Procrastination

Everything is a blessing if you look for the lesson. While cleaning the yard and weeding today, a heavy wooden platform landed on my toe. The pain sent me into panic mode. It suddenly occurred to me that my procrastination about finishing my novel and painting was totally out of control. What did breaking my toe have to do with procrastination? Everything. I became aware that at any moment we are all vulnerable to accidents, disease, and toe jams that can knock us off our feet and end the incredible gift of time we squandor. Not wanting to waste another moment, I put the ice bag on my foot and drew the stunning flower I had picked 3 days ago intending to immortalize it. And that brilliant sky this morning? I knew the Master Painter could never be upstaged on that symphony of color and brilliance.

Poetry

Tropical Depression

                                                                        By Ann Carolan

Driving wind and rain

Across plains of shallow gulf waters

Recently bared by low tide; now swept, revealing mud inches below

Flats beside saw grass rising into low brush

Once haven for tall cedars and spreading live oak,

Ancient, hundreds of years, of slow growing creation

            Cut down.

Invasive species pushes out native plants

Like invading Europeans displacing indigenous tribes

Armed with righteousness false

In truth, not understanding earth’s hidden secrets

Rather, out of tune,

            Dis-ingenuous,

                        Dis-engaging,

                                    Dis-astrous.

Consequences to humans, to wildlife, to ecosystems

Taming life

Yet to every life

            Now threatened

                        Living in terror

Of greenhouse effect, melting ice caps

Of bombs;

Of weaponry

Mad men seeking power

Follow instinctual trek of hunters

Now better-armed

Tribes of modern men invent more weapons,

            more killing fields

To protect the money god.

Driven by strange doctrines

Yet, gentler, gatherer tribes farm, nurture, grow.

Propagate the earth haven.

Sent from heaven, stewards of creation

Follow the WAY of peace, harmony,

            in tune with nature

A gentle people inherit the earth

In the End.

A Writer's Life

Today I've been following the Catholic Writer's Conference online. A week-long event, it is a smorgasborg of information for writers, Christian or secular. For a mere donation, you can sit in your easy chair and learn about pitches, blogging, writing tips, etc and even participate in online critiques with established writers and editors. REAL pitches to REAL publishers. Such a deal. It is well managed by several writers including Karina Fabian (see: fabianspace.blogspot.com), one of the top 50 bloggers! The most recent post in the chat room really encouraged me to post daily on my blogspot. I was concerned about shifting topics, but that doesn't seem to matter. So I'll try to post under different topics each day, but I'm sure I'll diverge as I'm a born multi-tasker, multi-thinker. Perfect for a middle-school teacher, albeit retired now. I've been working on my novel, Deported! and just returned from a meeting of the newly formed Citizens for Immgration Reform (CIR). It's exciting to be a part of the formation of a group like this who are dedicated to preserving our Constitutional rights for all people. Currently Latino immigrants are the target of racism. Do we really need more people in our Jails whose worst crime is the color of their skin? My novel is about the way these people are treated and the sufferings they endure as they strive to overcome abject poverty, prejudice, fear, and racism. Here is my "pitch" for the day:  

PITCH:

Deported! a Young Adult Novel

16-year-old Maria must grow up fast when her parents are deported to Mexico. With one brother stealing and another joining a gang, Maria is at her wits end trying to keep her family together. When an eviction throws her into the dangerous streets of Detroit, shy Maria must find the courage and resilience to face homelessness and ridicule at school. The parish church and a charming young man from the youth group offer her family sanctuary, hope and finally redemption. With immigration making today’s headlines, this action-packed Young Adult novel is sure to hook readers looking for multi-cultural topics of current interest. Through her faith in God and the recognition of the nobility of her people throughout centuries of hardship, she is able to rise above hopelessness and despair.

Recent Paintings

Highlandville, Iowa

NE Iowa, Where Time Stands Still.....

I am always enamored of places where time has stood still; even in ruins, they bear the marks and imprints of days gone by when life's engines moved at a slower pace. My parents went to Cuba forever ago and their stories and pictures remain imbedded in my memory. My mother loved Latin music and dancing, nightclubs, and full-skirted dresses. If the international community had been allowed to create another Miami in Cuba, it would have destroyed their culture.

My husband, Terry, and I recently visited another historically preserved area in NE Iowa. Iowa, one of those places where progress moves slowly (thank God) and much of the past remains. Terry was born and raised in Decorah, Iowa, a Norwegian settlement. It is cut out of the high limestone bluffs of the Upper Iowa River. Much of the original town has been restored including the beautiful Vesterheim Museum which houses artificacts from the original settlers including stunning painted Rosemaling and magnificent scrolled hand carved furniture. We also visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in nearby Burr Oak. Surrounded by rolling farmland, it was the perfect setting for her early books and the hotel remains where her family worked and lived for a few short years.

We stayed in the large Victorian house where we lived for a few years in the 70s. It's now called The Old Hospital Lodge, now restored into a B&B in Highlandville on the Little Bear, a popular trout stream in Iowa. Not much has changed. The large wooden structure was well cared for and the inn business was thriving for a town of under 100! An RV park had been added next to the only existing store. (The only other store is now for sale.) Adjacent to the house still stands the 100 year old brick bank building currently occupied by a friend from the old days who is currently renovating. What drew her back from Oregon and California, I wondered. And why does it feel so peaceful to return to this land that time has forgotten?

We were fortunate to visit on a Saturday night when many college students were on break and attending a dance at the old schoolhouse. The Highlandville dance was one of the few large social events we enjoyed years ago. Whereas in the past, grey-haired farmers played the fiddle and honky tonk piano, now the band was comprised of people our age. Our generation had taken their place as the elders. We still own 8 acres and plan to build a small energy-efficient log cabin as a get-away there. It would be a great place to write and paint. No electricity or plumbing, no phones, few distractions.

There seems to be a renaissance occurring in NE Iowa. The Vesterheim has fostered a rekindling of arts and crafts through workshops. Homemade quality yarn goods and carved wood abound. The beautiful grounds of Luther College appeal to young people who are also drawn to the natural beauty and low-stress life style. Perhaps the area is a roadmap for city folk back to a slower paced, gentler lifestyle that beckons us to live more simply and return to healthier lifestyles free of pressures to build bigger and better.

It was peaceful there. We no longer carry the burdens of ambitious dreams; we're more content with our lives as they are. There is a secret there amid the castle rocks and tiny hamlets, the secret of a simpler life and the joys of old friendships and quiet walks amid the streams of life as we grow older and wiser.

Already, I long to return.

Paintings by Ann Carolan