Saturday, April 1, 2023

Right or Happy? Stupid Question

 

There's a meme on social media that begs the question:

Would you rather be right or happy?

What kind of a choice is that? In order to be in a relationship (casual or serious, platonic or romantic) I have to swallow my knowledge? My intellect? My right to my opinion? If I say I'm wrong when I'm not, how can I be happy? If I allow people spreading misinformation or hate around without speaking the truth, how can I be happy? If two people in any relationship allow each other to wallow in ignorance, how can either of them truly be happy? If either person concedes to something they don't believe or something that goes against their conscience, how can that relationship survive? It's living a lie.

That said, I've concluded that I'd rather be right. Anyone that comes into your life and insists that they must be right without evidence to back them up, and that you have to swallow your knowledge and carefully considered opinions that you know are correct because you have facts to back you up, isn't worth having as a friend. The willfully ignorant who refuse to acknowledge facts when they are presented, who are too lazy to look into matters and seek out the truth, even if it's an uncomfortable truth, and expect you to pussyfoot around their obstinance and tell them they have a point when they clearly are wrong is just exerting mind control. Why would anyone back down and submit to that? Submit to the kind of bullying that has kept people oppressed for centuries?

You want to be right? Show me evidence that you are right. And if I prove that evidence to be false then have the grace to concede the point, and I if you prove mine false I will do the same. Otherwise, there is no relationship at all, just your narcissism.


Friday, February 24, 2023

Terri's Newsletter 2-24-23

 

February 24, 2023

Hi Everybody!

It has been an extremely busy year so far, especially the past couple of weeks.

Since my last note, I finally found a home for my art stuff.  I settled on Fine Art America, and have been furiously learning how to use the site all week. I'm still not great at it, but I have managed to post over 50 pieces of art so far. I have a little bit of everything – Abstract, Owl's Nest illustration, Paranormal Posse illustrations, Impact pieces (memoir illustrations for a book I'm putting together), birds and nature, and some miscellaneous stuff too.

I don't claim to be any kind of amazing artist or anything, but some of the merch available looks pretty cool. 

Check it out when you get a chance. 

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/terri-delcampo

Another project I've been working on this week is trying to get my art supplies organized and accessible (goals that seemed mutually exclusive until this week). Blaze and I live in a studio apartment. It's tiny, considering that we both write and have files and books for research, and we both have hobbies. (I crochet, draw, dabble in jewelry creation and crafts, and have hundreds of dvds, Blaze ties flies, does a little art too. So when I got more actively into the art, I had to find a way to cram one more sardine into our little can. I got myself an art cart.

 


That helped, but considering my broken old broad body, reaching the bottom bin for gel pens with my project on my lap desk was a challenge. I looked up other types of art bins and bags, and the best was a rolling backpack thingy with lots of compartments – perfect – except for the $109 pricetag. So I got creative. And I actually found stuff that's better.

When I first started drawing I bought a slew of Crayola colored pencils and markers. I got their Colors of the World Skintone set, some metallic colors, some neon colors, a sharpener, some blenders, and it was a lot. Personally I think pencil cases with individual elastics for each pencil are more of a pain in the ass than anything, so I did this: 


It's just a cheapie little lunch pouch I got at Kroger on sale for $4.99. I banded my pencils together with ponytail elastics, sorting them by color and voila! Pencils organized. And I sit the pouch handle up so the pencil points don't get banged around and broken.

But then there was water colors, watercolor pencils, brushes, my pencil sharpener, erasers, markers, gel pens, brush pens, water brushes, microns, graphite pencils, blenders, and other paraphernalia. I cannot leave projects and supplies sitting out. My area is too small. I basically live in my lift chair – meals, writing, art, sleep, computer activities, movies, everything in the chair.

So this:



Hanging toiletry bags – who knew? The one on the left has another compartment at the bottom that is blocked from view by the arm of my chair. The one on the right has another compartment on the right that didn't fit in the pic. Both are hooked onto coated wire shelves that are right next to my chair. I can fold them up when I'm done arting and stick 'em back on the cart, OR if I'm taking a my art on the road they will all fit into my backpack along with sketchbooks or a clipboard.

So for less than $40 I have portable storage for all my gear and it all fits onto a cart that I already had. And even if I had to buy the cart it's only $43 on Amazon, so I still would have come in under the $109 pricetag for the fancy schmancy rolling backpack I saw online.

 

My "micro-mini art studio: 


 


So I consider this a productive week – artwise. The laundry, however, is piling up and the dustbunnies are about to carry Blaze's bed away…heh, heh, heh. 

Speaking of which, I need to get this posted and start dinner.

Until next time!

Ter

 







Thursday, February 16, 2023

Updates (mostly professional) from Terri DelCampo

 

Hi Everybody!

2023 has been an interesting ride so far, and February is already half gone. Boom! I'm going to try and keep current updates on my blog because I haven't been on social media much over the last few months. I have writing and art projects out the wazoo, not to mention personal stuff that it's imperative I keep on top of.

Personal issues, (the biggest, trying to help my 94-year-old mother out from 800 miles away), consume a chunk of my time, at least during the day. Mom has had several major problems, over the last few months – fortunately with her home, not her health - and she's deaf on top of it, along with tech challenged so instant communication with her is impossible. If we could just text back and forth the problem would be solved, but anything tech goes right over her head. It's like teaching a lizard to ice-skate. Not happening. I have to contact her friends/neighbors or write her, which is useless for pressing issues. It's been a seriously frustrating challenge…not to mention time consuming, but that's a Terri problem.

Drawing started out as a calming activity that took my focus away from problem-solving drama in the evenings. I hesitated to turn it into a project, though I think it will be fun to put my drawings on tote bags, notebooks, mugs and stuff. And if it stops being fun, I'll stop doing it. Because I'm a retired, disabled old fart and the 'gotta do' years are in my past. 😊    

Finding a home for my writing and art projects has been another time-suck. To the point where I almost said screw it.

That home ain't Patreon. I started to put individual issues of Owl's Eye View Magazine up there, with illustrations, so that patrons would have exclusive material not in the bundle that's on Kindle. I wanted a place to publish the individual issues without them overwhelming my Amazon author page. Patreon seemed perfect. Until I noticed that my patrons would be charged per creation (every post would be $3) rather than my choice of a $3 monthly subscription rate that would include everything. I tried to reset that and got all through the setting edit page, but was required to contact Patreon to make the change. I contacted Patreon through the link they provided and received no response whatsoever. I tried to call Patreon and the number listed on the site is invalid. I tried emailing. No response. I tried going on Twitter and Facebook and tweeting them. No response. So by that time, frustrated to tears, I started looking for another way to publish.

The other way seems to be Fine Art America. I can put up my art and it will be available not only as prints, but it will appear on merchandise like mugs, shirts, blankets, shower curtains, notebooks, etc. This is exciting because I have a ton of abstract art for my Trash to Art collection that will lend itself beautifully to all of that. So that's one collection.

Another collection will be Impact, an illustrated memoir I've been working on. I plan to eventually release that on Amazon as an eBook, but I can put the illustrations up on Fine Art America with the brief memoir anecdotes in the description box. In the eBook I can expand those anecdotes if I want, but for now, I want to focus on the art. And I can put the pieces up gradually as I complete them instead of waiting for all the material for the book.

And then there will be a nature and animal collection, because….birds. I love 'em and already have two nice pieces of a chickadee and a cardinal, and Benny the Owl who was my mom's pet for over a decade. I also have some random drawings of other animals that need a home. Plus other nature pieces.

And then there will be random pieces of art that won't belong in specific collections.

So my stuff on Fine Art America is definitely a work in progress that I'll be adding to almost every day for the foreseeable future.

Right now, I'm still trying to familiarize myself with the Fine Art America platform, and learn how to prep, upload, and price my stuff according to the rules of that site. Everything's a work in progress, and I don't want anyone buying any of the merch until I know I've mastered the skills to ensure its quality. I will let everyone who's interested know when stuff is ready for perusal and purchase.

Aside from Fine Art America, I'm doing illustrations for Blaze's "Paranormal Posse" on his Patreon page. Fun! I can't really put them up in a blog because they are part of his subscription package, exclusively for his patrons, but it's a cool project I'm having fun with. (Little plug: Blaze has hundreds of posts, several complete novels, poetry, short stories, and articles all for $3 a month. You can't beat that. He posts every single day. A crapload of bang for your buck!). Blaze is so prolific on Patreon I can hardly keep up with the illustrations– especially right now with all the projects of my own. Days fly by with too few hours to get everything done. It's a happy kind of frazzled that ensures I'm never bored.

I've also decided to put together a companion book for Owl's Eye View Magazine called Owl's Nest Locals. It will have bios for every character connected to the magazine or the novels set in Owl's Nest. Also, it will have lineage charts, maps of the town (both historical and current), and other tidbits of Owl's Nest trivia. This project is on the back burner for now, until I get in a groove with my Fine Art America projects.

There are also practice pieces and doodles that I like, but that don't meet my standards for publishing on Fine Art America. There are some things I drew just for fun that nobody would want on their coffee mug or hanging on their wall. That stuff I'll just share on my blog, or directly on Facebook or Twitter.

So that's what I've been up to, if you're even wondering. I'll be posting more often, hopefully, and staying in touch a little better. I do try and scroll though Facebook a couple times a week to see what's going on with family and friends. I don't always comment, but I'm around, and I try to keep up with my Facebook messages when I'm on there.

I guess that's about it. Hugs to all!

Ter

Little sample from "Impact": It's my childhood home on Baynard Boulevard where I lived with my parents on the third floor (my window is lit up), my grandparents, Gladys and Dick on the second floor, (along with two boarders), and my great-grandmother Maggie and great-aunt Edith on the first floor. I have amazing memories of this house and my family within it. Lots of drama, but fortunately lots of love as well.  

 


Saturday, October 1, 2022

An American Citizen Demands Justice for Trump's Treachery

 

I came across this article I wrote during Trump's reign of terror. I thought it was worth repeating. I wrote this even before that fake president committed sedition by inciting the January 6th attack on the Capitol. 

Now I want the justice I demanded then even more.  

An American Citizen Demands Justice for Trump's Treachery

Due process for this phony president is too long delayed.

 

There for a time, specifically after I watched the (fake) President of the United States stand on a dais in Helsinki, in front of an adversarial foreign leader and in a televised speech in front of a global audience, denounce the US intelligence community, I wished that the government would reinstate the use of a firing squad for such treachery.

And then I started thinking about it.

Because since then that fake president has brutalized Americans in countless ways. He has swindled, berated, neglected, tortured, and murdered thousands of American people. He has incited violence everywhere he goes, everywhere his voice will reach, everywhere his electronic messages go. 

I no longer wish for the return of the firing squad for such horrific behavior.

I want retribution. I want him to be forced to personally feel the heartbreak, pain, humiliation, frustration, oppression, and suffering that he's caused Americans to feel. 

I want him stripped of all possessions.

I want him in an orange jumpsuit.

I want every moment of every one of his years dictated to him by prison officials.

I want him to eat prison food every day for the rest of his miserable life.

I want him to sleep on a prison cot or palate. 

I want him to call a 9 X 6 cell home.

I want him completely powerless.

I want him to crap in a stainless-steel toilet mounted to a wall in view of guards.

I want him to have no privacy.

I want him to have to ask permission to use a pay telephone mounted on a prison wall in which he must insert quarters for limited speaking time.

I want him to have to ask permission to have a book.

I want him to have to earn television privileges that are shared with other prisoners, many of whom are much better people than he is.

I want him to have a large, intimidating cellmate who is as big a psychopath as he is. 

I want him to know that his sons, daughter, and son-in-law are all living their lives out in exactly the same way he is, paying for their crimes against their country and against humanity. 

I want him broken, penniless, humiliated, powerless, and humbled before the world with nothing but time to experience how it feels to be the victim of the kind of treatment he doles out on a daily basis. 

I'm not interested in rehabilitation. I'm not interested in the court showing him mercy. He's shown none, even to tiny little children he had stolen from their parents and locked in cages in a desert.

I'm interested in punishment. Severe, unyielding punishment.

A year for every rubber bullet that hit a peaceful protestor.

A year for every tear shed by little children in cages at the border.

A year for every word he uttered encouraging and emboldening hate groups like the KKK, neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, Proud Boys, and Boogaloo movement whose main goal is to regress America back to the pre-civil rights era and to spur a civil war in America. 

A year for every American life lost to a pandemic that he allowed to gain a foothold in the United States.

A year for every time he berated or slandered an honest public servant looking out for American citizens under their care and protection.

A year for every dollar he stole from the American purse for his self-interest.

A year for every lie he told to the American people.

A year for every game he played toying with hospitals, making them beg for live-saving medical supplies.

A year for every time he mercilessly called a governor a liar when they were advocating and trying to acquisition supplies on behalf of desperate medical staffs trying to save American lives during an overwhelming pandemic – American lives that the fake president was willing to squander.

A year for the ruined future of every child whose potential is denied because their education depended on the whims of a soulless, rich, unqualified heiress who cares more about her yachts and manicures than about the future generations of Americans or even the Special Olympics.

A year for every American he scammed with Trump University.

A year for every dollar of profit he made when his own Secret Service detail had to pay for their accommodations in a Trump-owned hotel. 

A year for every dollar profit he made selling MAGA hats and swag, flouting the emolument clause.

A decade for every qualified, intelligent, decent government official who was cheated out of a position that Trump gave to a woefully unqualified, corrupt family member or crony.

A year for every American who was roughed up at one of his rallies-for-ignorance. 

A year for every dollar he made laundering money via his real estate deals for the Russian mob. 

A year for every dollar he swiped from hard-working Americans to give tax breaks to the obscenely wealthy.

A year for every dollar he's hidden from the IRS.

A year for every tear Meghan McCain shed as he mocked and slandered her father on a daily basis even as John McCain struggled with cancer and lost his life. 

A year for every time he slandered reporters and journalists, calling them the enemy of the people and trying to have their credentials revoked. 

A year for every dollar he spent trying to cover up his extra-marital escapades.

A year for every dollar he stiffed to hard-working Americans who labored on his properties in good faith only to be ripped off. 

A year for every slur, rude remark, and snub dealt to our allies around the world.

A year for every dollar of pay lost by government workers during the longest shutdown in US history, over his vanity wall, useless except to feed his ego, and destructive to landowners, ranchers, and the environment along our southern border. 

A year for every dollar that Congress continued to get paid during that shutdown that average American government workers didn't. 

A year for every member of the Coast Guard and TSA who were furloughed during the shutdown, leaving our ports of entry vulnerable.

A year for having a member of the press forcibly removed from a press conference like a bag of trash for merely asking a question he didn't like.

A year for every American Muslim he hurt when he said they were celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Center.

A year for every seed of doubt he planted when he took a full-page ad out in the NY Times saying that the Central Park Five were guilty and should receive the death penalty for a crime that they'd been exonerated of with DNA evidence and the word of the victim that it wasn't them. 

A year for each person that he said was in his inaugural crowd that wasn't. 

A year for every star and stripe on the American flag that he desecrated by wrapping his treacherous, sell-out arms around it for a photo op.

A year for saying he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. 

A year for every drop of chemical filth dumped into American waterways since he rolled back environmental regulations.

A year for every ounce of plastic waste he's allowing to be dumped in earth's oceans.

A year for every single wild animal or marine life that's died because of pollution, sport hunting, and fracking that he's allowed.

A decade for every species that's gone extinct since he took office, because the protected wildlife reserves have been desecrated.

A year for every Christian he's conned into believing he honors their morals.

A year for every minute of the four years that Osama bin Laden's brother resided in Trump Tower starting in 2008. 

A year for every immigrant he slandered by calling them rapists, thieves, and murderers.

A year for every courageous lesbian, gay, transgender, bi-sexual member of the military who risks life and limb for their country (which he was too much of a selfish coward to do) who he insulted by saying "we don't want them". 

A year for every American citizen who has been wounded or slaughtered in a shooting because he continues to cave to NRA lobbyist pressure to keep their votes and campaign funding.

A year for every woman who has suffered with diseases including cancer because they couldn't see doctors at Planned Parenthood clinics which he defunded.

A year for every teenager who's gotten pregnant for want of birth control that they can no longer receive via Planned Parenthood clinics that he defunded.

A year for every woman he's grabbed by the genitals without her consent.

A year for every family he shattered by deporting undocumented spouses, some who'd served in the US military.

A year for his hypocrisy in denouncing chain migration for immigrants, even as his immigrant wife sponsored her parents' green card.

A year for every woman who's had to deliver a baby that's a product of incest or rape because he endorsed criminalizing abortion feigning morals and a respect for the sanctity of human life that he absolutely does not possess.

A year for every moment of suffering he caused the Puerto Rican people during a catastrophe when he delayed assistance, even though they are a US territory (and an additional year because he didn't even know that). 

A year for each victim tortured and slaughtered by dictators he has sucked up to and expressed admiration for.

A year for every single time he demeaned, insulted, besmirched, ridiculed, slandered, falsely accused, and attempted to intimidate any American who is not a member of his base. 

A year for every honest public official he fired for putting their loyalty to their country over loyalty to him, which is what they are supposed to do.

A decade for saying that Mueller fully exonerated him when he did not. 

A year for every Mexican citizen he defrauded when he said Mexico was going to pay for his nonsensical wall. 

A year for every document he's falsified information on.

A year for every time he encouraged one of his MAGA thugs to beat up a protestor at one of his rallies. An additional year for each time he offered to pay for their lawyers.

A year for taking a protesting man's coat away and throwing him out into the freezing cold at one of his rallies.

A year for every inch of Native American land he allowed oil companies and miners to trespass upon and pollute.

A year for every drop of oil that leaked into Native American soil from a pipeline he had no right to authorize installed there, knowing that the water tables below it would be threatened.

A year for every minute that Flint Michigan spends with undrinkable water. 

A year for every minute of suffering he caused President Obama, his wife, his daughters, and each member of his extended family and his friends with all the persistent lies he spat about his origin of birth.

A year for every instance of violence he instigated towards American citizens.

A year for every word he spoke to gaslight Americans with propaganda that would make Goebbels blush.

A year every time he utilized Nazi propaganda and strategies he's studied for decades.

A year for every Tweet he posted to undermine honest, decent, caring, public servants.

A year for every time he ran his mouth or sent a Tweet that exposed undercover journalists or intelligence personnel in dangerous situations abroad and risked their lives. 

A decade for every POW he insulted by saying that they were losers for getting captured.

A decade for every Gold Star Family he insulted when he showed no compassion or respect for a newly widowed woman whose heart was broken.

A year for every veteran who felt used and manipulated by a fake president who was a no-show for Memorial Day events, who never visited with them on Christmas, or showed them any attention other than during photo ops. 

A decade for calling peaceful Black Lives Matters advocates sons of bitches because they dropped to a knee, symbolic of prayer and mourning, during the national anthem.

A decade for trespassing on church property and harming people, including the clergy of the church by ordering them cleared – by means of tear gas, being shot with rubber bullets, and flash bang grenades – off of the church's patio which is consecrated ground, considered sanctuary! All for a fake president to hold up a bible he's never read, in front of a church he's attended once in three years because he had to.

A decade for using the holy scriptures as a photo prop after inciting violence against peaceful, law-abiding American Christians on their own property.

A year for every member of the military who served in Vietnam – for those who shed tears, blood, sweat; who were tortured, imprisoned, shot, exploded, burned, maimed – while he partied, screwed off in college, groped women, learned the art of the unethical deal, womanized, and indulged his every depraved impulse, uncaring of their sacrifices then, just as he's uncaring of their sacrifices now.   

I want him punished.

I want my country back. I want justice for extreme harm, both physical and emotional, he's inflicted upon the American people. 

I want it yesterday.

 

 

 

 

Friday, May 13, 2022

And so it begins...

I cannot wait to start researching all the Republican senators who voted against codifying Roe. If they insist on upholding the bible over the constitution, fine. It's on. But if they are going to go after bans on birth control, then I hope they are prepared for total abstinence. And also, a ban on pornography, sexually suggestive books, movies, video games, and magazines.

If women's medical records will be up for grabs, then so will men's because vasectomies, Viagra and other sexual stimulants are also unnatural, and sperm is a seed that propagates human life as well.

So bring it, fundamentalist men. Bring it. Women are well used to fighting against your misogynistic ignorance. We have looked up the term "chattel" and we won't be having any of that for ourselves, our daughters, or our granddaughters.

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Ugh! I'm vacillating again!

Hi Friends, 

I have a poetry book I'm getting ready to release. It's edited; I'm working on the cover for which I'm doing the artwork (freehand instead of Pixlr for the first time). 

Here's the thing. I was going to have it be a poetry journal for 2021. Then I came across a mess of poems I wrote in the 1970s when I was a teenager. On a lark, I thought I'd put them in and call the book Then and Now. As I edited them though, I realized how much many of them kind of suck. But they are a bit like a memoir, and also remind me how far I've come in the last few decades - especially where my writing is concerned. 

Perhaps I'll include them with a warning to readers that suckiness pervades in the first part of the book...

But then, I don't want readers to have to dredge through a lot of crap in the first part of the book, and lose interest. Perhaps I'll call the book Now and Then and put the teenage stuff in the back... Hmmmm....

See? Vacillating. 

Ugh! 

Maybe I'll just flip a coin. 

Thoughts from readers?  What do you guys think?  

Thanks for reading!

Ter


Monday, April 18, 2022

My Haiku from Michael Sealey's meditation words

 

Michael Sealey.

When it comes to guided meditation, the man is a god with a voice that can melt solid steel.  Sometimes it takes a lot to put me in a relaxed state – frustration is my middle name, and I have a sugar level problem that's twitchy as well. 

 

I found Michael Sealey on YouTube during a particularly stressful time, and the first recording of his I listened to was Guided Meditation for Detachment from Over-Thinking.  At that time there was a lot of ruminating going on in my head, and that recording helped me calm down and sort out my thoughts and feelings and soften my reaction to many of my issues. 

 

At that same time, I was looking into mindfulness, and meditation with intention. I started sampling other recordings by Michael Sealey, and found Guided Meditation for Mornings: Clear Negativity, Open Chakras Awaken Vital Energy After Sleep (listed below with the link).  The words for contemplation towards the end of the recording intrigued me. When it ended, I wrote them down, with the intention of picking a word each day to meditate on, which I did. Of course, my writer's soul latched onto the words and I found myself writing Haikus.

 

When I was going through my poetry to choose something to publish in a poetry collection, I thought the haikus might add to someone's meditation in a positive way. With that in mind, instead of putting them into a book which I will charge for, I decided to just write this blog so access is free. 

 

I'm also sharing a few Michael Sealey links because they are soothing and helpful whether you have issues you need to deal with like I do, or whether you are just looking for a soothing voice to guide you into a meditative state. 

 

My Haikus:

 

ABUNDANCE:

Knowing you have helped

Is more satisfying than

All the heaps of stuff. 

 

FRIENDLINESS: 

A little smile can

Put another's heart at ease

And unclench a fist. 

 

CALMNESS

A butterfly may

Only land on still petals

Calmness courts beauty

 

HIGHER WISDOM:

To see beyond the

Rat race to attain it all

Leads to inner peace

 

LOVING KINDNESS:

Always treat others

As you want to be treated

One rule for the world.

 

LOVING KINDNESS:

Even tiny acts

Make a difference in the world.

Do something today.

 

OPENNESS: 

Sooner or later

It all comes out in the boil.

Don't let things fester. 

 

OPENNESS:

What's the big secret?

You think you'll shock the world with

Your shit? I doubt it. 

 

OPENNESS:

Even flawed flowers

Blossom in the warm sunlight

And give all they have.

 

RESILIENCE:

Get back up again.

The only other option

Is to fucking die. 

 

RESILIENCE:

Every obstacle

Can be surpassed by taking

Careful, smaller steps. 

 

PASSION:

Spinning together,

Lighting up the dark with fire

As a shooting star. 

 

PASSION:

Ideas sizzle;

As comets through the night sky

My muse lights my mind. 

 

PASSION:

Thought of no other

But one lifetime obsession

Keeps the soul centered.

 

PRODUCTIVITY:

Every moment is

Precious and should never be

Foolishly squandered.

 

PRODUCTIVITY:

Nothing satisfies

Me like a page of "to dos"

With them all checked off. 

 

PRODUCTIVITY:

A big ass stack of

Completed pages with time

To squeeze in some chores. 

 

PRODUCTIVITY:

Just enough time to

Squeeze in some exercises

Once word count is reached.

 

PRODUCTIVITY:

Do what you can do

And then stretch to take one more

Step toward your goal. 

 

FORTHRIGHTNESS:

Hiding in shadow

Will maybe keep you safe but

It's pretty lonely. 

 

FORTHRIGHTNESS:

Better mistakes made

In open honesty than

Lies of omission. 

 

FORTHRIGHTNESS:

I'd rather take one

In the heart than in the back

At least see a face. 

 

FORTHRIGHTNESS:

Show what you're about.

No one is drawn to shadow;

Life leans toward light. 

 

SELF-EXPRESSION:

Tell the world your tale

Through all the acts of your life;

Introduce yourself. 

 

LOVE:

It's not grand gestures;

it's simply being there when

Someone looks around. 

 

PATIENCE: 

Putting up with each

Other's shit every day we

Learn to muddle through. 

 

PATIENCE: 

My head might explode

So I lay off the sugar

And take cleansing breaths. 

 

FLEXIBILITY:

The daily routine

Needs to be challenged and stretched

Just like stiffened joints. 

 

FLEXIBILITY:

Surprises happen.

Stop and appreciate life's

Spontaneity. 

 

WARMTH:

Nothing better than

A snuggly blanket's warmth but

The warmth of a friend.

 

GRATITUDE:

Express your thank-yous

By returning kindnesses

Much nicer than notes. 

 

GRATITUDE:

Stop asking for more

Look around at everything

To be grateful for. 

 

PROSPERITY:

Live long and prosper

In all facets of your life

May there be passion. 

 

VITALITY:

Bustling 'round the house,

Bustling 'round the globe starts with

Bustling 'round the mind. 

 

AUTHENTICITY: 

The real you is the

Only one you've got so put

It out there and shine.

 

FORGIVENESS:

Everyone fucks up.

Your magnanimity will

Boomerang someday. 

 

FORGIVENESS:

What was the motive?

Did someone just fuck up or

Did they fuck you up?

 

FORGIVENESS:

How do we forgive

Deliberate meanness and

Keep our self-esteem?

 

FORGIVENESS:

I'm still working on

Being able to forgive

The deepest slashes. 

 

LIVELINESS: 

Get up! Breathe deeply

For even in night's darkness

There are many stars. 

 

CONFIDENCE:

Stand up; be counted

For only you can tell you

That you don't matter.  

 

CONFIDENCE:

Stand up straight and show

The world how bright you can shine,

But show yourself first. 

 

GOOD HUMOR:

It takes less muscle

By far to smile than to frown –

Relax…be happy. 

 

Sources for Haiku Collection: Contemplation Words

 

Michael Sealey Links: 

 

(The contemplation words I used for the haiku are near the end of this recording, starting at 16:00)

 

Michael Sealey – Guided Meditation for Mornings: Clear Negativity,Open Chakras Awaken Vital Energy After Sleep


Other Michael Sealey recordings I highly recommend:  (There are dozens more!)

 

Michael Sealey - Guided Meditation for Detachment fromOver-Thinking (Anxiety/OCD/Depression)


Michael Sealey – Hypnosis for Releasing Anger and Resentment withGuided Forgiveness


Michael Sealey – Guided Meditation for Sleep Relaxation / Let Goof Worries and Strengthen Health

 

Michael Sealey  - Inspirational Affirmations