Feature Friday: Explore My Heart

It's my goal to post a Feature Friday blog the 1st Friday of each month. Any good literary, vocal or otherwise artistic works you'd like to see shared? Perhaps you've got some good stuff yourself. If so, shoot me an email at Ghostwriter28@me.com & I'd be glad to post it.

This week's selection comes courtesy of the late Velenda Anise Mason, a very close friend & confidant for many years. I thought I'd share two passages from 'Explore My Heart,' a book she published in 2008. Vam's birthday is next week, she would have been 30 and Tuesday marks the anniversary of her sudden death. In light of the fact, I figured it would be very appropriate to share a few of her thoughts this month. The 1st excerpt from her book focuses on infatuation versus love & the 2nd touches upon appreciating loved ones while they're still here to actually smell the flowers...

"I've been lucky in my fourteen years of dating to

experience real love more than once. It is a beautiful

experience and I would not trade it for the world.

I want young men and women to learn the difference

between infatuation and love. It is a job and it takes

compromise and sacrifice but it is well worth it. I have

gone through enough in my lifetime to know a thing

or two. Just know that with faith anything can happen...

...appreciate your family and friends while you still

have them here. You really don't know when you will

see somebody for the last time. It is a terrible feeling to

think of all the things you could have or should have done.

Besides you are going to find a small amount of people

who care about you and your well-being."

It's my hope that someone, somewhere will read her words and somehow find comfort in knowing that others too have struggled, it's certainly nothing new so try your best to maintain a clear mind. Above all, be-strong, live-wise & play-hard good people...

The Monkey is Happy...

While today marks the big 3-0 for me, I've never really made a big deal about my birthday & I tend to shy away from that kind of attention.

Still, I recognize the significance of the milestone & I'm so very happy to see another year - incidentally, sex is wonderful after 30, so I'm really looking forward to that :-D

But while today should be a joyous time, it's really a reminder of my very dear friend. We had SUCH big plans in regard to our 30th birthdays, since they're just 4-weeks apart, but she passed away just days before her 29th & honestly, it's something I've been a little bitter about ever since.

I know I'll have to let go of Vam at some point (& that she's in a better place), but I'm still not ready to. She'd be the 1st to point-out how I've always done things on my own terms, so I guess this would be another example of such, lol. But she'd want me to enjoy myself so I will - just wish I could tell her how loved she is.

The past year has been turbulent at times indeed, but fuckit - I'm here! As I think of the many things I expected to have accomplished in life by now - certainly, I've fallen short of many of those self-prescribed goals & expectations, but I've also managed some pretty remarkable achievements & for those, I'm very proud, cheers...

Feature Friday: Mother to Son

It's my goal to post a Feature Friday blog the 1st Friday of each month. Any great literary, vocal or otherwise artistic works you'd like to see shared? Perhaps you've got some good stuff yourself. If so, shoot me an email at Ghostwriter28@me.com & I'd be glad to post it.

This week's selection comes courtesy of the late Langston Hughes and was written in 1922. My mother always used to recite this poem when I was a child & today, for no reason at all, it popped into my head while riding into work n the train (I guess a few things actually stuck to the wall afterall). It's crazy how words she intended to find my ears more than 20 years ago finally ended their journey today. 'Mother to Son' reads as follows...

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor – Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now –
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.