What are the reasons you are living for?

What is the thought that wakes with you at the start of the day?
The thing at the morning that pulls you through even when there is so much else going on?
How do you face the day when more than everything is going less than even a little bit your way?

How do you feel when there is nothing to hold on to, take that one thing away.
Look at your life without a point, no center you are absolutely drawn to.
how does it feel to be so lost, yet free, in this way?

We go where we please because there is no way to tell how off or on we might be.
We look for correction, suggestions, learning a right way or not,
but most of all we are looking for what others of you have seem to already got.

So Far.

After some thinking and a few suggestions, I have decided to put up a piece of the newest book I am working on. As you can easily see I have minimal followers on this blog and while I am thankful for the three of you, and it may be a blessing in the end, I also really want to get published and would appreciate the opinions of large quantities of people. So if you know other people, I'd love for you to send them this way :) I'm trying to figure out how my ideas/words come across to people other than myself, so even if only you read this, it would be a great help!!! Any advice or comments are welcome. Thank  you <3

7 Life Lessons I Learned While Cleaning Potatoes. (the name is in limbo, but it is also the original). 

by jennifer webb

Number one- Every accomplishment usually has a very humble beginning. 

In an effort to acknowledge that not all people, more precisely, that most people have trouble identifying the real meanings behind my words and stories, I feel that the term "accomplishment" might need more explaining, especially since we are supposed to be discussing potatoes.  Well, cooking can be a chore. You may be tired or sick and all you really want to do is have a good meal appear before your eyes, maybe after a blink and a head nod, I Dream of Genie style. Unfortunately, and I mean that with all my own sorrows, this is not a magical life we live in, at least not where meals materialize based on wishful thinking. However, there is a runner-up, or we have a close second, whichever phrase you feel more comfortable with. Potatoes. So simple, so filling, so versatile. Recently, while I was discussing the idea for this book, a person, whose opinion matters to me, asked, "So, why potatoes?" I guess I've never thought that way, hence the reason that they have the center stage on this, my first attempt at substantiation in the world of literature, that I otherwise thought impenetrable by me. With a little more reflection, I decided that I feel an affinity for potatoes. We, the potato family and I, both have rough, but stable beginnings, some people consider us nutritious while others can only view us negatively and above all, we are both easy^1. No, you didn't misread that, I actually just wrote that I am easy like a potato. This distance is actually Grand Canyons away from the ease of a Sunday morning. How so then, you must be wondering. Well, for that, you must also keep reading.

So, what do you think?

Submission

My point is short and quick,

I wonder who I am.

Not soul defining or Earth-enriching,

a woman or a man?

You see, I see the same as you,

your haunting eyes now directed at my legs.

Look freely, as you please,

and tell me how you find me.

Because, apparently, I have penis separation anxiety-

although a period and vagina have seemed quite enough for me. 

The problem here, you wonder too,

is where does that leave me?

Because I think and work and play 

but to motherhood I feel dismay.

If my place is not the bed or in the kitchen

and my hair is always lacking in attention,

does that a man make me 

or am I simply categorized as "lazy?"

* Let's just jump right in there, shall we? I wasn't planning on this, but it is what came out over my coffee this morning (erh...afternoon)... I'm not sure that the title works with such a limited poem, but it is an interesting idea if you really consider all of its many definitions and applications. My favorite being that writing this poem was only my SUBmission. The larger mission is still to be discussed ;) I hope you have not been disturbed by your journey into my thought-processes...

In the mid-sections.

This is more difficult than I thought it might be. On one hand, I can obviously write anything I'd like to. I can pretend the whole world has forgotten me and pour out my soul onto these pages(?). Alternatively, I feel the pressure of a thousand eyes and can't get Julie and Julia out of my mind. I've decided just to write.. whatever may be, will be; seize the day; I'm sick of sitting here going some lines forward, only to go forty words back. 

Onwards. 

SO, I have a few books I'm in the process of reading. As a back story, I've just moved to Sonoma County and am literally running away from the boredom that is looming. It seriously is an ominous force that I see hovering in the midst of my mid-day activities. In fight mode, I've surrounded myself with books, ingredients, bleach, and some other way exciting cleaning objects. So far, so good. That is, until my roomie became MIA for what will amount to ten days :/ The privacy to walk directly from the bathroom to my bedroom, robed (or not), is nice, but I could do without. (If you are reading, COME HOME!). Anyways, books. 

One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty

It is a humble book. If this was a self-analysis, I would make a whole bunch of conclusions, but really, that's only fun for me. Instead, I'll share the best piece of advice that Eudora has given me so far. It inspired me to begin this blog and to keep plugging away at novels I sometimes want to give up on. Apparently lifted from one of her memorable novels, Sanford and Merton, the quote is, "If we would be great, we must first learn to be good." You may, of course, translate this in your soul's own language, but for me, it screamed longevity. Going the distance, what have you. I'm terrible at beginning a writing project and giving up once I've lost sight somewhere in the middle. Not so good in terms of taking writing seriously as a profession...
One more shining piece of enlightenment from this book? Sorry, like I said, I'm only in the middle.

There's more, anyways.

Deepak Chopra's Poemas de Amor de Rumi


Love. Even if I don't understand all the words, I get the meaning. Besides, something about the passionate red cover with the blooming rose at it's center and the appeal of its being in another language... I just feel sexy reading it. Ha! Well, I do... Can't say it has given me any great advice though. It provides me with something similar and that is hope. You see, I have decided to kick up the gear and continue on with my Spanish education. At the very least, it gives me an hour's worth of vrooooom! Take solar panels, for example, they are placed in visual spots, usually, in order to capture the sun. They take what is already available to them and make it work for the benefit of others. I am not the panels, I am the owner of those panels. I possess a commodity (las poemas) that explains, for me, that I am concerned with the betterment, er enrichment, of my life. I don't own any solar panels, but if they make you feel as cool as learning Spanish, I'd like some.

I'll leave you with my favorite so far. Try it out on your lover, maybe you'll find a whole new meaning of rewarding.
The poem is called, "Ven A Mi" (page 31) <--- just in case you want the whole poem.
My favorite part:

ven, ven conmigo
y juntos viviremos
rodeados de estrellas*

has estado oculto mucho tiempo
vagando a la deriva
en el mar de mi amor.*


Well, anyways, it inspired me to write my own.
I figured that was the best way to practice.
Here goes.


En el pais de los amantes
yo soy tuyos.
Pero yo soy Americano tambien.
Vivo en mi ciudad,
mientras que mi corazon,
vive en el cielo.


It might not be Rumi's, but it's mine, in Spanish, so, me gusta mucho :)


I'm off to start the day. This was a nice way to drink my coffee though. I hope for many more occurrences, some perhaps a little deeper. Enjoy your day too. My advice: Find some way to make yourself feel sexy. We can handle it.