Saturday Free Write: Is True Communion Lost?

How we need that security.
How we need another soul to cling to, another body to keep us warm.
To rest and trust; to give your soul in confidence: I need this.
I need someone to pour myself into.

~ Sylvia Plath

In August, I’m participating in BlogHer’s Blogging Challenge.  The theme this month is: Hot.

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ommunion is defined as sharing or exchanging intimate thoughts and feelings, esp. on a mental or spiritual level.

How many of us experience that?

As an iNtuitive Feeler, I experience the absence of true communion more than most.  But I have to believe that many people hunger for this type of connection and notice when it is lacking.  And in this age of social media overload and the sacred sound byte, true communion between people, always a fragile thing, seems to be disappearing altogether.

Very hypocritical of me I know, as I sit here and type happily away and post on Facebook, and pin on Pinterest, but there are days when I long for something big to happen to shut everything electronic down, like a big snow storm (added bonus ~ snow angels!) 

Image Credit: Pinterest

The introverted greenie in me would love that: no constant electrical hum, people having to actually interact with other people face to face.  Heaven!

The pampered Gen Xer inside is horrified when she thinks of life without hot showers, computers, and the internet.  Yuck!

Electricity (and more specifically, the internet) and what it does for us, isn’t the real problem, of course.  It’s how we use it and how much we use it that’s the issue.  But it does seem that our use of it has become obsessive and addictive.  To the point where we don’t know how to have communion with another person. 

As I watch people hurry across the street, their heads bent over their smartphones, I wonder, are we even capable of receiving “another soul in confidence” anymore?

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

I tend to be a pessimist, so tell me what you think: reason to doubt?  Or reason to hope?

Top Five Friday: How to Warm Up When You Have the Blahs

Music brings a warm glow to my vision, thawing mind and muscle from their endless wintering.

~ Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

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alking about ways to warm up while temperatures never fall far from eighty-five seems counter-intuitive. But there are many ways of feeling the cold.  And most have nothing to do with climate change.

We can feel the cold of loneliness, the iciness of heartbreak.  The rejection that blows like a sharp, dry wind.  Or stand in a frozen tundra of misunderstandings and misconceptions.

How do you warm up from that?

Today’s prompt is ways to warm up, and my Top Five are ways I thaw out from disappointment and negative situations.  Usually I list my Top Fives in alphabetical order, so no one’s feelings get hurt.  But these are my top five ways, so I’ll list them in the order that I use them and/or they help.

Image Credit: Will Burgess

Go to Fantasy Land (i.e., Read)

Nothing beats the blues like immersing yourself in a good story.  The type of story that will work depends on what negative emotion I’m feeling or disappointing situation I’m dealing with.  Currently, I’m struggling with the boundary and control issues of a family member.  Which makes the Jane True series I’m currently reading perfect: a reluctant heroine who discovers powers she didn’t know she had, takes control of her crazy life and (so far in the story) beats insane odds, and finds a good man who adores her.  And written with no grammar mistakes or vocabulary abuse.  Perfect!

Get It All Out (i.e., Write)

Sometimes reading doesn’t cut it.  The pain inside gets to be too much and the fantasy bubble pops.  Then only copious amounts of ink will work.  I spill it on my journal, in my book of poetry, in letters to friends, and sometimes, in blog posts.

Connect with the World (i.e., Spend Time with Friends)

For the heart to truly begin to thaw, there is nothing like the unconditional love and support of friends.  Let me tell you something: a person who will constantly tear you down, stomp on your dreams, and point out your faults and failings ~ all in an effort to “help” is not helpful at all.  Not that friends should be blind to your faults.  But more is accomplished through positive reinforcement.  We are already buffeted by life as it is.

Bubbles, Bubbly, and Bublè

Seriously, a hot bubble bath (complete with massaging jets), a glass of champagne (actually, it’s usually a neat glass of Scotch, but that doesn’t begin with B), and my favorite Michael Buble album are a sure cure for the blahs.  The only better “B” than Michael would be Benedict ~ as in Cumberbatch.  But his schedule is pretty full these days.

Oh, you thought I meant watching Sherlock or Star Trek?  Tsk.  Silly.

Visiting the Land of Nod (i.e., Sleep)

When all else fails, I clear my schedule and just sleep.  I know some people say that too much sleep is bad for your inner clock.  But honey, the blues can be rough on the body.  And the body repairs itself while we sleep.  So grab a down pillow and cuddle the blues away.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What do you do to “warm” up?  What other types of cold do we experience?  Write about it!

Walls Are Made for Climbing: Why I Joined Another Blogging Challenge

Challenges in life always seek leaders and leaders seek challenges.

~ Wayde Goodall, Why Great Men Fall: 15 Winning Strategies to Rise Above It All

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tructures and boundaries are essential to the creative soul. Otherwise, there is no incentive to break those boundaries and push through to greatness. 

Or at least to produce a well-written post or poem now and then.

And since the last blog challenge I participated in really inked my pen, I joined Blogher’s August Challenge.  So now I'm locked in to 31 days of non-stop writing.  Well, with a little writerly angst thrown in, I’m sure.  What would a blog challenge be without some days of ink-stained knuckled writer’s block?

Image Credit: Mystic M

Generally, however, the act of writing every day ~ no matter how bad it might turn out ~ unleashes a torrent of ideas and words ~ and yes, even whole posts!  My issue is never lack of ideas, but rather, how to shape and mold the ideas I have into readable, heart-stopping, passion-inducing posts. 

My inner perfectionist is never satisfied, and sometimes that’s a good thing.  Some people just slop any old words down, and the eye and the brain quickly yawn and turn away, never to return.  But it has also bitten me in the fountain pen: if something is deemed unworthy to publish, it languishes in a dark corner of my flash drive.  And then all apathy breaks loose and I cease writing anything.

This blog challenge will help stop that madness.  I will be forced to write and post ~ my writerly pride is on the line!  And to be perfectly honest, if I don't write ~ something, anything ~ my brain gets as jumpy as a junkie in between fixes.  So here’s to 31 days of blogging bliss!

Who knows what inky gems may drip from my pen in the next 30 days?

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

You still have time to sign up!  Do so through August 5 and join the mad, mad fun!