It Used To Be More Fun

The most fun I had in the door hardware industry was when I was a neighborhood locksmith. I had found my niche in the market and established myself in my service area. It was like the theme song of the old TV show, "Cheers": everybody knew my name. Certainly a great way to become an integral part of a community is to provide an essential service. I was a help in time of trouble, an emergency responder and sometimes a confidante.

As a salesperson in hardware distribution, I deal with many more people in a day, but I rarely see any of them. There is still a sense of community, but it is much more sporadic and far flung. I still get to be a hero sometimes, but it is not the same.

Yet as I often say, life is change. To embrace life, one must embrace change. And so I have. And so I will.

Curiously Limited

Wondering at the vortex of events that led to a radically truncated ride yesterday, 31 miles instead of 100, I am told by someone that does not think she knows that it was meant to be and by another who thinks she knows that nothing is meant to be. Somewhere between probably lies the truth. It seems to me that sometimes there is a thing that needs to happen, and other things happen to make this very needed thing take place in the time line.

Personally I am comforted by the idea that the universe will unfold exactly as it should, so I will stick with that.

Melissa Diana, Featured Poet on EOL

Eye on Life Online Magazine is kicking off Poetry Month (United States) with work by Melissa Diana. Please come by and read.

Started Training

Woke up this morning in bed with my alarm clock. Apparently I had shut if off in my sleep. I had had it set for my usual 4:50am wake up call, but my body apparently said, “No way,” and I slept until 6:43. Felt good.

Yesterday was my first commute by bike of the season as I begin training for my upcoming cycling events. In may I am doing the Gran Fondo event for the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure, and at the end of June I am doing the Cape Cod Getaway event for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Yesterday’s ride was ridiculously hard after about a month off the bike, and little three-mile rides before that. I am definitely feeling it today. Weather will prevent me from further training this week, so I’ll work out indoors and keep my eye out for the next good day.

Poet's Tool Box

When writing a poem, the poet uses words in a special way to convey meaning. “Meaning” is a slippery word, isn’t it? Well, for our purposes, let’s agree that “meaning” means what a person wants to communicate. Let us further stipulate that the reason poetry exists is because words alone are often not quite up to the task of fully expressing meaning. Poetry helps words do more than what they were designed to do by painting pictures, evoking feelings and triggering thought processes in the mind of the reader or listener. The poet attempts to do this by arranging words in a certain way.

Here is a series I wrote at the request of a friend on how to get more meaning into your poetry:

• Rhyme
• Meter
• Form
• Imagery

These articles appear on "HubPages" - a place where I make a small amount of money when people see the ads Google places on the page.

Poet's Tool Box Part 2: Meter

Poet's Tool Box Part 2: Meter

The Wisdom of the Chakras

What I'm up to:

The Wisdom of the Chakras

A Book review.