Meri's Musings

You cannot govern  the creative impulse;  "Wallflower # 8" © Meri Arnett-Kremian 2010 all you can do is to eliminate obstacles  and smooth the way for it.   -Kimon Nicoliades Are you making room for creative expression or are you letting obstacles stand in your way? If you tell yourself there's not enough time, commit to perform one random act of creativity each day. A poem. A quick sketch. An arrangement of flowers in a vase. Cook with flair. If you already keep a gratitude journal, here's a thought: take one photo per day of something you're grateful for. Add it to your journal. If you keep the journal on your computer, it's easy to integrate photos with text.

There is an old saying about family giving you both roots and wings. Here are photos of some of the roots and branches in my family tree, some distant, some near. I've written stories about most of these people  in my Sepia Saturday posts. We all have to earn our own wings. For more Mosaic Monday posts, click HERE .

Listen to me, The secret is to  shine your own light,  follow your own path. Don't worry about the darkness, for it is in the darkest hours  that the stars shine most brightly.

My Valentine's Day Sepia Saturday post featured a love story about a young woman and her high school sweetie who eloped during college, much to the ire of her parents. Let me introduce her parents: Clara Davidson Biggs and William A. "Willie" Biggs. If you remember, Willie and Clara wanted Leota's marriage annulled. Even tried to get the sheriff to arrest their new son-in-law. Welcome to the family! Willie and Clara were both born in McDonald County, Missouri in the 1880s. Clara was the daughter of Thomas Davidson  and Mary Anne Harrell. Willie was the youngest son of John Biggs and Dicy Reed. John and Dicy were my great-great grandparents on my dad's side and Willie was the brother of my great-grandmother, Mary (Biggs) Arnett. Willie and Clara got married about 1905 when Willie was 22 and Clara was 17. Leota was born in December 1906. Employment prospects in McDonald County were not auspicious and by 1910, this little family was living in Enid, Oklahoma. ...

I listened to my heart. I've booked a photo workshop in Venice.

I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details  we all hinge our lives on. Rita Dove "Unfurling" © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian I love the way our lives unfold, detail by detail until we are fully in flower. - Meri (Rita Dove served as Poet Laureate  of the United States  and Consultant to the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995  and as Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2004 to 2006). 

Whatever reality may be, it will to some extent be shaped by the lens through which we see it. -James Hollis ' WATER sKY" C 2009 MERI ARNETT KREMIAN I see stars and bursts of light  in water sky, find clarity where once was haze. I find sprites dancing  in the realm of myth, taste the jumbled fresh of love  in the thick thinness of beginning. I see deep veins of truth    pulsing toward the inexpressible. I see fresh magic  in the tilt and whirl of life. What do you see through the lens of your heart? - meri