The Changes You See

I had to make some site changes. I hope it will inconvenience none of you. It was quite harrowing for me. However, when life gets tough, I get stubbornly tougher. There was a disagreement on what fees I owed, so now I get a refund, and the site goes free. Paying was an expense I needed to do without, anyway. If traffic increases or I begin making more money, I may resume the fees.

So, we have a new theme, which I find I actually prefer over the old one. The theme Fusion which I use on Chronicles has been retired. I had to do some looking, trying, choosing, but I think this is okay. It is called SAGA. The main difference is that all the widgets and sidebars are hidden under one button, MENU. I believe it is uncluttered. It frees the page to showcase what I wish to draw attention.

I am looking forward to this new chapter. Maybe it will invigorate my imagination, it seems saving money usually does. I love my tools and invest in them, but you cannot in my estimation beat free. I am grateful the representative was uncooperative; otherwise, it is unlikely I would have stopped my subscription.

Please do not desert us. I and the site intend to have a continuing presence here.

I did this little bit of art through the night. It seems appropriate to give it this home.

God bless you every one. I do not think you can guess how much I appreciate your support.

If you need a prompt, think about the last thing you felt deeply as a personal injustice. Examine it in detail and create something that explains it.

In My Eyes

When it feels like this,
Seeming to have something caught
Under an eyelid.
Where it hurts like a dying,
But there is no removal,
No relief at any cost,
There must be an ejection,
Some rejection of ongoing
Pain, so life may continue
Even though it may thwart desire
Restructuring well-laid plans.
Some arguments will not be lost,
Some conditions must be met,
Some reasons are non-negotiable;
William described a shrew, not me or you,
But a grain of sand in place
Where one should never exist
Can irritate a person beyond
Reason and cause patience to
Evaporate like rain on baking
Pavement after the storm is ended.
I will not say one course of action
Is superior to another,
But I do say, NEVER GIVE UP,
Do not harbor a thought of QUITTING,
You have a right to what is fair,
And if it is not, you can take
Your game and go home to nurse
Your feelings back to happiness.
Rock your world, create your joy,
Be who you are, and do not apologize,
As long as you are genteel, let things
Go as you believe they must, you
Must live with you and take your peace,
Life is too short to lose your advantage
You carry the seeds of greatness
Follow them until you embody it.

Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative. You may find the follow button under the MENU button. If you do not wish to follow, perhaps you will find your way back again.

All the best to you and yours. May God richly bless you and keep you well.

Time to Time… And All Times

A day like today, one can feel awash in time, especially me, cause my relationship with time is tenuous. Alex, my son, asked me this morning if I thought I would live to be 56. There have been times when I came close to checking out. Only by the grace of God am I here.

I think we do not know how often the Lord keeps some tragedy from happening, maybe that walk back to check the door, or having to change a little one’s clothes, or the misplaced article is actually the Savior at work.

I am thankful for both the bad and the good because the trouble taught me to be stronger and keep fighting to thrive. There are times maybe I just survive, but I am so grateful for the people and relationships that grace(d) my life. I enjoy so many blessings.

Life’s struggles are constant, but to overcome, oh, how sweet is the victory. Jesus is near to those who need Him and will in no wise desert His people who are called by His name.

I am touched by the people who say I make a difference, having so often felt inconsequential. When you spend a lot of time alone, doubt can invade your mind and inhibit your productivity. Positive words are so precious.

I try to encourage and inspire, but sometimes I can wallow in the mire. I appreciate those who throw me a life float when I am sinking into the quicksand. I know sometimes it takes a monster truck and chains to rescue me; I am grateful to you all too.

I am not sure exactly where this was going. I just want to thank all of you who have sent me well-wishes today. I am so glad I got to the church because I got some kind words and hugs, hugs are so special. Sunday School and Worship were terrific as well. Jesus was present.

I sincerely hope I make better use of the coming years than I have the past ones, but I would not miss what has gone before because the Lord has woven a tapestry of identity from all I have experienced and it was worth it all.

I was going to affix Freddie Mercury singing Time Waits For No One to this, but maybe not. You can find it on YouTube, the Offical video is best.

Time does, however, rush away like the water going over the falls. Live every moment to the fullest, never give up, remember happiness is an internal thing, you create it. Do your best to avoid wasting all that is given to you. If there are things, you dream of doing, to the best of your ability, do those. Find your creativity and employ it to enhance the world.

You are so very precious. God loves you, and God makes no junk. I love you, too, all of you mean so much. I think I should probably stop now. Sorry for running long.

This was posted to Facebook first.

I want to add a few things here. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities I have been given to have some poetry published. The social media communities in which I have been active have been supportive, and I am thankful for each person who has commented or liked or further interacted with my work and myself. I have been on the web since 1991 and put a lot of work out here.

I encourage you if you are creative, to invest sufficient time and effort in your work to hone your skills. Do not let negative thoughts stop you. Do not fear. Make it happen, cause happening is why you are here.

There are so many things, but it will wait. More than anything, know you matter. The world would be a lesser place without you. You are wonderfully made and specially fashioned for this, your time.

I need to be on here more. Sometimes I lose the belief that I make a difference. We are all liable to feel unworthy at times, we are though. We are here, and we belong.

As a quick prompt, explore your feelings about the passage of time and create an original work around your discovery.

The day comes running
Full of gifts, activities;
Freely, we grasp them.

Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative. If you enjoyed what you read, please share, if you like follow the site or come back again. There is plenty to explore, and there is also my site at Chronicles, which contains my Creativity Project, which I did daily for a year and a half.

A Sanctuary of Love

If you are one of my online friends, I hope to inspire and encourage you, help you see the best in yourself and those around you, challenge you to share your love more generously, and show you love in my contributions here. I also hope to help you become aware that you are a creative being with much to share.

You, dear friends, are helpful to me by standing by me when I am near giving up. I have had a spate of tragedies that may have defeated me without your kindness. Always realize, when you feel insignificant, you are someone’s shining star. You may not help everyone, but your help could mean survival to someone.

As we go through this year, let’s remember to share our smiles, compliment those we can, use positive words more often than negative ones, put our judgemental selves in the back of the closet, be generous when and where we may, be helpful, create beauty, turn everywhere we go into a sanctuary of love, and never give up on life, possibilities, others, or trying to make the world a better place.

Use your gifts, talents, skills to foster a growing and intense atmosphere of compassion, where everyone is free to be who truly defines them. Let us make sure no one has to hide behind a facade for fear of unacceptance. We creatives can change the world if we embrace the abilities we maintain. We are leaders, different, untamed, free to love, able to ignite the passions of those who near our flame.

Let us choose to make of 2019 a year of breakthroughs, creative, relational, emotional, daily inspirational, sharing encouragement with all who enter our spheres. Let us prefer love, hope, joy, and positivity as we face a world that needs more like us.

Sunday, Not According to Plan

Sunday morning, I was going to church. I showered, dressed, loaded the Explorer, got in, turned the key and nothing happened. Therefore, I stayed home. This was not my plan. We make plans, life intervenes, it has ever been so. I did a little writing in journals, so I shall share it with you.

Make sure you share yourself generously with those you love and assure them of your affection and love. Life is a mystery, it comes sudden, and it departs without permission. The most important gift we are given is the honor of sharing our dear ones’ life. No promises we make, nothing we plan, no conditions or happiness are guaranteed. Live, live abundantly, unselfishly, trusting, caring, sharing, and loving with all you are, because this second is all you can be confident you own.

You may be able to break faith with your creative impulse, that is not a luxury I am privy to. Only God has more of a claim to me than does creativity, especially writing. Because it makes demands know in my daily relationship with my mind, and the Spirit is more gentle, the compulsion to make the words known is often very strong. If you can tame your intellect, bravo to you. Mine has me in a vise grip.

The Samsung cell phone and I are often at war. I am always trying to maximize it for my use. What is most disconcerting is when it disappears my apps or adds some I was not asked did I want. We are at a ceasefire at present. I made major changes.

Lots of people complain about rain, but I love rain. It means there will be water in the reservoirs, to nurture flowers, trees, and crops, and it washes the air so I may breathe easier. Yes, it is messy, and sometimes no fun, but the benefits outweigh the inconveniences.

I think you might use appreciation for others as your prompt and explore what is lost when someone passes from this plane.

A heart fully shared
Is an original gift
Only you can give.

I hope your week is progressing well and to your satisfaction. Even troublesome days have rainbow moments. Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative. I would love to know your thoughts on this posting. Should you wish to follow the website, there is a button, if not, please come back whenever possible.

As each day passes
Remember you must forgive
To completely live.

No one will remember your Facebook statuses or tweets on Twitter, but if you spend time face to face, you will insert yourself indelibly in their memory.

No broken person
Avoided, forgotten, goes
Without compassion,
Because the shattered can see
Holes in the fabric of time.

Look to God for your joy, and you will be less disappointed than if you depend on your things. May the Lord go with you every day and every way. Blessings to you now and always.

Creative Restart

I had turned the computer off an hour ago. I try to break my big screen time off early because I tend to be very obsessed with computers. They are my favorite creative tool. There was a time I begged for a machine when they first began to be prevalent. I was told I was too stupid to have a computer. So, in 1991, I bought my own. My creative life, as I expected, has never been the same.

I had always made books, now I could typeset a magazine, which I did. I blogged from very early in the craze. I max machines out with my demands. I am trying to ease my use.

Today, I have written a few things. Facebook has ignored them. I find social media can be the enemy of creativity. When there are no reactions, often I feel my work cheapened.

Hole in Reality’s Pocket

You did not ask me
To be your forever, nor
Did I urge you to
Be my yesterday, sometimes
Things fall to pieces while we
Try to hold the whole world in
The tattered ruins of pockets
Made fragile by grubby hands.
Days run away, and we let
Them go, never noticing
We lose a little romance
With every passing minute.
Then one day we wake up
To find our bed empty of
One who set our heart afire
And we pray God brings our joy
Back to us, knowing it is gone
Like a choice meal once enjoyed
But never savored again.

There are holes, a sieve,
Where everything washes out,
I am left, empty.

When life is too hard
Take paper, a pen, write it
Back to rights again.

You know you are procrastinating when you are trancing from thing to thing without satisfaction and the nudge keeps biting you.

The last is my novel. I need to finish it. I find other things to occupy me. The book is emotionally taxing because it deals with things that are hard to verbalize. I avoid it, but I cannot ignore it. It nudges me, takes up mental space like nothing else. I will read to fill the void, but it still screams that I am ignoring what is important.

As a prompt, think of something creative you are avoiding by filling your time with other things which are not as valuable or precious. Write about the creation, then write about ways you can steer yourself to this important project. You may have to give up something less, but if you do not, you will never accomplish your more. I know it is hard, the novel started in November 2013 during NaNoWriMo. I failed at that. I wrote a few pages in 2017, after finding my way around my lost spot. I know what is next, I just hate to sit long enough to capture the words.

I am grateful:

I now know what is wrong with the outflow of water in the house.
My copyediting went well and paid a little.
I have some magnificent tech.
The power did not go out due to the ice.
I still enjoy writing with fine pens.
Hope is still here, the dogs get groomed Monday.
My contacts are working reasonably well.

It is funny, I feel as if I could write forever tonight, but I need to get to bed if I am to go to church in the morning, which I would like to do.

I want to remind you that you are an extraordinary creative entity. You have the power to move the world and foster change that will reverberate throughout the ages. Trust in your creativity, use your talents, gifts, and abilities, be an inspiration. Life is sometimes hard and what you create could give someone hope to stay the course when they are near abandoning something that could edify humankind.

I appreciate your visit to Haphazard Creative. I hope I have not run anyone away with my faith posts. Faith and creativity go together for me. I see what we create as an outpouring of spirit. If you would like to follow, please click the button, if not, please come back often.

You are dear to me, and I hope you remain in safety and prosperity at all times.