At Home & Work

This past month I’ve begun preparing for the community garden, which will officially start in March. As you all know, I participated in a community garden last year, and it was a wonderful experience.

I’ve started to think about the veggies and flowers I want to grow, and have also started to collect cardboard, which will be used to cover the plot until it is seeded. The harvest last season was abundant, and I look forward to more fresh vegetables from the garden this year.

The boys are doing well, Jason is with his mom full-time, and will turn 18 this year; and, Justin is preparing for his internship, and last year at University. Amazing. These two boys, nay, men now, are the light of my life, and seeing them succeed in their individual endeavors fills my heart.

At work, we are preparing for the spring term schedule. We will have about 150 classes on offer, most of them will continue to be remote. We are also filling our Leadership Academies, and will begin to fill our Small Business Management classes in March. 

Both of these training programs are excellent opportunities for local leaders and small business owners to be in critical conversations creating transformation within their lives and their businesses. So much fun.

Writing & Blogging

As you know, I had a poem accepted at Spillwords Press this month. What you may not know, is that the poem, with all their scars, was trending as one of the top 3 poems the week it was published. This happened because of your unwavering support. 

Many of you took the time to visit Spillwords and read and like the post. For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You all mean the world to me, and your support is a blessing.

I also had four poems published this month in MasticadoresIndia and MasticadoresUSA, 2 poems in each respectively.

In case you missed them, here they are:

• our love, airborne…
• ravens flying on wings
• love is all there ever is…
• oblivion’s mist…

Another heartfelt thank you to all of you for visiting both the Masticadores sites and reading, liking, and commenting on my poems. It means a great deal to me.

I also have a few new things planned for the blog this year. 

• This month I published the flowers brome, which is a piece of prose poetry. I will write and publish more prose poetry in the future, and may even have a piece of prose to add as well.
• I am also planning on doing some spoken word poetry this year, and have already purchased a microphone for this new endeavor.
• Additionally, the month in review will be a new series this year, and will come out at the end of each month.

I will also submit poetry to new magazines and journals this year. I’ve actually already submitted to two, one of which is the Bangalore Review. I’m excited about these new publishing opportunities.

A WDYS Poem

I’ve been doing the WDYS prompt for over a year-and-a-half now. It’s the only prompt I do on a regular basis, and is always fun. The WDYS prompt is created by Sadje, at Keep it Alive. 

If you’ve never done the prompt, I invite you to visit Keep it Alive and take a look sometime. You might find it fun, as I do. 

Alright, here is my response to the WDYS #118 prompt.

our heart’s love…
glasses set for two, the beauty in you,
I see too

a rose
tinted fragrance
wafts upon the shore

it is discord, and accord
both, a common
motion
of

this hearts healing contortions, as
pain racks the heart
and mind

two
becoming one
combined

in a
tale of
romance and
tragedy

we think and feel close…

loving,
while
wandering
a

tightrope

designed for those destined to love
the most, sending their
hearts out, into
the fields
they
go

spreading our heart’s love,
in repose…

A Note on Overwhelm

As I get insights on any developmental topic, I always find avenues to share them with family, the team, and with all of you. They are shared via my poems, the A Blogger’s Diary series, and will also be shared here in this new series.

These developmental insights come as a product of my own internal development, and spending a large portion of the past 30 years in leadership and education.

This month, I’ve been reflecting upon overwhelm. Partly because I’ve been present to my own overwhelm, which comes and goes, and because I’ve been present to the team’s overwhelm, which also comes and goes.

Overwhelm as a concept and practice is simply a state of being overstimulated by our environments. These moments of overwhelm, sometimes last longer than we’d like. They are moments where our bodies are physiologically, psychologically, and sociologically, under more stress and this stress manifests in various ways for people.

For me, the most important thing to remember about overwhelm is that it comes and goes. It is a state of being, like most, which is transitory, yet, often, as human beings, we desire to hold onto these states, and do so unconsciously. 

Yet, as we become more aware of our own overwhelm, we can make new choices. We can stop what we are doing, take a break, go for a walk, sit somewhere quiet and just breathe in and out. 

It is very important to stop when overwhelmed. Stop what we are doing, and do something else. Sounds simple, and is quite simple. When we create the space to breathe, to do something different than we’ve been doing, we create a different response to our environment, and will get back a different reaction.

The next time you are overwhelmed, I invite you to stop what you are doing, and do something different, and see what you get back. You might be surprised.

Alright, that’s all for the January month in review.

I appreciate each and every one of you, send you my love,  and wish you a blessed coming week.

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