Walking Works of Art

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I was informed yesterday through this blog website that I’ve now been writing blogs for 13 years. So cheers to 13 years! Looking back to 2013 until this present moment, I think the stuff I like to write about currently is similar to what I enjoyed putting pen to paper about all those seasons ago. The goal with my writing is still to spread joy and inspiration. It’s still to hopefully help give others hope. The point is to show the beauty of life through non-fiction and fiction.

Around the year 2006, I was in a creative writing fiction class, and the professor inquired us students to state why we wanted to write. I was the only one that said, “Because it’s fun!” The teacher seemed to enjoy my response to the question. A wonderful thing about writing is that truly there are no wrong answers. People will judge my writings for sure. Some will say they loved it while others will keep silent. Some will think it’s great stuff while others won’t think much of it at all. Some will think I’m a good writer while others won’t ever read another blog or short story I create. And of course this is the way things ought to be with art.

The point of this short blog today is to say I’m happy I haven’t given up on being a writer. Writing brings me joy and I feel it brings others joy also. Joy is a big deal in a world with so much ugly! The ugly stuff need not ruin our days. At times I’ve been negative toward myself because I don’t write every new day. But what if I did not write ever again? Now that would truly be something to be sad about! Because I have a voice and I have quality things to say. So do you by the way. We all have creativity and art inside us. If you create something and someone else causes you to feel it’s not any good then I advise you toss their opinion in the local garbage because it’s an opinion that belongs in the trash. Let’s not give up on doing the stuff we love and that makes our world a better place.

Thank you for showing up today and reading these words. Authors are in need of readers. I’m grateful that anyone in the history of everyone has ever read anything I’ve ever written. I’ll keep on believing in myself and believing in you. There’s much criticism out there in our lives. That’s too damned easy! It’s easy to be a critic. It doesn’t take much thought or care or empathy at all. To build one another up is beautiful and also can be more difficult. Choose the harder road when it comes to humanity. Let’s be encouragers!

Write on! Create! Show love and kindness toward your art and toward the art of others. And let’s realize that we are all walking works of art. Remember that there are no wrong answers when it comes to our artistic creations. 13 years from now you might’ve created more writings or paintings or sketches or music or sculptures than you’d ever dreamed possible. Keep dreaming and keep creating!

From Tennessee to Illinois

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It’s wonderful to have family that I would’ve chosen as friends. Two special family members visited my parents and brother and I on Saturday and stayed until Sunday. Aunt Marcy and uncle Brock from Tennessee came to visit their Illinois Brooks family!

The adult beverages flowed and the games were brought out to enjoy. Fun conversation was constant. Brock and Marcy have remarkable personalities along with an excellent sense of humor. We first met them in person in 2016 and our friendship with them was instantaneous. All of us have met many more times in the last decade.

Dad didn’t know he had a brother until back in 2012. Brock and other siblings were searching for their older half brother they’d heard about but never met. Well, they found him here in Southern Illinois because of a local university website that had Dad’s picture on it. Then a letter was sent from them to Dad with a photo of Dad as a boy. The siblings explained they were looking for their long lost older brother and inquired if the child in the photograph was him. Dad could not deny that it was him as a youth.

It took a few years before we finally got to meet my beloved family in person. For a while it was texts and phone conversations only. Although when we finally met in 2016 afterwards we never looked back and have been close ever since. Brock and Dad have not one but two matching tattoos! They are brothers and friends.

Marcy and Mom get along so well. They both laugh so much, as do all of us really, when we play Cards Against Humanity or Uno Attack. It doesn’t matter who wins, but the competition is fierce in a lighthearted way and even at times diabolical! I thoroughly enjoy how well all six of us get along together. When Marcy and Brock return to Tennessee after their visits I am immediately looking forward to the next time we all get to see one another.

Cheers to the Tennessee Brooks family! Next time I’m going to win at Cards Against Humanity! And if I lose then I’ll still have the epic memories of fun times shared with people I love.

Beverage Choices

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I prefer the word “unique” instead of the word “weird” when it comes to describing a person. I really don’t think whenever I hear someone say that someone else is “different” because it’s such a vague description or insult. Aren’t we all different than one another? Many times whenever one calls another weird or different all that person is really saying is that they dislike them and are attempting to insult them. Insults make our world a worse place.

With my word choice I try to never call anyone weird. I’ve no doubt I’ve been called weird before by people that don’t like me. This fact does not bring me joy or happiness. All I’m doing is being myself. What I am not attempting to do is be like anyone else. I see our world differently than many people I believe. I believe in love and kindness on a major scale and try to be kind and loving toward my fellow life travelers. Where some see me as weird I am certain others see me as unique.

How do we see ourselves? Do we tear ourselves down or do we speak to ourselves nicely? I’ve done both before for sure. We all live inside our own minds. My mind has a horrific disease in it known as bipolar disorder. The medicine helps with that, though. Faith and positive life experiences also help. True friends help. Kind family helps. The people in my life that think I’m unique and like me help. Let’s be exceedingly nice to ourselves in our minds while showing the same grace we are trying to illustrate to others.

An old buddy of mine, I’ve lost touch with over the years, once told me that “weird” doesn’t mean anything. In his opinion one shouldn’t pay attention to weird used as an insult. I loved that he said that and felt that way about the word. It was over 20 years ago that he told me that and I still recall it with joy.

So be unique today and let others judge or love you for it. I am not everyone’s cup of tea and some folks don’t even drink tea. They prefer coffee or juice or water or booze or energy drinks or milk. We all have critics no matter how good or kind we are being. So be one-of-a-kind and fly any freak flag or flags you wish. No one else can live our lives for us. So be yourself and I’ll promise to do the same.

Sky Music

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Recently I was driving to work and two songs played through Pandora that I’ve loved for many years. The first song was “We’ve Only Just Begun” by Run Kid Run. The second song was “Pressing On” by Relient K. These two tunes have some age on them. The first was released in the year 2006 and as I recall the other one came out in 2002. These songs inspired me during my morning commute and I thought the story was worthy of this blog.

A friend told me many years ago that she’d figured out what type of music I like. She said, “You like happy music.” My dear friend is not wrong! She had just gifted me “The Best of Herman’s Hermits” on vinyl and I was so joyful to receive such a fine record. Back then I had not had a record player for long and my collection was just getting started. So how about you? What are some of your favorite songs? Do you have a favorite genre of music? Do you love music so much that there’s simply no time to name all the music you adore because it would take an entire 500 page book? Happy or feel-good music speaks to me more than any other sort of melody.

I’ve sung the blues in my life. I’ve lived the sorrows. I’ve been extremely sad and despondent. I’m a human being and human beings experience these emotions. I think with my heart instead of my mind because my mind has bipolar. The medicine for the mental illness is quite wonderful and I won’t ever have to be hospitalized again. The blues, while I respect them, are not my favorite type of music.

Some of you, actually perhaps most of you, are wondering who Run Kid Run and Relient K are exactly. Well, if interested, you can find their music and music videos on YouTube or many other places too. They’re both of the pop punk genre with a spiritual twist too. A week ago when those two songs played back to back I knew and was determined to have an excellent day. I could have had that excellent day even without those songs, but the music caused me to think a little extra about how beautiful life is. I believe music at its best can help our spirits fly. There I was in my little Ford Focus driving to my beloved library where I work and yet my heart was in the clouds.

A Fancy New Pen

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I’m a collector. I enjoy collecting things that interest me. Over my lifetime I’ve collected movie stubs and ticket stubs in general and bookmarks and buttons and CDs and vinyl and photographs and I’m sure many other things also. One of my collections always makes my coworkers at the library laugh and smile. I collect writing pens!

And the reason I thought to write this blog today is because yesterday I attained a new pen. It’s made by a company named Retro 51 and is emerald green. It’s a beautiful writing instrument!

It writes very well and smoothly. Retro 51 has a slogan that states Life is too short to carry an ugly pen. I wholeheartedly agree! They say the pen makes the librarian. I lied. I don’t think anyone actually says that statement. But I just did because I thought it was funny.

What do you enjoy collecting? If others find it odd or silly then simply don’t pay any attention to their opinions. Fly that freak flag with moxie! Life’s too short to carry the burden of negative opinions against us.

So collect on and I’ll write on with my fancy new pen!

Car Crashes and Sweet New Glasses

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In the summer of 2018 I was in a car crash. I was so shaken up when it happened and in the minutes afterwards! The great news is that I was not injured and the driver of the other vehicle was also not injured. Life is made up of moments. I’ve often wondered if I would’ve pulled out onto that highway merely a moment later than when I did would the impact of the car crash been so much more tragic. Just a moment later and the other driver would’ve had less time to slam on his breaks! In the summer of 2018 I could’ve been seriously injured in that crash or could’ve died. Instead the only thing that broke was my eyeglasses when my head slammed against my driver’s side window.

Let’s rejoice in our beautiful moments while also finding peace that even in the tragic or sad events in our lives things could have actually been far worse! I could’ve passed away at age 34. The last 8 years would never have happened for me. And friends I’ve had a whole lot of great times these last 8 years. Life is a gift and coming out of a car crash, where both vehicles were totaled, unharmed was also a tremendous gift. Yes, I was shook up. Yes, I got cussed out. Yes, I cried. Yes, I spent 18,000 dollars to get a new car. And no I did not perish; I lived to tell this tale. I’ve never written of this until this moment.

When we survive the crashes in our lives we can be happy. We can toast a pint with friends! We can say we lived to tell the story! We can make the most of all our tomorrows! We need not be miserable or drown in self sorrows. We need not judge ourselves or others at fault so harshly. Yeah, we can even get back behind our car steering wheels and drive again. That day my confidence as a driver was shattered, but I got it back again!

Maybe this post is about all sorts of setbacks or crashes throughout our lives. If we are still breathing though then we get to have a choice in how we live going forward. I believe the past and also the future are terrible homes to purchase. I aim to live in the present as much as I can every new day I get to take in oxygen. Setbacks are parts of life. None of us ever know when the next crash or great sorrow is coming. What we can do after sorrows and crashes and setbacks is make the most of all of the rest of our lives. We can buy new cars, drive again, and get our confidence back on the road and on life’s road in general.

And our local eye doctor will get us some sweet new shades.

Wholehearted

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I believe I was born with a big heart. From a very young age being nice instead of mean was important to me. I was a shy kid. I can be a shy or reserved adult also. Then again I can be quite outgoing. I feel things deeply. Along with the big heart I was born with a mind with a disease in it. Once I told a friend that I think with my heart instead of my head because my heart is all I can trust. She found this interesting. She claimed most folks say they cannot trust their hearts. I replied that if I could not trust my heart then I had nothing at all to trust with because I knew my mind could not be trusted. This conversation happened quite a few years ago. And I might’ve been incorrect back then about my heart and my head. I do have excellent medicines for the disease of bipolar and I take them daily. Perhaps my mind can be trusted after all. And I still at age 42 believe I am a big-hearted soul.

My old buddy Jason once told me that if someone had a friend in me then they had a truly great friend. This meant a lot to me! Jason and I have been buddies for as long as I can recall because we were neighbors growing up. And because he’s a few years older than I am. Him and his whole family used to call me Jonny. Hardly anyone else has ever called me Jonny. Yet I loved it when they’d call me this as a boy and when they on some occasions still call me Jonny. It was a gorgeous deal to have such a great friend right next door. We still communicate once or twice a month even though he now lives 2,000 miles from Illinois where I live.

It is a good thing to have a big heart or a good heart. Yes, I’ve made a plethora of mistakes throughout my lifetime. Yes, the Bible would see some sinner in me for sure or maybe a whole lot of sinner. But I’ve attempted to do the right thing throughout the story of my life. I’ve tried to be good or to make things right when failing to be good. A whole lot of us are trying to be good and do the right thing! And yes we aren’t always getting it right. We can still fight our good fight, though!

I’m impressed by Jesus in the New Testament gospel stories. The religious crowd of his day could not stand him and honestly a whole lot of the religious crowd of today would nail him up all over again. There’s faith and then there’s religious nationalism. I find the first to be sincere and the other not to be. I read the gospels first around age 17. Jesus’ message of love is what impressed me! He had time for people that the crowd did not have time for. I believe he even had time for me and my prayers for salvation when bipolar was telling me I was a lost cause. I used to tell people Christ saved my life and quite honestly it was literally true. My faith is quieter than ever but it is still real these days.

So here I am talking religion and big hearts and doing the right thing and I’m rambling on. My main purpose for this post was I aimed to write about friendships and how special they are. Yet it seems I’ve touched on some other topics. Let’s try to be good and let’s try to be great to our friends. And I don’t care if people think Jesus was crazy or the Christ. And bipolar doesn’t get to destroy my days or ruin my life and that is a thing to rejoice about. And I’ll always believe a good heart, in spite of all our faults, is a great thing to have.

More Than Half of Life is Showing Up

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I admire authors that keep showing up day after day. It’s often said that writing is lonely work. Perhaps the reason some struggle to write often, though, is because of the many distractions available to us all on a daily basis. I could be playing video games or watching TV right now instead of writing this blog post. Or I could be out socializing with dear friends. And, oh yeah, I could be sitting around thinking about how I could write something new. Yes, I admire the authors that spend most days creating. Today I am creating.

My dad has been writing blogs around 6 days a week for many years! I love his writings and images and photos and I love that he loves creating his blogs. He takes the craft of writing seriously. I know it brings him great joy and tremendous joy also to those that read his works. One day I hope to be a six day a week author like my father.

Another author I admire is Ray Bradbury. He passed away in 2012. He wrote well over 30 books in his life’s story. The short story was what he loved best. I write short fiction as well and I always found Bradbury to be amongst the best short story tellers. Shortly after he passed I wrote a fiction story in his honor.

Perhaps more than half of life is showing up. Show up for your friends, show up for yourself, show up for your hobbies and loves, and show up to the joy of life. Distractions are fine but let’s also focus on what truly matters most to us. Play the video games and watch the TV and daydream. These things aren’t wrong. But if there’s something we wish to invest our time in more than these other hobbies I hope we have the courage to do so. I hope we make the time for what’s most important to us.

Happy first day of the week to you; go do something you love!

How to Write a Story With a Fancy Pen

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There are sorrows in life that will try to consume us. I cannot recall a time in my life when I did not know this fact. I’m a happy person. I’m a joyful person. I have a complicated mind with a life threatening disease in it. The life threatening disease is bipolar disorder. There’s great medicines for this illness. I take mine daily. Despair is about the worst emotion I’ve ever experienced, but it doesn’t last forever and does not get the final statement on how I view the world and how I view myself.

I choose happiness today like I chose it yesterday and like I’ll choose it tomorrow. I choose not to despair. I choose to smile genuinely. I choose to try to make others days brighter through the art of being kind. I choose not to feel sorry for myself.

Life can be tough without dealing with mental illness. Heartaches will happen and tears will be shed. Bad things and good things and all things come to an end. I think we should enjoy the moment and aspire to live in the moment as much as we possibly can. We never know when the next sorrow will show up.

Bipolar and sorrow doesn’t have to consume anyone. I’ve overcome some real bad stuff before. It might’ve been nice to have been born with a healthy mind that was my friend instead of my enemy. That isn’t how my story goes, though. I appreciate my joy and my laugh and my smile and my life so very much. I’ve fought for these good things! I hope you fight for good things also. I hope the bad stuff doesn’t consume you and sour you or turn you away from love. Love in action is a main reason I’ve made it this far. Love can take the fancy pen and continue to write my story.

World Bipolar Day Reflections

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March 30th was World Bipolar Day. The purpose of World Bipolar Day is to raise awareness about what exactly bipolar disorder is while also reporting what it certainly is not. I enjoy March 30th every year and share posts about it on my Facebook page. I’ve known I have bipolar since 2004 way back when I was a young age of 19. The manic episode I went through, the hospitalization right after, and the revelation that I have a life threatening mental illness were life altering for me.

So here I am at age 41, almost 42, and I’m still having fun! I’ve never quit or given up on my medicines needed to help my mind stay healthy. All those years ago, in the local hospital, the professionals there told me the quickest way for me to have to come back to that hospital would be for me to go off of my medicines. I smiled and said, “Oh, you’ll never see me again.” And that is a promise I’ve kept. I rejoice that I’ve continually stayed on my medications for bipolar.

Many other people also have mental health issues and are in need of medicine and love. In my life’s story I know I’ve had both these things and for this I’m grateful. When I was in the hospital my parents came to visit every day. Other family and friends also visited often. I was there for one month and the day I got to journey home was one of the happiest days of my life. Freedom feels different when one loses it and then finds it again. The love my loved ones showed me I still recall vividly. My good and stable mental health since 2004 still causes me to rejoice.

If you have a mental health issue I hope you get the best out of life yesterday and today and tomorrow. You deserve joy and happiness and a sound mind and peace! The medicines will keep you out of the hospital and assist to slay the monsters of the mind. Life shouldn’t be a miserable experience for any of us. If you think you could have a mental health issue I encourage you to seek help from the professionals in the field who know what they are talking about and can prescribe medicine. If you are suicidal I so hope you do whatever it takes to choose life over death.

Every day is a bipolar day for me simply because I have bipolar. Every day is a joyful day for me because I choose joy. Every day is a day for medicine for me because I’m not going back to the local mental health recovery center. Every day can be beautiful for us if we choose to look for beauty in our world. Mental health issues can be speed bumps instead of ruts or dead ends. Life is worth fighting for so let’s not lose hope or give up the struggle.