Carly's Ramblings Blog - Style

Inspirations, Cemetery Visions & Sharing Something...

Today's blogs...

Blog City - Day 163

Prompt: Make a list of inspirations. People, places, colors, events, activities. Do these inspire you to write, go to work, help you through life or make your day a good one? I would like to hear about them.

I find music can inspire in a multitude of ways. It can lift your mood or create a mood for what you are doing. It can give rise to a story or poem idea through its musical notation or through the words that play on your mind. It can make getting along in your day easier.

Nature walks and even walks through a different neighbourhood can inspire ideas and set your mind ready to receive whatever comes its way.

My grandparent’s farm was a place that inspired stories and creativity. It was a place of acceptance and a place of rugged beauty.

Going up north to my hometown can do that as well, and I found travelling through New Brunswick and Cape Breton Island also inspired that same spirit as the land was similar and awoke memories and stories that wanted to be told. (Interesting that I did not get that same feeling this summer on our trip through Ohio, Pennsylvania or New York States – they are too much like Southern Ontario. The weather was finer this year. Last year’s trip was rainier and cooler. Given that I would say the weather can also inspire – I do find I am affected by the weather. Lighter sunny days bring happier more uplifted ideas; Rainy, grey or stormy days bring darker ideas.

Watching people can inspire as one wonders what life has given rise to the person who moved past you. It is fun to create tales of what their lives may be like.

Beyond that I would say I stay open to the possibility that all things can inspire in some form or another.

30 Day Blogging Challenge

Survival Campers head off to the cemetery.
We are going to one of Maine's oldest cemeteries. The headstones are amazingly in good shape considering the weather. We are packing a lunch and while we are there do some gravestone etchings. Everyone should look around and pick a different headstone so we can compare the age of the people buried here. However to your surprise, the headstone has your name! We want to hear your reaction and what you think is going on.

I read Lyn's a Witchy Woman 's entry then wrote this piece.....

Hearing the screams and wild flapping around me I searched for my own stone. Since everyone was finding their's I was sure mine had to be around as well. I wandered off in the direction of an old oak tree and sure enough on the other side I found a stone marked with my own name and today's date. The air squeezed out of my lungs as I exhaled and doubled over. My hand gripped the cold stone, icy, yet dry. I pulled my hand away trembling. Wide-eyed I looked back at Charlie ~ and nodded.

"Carly's got one, too." He told them in a rough whisper.

Neva having been the first to spot her stone was also the first to pull herself back together. "What does this mean?" Her voice was barely a whisper, but in the silence that had descended on our little group, even I could hear her from my spot by the oak.

I sat down feeling the chill of the stone run through me. My legs were a jittery mess. My eyes stared at the words blurry with my tears. My whole name seemed to glare at me, the hyphened last name dripping my husband's surname. The date seemed to swim. I closed my eyes and felt the tears run their trail down my sweat stained face. I took a calming breath and tried to find my center.

In my mind the letters twisted and swirled. At first they made no sense, but as I let myself relax other words seemed to form then fall away. I felt a peace envelop me and though I could hear other mumbled voices, I tuned them out. I moved my body to rest my hands on my knees and rested in that pose as my mind followed the patterns of the letters that formed in my mind.

I only care.... what lies under... be only... you... Carly... my child... my one and... only.

I felt a warm pressure settle on my shoulders and let myself smile with my whole being. Tears of joy tingled in my eyes as I heard my father's voice. I heard and felt his love through those words. I wanted to ask how he knew I was calling myself Carly these days, but he seemed to sense it and I felt embraced in a hug.

rite and be... be you.... my child.... my one and... only... Carly.

The warmth of the connection stayed with me as I opened my eyes and noticed the letters on the stone dissolve and fall away into ancient script I could no longer make out.

"What the hell..." I heard Charlie mutter. "What did you do?" His voice was edged with awe as he stared at the stone.

Others came over. Circling around behind me so they could see my stone.

"Her name... the date... it just disappeared..." Charlie whispered still not sure what to make of the situation.

"Are you positive?" ElaineElaine asked.

"I came over here to check to see if Carly was okay.... and she was smiling. When I looked at the stone... the words.... they disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

Charlie nodded unable to take his eyes off the stone.

"What did you do?" Neva asked kneeling down beside me.

I turned my eyes from the stone and smiled at her. "I got to hear my father... see his words.... he died when I was twelve." My voice was a awed whisper. My eyes glistened as happy tears formed. I let them fall. "He told me to keep writing...."

"How?" someone asked.

I shook my head, not quite sure how to explain. "I think he used the letters in my name... I could see them in my mind swirling and reforming other words."

"Would that work for us?" Someone else asked.

"Worth a try. I don't like looking at my full name like that... it is eerie."

I explained that I had let myself find a meditative state and slipped into the connection. Each of them moved off and I listened to them all settle, then I let myself sink into the experience once more. I was still able to feel the warmth of my father's hug but his words were gone. His presence I could feel and I took solace in that sweet connection. A connection lost so many years ago and given today as a gift.

I tilted my face up to look into the variegated greens shimmering above me and smiled whispering, "thank you." to the One who made it all possible.

Welcome To My Reality – Week Thirty – Four

5. Share something you recently wrote.
This could be the story listed above if you are open to that....

7. Share something interesting from your week - a conversation, a scene, a book, whatever.

Holiday's are the sweetest invention.
A string of days full of the carefree and unbound.
Where tensions slip away and we can drift in tranquility.
Find adventure in the every day close to home
or drive out and away and to seek other places
full of mystery and newness.

This week and last have been my husband's holidays. We have done things close to home and also gone on an adventure to the wilds of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York States. We have returned home to things left that now need attention but the break was lovely.