Music Tells My Stories

Good afternoon, my Lovelies! I hope this bright and beautiful Saturday afternoon finds you happy, healthy and healing from the shit that life has undoubtedly thrown at you lately. In case you hadn't noticed, since the first couple of weeks in January, all of my Blogs have had a song listed as the title. I often find inspiration for my Blogs while I'm driving to and from work, passing the time on my long, boring drives by singing and thinking. If you find a Blog title is a song that you are unfamiliar with, or are uncertain which artist performed it (let's face it, song titles are often repeated by different artists), shoot me a message and I'll be glad to pass the information along to you as it may help you understand my frame of mind while I'm writing. One of my favorite artists and songwriters is a man who has such a way with words that hearing his songs often leaves me in amazement at his genius. His words are often touching, or catchy, or fit together so well it...

Good morning, my Lovelies! You're getting a bonus blog. Don't you feel special? Before I begin, let me take a moment to give a shout-out to my reader(s) in Portugal. I'm not sure how you found me, but your continued support is much appreciated! Stand up and take a bow, pat yourself on the back, and know that it brings a smile to my face to see that you've taken the time to endure my ramblings. This morning I woke up with an overwhelming urge to discuss trauma. It is my firm belief that we all experience trauma, to some degree, at one point or another in our lives. Physical, mental, spiritual, it happens. Our trauma is unique to each of us, just as the results of that trauma are unique to each of us. My earliest traumatic memory is from a camping trip that we were on when I was about eight years old. I was swimming in the lake, relaxing and enjoying some summer fun, floating along and daydreaming as the sun beat down on me while I cooled off from the unrelenting heat and...

Greetings, my Lovelies! I know - late last week, early this week. Sometimes, I just have to purge my mind. Screw timelines and deadlines. I hardly know where to begin this particular blog. Thankful doesn't come close to the feelings that I have when I talk of the enormity of the impact some of my friends have made on my life. I woke this morning with a feeling of nostalgia and found myself reflecting on some of my friendships through the years. Now I sit in my office, unable to work until I get some of these thoughts out of my head, as my concentration is pinging off the walls like Luke trying to shoot his way out of the trash compactor in Star Wars. I've pointed out many times before that I tend to make strong and lasting friendships. I find that I have to take a moment today and share with you a little about one of those friendships. I met my friend, Tim when we were just kids. We went to school together, had classes together, and had mutual friends. We were complete geeks an...

Good Saturday morning, my Lovelies! I come to you this morning relaxed and somewhat refreshed. I awoke this morning to the sounds of the surf breaking as it collided with the shoreline, and a bright glow rising from across the ocean, glistening upon the frigid waters of the Atlantic. It is 30 degrees here this morning and much too cold to do what I would really like to do. What is that? Well, I'd really love to sit on the balcony overlooking the ocean, a cup of coffee in hand, laptop at the ready, and purge myself of all that has been running through my head for days on end. Alas, I will have to satisfy myself with the sights and sounds around me from the cozy comforts of the adorable little condo I rented for the weekend. I'm alone, I'm warm, I have coffee, I have my laptop, I have my music, and maybe best of all? I have time. I have time to do what I want, when I want, for as long as I want, and I can do it completely uninterrupted. I spend so much of my day-to-day existe...

Well, I've done it again. I'm late. At least those words no longer make me cringe, a positive effect of birth control and just being old. Yes, I'm late releasing my Blog. And yes, I've been called out by a handful of people. For the record, it doesn't bother me to have it pointed out to me that I'm late. Feel free to hold me accountable. So, with all that being said, let's begin! Greetings my Lovelies! Every week I let you know what's going on with me. I open my mind and offer you my heart, my intellect, my memories, my struggles, and my joys. I share parts of myself with you that you might not get to see on a day to day basis. In fact, I share so much with you that I experience some amount of guilt that I don't know what is going on with you. So saying, I feel I need to check in with you and see how you are doing. Are you getting enough rest? Are you staying hydrated? Are you taking time for self-care while trudging your way through your life and re...

Greetings, my Lovelies! It has been a week since you've dealt with my insanity. Are you ready for more? There has been so much going through my mind over the past week. If you've kept up with me at all you know that insomnia is my new norm. "I'm tired boss... Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other." (Y'all know I had to say that, right? The Green Mile is such an awesome movie!) Work has been crazy, I've had no time to myself with the exception of the hour to and from the job site, and as of this morning, I've had absolutely no time to write.  It's that last one that is bothering me the most. You see, my writing is my creative outlet. It is a way for me to process all that I'm feeling and thinking. It is a way for me to put my hopes, dreams, and wishes into a tangible form. It is a way for me to actualize problems I'm facing, and a way for me to find a solution to those problems. And when I'm writing, I always have music...

There's that blank page again. Staring at me. Daring me to change the pure simplicity of the clean, fresh, white page into something fun, useful, interesting. Pristine, the page challenges me to put my thoughts into words. It pecks at my subconscious, a steady dripping faucet in a silent house. What can I share with you today? How am I feeling? What tidbit can I pass along to you?  To start with, greetings, my Lovelies! (Yes. I decided on a nickname for you all and after much consideration, Lovelies seems apt.) I have so many directions I can take this blog, but I'm finding that I really enjoy the randomness of my topics. When I started this I assumed that I would be talking quite a bit about my books, and/or explicit topics and situations, hence the warning each time you pop in to read the fruition of my insanity. However, if you have been with me since day one or have read through my past blogs, you can see that I've let my mood and current events/situations guide my path...

Greetings faithful followers! (You guys seriously need a nickname. Suggestions?) I come to you this morning having gone through a night without any sleep whatsoever, followed by a night of broken sleep. With any luck, this blog will make sense and not just be an array of disconnected, rambling thoughts. Let's talk about dreams. There are dreams we have of how we want our lives to be, dreams of our future, our children's futures. There are dreams we have that are more existentially encompassing, peace, love, hope. There are actual dreams, those captivating, odd, hopeful, scary, and sometimes sexual scenes that take over our brains while we sleep. (Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in a bad production of Les Mis?) We have so many different ways that we dream and our dreams are important to our health and well-being. In college I took a psychology course that I absolutely loved. One of our assignments was to write a massive paper about the meaning of dreams. I may well have been...

 Greetings my faithful followers and welcome to another episode of "Shelly is probably losing her mind." Buckle up, please keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times, settle back and hold on tight. Would you like a pair of 3-D glasses? This week (hell probably longer than that) has been a struggle for me. My mind has raced while my body has refused to move. I've not been able to gather my thoughts so writing has been all but non-existent. I've found that I've had to force myself to get up and move, force myself to plan and prepare dinner for my family, force myself to do my job. I've had to force myself to care, to care at all about anybody and anything. Depression. Most of the time I move through life without a hint of it showing, to the point that you might not know I'm affected by it. I live and do day-to-day things by normal standards. I talk to family and friends as if nothing is wrong. I laugh, joke and carry on, enjoying the craziness of th...

 Forgive me, faithful followers, for I am two days late releasing my blog. I would try to justify this, but let me leave you with two words instead. Life. Employment. Let me begin by saying that each and every time I sit down to write this blog I find myself wondering if I should be using this platform for truly important matters. Should I be writing about the state of our Country? Should I be discussing political matters, or other important topics? Would it be better if I tried to make a difference by enlightening my friends and followers with my own beliefs? The answer is a resounding, NO! I feel we are bombarded by things like this on a daily, minute by minute, even, basis. Don't you want a break? I sure as hell need one. Also, who's to say that what I spout here isn't just as, if not, more important? To that I say, let's talk about relationships. There are many different kinds of relationships, connections we have through blood or marriage, or make with the people w...