Consider the Dragonfly

Happy New Year! 

In lieu of a Saturday Post, here is a New Years promise, kept and keeping.

You rarely hear dragonflies 

Coming or going

Resting or moving

Not unless they are very close

Intimately close

Their song

Scary as the portents of

a new year
a new choice
a new life

Amazing

And unapologetic

For being

Quiet OR beautiful

They don't talk mess about 

how bam is their glam

No need for marketing

They don't puff up

They just show up

fly

be beautiful 

As they are

Don't need a billboard

to label them

beautiful

Their wings

Don't need

a million

Social media fans

Don't need merch buying followers

to increase their value

or premium

make them relevant

make them stronger

Don't need to be anywhere

Because they are

In front

On the sides

Behind

Beneath

Holding it up

Holding it down

Loud as the truth is scary

With barely any sound at all

They are free

to be heard

or ignored

Have you ever?

Let's do the dang thing. It's 2016.​

2015's Last Few

Looking forward by looking back, Happy Saturday Post to you!

2015 Can Go

This was the hardest year
I've overcome
In my life so far
I learned some things
About myself
I learned some things
About others
I have to own
Mine
I have defend
My own
Soul
Pruning
Training
Shining
So
Sometimes
I have to ask for help
Asking for clarification is ok too
But sometimes
things just won't get clear
Control is for certain
Times and places
my personal space
the peace of my home
the people I let affect my choices
Some things
I will never understand
Some people
Will flip the script
Mid-sentence
It's my job to live
The nobility I claim
And the learning does not stop
Not until
My last breath
Still breathing
Yep

My biggest lesson of this year - 

forgiveness and peace.

Without them, 

I am a fool and lyin' to myself.

With words, song and prayer,
Tiffany V

Hearing the Voice of the Heart

Wishing you all the Happiest of Holidays, here's a Saturday Post!

I hate that man like the very gates of death who says one thing but hides another in his heart. - The Iliad

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks... - The Bible

The holiday season is a great time to consider the rain and the symbol of cleansing that comes with it. Let's consider expelling the poison that may be within us. Let's consider that we all are fragile in the snow with no cover. Let's consider we often pretend to be Hercules, when really we are Tiny Tim without the crutch.

"...She has them believing that poor old ape with the twisted foot is a satyr. Illusions, deceptions, mirages!" - The Last Unicorn

Considering the idea of authenticity, it makes me wonder how many people don't know what is actually in their own hearts. And because they don't investigate, they act contrary to their own soul on a detrimentally regular basis.

I was that person, I worked for and with that person. I dated that person. Once I punched that person in the gut - but I was nine, and have learned telling someone the truth can be WAY more fulfilling (or devastating) that physical violence.

This morning as I was preparing this post, I received an email from someone in high school. He wasn't my favorite person. But he said he saw in me a beautiful soul. I thought that (at that time in my life) I couldn't be my own self. I had to wear the multi-socks, the cross gear-- be this thing that really couldn't explain me or be explained by me. I, like him, did stupid things in that time, but don't we all?

His regret for who he was makes me think that he, sometime in the not too recent past, saw his heart (or maybe I'm just being an artistic chick about it). Referring to the first two quotes, my point is whether your heart is hidden by your performance of self or worn on your sleeve, it will speak. Will I hear it in the midst of my spinning? Will you listen when it says something? Will we do the work?

Peter Beagle via Schmendrick the magician said, "It is a rare man who is taken for what he truly is." I use to think he said, "It is a rare man mistaken for who he truly is." I don't know whose phrase I like better, haha.

Your cross is not mine to bear. Neither is mine yours. Love, when true, can hurt like the deepest torture dungeon in hell. It can also put gold in your wings and bear you up to the stars. It takes bravery to engage and begin. So (in my best Samuel L. Jackson voice) the question remains -

"What's in your [heart]?

I'm such a goofball.

Merry Christmas,
Tiffany V

Pme and Qme in conversation

P.S. Did you read the latest review for Ugly Drawers, Pretty Panties? If not click here!

Be sure to order your copies before Christmas so your friends can get their gifts on time!

Body Fiction 3

Happy Saturday Post - I'm thankful for the life I've been given, and the stories I've been asked to post between now and the end of the year. Stay tuned! 

Meanwhile...

***

Six Separate Thoughts - Part III

My scars are my best friend and painfully we show

He waits- a gentleman with outstretched hand

On display broken, seething bloody glow

My pride is a garment of sifting sand

He stands to the side while I flail about

For the storm to peter out

He laughs at my rage when I move as if solo

The lines within which I am free court cliffs

His correction abrupt when I push past where to go

Under my shoulder he helps my missteps

We argue over ownership
Kingdoms via bodies and lips

It's lonely in the space of justified anger
How dare he prove and show my lack
In this way emotions can not linger
I was untethered 'til he pulled me back

His loving acceptance a lighthouse at sea
Returning home, not yet free

He massages my foot like he's invoking a shaman's spell
As if my deformation is his most prized possession
His thumbs are the lovers of my arches, ankles, heels
The somehow lost wholeness he calls to attention

And I can march to the tune of his love
My limp is a hitch kick on hold

He asks me to waltz knowing I won't really do well
As if my lacking dancer is somehow in session
He takes my wrists- holding smoke and steel
Touch whispers fly while my soul screams broken

From here to heaven I don't dare fly
His caress dreams that I try

***

For Seddy Bear - with three more to go before the end of November.

With words, song & prayer,
Tiffany Vakilian

© 2015 Highlight Video Productions

Theme & Variations from UDPPBook

Poetry in the morning. How sweet it is.

© 2015 Tiffany Vakilian

Thinking about my Goddard peeps and the poetry that they inspired in me.

I've heard it said

A great many things about

Dynamic duos

Complimentary opposites

The dance and not the battle

Heard that last week

In and out

Red and blue

Blue and grey

Yin and yang

Yanantin and masintin

Partners in a samba

Can they dance alone?

Can I?

On the dance floor called corpus callosum

The moonlight and shadow

One orb

The storyteller and the administrative assistant

Breathing

Both directions are necessary

For life

Body

Hands feet

Left side right side

Seen unseen

Wolf wife

That’s for Clarissa

Who started this whole conversation

Without even knowing I existed

Or perhaps

It was Tannen

She said it is communication

That can destruct meaning

Goffman's impressions

Given and given off

Gilligan’s pleasure

Relationship for relationships

And all the stories in between

And around

And throughout

Can they dance alone?

Can I?

Thanks Anne

For your friend Kitty

Imaginary and real

Realized

Shange's choreo-poem

Embodiment?

The dance of communication

Or beauty

Or therapy

A mushroom, Alice

Eat it

One side makes you bigger

And the other...

Otherizing

Let's bring in Pme and Qme

Honne and Tatamae

There I am

In the conversation

Of duality

Recognizing and engaging

Via dual-expression

Write it

Then say it

No

Say it

THEN write it

One feeds the other better in this way

This way that way

Light shadow

Felt sense felt senses

Hearing with ears

Our words

Our woman-self words

Can they dance alone?

Can I?

Front self Pme

Meta-self Qme

Winding a winding road

To knowing

To gnowing

Knowing and gnowing

Oracle and Architect

Archetypes

Popular culture

Myth story

Can they dance alone?

Can I?

With words, song & prayer,

TiMo

The Great Duality

Happy Saturday to you! Here's your Saturday Post!

I dreamt this week that I was surrounded by deep water, but my living situation was a high hill with many buildings (think Minas Tirith in the Pacific). My view was sometimes from under the water, and sometimes from a middle place looking down. Family and certain friends were there, and I was teaching. I'm not yet at an age when grandchildren run about my legs, but I feel like it is always going to come down to that balance of duality; not undecided, but with singularity of purpose.

This fountain in me seems full
Grace
Truth
Christian
Pharisee
Family
Business
Pme
Qme

This journey is me feels forked
Heaven
Hell
Acceptance
Rejection
Paul
Peter
Joy
Dejection

I seek purification within and without
Heart
Life
Maturity
Childishness
Wings
Weights
Love
Indifference

I run this race to win
Get up
Go on
Learn
Unlearn
Build up
Take down
Win
Burn

The natural tendency is to choose one side
But I have
Can't you see
Hidden
In plain sight
Complicated
Simplicity
My shadows
Prove a light

When I lived on the East Coast, I told my older brother I was vacillating between staying and moving back to CA. He told me, "once you make the decision you'll have peace". It took about a year before I moved back, but from the point of choice, both options worked toward my goal. I was so scared for so long that people would beat me down for saying out loud the things I say, as if it were about me. I've been told this week, "Do you have any idea how strong you are; and how intimidating that is?" Would it were not so.

I'm human; cuts hurt. I am a phoenix too; only in Christ. I've been given a "talent", and I am duty-bound NOT to bury it, but to make it bear fruit. I was told by a pastor in Virginia, "you have kingdoms in you..." and that is one of the things that have driven me to write poetry, stories, emails, blog posts, dreams... It makes room, like an overfull vessel being emptied (and the relief is sublime).

It is not about me, no matter how I benefit.

With words, song and prayer
TiMo V

Brave Enough to Share

Workin' that work and sharing my Saturday Post! Enjoy!

My friend told me today that she and her husband sat together and read one of my poems. She said they cried together in the reading. I told her I just wanted to tell the truth. That's why I write.

They even made a comment about My Violin of an Armpit. I am going to read it this evening.

I was interviewed by A Word With You Press for the Author Spotlight and I'd like to share that with you today.

My book launch party is in a few hours, and I'm so busy getting ready for it, I can't even be nervous about it. But those feelings will come. And I may write about them. Sometimes it hurts to tell what I'm seeing, doing, learning, or becoming. But that is the work. And I am humbled by the people who are brave enough to share their words with me. They inspire me to do more. So thank you all (song writers, poets, rappers, friends, etc.) for giving me the strength to tell my own story.

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany Monique

8-29-15 Book Launch Press Release

In lieu of Saturday post - here is the Press Release from the AWwYP (my publisher's) Website

‪#‎UDPPbook‬ ‪#‎booklaunchparty‬ ‪#‎workthatwork‬ ‪#‎HVP‬ ‪#‎AWordWithYouPress

The pun comes with the territory...

Dear Friends,

If you are anywhere in SoCal please join us Saturday, August 29th with our sponsor Highlight Video Productions, at 2575 Foothill Drive in Vista to help us celebrate the launch of Ugly Drawers, Pretty Panties, our darling Tiffany Vakilian’s first publication with us at the Towers that shine A Word with You Press flags.

This event will be a great chance to meet the author and kindred spirits, and to network with writing, media, publishing, and other professionals. It’ll also serve as a reunion of sorts for all North County writers, in particular the Meet-Up group Anti-Social Writers and Creative Misfits, of which Tiffany and I are members. She handed me the fiddle when the Oceanside towers burned.

(but it does make a good story. But definitely not a lire!) 

We expect more people than there are inappropriate puns at the Towers, so be sure to bring a lawn chair. Come enjoy a little live music and the camaraderie of fellow writers, artists, and friends. Tiffany will give a brief reading at sunset, and be on hand to sign copies of her book.

50% of the proceeds from her book launch sales that night will be donated to the Transformative Language Arts Network, promoting the use of spoken, written, sung, or embodied words to facilitate social change. And you get a woman’s ugly drawers and pretty panties to put under your pillow or sell on eBay.

In a perfect world, I would be flying in from Moscow for the event, but I’m on extended time out for bad behavior and locked in the Tower! But I will be there virtually, as will folks all over the orb.

AND we will announce the prize winner to our Beneath the Surface contest before the day is done. I do hope to see you and promise to be on my best misbehavior!

Fifteen bucks gets you a beer, a book and a burger.

With LOVE from the land of the double-entundra,His Moi-ness,The Thorntonator-in-chief​, thornificent, as ever

Pme & Qme

In honor of Seddy Bear Day, and because I couldn't send birthday flowers...

Shout in the cafeteria
All eyes on me
All I knew to be
Pme
In spotlight
Brighter
Than that shining on me
Painful even
She didn't see me
I was too busy
Being on display

Then Qme
A new me
Came up to the fore
Never before
And she found me
Refreshingly
Genuine
As did I
Authenticated through art
My self expression
Helped her express
Hi my name is
Let's befriend

And then the adventures
Academic and rebellious
God in the face of thesis
Linguistic
And inappropriate
God in the midst of trauma
Holding hearts
Lifting hands
My sister girl
My hashtag
Chocolate don't play
Today is her day

Don't think I'd be me
Had God not seen
To match our residencies
Many words past and present
Future poetry
Our friendship
Strong like oak
Meek like palm
And I celebrate on
Honored by her virtual presence
Let alone her in truth

Dartmouth, Burlington, Seven Mile, Arlington, Virginia, Plainfield - I've seen states (and states) with my friend Sarah. All I can do today is celebrate her honesty, her perseverance, her spirit, her comedy, her boldness, her bravery, her heart, her taste in food, in cars, in friends... It takes a strong woman to admit to being afraid, and wrong, and unafraid, and right. I've seen her do these things - and dance with random dudes at the karaoke bar in Burlington. I've defended her, been corrected by her, ran from what she faced boldly, and held the full weight of her praise. This one is a beautiful soul, and she calls me friend. Thank you God, for blessing me with such a diamond as her.

With words, song & prayer, TiMo

‪#‎UDPPbook‬ ‪#‎booklaunchparty‬ ‪#‎workthatwork‬ ‪#‎HVP‬ ‪#‎AWordWithYouPress‬
Book Launch Press Release - http://t.co/183kOoLHe2

Borrowed Children

I am thankful for my borrowed children
As I am thankful for this borrowed time
We no longer stay here for centuries
And none of us gets out alive

We are here
Today
And I am grateful

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Onward Looking

© Tiffany Monique February 2014

Her Him They

Hey Hey! Here's a Saturday post!

She is wrapped
in change
as if it were a tassel
of multicolor ribbon
and she
the Maypole.
Her laughter and joy
fling diamonds
around her whipping red hair.
She is rooted.
But she is change.

-Her

Still.
Be still love.
All the storms around you.
But I hold the quill that rights you.
That writes you.
Shhh.
Still my little raging one.
Your power is unchecked,
your prowess untethered,
but I am the netting that holds you.
That holds you.

-Him

Duets
Do let's
Do let us
Start all over again
Shall we
Right in the middle of things
Let's shake hands
Like we've never met
Bow and curtsy
Take hands
Not make plans
Just begin the dance
In the middle of the story
Begin again
Before the end
No apologies
For there is no past to speak of
As it drops from away
In the wind as
Autumn leaves

-They

With words, song & prayer, TiMo
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Onward Looking

© Tiffany Monique February 2014

Silence & Song

Five Days of Poetry - Day 5

Sometimes
I am silent
Most people don't believe it
I sit behind windows
I watch, and I write

And then
I burst forth
Loud and outrageous
I sing in my triumphs
My voice loud and high

I think and
I am
And I also must grow
I'm in no way finished
As so many know

But I try
Daily
To show, be, and give love
From on top of my crown
To underneath painted toes

This pendulum
is myself
A laugh/cry parabola
Pme and Qme
and all points in between

I advance
And cower
As I try to learn it
Proudly and humbly
As should any queen

With words, song & prayer, TiMo

Chrysalis-Transformative Language Arts Journal

A Brief Review by Tiffany Monique

Chrysalis: The Journal of Transformative Language Arts

Transformative Language Arts is using spoken, written, sung or embodied words art to facilitate social change. And now, after years of bearing fruit with the Goddard TLA Program, there is a new Transformative Language Arts journal online.

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg founded TLA after “years of working with people to develop something that encompassed the written and spoken word, social change and personal transformation” (I interviewed her in 2010 when I first began my studies at Goddard College). The first article in Chrysalis is her story of founding, entitled To Make a Prairie.

I'm in there too, having written a review about Dani Shapiro's creative memoir, Still Writing, and I'm still glad to engage my own transformation due to my TLA graduate students in Pme, Qme dual expression and the spectrum of authenticity. I am actively developing my "art, activism, studies, and livelihood.” Studying Transformative Language Arts has encouraged me to begin some of my best creative work. Once I found my way to engage my own story, it became my Transformative Language Arts mission to help others (mainly women) see within themselves their own spark of inspiration.

It's a wonderful rite of passage for TLA, and Editor Amber Ellis is on top of keeping the flowing nature of Chrysalis in top form. This is a maiden voyage, a first run, and according to Ellis, "The articles, essays, poems and reflection pieces collected within the inaugural issue of Chrysalis mirror this period of transition, this struggle, to become something greater, something whole." In addition to my Masters in Transformative Language Arts, I have been accepted into the Transformative Language Arts certificate program. 

"The certification provides participants with a thorough orientation to TLA, some avenues for developing a TLA practice and connecting with others involved in TLA, and encouragement to be part of the TLA community, help grow that community, and further define and develop TLA in the world. The Goddard program is a much more intensive immersion into TLA" 

Work with people. Love what you do. Spread the word. Change the world. “Simply write”. For whatever your artistic talent, this is wonderfully simple advice to hear. Artistically do what is in you to do, “anywhere and anytime”. It will take years. It will take collaboration. It will take education. Now that certification is possible for TLA Practitioners, there is yet more opportunity to engage and share what is transformative within an artist, and have that artist be a more powerful force for change within a local community. And of course, I've signed up. Care to join me?

With words, song and prayer,
TiMo
Here's where you can read me
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

An Artistic Time Capsule - OPEN ME 1.23.15

I've been wanting to write so many things lately, but life has been playing chess with my plans.

I've had at least one idea for a play - a holiday meal with my cast of character family. Poetry coming out of my ears. I've been singing all the way to and from work, and this niggling feeling that I don't want my future children to think I gave up my creative side for the sake of a paycheck. I've signed up for my TLA Certification and I am planning on an invitation-only Dual Expression workshop for five women, once every couple months or so.

If I didn't share this with someone outside of me, I would let is sink back down and it would produce no fruit. So here's 90 seconds of me reminding myself to do these projects, share these thoughts, and invite those who are meant to join me to do so.

I invite you. I invite myself.

Check back with me in January 2015 and I'll be done with at least one of these things:
1. Mylu
2. Family Play - Title TBA
3. Workshop syllabus and invitees for Spring 2015
4. Something Musical - recorded

With words, song and prayer,
TiMo
Here's where you can read me
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Educational?

Welcome back! Here is this Saturday's post!

2011 - Montpelier, Vermont

I am finding myself reaching out to my Goddardites... in thought, letter and verse.

I find it a good thing. One of my most harrowing rites of passage and "best platforms from which to jump beyond myself..." is singing silly memories to me.

Or maybe I just saw that student loan letter.

Hmmmm.

With words, song & prayer,

TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Accountability Includes Silence

Hey there and welcome back!

I've been doing some marvelous on-the-ground changes of late, to include prepping for married life and home making. There have been brief moments of inspiration, but the groove of moving furniture and washing Venetian blinds kept my hands  busy. It's a magical rhythm... dreaming, conceiving, engaging, working, realizing, resting. Lather, rinse and repeat. On so many levels. Pme and Qme are forging steel bonds with each other, and maturity is making a royal appearance in my hegemony. It is humbling and exciting. But more than that, it is peaceful. I'll be posting more soon.

© Tiffany Monique 6.24.14
"Bright Echo"

With words, song & prayer,

TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

P.S. Poetry is abounding, but also some possible publishing... stay tuned!

dry souls II

Good day to you! Here is this Saturday's post!

Daley Ranch © Tiffany Monique
January 2014

"Yes dry souls do all of those things but why to they do those things?"

Fear I think, moves the beauty from a journey
Making it desolate
a dry soul wanders in the desolate plains
of cynicism and hurt and perhaps fear of being hurt again

Hurt I think, disables the soul from proper travel
Making it root
a dry soul unable to move to the waters of life
of forgiveness, of true rest, a perhaps hope of engaging joy

I was a dry soul once, afraid and hurt
Why did I do the things I did then?
Thank God someone brought me water
told me to forgive them and then
the harder work of forgive myself
releasing in the loving, painful pushes
every blood-lined wrinkle

And for my pain and work
my soul is not dead
my soul is not dry
I take every pain and joy with all their weight
and remember my dry days
so that I never - even when living in a desert
live the death that is life as a dry soul

With words, song & prayer,

TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

© Tiffany Monique
Montpelier, VT 2011

Saturday Post 4.12.14

Inspired by the Image

© Moneta Sleet, 1969

While reviewing Hidden Treasures: A Collection of African American Facts on Examiner, I took to looking at this photo. I've been that mother, and I've been that little girl too. It is so powerful, being held. It is also truly powerful being the holder. The seasons change and from one moment to the next you become one and then the other. At one time giving the power to the one in need, and then receiving the power so needed. I love this representation for time in American history, but also as the photo of a mother holding a daughter, while simultaneously holding herself. Is that the heart of a mother? The heart of a woman? The heart of a human?

I find the duality once again PINGS me to Pme/Qme (the performer and the quiet one). The points of spectrum once again make me glad I learned of my own spectrum of authenticity and balance. I miss dual-expression workshops. Now I have the time to do them. Will I? Is it time to hold or time to be held?

With words, song & prayer, TiMo
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Onward Looking

© Tiffany Monique February 2014

Nostalgia3

Nostalgic Moments from the archives (originally posted 7.6.11) -

Those of you who have received my homemade stationary have seen this kind of stuff.

Inspired by Miri G, and dedicated to her, because sometimes you just have to take a moment and play hide and seek with the words inside you. Whether professionally or personally, it is necessary at times to simply stop and hear your own internal ripples to inspire the unfinished written works inside you to move closer to the “done” den.

I am sitting in the office in Arlington, preparing photos for a restaurant review that will be published later today. At this moment, I am listening to Proust and the Squid – The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf, narrated by Kristen Potter. Listening to this audio book and jumping about mentally I am, within a ten second loop, considering the restaurant review formation (mixing the images and text in a mental storyboard), the progress review for school (which is the main reason for listening to the Wolf audio book), the bible verses I listened to this morning, the bills that I must fill out for clientele, and my reply to my good friend Miri.

Miri is one of the many brilliantes I met at my Goddard Spring Residency. She is part of the group of people in my life that, like me, share a love of letter writing. This art is something that is falling away it seems, in light of the ease and speed of the digital communication technology all around us. I am one who appreciates being forced to slow down and take the time to taste each word in my head as I hear it, in my mouth as I imagine saying it to the letter recipient, and in my hands as I write it out. It is a long slow process, and I love it. Miri is one who writes longhand cursive with clipped curves, and excited punctuation. I truly enjoy not only what she writes, but the physical expression of her mind on paper. Each curve and line is a hug (she also doodles in the corners, so I get the fun aspect of her art imagery and art text).

“Dearie Miri” sent me a video the other day, but told me I couldn’t watch it until I received her letter, which was an accompaniment. It was an exercise in patience, and rewarded with a beautiful poem and awesome written art.

As I was writing her reply letter I began to write prose as well. The words made me feel beautiful and peaceful. Miri inspired me to inspire myself. Now I am off to write my restaurant review. 

From the last Restaurant Review for FW&D that I wrote. Isn't that smile DARLING?

But I leave you with a snippet of what I wrote to Miri:

I should be writing a Restaurant Review, but I feel stilled by the words in my heart.

As if a wind blew softly, and a leaf on the wind landed dancingly on the still water surface of my heart.

Ahhh, I heard the click in you. I see you know this image.

The gentle ripple of words in my “good morning love’ to your story…

to your poetry…

to your own internal phoenix fire resting patiently under the still water surface.

How quiet it is…

how expectant…

pregnant with a destiny that is on the surface unknown,

but underneath,


fully understood.

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany Monique

Thanks... giving 11.28.13

The following post came from the Monday Morning Memo for 11/25/13. I thought I'd share it with you for Thanksgiving.

Of course, I've Tiffanyzed the turkey out of it.

mondaymorningmemo.com/page/beaglethanksgiving2013

Here's your assignment, if you're willing:

Write down at least 5 things for which you are thankful. And you cannot list "Family," "Friends" or "Health," because frankly, these go without saying. To be thankful for broad categories like these is lazy, bordering on the unspeakably cliché. So be specific in your thanks. And don't just name the thing, explain it.

Here are five things for which I am thankful:
1.  I have a relationship with God that has been tested (by others & myself).

I know that some people don't like Christians as a rule, and for a while I was one of those people, but then I learned to forgive (including myself), and it has made loving God, others and myself (Jesus' ONLY TWO RULES) much simpler. I am not perfect. But I am on a journey and I will run that race to win.

2. I sing.

I don't know how I would've gotten through any part of my life (good, bad, ugly, pretty) had I not been able to sing, publicly or privately. I've been told my voice is beautiful and keep singing, and I've been told I'm distracting and asked to stop. But even if I do it for no one but me, I love singing. The 2nd to last time I sang in public, I got such an adrenaline rush that I cured my own sinus congestion.

3. I've lived on both sides of the continental United States. 

It has affected my understanding of people, and place as a construct. It has opened my mind to people (and strangely, made me close-minded in some ways I own - happily). It has also made me want to explore areas of the world that I've never seen, and that Tiffanyzed wanderlust has netted me some awesome covenant friends that I'm far enough away from to extravagantly love, and be extravagantly loved by in return.

4. I've learned to give my flowers now.
I have some people who were very close to me in high school, college, the band, other areas in my life, and now are no longer a "part of my world". I've also lost friends to death. I'd like to think that I've learned how to make sure that when someone is in my life, for however long, they are aware of how much I love them, and that no matter how our relationship ends (hey, it happens), they have memories of me which included expressions of love - even when it didn't "serve" me.

5. A Word with You Press via the Anti-Social Writers and Creative Misfits writing group

I graduated with my Masters in February of 2013, but I admit, I was still not that good at writing academically. My hybrid arts-based thesis project was able to give me a platform to write creatively, but after all the thesis submissions and edits and re-edits and re-submissions, I was burnt. As a self-dare, I joined the Anti-Social Writers and Creative Misfits writing group (held at the now closed Oceanside AWwYP location), and not only did I get awesome critiques about how to improve my writing, I very quickly found myself inspired to just write! AWwYP's Wingnuts contest introduced me to Peggy Dobbs only months before she left this earthly plane. Had it not been for Peggy, Thorn, Billy, Ed, Ronnie, Russ, Kyle, The Tall Poet Guy and others (you know who you are), I would have not made it through the transition of graduating from Graduate School and putting my feet back on my own artistic ground.

I consider myself most blessed. Thank you for your part in it.

With words, song & prayer,

TiMo
Here's where you can read me:
www.alwaysalreadyalright.blogspot.com 
www.pmeqme.blogspot.com