Writer, Musician, Composer

LIFE-PRINTS

Life-Prints



Every person who enters our existence

Touches our souls forever

And leaves a life print behind

These life prints twist and shift and morph

To make us who we are today

Molded like clay, spirit breathed in by the breath of God



Each person who graces the doorstep of our being

Is a gift

They will forever be with us

Whether we know this consciously or not

Whether they are a good force or a source of evil



Bits of their personalities become stamped upon our hearts

And if we look very closely we will see bits and wisps

Of them among the smile and frown lines of our features



To the many life-prints who have graced my days:

I thank you from the bottom of my heart

For crossing my path for a moment, a day a life-time.


You all know who you are...........................

grat⋅i⋅tude

   /ˈgrætɪˌtud, -ˌtyud/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [grat-i-tood, -tyood] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful: He expressed his gratitude to everyone on the staff.



Earlier this year, I was inspired by my friend Shelly Steffen-Byrne to keep a Gratitude Journal. It is a very simple endeavor: merely list five things on a daily basis that you are truly grateful for in your life. On busy days, my list reads exactly like that- 5 short sentences. On days where I have more time or have experienced something completely awesome and wondrous, the five items are almost a paragraph each. In any case, the journal serves two purposes. The first is to give life to the blessings that are born each day and by the simple act of writing them down, I am reflecting upon them and giving thanks for their occurrence. The second purpose is that it gives me a chronological detailing of my life as it is lived. I am a journal keeper going way back to the age of 10 and lucky for those who come after me, I have kept every single one. It's quite interesting to use the pages of my past to self-analyze to discover how I came to be the person that I am today. Freud would be proud!


Here's a peek to a randomly selected day:

May 12, 2008

I am grateful for:

1. A wonderful Confirmation ceremony-everything worked as planned.
2. Great bike ride to the library with Mack on Saturday. We made it up both big hills without stopping.
3. Great comments from long-ago XU friends Dan Lally & Vince Weseli via LinkedIn after reconnecting with them.
4. My wonderful group of sister writers (Shelly, Sandi and Laurie).
5. My family and good health.

FALL IN CINCINNATI = SPORTS!!!!

OUR FAMILY'S FAVORITE PAST-TIME: READING!!!!!!








IMAGES FROM THE WEEKEND:




ST. XAVIER VS. MOELLER H.S.









SPOOKY STUFF IN OUR YARD SOCCER CLUB TOURNAMENT


CYO BASKETBALL LEAGUE GAME VS. GA TEXTING IN BETWEEN SOCCER GAMES

REALLY COOL PICTURES OF THE DAWN SLICING THROUGH THE VISAGE OF THE TREES AND ELECTRICAL TOWERS TURNING EVERYTHING COPPER.

EXHAUSTION

Can't sleep despite it being almost midnight- but I survived the half-way mark of my weekend and probably put hundreds of miles on my car making donuts around the city. Fall sure looks beautiful in Cincinnati- drove by several parks with trees in full foliage as I bopped from mock trial to Panera to soccer game to home to soccer game to Health Plex to shower to football game to I'm currently waiting for the soccer uniform to wash so that I can be out the door at 6:30 a.m. for an early morning soccer tournament game. What fun! Maybe I'll just sleep in my clothes so that when the alarm goes off, I can bound out the door with only my coffee to concern me. At least the St. X freshman is home from his first mixer- drove back with a carload of kids driven by a good friend of ours. Thanks so much Kevin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I FULLY BLAME THE FOLLOWING PRODUCT ON WHY I AM WIDE AWAKE AND POSTING TO THIS BLOG AT 1:00 A.M. DESPITE TOMORROW BEING THE START OF: 4 SOCCER GAMES, 1 FOOTBALL GAME (ST. X VS. MOELLER), A BASKETBALL GAME, AND A HALLOWEEN PARTY FOR ADULTS. TRULY HOPE WE MAKE IT THROUGH THE WEEKEND WITH OUT FALLING DOWN WITH EXHAUSTION.

2 WEEKS TO GO AND LEANING TOWARDS OBAMA!!!!!!

Haven't I been leaning this way the whole time? I think I still have a nagging thought in the back of my mind (did I hear anyone whisper Socialism?) but the McCain/Palin ticket represents too much of the same old-same old for me. And I just can't wrap myself around Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential candidate- I just keep seeing sled dogs and a herd of moose (or is it meeces?!!) Obviously my niece has already made her decision, so perhaps I should just stop thinking about it and fill out that absentee ballot today so that I can enjoy my coffee in peace on November 4th while the record crowds fill the voting booths.

Tim: A Lesson in Looking Beyond the Pond

Tim says in the strictest of British accents: “My standpoint is thus: I know exactly what I am going to say, and have therefore absorbed any value it may have had, and curled my lips in quiet contentment at whichever subtle hint of wit it inevitably let slip. Whether I type it or not makes far less difference to me than absorbing the theoretically greater goodness that may come from what, by typing, I may have deterred you from typing.”

Now I have no clue what he just said, but I love reading his words and on the random chance that fate intervenes, I love listening to his voice. It sounds like he is a character straight out of a Dicken’s novel. I enjoy our ability to trade pieces of work for critique and pure enjoyment. He gets my poetry and the audio version of Dreamscape and I get the music and accompanying lyrics that he creates. He is very talented and a bit of a genious having been a child prodigy before having to succumb to the rank and file of evey day adult life. He somehow finds humor in my exuberant personality and finds the many balls that I juggle quite amusing.

If I need a bit of inspiration to get my writing going, a “fast-start” of sorts, I only have to look for a Tim-ism to get my imaginative juices flowing. No longer will I be in search of the perfect web-site to give my writing a kick- start, I can borrow beginnings like this to prime the creative pump:

Tim says: “Have you ever had one of those moments when the sheer incredulity of the world aligns with the universe as a whole, and being the first person to notice, you burst out laughing uncontrollably in a non-sequitur of hysteria?”

*******************************************************

I asked Tim the other day, what he truly thinks of me and this was his answer in perfect Tim fashion:

“I think I'm extremely lucky to have met you. You exist on such a ridiculously high level, it dwarfs virtually everyone. Talking to you is engaging and enthralling and always challenging in the best of ways.”

I would just love to bottle that admiration and pour out a bit on the days that the words just won’t come or when what I have written seems less than the sum of its parts. A rapt audience is great, but to have an audience with a true ear for subtlety and an excellent command of the language even if it is the Queen’s English is an outstanding proposition.

So thank you Tim for being the voice in my ear, the eye on my words and the gourmand of all of my literary creations. Cheers!!

MUSIC OF THE MOMENT:

OBAMBULATE

This just in from my Word a Day email from Anu Garg. She has put together words for this week that have a tie to the current elections (Wordsmith.org). Her first word relates to Barack Obama- how timely, as he is killing all of the polls (translation: things are going his way!!). And for the record, I never got to eat the McCain cookie, it was gone in an instant. Here goes:

obambulate

PRONUNCIATION:

(o-BAM-byuh-layt)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To walk about.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin ob- (towards, against) + ambulare (to walk). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ambhi- (around) that is also the source of ambulance, alley, preamble, and bivouac. The first print citation of the word is from 1614.

USAGE:

"We have often seen noble statesmen obambulating (as Dr. Johnson would say) the silent engraving-room, obviously rehearsing their orations." The Year's Art; J.S. Virtue & Co.; 1917.

OH WHAT ARE WE TO DO???? (let them eat cake)



Well, I am feeling quite confused about the upcoming election but am so very glad that I didn't vote absentee a couple of weeks ago as I had planned. Some doubt is creeping in on my initial candidate and since there was some doubt on the other party as well, I am left feeling quite lost. it may come down to the lesser of two evils for me. In order to help with my thought process, Cam & I stopped by the Hyde Park Busken's Bakery this afternoon to purchase a few of their Presidential Candidate Cookies. Channel 5 News was there filming the cookie rack, but alas no reporter to ask my opinion of the race. So, until I completely make up my mind, I am going to enjoy my Obama cookie and then finish it off with the McCain cookie unless the resident teenage Republican puts McCain in the freezer for posterity. Then, I'm doomed!



This just in from the Scholastic Youth Election Poll:
(Busken Bakery Presidential Cookie Sales are saying the same thing!)

Student Voters Pick Senator Barack Obama to Win 2008 Presidential Election

Scholastic Election Poll Has Mirrored Outcome of Every Presidential Election But Two Since 1940

October 14, 2008: 09:00 AM EST

The votes are in and student voters have spoken: Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama is the winner of the 2008 Scholastic Election Poll, with 57% of the vote over Republican contender Senator John McCain, who received 39% of the student vote. The poll, conducted every four years through Scholastic classroom magazines like Scholastic News® and Junior Scholastic® and online at Scholastic News Online (www.scholastic.com/news), is an educational activity that gives children too young to go to the polls themselves the opportunity to cast their vote for President. A quarter of a million students from across the country participated in the Scholastic Election Poll.

KIDS, YOU JUST GOTTA LOVE ‘EM!

At what age does your kid become a marketable entity? I'm not talking about commercials toting kid-friendly creatures advising little ones that they really need to own a (fill in the blank here: Tickle Me Elmo, Transformers, Care Bears, Wie....) or eat Lucky Charms because they are "magically delicious (translation: full of sugar!!!), no I'm talking about adult items. I received a call several weeks ago from a woman who clearly sounded as if she was in tele-marketing mode. I could hear the cheery, chirpy voices of other operators around her as they spoke to their own victims, err I mean customers. She asked to speak to Cameron and when I told her he was not available, she proceeded to tell me that he had been awarded a government grant. I told her that she was clearly mistaken, but she interrupted me and said that this was correct as Cameron had applied for a grant and it had been awarded. She warbled off my address as proof that "they" had his information. I told her that she clearly was misinformed because Cameron is a kid and therefore she must have the wrong person. She very adamantly continued on so I assumed there must be some type of large call-center reward given for lassoing in as many fools/day as possible just waiting for her. I finally had to hang up on the poor woman. I didn't think much more about it. Although the smirky smile on Cameron's face when I mentioned the story to his father should have clued me in to the fact that the chirpy woman might have not been as misinformed as I had concluded.

So several weeks pass and yesterday I received a hand-addressed letter from a local Insurance Company which will go nameless. We receive lots of letters each year from various insurance companies, mortgage lenders and real estate agents hoping that we will switch our business to their firms. The fact that this latest one was addressed to Cameron didn't faze me, as I assumed it was just a mistake and really meant for us. So I opened it. Here are the first lines of the letter:

"Dear Cameron,
I hope all is well with you. We spoke some time ago regarding your interest in (blankety blank) Insurance. I wanted to keep in touch and send you a new quote based on the coverage's (sic) we originally discussed."

Ok, at this point I'm thinking this nice looking man (his picture is on the letterhead) has had some type of insurance discussion with my 14 year old??!!!??? I turn to the next page which is the aforementioned rate quote and see that details are spelled out for a 2004 BMW. The kid had been talking about the kind of car he wants to drive ever since he turned 14. He has been holding onto every penny that he makes in order to save up for a car. He even tried to tell me that large milk costs $2 at his school which makes me wonder if that's true or if he is pocketing the difference for his car fund. I don't know why he thinks he will get a used BMW at 16. Neither his father nor I have owned anything more extravagant than a Honda or a Nissan. In fact, my first car in high school was my dad's old Ford Pinto and it was a stick shift to boot. I guess I have to chuckle and admire him for his interest, tenacity and ability to save at a young age. Whether he can make enough money to pay the $3,598.60 annual insurance cost (the agent was nice enough to only show the 6 month cost of $1,799.30 in the quote) is only the beginning- he certainly has a long way to go to pay for the car. That’s a lot of bottles of milk at St. Xavier!
So perhaps you should check out what else your kid is doing online besides the usual Facebook or MySpace communication, otherwise you may end up with Ed McMahon at your door step or at the very least, lots of mystery mail and phone calls. And a warning to those companies please put some age filters out there on your websites. It will save you a lot of time and money because this family is passing on the government grant and the kid is NOT getting a BMW. Lucky Charms anyone????

PRESENCE AS PRESENT

Keep this and only this:

What your heart beats loudly for

What stirs your passions and makes you smile

What causes you to leap from your bed each morning

Those people who support you and lift you up

Those things you can create with your own hands

For if you do this, you will find the path

To true happiness and life fulfillment

FALL: MY FAVORITE SEASON OF ALL!!


I absolutely love Fall!!!! That's why Glenn and I got married in October when the vibrant outdoor colors were in their full pageantry. We have had such a warm slide into the official fall season in late September, that October has kind of snuck up on me. Mack and I had our first pumpkin visit yesterday after her soccer game and prior to her basketball game. I couldn't resist snapping my cell phone cam to get a pic of her with her namesake pumpkins!!! I still need to get some pumpkins large enough to carve and place some solid candles in as well as to buy a whole new arsenal of mums. For some reason, my mums didn't come up spontaneously this year. Not sure what's up with that- sooo time for new color. Enjoy the little and not-so-little trick or treaters who will soon be ringing your doorbells!!!!

RESPECT LIFE SUNDAY

RESPECT LIFE AND LIVE A LIFE OF NON-VIOLENCE


"Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man"- GANHDI


“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

INSPIRATION OR IDIOT BOX??- YOU DECIDE

ELECTION 2008
It's kind of ironic that the Vice Presidential debates followed the reality series Survivor since in essence that is what both candidates are trying to do as they approach November 4th and attempt to sway the hearts and minds of the American people.

I think Biden did the best job, but Sarah Palin held her own as far as poise goes and she went a long way in building up some morale for the Republican party simply by not falling flatly on her face. While I was enamored with her nomination speech, I have been disappointed in her inability to fire off answers to inpromtu questions in subsequent interviews. She was way too folksy for me in this debate. I haven't seen the actual transcript analysis but I noticed that she used the words maverick and corruption a whole lot filled quite a bit with the adverb "also". She threw in some phrases which I guarantee will become ad nauseum sound bites like: "Joe Six-Pack, Hockey Moms and Predator Lenders- Darn right!" She spent way too much time talking about energy alternatives and kind of dodging foreign policy issues. I did like her black suit, however!! She looked great.

And by the way, here is an article from Time Magazine by Massimo Calabresi on a Palin Poll.

Poll: Palin Less Popular with Women Voters Than with Men
By Massimo Calabresi Thursday, Oct. 02, 2008

As Sarah Palin braces for her vice-presidential debate tonight with Joe Biden, a new TIME poll shows the Alaska Governor is surprisingly unpopular among likely women voters.

Overall, Palin is viewed favorably by 47% of likely voters and unfavorably by 40%. But her numbers are worse among women than men: 45% of all women surveyed have a negative opinion of Palin, compared to 42% who view her positively. Fifty-two percent of men have a favorable opinion, while 35% are in the unfavorable camp.

We shall see what happens.

A Life

26-106-742

A combination that holds the key to my present

Yet also encompasses my past-

A past so incredibly unbelievable

That it could surely be mistaken for a work of fiction

The characters play out in my mind and in my life

Sometimes the fabric enveloping both comes together

In a solitary seam weaving each part collectively and

In that single moment, reality and fantasy become entwined

On that day long ago when different worlds collided,

Two people were blind to the idea that they were setting the stage

For a story to be written; yet the basic elements of any good fairy-tale

Had already been put in motion

A backdrop of fantasy with dragons and knights and medieval villages

Two people meeting with false identities known only to the audience

A classic tale of misunderstanding and hopelessness

A tale of redemption via goodness and truth

To save another’s life is an awesome experience

To see the person rescued from the clutches of a damaged identity

And restored to a higher plane of existence and belief in self

And to continue to guide them toward the path of self-esteem

Is a privilege to be a part of

The clouds of doubt have been wiped away

And the one to be rescued realizes that he no longer walks alone

Yet the haze of fantasy still veils their lives

They step intermittently in and out of the realm of reality

But there is a cost to giving the blood of life

And the giver must take care not to lose their own

A fine balance needs to be struck so that

Both parties stand intact

To achieve this balance is the ultimate in friendship

A friendship forged through reaching bottom

And being pulled back up out of the darkness

Both in the imaginary and the real worlds

What future tales does the blank page hold

And for whom does the bell really toll?

All Material CopyWrite Michelle Beckham-Corbin

MOCK TRIAL ROCKS!!!!!!