Clean Living

Daily Prompt: From the Collection of the Artist

Posted by michelle w.It’s the year 2113. A major museum is running an exhibition on life and culture as it was in 2013. You’re asked to write an introduction for the show’s brochure. What will it say?Photographers, artists, poets: show us RETROSPCTIVE.

Ladies and gentlemen we are pleased today to offer you a rare glimpse into the past. We are taking you back to 2013. Bear in mind how different our communities were prior to the war of 2080 which resulted in the clean living act.

Our exhibits include cars and trucks with actual gas and diesal powered engines. We also have a motorbike which is a large bike powered by gas as well.

You  will be awed to see battery powered devices such as Ipod music makers and Smart Phones. All devices are in working order and we will be providing a short demo.

The exhibit showcases a replica of an actual fast food restaurant including it’s 2013 menus.  You may be shocked to to see how people ate prior to the clean living act.

There are many other showcases that will capture you and take you back. Please enjoy and be thankful for our advances.

We are pleased to continue to offer free bike parking. The exhibit costs ten hours of your time donated either to a community garden or bike shop, one hour will be deducted for those using their own bike locks today. Roller skates are allowed on all pedways, please be mindful of those traveling on foot.

Welcome to 2013 and enjoy.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/daily-prompt-retrospective/

Making the Connection with you

Daily Prompt: The Stat Connection

Go to your Stats page and check your top 3-5 posts. Why do you think they’ve been successful? Find the connection between them, and write about it.Photographers, artists, poets: show us CONNECTIONS.

My top posts are all from my Thousand Acre Heart Series. I think it has been successful because I speak from my heart and I talk openly about Adoption,  marriage, motherhood and all my hopes, fears and feelings. I was pretty surprised initially with where my posts were being viewed.  My nine year old daughter freaked out that Hong Kong was viewing because that is Katy Perrys favorite place to visit!! I appreciate every visit and I know that know matter where in the world you are viewing from our hearts are similar. We have all felt the joy of a sunrise, kissed someone we love under the moonlight, felt hurt and loss but conquered it. We have all thrown our hands up under the same blue sky and said “Why me?” or thanked our God for his many blessings. In knowing this I write like I would talk to a friend.  I have said it before, there are no strangers here, just friends we haven’t met yet.People relate to Thousand  Acre Heart because I am you and you are me. We are characters in this world, playing our parts, navigating through lifes stuggles and triumphs trying to be the best we can be. When I write this series I think through my fingers, memories are coming back to me quickly and sometimes my cheeks are hot with tears and other times I am choked with laughter or overwhelmed with the lightness of love.  People relate to honesty,  truth and vulnerability and it has been very cleansing for my soul.

If you haven’t read Thousand Acre Heart but would like to you can start HERE

Michelle ♥

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/daily-prompt-connection/

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/category/daily-prompts/

Liebster award

 

Thank You to GoldyGal for this award. Please go visit her here. She is an architecture student. and right away I saw that we have something fun in common, she loves to escape reality in the mountains just as I do . Please head over to her blog and check out some great writing and amazing pictures.

This award comes with rules but hey what doesn’t?

RULES:

1. Thank the Liebster Blog presenter who nominated you, with link back to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions you were asked and create 11 of your own questions to ask your nominees.
3. Nominate 11 blogs of your choice: new, old, just found, following, or you think deserve some notice; and let them know they’ve been nominated!
4. Show off the Award photo on your blog!
5. No tag backs–meaning you can’t just re-nominate the person who nominated you.

This could be fun!!

Below is the quiz that GoldyGal gave to me.

1.Which is the moment in your life that counted the most in making you who you are today?

The moment I was reunited with my son after 19 years is definitely one of my defining moments. It changed me immensely.

2.What would spark a conversation with you? Regarding topics

Pretty much anything will spark a conversation with me, I am very easy to talk to.

3.If you get a personal day,what’s the first thing you want to do?For you.

It doesn’t have to be anything special, a hot coffee and something to read in the great outdoors would be perfect. 

4.Which are the words that you said at a certain point in your life that you would go back in time to take back/change?To whom?

When I was a teenager I said to my Mom “You don’t understand anything!” She did understand more then I ever knew and I wished I had followed her advice.

5.If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?

Be yourself always, everyone else is already taken.

6.Would you rather be a worried genius or a joyful simpleton?

I would much rather be a joyful simpleton. That is a very good description for me.:)

7.What’s your passion?

I am passionate about my family. I quit my day job a year ago to be more available to them and I initially I had a problem with being defined as a stay at home mom, It is the hardest but yet the most rewarding job in the world. 

8.What is the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?

The hardest thing I ever had to do was give my baby boy up for adoption at sixteen. I blog about it in my series Thousand Acre heart because it is an opportunity for me to truly be myself and talk candidly about my decision and how it affected me. 

9.If you could meet anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

I am a little bit obsessed with Slash. I think he would be a fantastic character to meet, we could hang out at an Lion Safari or something. I love how he overcame addiction and reinvented himself, loves his wife, adores his family and is extremely mufti talented. 

10.What is it that you absolutely couldn’t live without?

Since this is what and not who I am going to say a toothbrush. I could go without combing my hair and I think I could not shower for a while but I need to brush my teeth. 

11.If your life were a motion picture, what would the title be?

Ironic Question because I am writing a fiction piece called Unbreakable which I think we be a great title for a motion picture or Thousand Acre Heart like my non fiction series.

My 11 Questions for you

1. What made you choose blogging as a social platform

2. How has blogging changed or enriched your life

3. Are you satisfied with your position in life

4. What life skill do you think is the most important and why, Staying up or getting up?

5. What person influenced your life the most.

6. Is there an important topic that you were passionate about but changed your mind about as you grew older.

7. What is the most important relationship in your life and why?

8. What is a weakness that you suffer that you wish you could overcome.

9. Which is more powerful to you, need or desire or do you feel they are one and the same.

10. It is Saturday night, would you choose a quiet evening to do anything you wanted for yourself or a loud party with lots of friends and laughter.

11. Is there a celebrity that you admire that you feel has impacted your life somehow?

My Nominees Are.

You’ve Been Hooked http://youvebeenhooked.wordpress.com/

Lindaghill http://lindaghill.wordpress.com/

Njoy Every Moment http://njoyeverymoment.wordpress.com/

My Little Boy Blue http://mylittleboyblue.com/

Embrace The Crazy http://crazyembrace.wordpress.com/

Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss http://angloswiss-chronicles.com/

myplace2spu http://myplace2spu.wordpress.com/

Travelangeling http://travelangeling.com/

The Wandering Angel http://thewanderingangel.wordpress.com/

Stumbling Home http://stumblinghome.wordpress.com/

Girl on The Contrary http://girlonthecontrary.com/

This a fun way to recognize blogs that you follow, read, appreciate and get to know and interact with new people in the WordPress community. Thanks for the recognition GoldyGal, that was fun!

Hugs

Michelle

Only heart is home

Daily Prompt: There’s No Place Like Home

Posted by michelle w.
If you had the opportunity to live a nomadic life, traveling from place to place, would you do it? Do you need a home base? What makes a place “home” to you? Photographers, artists, poets: show us MOVING.

Oceans song first lullaby

Rugged tides your first embrace

The mountains quietly watchful

In all their perfect grace

Only a river runs through them
A memory cannot erase
To love only to leave
But knowing no disgrace

Traveling here and settling there
One day gone without a trace
Leaving smiles, not promises
Strength like leather, a heart like lace

Drink it in, breath it’s life
To see as much, sets your pace
Don’t plants roots to watch them wither
The thrill is in the sun you chase

Michelle

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/daily-prompt-moving/

Heart to Heart

Daily Prompt: Far from Home

by michelle w. on July 15, 2013

Tell us about the farthest you’ve ever traveled from home.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us DISTANCE.

When I moved to Edmonton I was terrified. I felt “comfortable” in my small town. I wasn’t happy but I wasn’t scared. The thought of raising my children in a big city that I didn’t know scared me more then you can ever imagine. I am stubborn though! When people told me that I would hate it and I would be back in six months, the real stubborn me came out. Who in their right mind would sell their house and move their children across Canada without putting everything they had into making it work? Not me, that is for sure.                   

I was an Eastern snob, I never even had a desire to visit West let alone live here. I am one of those bitches that thought nothing existed past Ontario (I am not kidding) Mountains Smoutains, who really cared?? Nova Scotia had the Ocean. In my defiance to prove everyone wrong I became excited. I rented a house site unseen in an old neighborhood in North Edmonton and the only thing I really knew is that it was close to the Elementary school and an Old friendly guy lived across the road. They also would take our Dog and that was crucial.

Kirk had been away for six months….six months straight when he flew home to move us.His job in the Oil Sands kept him extremely busy and the best choice for us as a family was to relocate. I sold the house (privately on my own), Packed up eight years of memories, made all the arrangements and when Kirk landed to help pack the U haul he just wanted to go to the beach. It was midsummer, why not? A couple hours at the beach would do us all good. The girls and I spent a lot of time at the beach and we all loved it. We lost track of time playing in the sand and surf and when we went to check on Kirk he was lying in the fetal position on a blanket with a strip burnt into the side facing the sun. OUCH!

We spent that last night at our house packing up last minute items and hanging out with friends. To say the least it was unusual, I hadn’t seen my husband for six months and there was a time when I wasn’t even sure that we would make it and here we were our fist time together in six months surrounded by boxes in a house we had bought together when I was pregnant with Morgan. We had brought both our girls home from the hospital to that house. They had learned to drive their bikes in that driveway, they had childhood dreams in those bedrooms, first birthday parties, first steps, first words. The next day our best friends came to help pack our life into a Uhaul. It was surprisingly quick! Morgan was a mess. She was eight at the time and certain that we were ruining her life. Her Aunt Anna swooped in to the rescue and took her home. The moving festivities were too much for her.

Our friends were having us a going away party. Everyone was expecting to see us soon; I don’t think anyone imagined that we would actually start a whole new life in Edmonton. When the U haul was packed and Haley was settled at my Moms I went back to the house to clean up and pick up the cat. With the house empty it was just that. It was a house…not a home. I had stressed for months about how I was going to ever say goodbye to the place that we raised our children. Oh boy if those walls could talk. We had loved in that house more then anyone in the world has ever loved. We had been husband and wife, best friends, lovers, parents and every imaginable thing in between. When you take the people out of the home it remains just a house. You get to take the memories with you. Some of them I wanted to leave behind…

I stood there in that empty house and I didn’t feel any sadness or heartache. I felt excited for what was to come.

Logistically I have been further away from home then Edmonton but on the 6 hour flight to Edmonton I felt like I was travelling a lifetime away from home and my family and friends. I felt choked but I couldn’t allow my kids to think that I was anything but excited for this new adventure. My Mom gave me a delicate silver necklace with hearts woven together. It is an unbroken circle symbolizing that our hearts would be connected no matter where we were. I have been in Edmonton now for five years and the most valuable lesson that my mother taught me was that the quickest way to travel is “heart to heart”

HEART TO HEART

You never feel so far away

I keep you in my heart

Your laugh, your smile, your silly ways

We are never far apart

Often a song, a movie, a quote

Or something crazy we laughed about

Makes me smile or shed a tear

But never a  useless pout

For miles are not the distance

We measure how far apart

We are never more then a beat away

When we travel from heart to heart.

Michelle DeBay

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/daily-prompt-distance/