...it was none of that.  Just my vivid imagination carrying me away.

Imagine this scenario, but add a very rocky ground in the mountains and a tiny well traveled footpath. Now picture yourself carrying your critically injured child in your arms.  You do not know the path.  You do not know the extent of the injuries and you are not sure where to get help. Try to feel your emotions vividly. What is my protagonist doing while this is happening?

That explains why I was walking in the pine trees and that lovely summer day.  As a writer, I read all the time.  I am expanding my borders by reading something that is scary, and I don't like to be scared at all! But it helps me see how people react when their senses are pushed to work with clarity that could possibly save their lives.