Time for more pics and fewer words!
Blog update.
I've been on a bit of a mad journey the past year and a half. During this time my body has been trying to reboot itself after losing the sleep response. That doesn't mean just sleep deprived. It means I didn't yawn or get drowsy--my body would not sleep. Ever gone scuba diving? You know how when you first plunge into the ocean those rough waves really knock you around and everything is swirly and takes great effort until you go down a number of feet? My no-sleep state was like that. A chronic state of exhaustion where I had to battle to connect with my own brain and keep my physical self functioning. I was in a perpetual time warp of little-to-no sleep because my body decided it was too risky to sleep. Suffice it to say (yes, I always think of George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's when I hear that phrase); stress can be serious. Long-form reading and writing were off the table. When I thought my heart and body were going to call it quits, I did make a few calls to friends I hadn't spoken with for a decade. Just in case it was my last chance.
Online courses saved me. I had to return to the sea's edge for salt air first (because I'm a sea creature). Check. Then, since short-form reading and writing were possible my future with words had to be refocused. I had to wrestle with my lifelong poetry insecurity. I journal using poetry as my form. This doesn't mean the poems whine with neurotic angst, okay maybe some. Mainly they reflect what I notice about the world and people in it. Grade school-through-college classes taught me poetic structure although I had forgotten terminology and wrote by instinct. Perhaps this is an example of learning the rules then throwing them away. After a year and a half of my addiction to courses and the many kind classmates encountered, I've exploded and want to open my second most-feared closet. I'll be curating from my art, photos, poems, writing--past, present, and future. Maybe with your help I'll figure out who I am now, freeing that confined person I used to be.
I've started by refacing my blog. In the coming months, I'll try and clean up some of the formatting issues including tags. Your patience is appreciated. Scent-free living topics will be sprinkled in but will no longer be my primary focus.