Posted at The Sunday Whirl
https://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/
Words: vulnerable, struggle, talk, soul, exist, way,
stories, magic, courage, messy, lean, mantra
In Way of Remembering
Struggle with reality
of being old and vulnerable.
Have long talks
with my soul and together we recall
messy stories from a past
when means to exist were lean
of all magic and courage.
Until we remember mantra
found in bumper sticker
glued to dashboard of faltering Pontiac.
Success is the best revenge.
Elizabeth Crawford 6/9/2019
Process Notes: Biographical. Still have a few people around who want me to believe I am not okay. The bumper sticker was a gift from a friend who understood, and it remained on the dashboard of that old blue Pontiac until I drove it into the ground. But then replaced it with a much newer one, paid for in cash that I had earned and saved.
Image is a rainbow photo, put through the kaleidoscope app
Soul's Music 
I’m still waiting for my revenge.
The lean times have lasted way too long
Hello Real Cie. Thanks for the comment, but I have a question for you. Have you ever sat down and written out your personal definition of success? What it might look like, or entail? I never really went looking for success, so when it happened, I was not prepared for that reality. And I can also verify the reality that success does not always mean the lean times are over or behind you. Are you doing what makes you happy? Have you found the bliss that Joseph Campbell speaks of? I recently attended my Aunts funeral. She was the baby in a family of nine children and the one I was named after. While there, one of my cousins (there are many of them) asked me about a book I might have written. I told her it wasn’t a book, it was a poem, which anchored an Anthology that was later nominated for a Grammy Award. That momentary celebrity meant that I was invited to teach at the University from which I graduated as well as another local college and several Fine Art schools in the area where I lived. My cousin’s eyes lit up and she angrily asked, “Why don’t any of us know this?” To which I replied without much thought, “I don’t know. Maybe because I’m a well-guarded family secret?”
Elizabeth
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I love the message in that bumper sticker. Close your ears to those naysayers. Their vision is limited, and yours is not. I love reading you, my friend. So happy to be reading your words.
Thanks so much, Sherry. I do have a tendency to turn away from the naysayers, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel the pain they may or may not unwittingly unleash. There are those who actually believe that Art cannot be created without pain. Personally, I believe that life itself is painful and that should be enough. And is why I also believe that each and everyone of us has the element of creativity built into our very beings. It is a healing agent meant to aid the individual as well as those who encounter her/him.
Elizabeth
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It’s so good that you didn’t listen to their discouragement
Thank you, Larry T. For a long time I did. Which was a part of why I married a man who was an abusive alcoholic. But, eventually I began to make plans to get out and then actually did so. None of it was simple or easy, but then success is not easy either. Even with success, there are those who believe you owe them time and attention no matter the circumstances. That can be especially difficult as well. But that old bumper sticker and its mantra stayed with me long after that Pontiac died. I’m glad that it did.
Elizabeth
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