GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLFRIEND GATHERINGS

Learning from YOU to empower ME !

Ode to Elena – A Self Portrait

By

blue-twist-lines_MkvEmA8O

 

 

 

My thoughts tonight could not stay on the subject I wanted to blog about as I was deep into my past.    Memories flooded my mind so I wrote it out.  I decided to share it here.

Ode to Elena

Elena was born from the passion of a touch, from the depth of a look, from the whisper of a name.

In an instant, Elena lived and embraced all of the emotions that filled her in that moment.

Elena existed in spurts of time filled with love and loving, laughter and smiles, touches and caresses.

Elena was moved by the music that filled her air, the wine that wet her lips, and the dance that swayed her hips.

Elena was the dark-skinned sun worshipper who straddled her lover on crisp white sheets beneath the moonlight that guided them.

Elena was the one whose hand he held to his chest to feel the tempo of his heartbeats.

Elena lived and loved, loved and lived, so much, too much, grabbing, holding, reaching, wondering, yearning, and waiting …for the next time.

Then one time the next time ended.

And Elena died – just as she was born – in an instant.

 

NaBloPoMo #12 – A Blog Post That I Didn’t Publish

By

NaBloPoMo November 2013Women Having Coffee

Most times my life experiences provide a great amount of subject matter for my prose.  However, there is one topic that I have started to write about and have been unable to send it out into the world.    This topic is about that unavoidable, inescapable emotion – grief.

Losing those you love dearly is difficult and the emotions that are expressed vary with each individual.  I started a blog post about the way that others relate to the grieving person in the midst of their obvious pain.     Many of us are so uncomfortable in the face of grief that we don’t realize that our actions and/or discussions are inappropriate for the recovery of the grieving person.   I want my post to be enlightening on this subject.  However, at this moment my feelings are too raw about it due to my own experiences.   My words need to be “tempered” before I can publish the post and I am willing to wait until I can accomplish that goal.

NaBloPoMo #2 – My Favorite Character of All Time Is………

By

NaBloPoMo November 2013Women Having Coffee

I must admit that I do not have a favorite character of all time because I have many favorite characters from different times in my life.   I have been an avid reader since I was a child, I am the daughter of an avid reader/movie-goer, and I go to the movies almost every weekend.    So, I love everyone from Achilles to Captain Jean Luc Picard.  However,  since I must choose one I will refer back to my middle-school reading days when I was enraptured with Greek mythology.   While my friends were grooving to R&B, I was engrossed with the Greek tragedies – especially the love stories.   They did not always end in “happily ever after”.   One such story is the one about Orpheus and Eurydice.

Orpheus was the son of Apollo (god of the sun, music, medicine, poetry, and the fine arts) and Calliope (the superior of the nine Muses).   Therefore, he was gifted musically and poetically.    Orpheus met, loved, and wooed Eurydice for her hand in marriage.   During the days of their wedding celebration, Eurydice was bitten by a snake and died.  Orpheus was so grief stricken that he beseeched permission from Zeus to pursue the restoration of Eurydice’s life from Hades, god of the Underworld.    Zeus was so moved by the songs of the grief stricken Orpheus that he granted permission.   Orpheus traveled to Hades and conquered all barriers with his beautiful music and songs even bringing Hades and Persephone to tears with his songs.   They released Eurydice but with the stipulation that Orpheus not look upon her face until they had departed the Underworld.   Eurydice walked behind Orpheus as they traveled away from the Underworld but in his longing to see his wife, Orpheus turned too soon and only glimpsed her face before she returned to the Underworld.

Orpheus became one of my favorite characters because he sparked my imagination about the beauty of his music and songs that moved Hades, with the hardened heart, to tears.  The courage Orpheus demonstrated to descend to the depths of Hades for his true love was only diminished by the longing he felt to see Eurydice and hold her again.    Orpheus became one of my compass characters to set expectations for a mate – a man who can experience AND express deep emotions.

Thus, he is one of my all-time memorable characters.