A Certain Maple Tree

It’s one of those days. I haven’t written in awhile, but today I must say a few words. Get them off my chest, so to speak. There is a story I’d like to tell, but I am finding it difficult to find the right words for it. It began so many years ago, when a little blond girl with a bowl cut was about three or four. It’s the kind of story that can break someone’s heart simply because of the love that was created and snapped apart. It’s a story that came to an end a couple of weeks ago, but now the older brunette girl with the long curly hair must learn to remember and let go. The child could be innocent and hope that the days under the sun would somehow last forever, but the older girl must realize that innocents and hope are marvelous things to have, but sometimes we have to realize that our childhood comes to an end, but that doesn’t mean one cannot cherish it.
For me a certain maple tree reminds me of the time that we have here and what we shall do with that time to make our stay on this green Earth worthwhile. This tall Maple was just as much a friend as it was a growing part of the earth beneath our feet. To the little blond girl it was the overseer of her childhood. It supported her little skinny body as a child and embraced her stiff punches and hot tears as a teen. It gave her a place of rest in her very boisterous life. It would always be there, she had thought. It was that one familiar thing she noticed when she drove up Waltonville Drive that meant home, for better or worse. It was that key icon that would protect the house from the road and show off its beauty when the seasons past between each other. Its grand colors could bring tears to anyone’s eyes in the fall, the way the snow seemed to lay still and comforted on its branches during winter, the small buds that bloomed pink and white in the spring gave it life, and the vibrant green leaves made sure you knew it was summer even if the sweltering heat couldn’t give that away. It stood strong when the wind came, it cuddled the rain, and it welcomed sun as it shaded her from below. It was a perfect tree to the common passerby, but to the child it was magical. It wasn’t just a tree it was a friend that could never be replaced.
Today that tree is in pieces. The girl came home and her tree wasn’t there standing tall anymore. Its beautiful leaves were nonexistent and piles of saw dust took up its place at its base. She couldn’t wrap her head around all the hurt that she was feeling over this tree and in some respects it made her feel stupid. It was just wood, but it was hers. She wrapped her body around the now horizontal trunk shadowing it for once in her own shadow, a shadow filled with love.
She remembered the time her sister and her had accidently tore off a branch making a small crater in its side, they had run to their father’s garage and got some wood glue and duck tape to seal it off. Or the time she had climbed up into the tree telling herself she wouldn’t leave until the BFG was finished. She remembered going out there in the rage of a fight with her parents and cried for hours in protection of its strong limbs. She had scared the daylights out of her parents by jumping from the top limbs as they came up to the garden that surrounded the tree. This tree was a part of her history and now, seeing it lay sideways on the ground, it felt so empty, she felt so empty. Deciding to remember all the good and bad times with the Maple was the only way she could get through this sad event. The Tree had been loved. The little girl, the teenage, the young woman, the middle aged woman, and the old lady would never forget what it had given them.
--Anne

To "New"

So although it has been an age and a day since I've written on this blog, I'd like to check in and just write a little something of what I've been working on in the last couple of weeks. I am the Scenic Designer of a Penn State Thespian Show, Urine-town! I used my creative skills and created an awesome set. I must thank some of this to one of my close friend's as he is the Technical Director and the "blue" print programer genius from making my hand drafts into something easily (well at least plausible) constructed by a bunch of excited fellow scholars. I am so excited and just can't wait for it all to begin!! Pictures on their way, even though I only have a couple follower. :P Thanks!

Anne

Summer Blogging Begins

I realize that its been about a year since I started this blog and I'm remembering now the reasons for starting it. I really did it because I wanted a place to write where it wasn't just me that would see my work, but others, strangers friends enemies, I think you get the picture. I'm looking back and reflecting on this "year" and I can't help but see how much has passed how much I've grown in just a years time. I started this blog not realizing how much would pass in my life. I went to my first funeral that actually really meant something to me, I spent hours on a deck in Connecticut trying to grasp what death and family really meant, I spent hours trying not to be bored in my house for the summer all the time wishing I could see my sister wishing it was like the old days when I'd come home and she'd be there, I went on some of my first adventures to see my friends from school and I was amazed to find that it's really different once you've been away at school for a year and coming back to limited freedoms, I came back in the fall and found Penn State Thespians and they gave me a reason to keep trying, I ended up having the biggest fight with my parents and now that relationship will never be the same again but now I see that that isn't always a bad thing, I spent my first Christmas away from home and it was enjoyable but very foreign and lonesome even though my sister was there, I went on my first vacation with my friends and saw that its hard being an adult and being on your own even when you are having a good time, I realized how hard it is to support your friends but how important it ends up being, I found that sometimes there's a point when something happens and things will never really be the same but that's somehow okay, it ends up making you stronger, I went to my second funeral and met people that moved me made me want more from life, I watched my best friend get into a year program in Jordan and I realize how much I will miss him while he's away but at the same time so very proud of him, I got my first paid internship in something I really enjoy doing, I fell in love and I felt broken but just because I know it hurts doesn't mean I will regret it and I made the hardest decision of all: to live my own life and try to see where it leads me. So much has happened and not much time has passed. No wonder the years start going by so quickly, you start getting involved in life and you don't realize how everything else keeps going at the same pace even if your miles ahead of it. I have learned so much about myself that I almost feel like I know too much. It's scary but it's exciting. It's beautiful but it can be ugly too.

I came into my apartment this evening after contemplating some of this stuff and my roommate was watching Now and Then, one of those movies I grew up with. A movie about four girls who grew up. I see myself as a grown up now more and more each day and I just can't believe it's here already. Yesterday I saw myself as just a kid trying to get by, now I feel like I want to get by I have to because it's the most important thing in life. I have people that love me and there are people that I truly love in return and I don't want to lose that because I'm caught up in emotions or not realizing that other people are going through similar struggles. I don't want to lose control anymore because it's a waste of time and as I grow I see that we don't have that much time and we should never spend it in regret. By the time you get in your bed, you should try and think about the good things you have. We are all going to have bad times, I'm in some right now, but it doesn't mean you can't come out and appreciate the small stuff. It's there and it's there to help you get through rough patches. The sun always comes up and until it doesn't I don't see any reason to give up trying. There's no reason to believe that you aren't strong enough or that just because you grew up thinking you were a failure that you actually are. I'm writing this post just as much for my readers as I am for myself, because we all forget. We all lose track of time, but sometimes we have to meet it half way. Slow down just so we can see that our lives aren't ending, they are just moving to the next thing. We are living to live. That may not make sense and it may be "melodramatic" but I mean it in the most positive way I can. We live so we can see life, so we can see growth. Our world is hanging in there and so are we, but to make it better we have to push ourselves to never let go. Cherish the things that matter most and indulge in the things that will keep us sane. We have to work at the things that mess us up and force ourselves to learn that we can make good change, it's not all bad. Everything that happens happens for a reason because we make it happen. We need to start believing in ourselves a little more.

Well I hope some of this makes sense and I hope maybe someone will get something out of it, but even if they don't have an amazing start to the summer! Watch a movie that you love, see friends that make you laugh, have discussions about the world, grow up a little while still remembering that inner kid, just be you and be happy!

A quote from one of my favorite (Sam from Now and Then): He said something that didn't mean as much then as it does now... He told me that things happen in life that you can't stop but it wasn't a reason to shut out the world...

I love you and until next time have a wonderful summer!!!!

A New Book: Lemur and Loris Unite

So I've been thinking about all the things I will do this summer, writing is definitely one of them. I think I'll attempt to stick to one...but we shall see how long that lasts. I'm helping a friend with their thesis final project and I figured this would be the perfect time to start really focusing on the semi-children's book that I'd like to write for it. I have two ideas in mind. One is about a girl and her dog growing up. The other is a tale of a Lemur and a Loris. This one I'm actually working on and I have about five pages written, so hopefully it will keep going at such a quick pace :P. I figured I could make parts of it fictional (A lemur and a loris would never be friends, One Lemurs live in very different rain-forests then a Loris and Two Lorises are very slow creatures while Lemurs are quick) and other parts with research of the other animals of the Amazon rain-forest. I will clearly state which parts are fictitious and which are factual throughout the book in a poetic way of course. It shall be a lovely adventure. Each chapter will be a new adventure a new experience with new animals and trees and fruits of the forest. After it's written comes the difficult part, editing from friends, and then editing from more...experienced folks, and finally trying to find someone to publish it. I'm very excited and really am looking forward to getting a head start, while I work on my other sets of novels that are only just starting to turn into actual stories. Well I hope you all have a good start of SUMMER!!! Thanks for reading, until next time...get outsiiddeeeee

Moon and back

Some days I wish I was far far away from here.

A Loss of Reality

There she sat. She inhaled her cigarette and blew out with a big sigh. As she sat on the concrete wall she started out into the sky. The mountains seemed to stare back at her omnisciently like they knew everything she could never know. She sat there and she felt the burning in her eyes, the ones that she knew would bring tears. She blew out some more smoke and she reached her hand out over the overhang and felt the raindrops dropping forcefully onto her soft hands. She watched the pearls roll off and splatter onto her jeans. She wished she could just drop and make all of her being become imbedded into the fibers of her jeans. The feeling of being wanted surrounded her mind like a cob web you walk into after a rain shower in the forest. She couldn’t make it go away and yet somehow on some deep level it was comforting. How had she gotten here, how had she gotten to this low point in her life?
A month ago, the sun was shining, the rainy days even seemed pleasant, and she could smell and hear everything in a positive tone. What had happened? She didn’t want to admit the truth because she knew exactly what it was that she hated so much. It was her. She had blocked herself out and she had made all her friends disappear. It made her feel sick. In fact that was it…Sick right there on the concrete parking lot. Her insides had even rejected her now. She recalled a time right before she had banished her friends from her life.
“It’s alright love, we care about you. It doesn’t matter what’s happened or who you are or what you’ve done. It’s okay to just be you.”
And she threw up again. She knew if she picked up her cell phone they would be there for her. They hadn’t stopped calling since she had disappeared from earth, but here she sat, alone. She yelled at herself, “I made myself alone. I didn’t have to be like this. Why?”
Everything always ended with the same phrase, “You deserve the best out of life.”
But she hadn’t found that. She tried to find it in her friends but at the end of the day she felt miserable anyway. She opened up the palm of her hand and tear drops were caught in the center. She put her hand to her face and bundled herself up making sure not to fall from the height of the wall. There she was, the child she had always felt she was.
The vomit taste still lingered in his mouth, but it didn’t bother her anymore. This moment she was living had happened so many times in the past it just felt natural. She built herself up to destruct and rebuild and that was what she was doing. Rebuilding what was left of her emotions or what she hoped would be a rebuilding of her outer shell. Maybe if she was stronger she would be able to protect herself longer. She sat up from her position. She threw the left over butt off the edge of the wall; jumped down off the wall and stood up breathing so that her chest protruded. She was fine. She was cool. She was collected. She could rage war, she could go back to her friends, and she could be herself. She didn’t have to listen to what the world said was right or wrong. She breathed the same air they did didn’t she.
She was gay and that was okay.

Oh no, EARTH!

It looks as if the government is doing some sneaky things in America these days. As our fossil fuels dwindle, the US government is making deals here and there to make it look that we are keeping our environment safe and cleaner. This really seems to be a false hope and awful lie. As the government is making money, our drinking water could be caught in the cracks. Natural Gas is the next revenue and it is being drilled all over the United States, especially in PA. They haven't found a safe way to extract the natural gas from the ground and it could be putting us at stake. I don't know all that is going on with it, but I thought notifying people would help maybe have something done about it. Gaslands a documentary made last year talks about the water at stake and recently the New York Times as discussed the issues of how "clean" natural gas really is for our Earth. Read up folks! We have to protect our planet!!!

have a good Sunday!!!