Category Archives: Life Lessons

August 13, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse -13 August 2017

By Kat Myrman

The heavens are convulsing this month with lunar eclipses, meteor showers, solar eclipses and retrograde mercurial planets. Is it any wonder we’re going mad down here? But don’t blame the heavens or the gods for what is happening. We can’t keep pointing fingers at others saying, “There! They are the reason why our lives are a mess, not working, or unhappy…fill in the blank…the reasons are many.

It’s time my friends to look in the mirror and decide on which side of fault line you will stand. There is no middle. The middle is an abyss. And the the choice is easier than you think. A few questions to help you along…

Love? or Hate?
Truth? or Lies?
Open? or Closed?
Fear? or Faith?
Apathy? or Empathy?
Ignorance? or Knowledge?
Judgment? or Mercy?
Compassion? or Indifference?
Doors? or Walls?
Black Lives Matter? or All Lives Matter? (…this is not a trick question…)
Love is Love is Love? Or Love is…except for…?

I could go on, but I’m going to stop right here. I believe most of us want to believe we’re doing the right thing. We want to believe we’re good. Contrary to popular, feel good, “we’re all entitled to our own opinion” sensibilities, there is a right and a wrong answer. Of course we would choose the right answer…the right words. But what do our actions say?

I’m not judging. I wrestle everyday with these questions. I fall short. But I would like to declare a do-over for us all. Slate clean. It’s not too late.

What will I do when called to take a stand? What do I do when no one is looking? Can I look in the mirror without wincing? Because at the end of the day that is what matters. At the end of the day we need each other and we’re counting on us to do the right thing; the thing that is good and true and just.

Blessings and grace, love and healing to you this week. Clean slate. Let’s do this! ❤️

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse -13 August 2017

moll with painted crimson lips
feel the blue
but the virus was resistant
for the costly price of love
evanescence gone
no means no, you know
I could tell you things…
she appears as an angel
come out from the nimbus mist
there is no normal
dull, entranced faces
our dreams bittersweet
prayers for our fractured nation
their magnificent innocence…fades far too quickly, like echoes of laughter in the distance.

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the shi sai features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.

6 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Social Issues, Spirituality, Week in Review

August 12, 2017

The Girl Who Dreamed of Flying

By Kat Myrman


Once upon a time…you know where this is going. You might even think, this is one of those ‘fairy tales’ and dismiss it straight away as a myth, but I can assure you it is truer than true. For it is true that everything in this world has a once upon a time; even you, if you think about it, when you burst purple, wet into this place, gulping your first breath, eyes squinting at the bright glare of life.

And so it was for Clarissa. Born in a humble wisteria-draped cottage in a dingle village long, long ago, Clarissa emerged from the Guf laughing, eyes wide and bright. The midwife declared, “My my, but this is a special one!” Never had a truer thing been uttered, as time would tell.

As soon as she could walk, Clarissa set about exploring every cranny and nook. Birds and bugs, whirlygigs, cottonwood fluff and witch’s gowan wishies…flying things, were her favorite things of all. She spent hours studying them, quite unusual for a youngster, and gibbering to them about this and that, as if they were listening. She dreamed of flying like her airborne friends. One day she did. It was the saddest of all days the dingle had ever known.

On that dark and dreadful day Clarissa managed to escape the watchful eyes of her doting mum to wander up the mountain trail to the lookout ledge. She stood there for a moment, feet clinging to the rocky crag, arms extended, her fiery red curls dancing in the wind, and she laughed so loudly it caught the attention of every living thing below. They watched aghast as Clarissa lept into a swooping gust and flew for a short, too few magnificent seconds.

Frantic to save her, every winged, wispy thing surrendered their feathers and wings, whirligigs and fluffy, puff wishies to the wind, hoping to break her fall her by blanketing the dingle in feathery fluff, but they were no match for gravity’s power, drifting helplessly in the air. Clarissa fell right through them, landing in a horrible thud as the last echo of her laughter faded in the distance.

Now you may not notice it when it happens but I can assure you it’s true. Every time a child laughs a bird sheds a feather or bug its wings. And sometimes Maple tree whirligigs, cottonwood fluffies and dandelion wishies take to the wind too. All to remember Clarissa, the girl who dreamed of flying, and to add another moment’s wonder and happiness to children everywhere. For it is also true that their magnificent innocence, like Clarissa’s ill-fated flight, fades far too quickly, like echoes of laughter in the distance.

~kat

A Folktale for Jane Dougherty Microfiction Challenge inspired by Jeren of itsallaboutnothing’s poem that you can read HERE.

18 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Flash Fiction, Life Lessons, microfiction

August 9, 2017

You Can Call Me Terry

By Kat Myrman

“Geologists have a saying – rocks remember.” ~Neil Armstrong

Photo by © CEAyr

“Hello there.”

“What?! Who said that? Who’s there?!”

“I’m down here.”

“But, you’re a rock!”

“That’s right! My name is Terrance A. Cotta, the 1003rd, but you can call me Terry…get it? Sheesh! Humans are so dense!”

“I’m going crazy!”

“Oh, get over yourself! You and I are made of the same stuff you know. You’re just mucilaginous. I was once a mountain. I soared so high I danced with the clouds.”

“Mucilaginous? What’s that mean? Never mind. I’m outa here!”

“Oh well, off you go then. But I could tell you things, if you’d listen. I could tell you things…”

~kat

100 Words for Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers 100 Word Story Challenge prompted by the photo above by CEAyr.

41 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in 100 and Under, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Flash Fiction, Life Lessons, nature

August 8, 2017

Stop…a Haiku

By Kat Myrman


no means no, you know
just as stop means stop…stop…STOP

not maybe okay

~kat

For Haiku Horizons Haiku Challenge, prompt word, Stop.

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Haiku, Life Lessons, Poetry, Social Issues

August 6, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 6 August 2017

By Kat Myrman


Most of you know I have a day job. Sometimes the day job encroaches my free time, launching me into an exhausting week of all work and no play, or in my case no time for writing. I managed to scribble out a few lines but I admit even the magnetic words felt overwhelming to me by week’s end.

Fortunately, since I began blogging, I have grown to appreciate the effectiveness of a 6 word story or a tweet. I’m bummed that I missed several of my favorite challenges this week. They were all good ones. I just couldn’t even…

But it makes me pay attention all the more to the words that did spill out of my brain this week, finding voice in prose or poetry. Six lines made it to the finish. There’s that number again. And today is the 6th day of August. Six…you have my attention. What are you trying to tell me? (So of course I am pausing here to look it up…be right back!)

From the site, mysticalnumbers, I learned:

*The number 6 is a symbol of completeness.
*Number 6 symbolizes beauty and high ideals.
*Number 6 is A Perfect Number. The *Pythagoreans acknowledged number 6 to be the first perfect number.
*Number 6 is the symbol of luck, the highest number of the dice.
*The number 6 is the symbol of Venus, the goddess of love.
*In the Tarot, six is the card of the Lover – The Lovers naturally symbolizes anything to do with the heart; love and also inner peace and harmony.
*June is the 6th month. (my birth month)
*The number 6 is the atomic number for carbon.
*The standard flute has six holes.
*The standard guitar has six strings.
*Insects have six legs.
*In the beehive honeycomb, the cells are six-sided.

And as I shared this week, I have lived on this planet 6 decades. It seems like such a small number but it is a perfect number. It is a symbol of completeness. What I glean from all this is that even though I was not allowed to spend more time writing, the words that I did find, and my simple little six line ReVerse, are a perfect representation of my life this past week.

My boss told me to be ready to hit the ground running this coming week. Looks like another week chasing a dollar. If only I didn’t need food and shelter to survive, I could spend all my hours writing. But would more words tell my story any more eloquently? I’ll hang onto that thought when I find only a moment, here and there, to write. There is perfection in brevity.

Peace out! Have a magical week! I’m ready. Here we go…to infinite perfection and beyond!

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 6 August 2017

your life is poetry in rhythm
Morning, you. I made coffee
cut flowers die
I don’t need to know all the answers
my tack is a pen
full moon dusking

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the shi sai features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Week in Review