Yes

photo credit: rsmithing Amor Electrica via photopin (license)

Many years ago, I remember watching a documentary in which they had film of John Lennon explaining how the first time he had walked into Yoko Ono’s gallery the first work he had seen had simply consisted of the word YES! John Lennon maintained that if it hadn’t been such an unequivocally positive message he wouldn’t have continued looking around the gallery and wouldn’t have met Yoko.

I don’t know if I’ve always viewed the word ‘Yes’ as such a positive, I think it is easy to say yes to something without wholeheartedly committing to it. Whether that is saying you will take the bins out, volunteering for a project at work or saying you will help a friend. I know for certain I’ve been guilty of saying yes, but secretly having my fingers crossed behind my back and hoping someone else will do it instead.

However, one thing I can definitely say is yes to the question – has this been a good year.

Of course I’m not unaware of all the horrible things that are happening all over the world, the political upheavals and uncertainties, and on a personal note I’ve probably had as many setbacks as a normal year.

Nothing has really changed apart from my attitude to the world. It might be that I have slipped into a comfort zone but my previous experience of comfort zones wasn’t at all comfortable, because I had the uncertainty of what the universe would do to me if I dared to move out of where I was. This current feeling is one of balance and positivity. Yes it definitely helps that I can give some focus to my creative projects and I’m no longer trying to be a paper thin imitation of someone and something else.

This might be an illusion, I might be as deluded now as I was eighteen months ago and still heading in the wrong direction with life. But the difference is that eighteen months ago I would not have answered the question ‘is life good?’ with the answer ‘YES’.

photo credit: jenny downing with every good wish via photopin (license)

I’m taking a blogging and social media break over the festive period (working to complete my poetry collection Wreckage for release in Jan/Feb 2017), so apart from a few scheduled posts which will pop up over the next couple of weeks this is it until the New Year.

If you would like to read some more of my work you will find a couple of my poems, December Alone and Safe Inside, included in the Winter Magic collection on wattpad.

Winter Magic

Finally, I’d just like to wish you all a peaceful and restful couple of weeks, thanks for reading and have a great and positive 2017.

© 2016 | Frank Regan, All rights reserved.

Let it out

Thank you to all in the WordPress community, out on Twitter and Facebook too, that allow me to express myself.

Where would we be without the ability to put thoughts onto paper – whether as fiction, poetry or in art.

Save

One Million Different Versions of You and Me

What if raindrops were possibilities?
A multitude of universes plunging
From the heavens towards the earth
To shatter here at our feet.

But what if that is true?
Wouldn’t that leave us living life
Staring at our feet
Trying to resurrect our dreams
From the puddles on the ground.
 
© 2016 | Frank Regan, All rights reserved.

Christmas and a Ho, Ho, Ho

photo credit: Merry christmas! via photopin (license)

Here all in one place for your viewing convenience are all the posts from this year’s Advent Calendar day 24 at the top down to day 1 at the bottom:

24. Windows
23. Endings

22. Weary
21. Indigo
20. Shifty
19. Hurry

18. You
17. Orifice
16. Unworry

15. Always

14. Mephistopheles
13. Euphoria
12. Rivers
11. Regard
10. Young

9. Climbing
8. Healing
7. Reminiscence
6. Innocence
5. Storms
4. Thanks
3. Mercy
2. Annie
1. Sorry

Well, would you look at that the first letters of all the posts spell out We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Who would have thought it (a Christmas miracle, I’ve spelt it right)!

Thanks to all my readers for your support in 2015, hope Santa brought you your heart’s desire and best wishes to you all for the next twelve months.

Alchemy

Day 18: This post is welcome reminder of summer for me…

Made of sticks and stones

Words from Rush by Frank Regan 2015

Hello, how are you?
I’m now back in the UK after a trip to Greece – the island of Skiathos to be precise. Well to be really precise I’ve been back a fortnight but that was only in body, in spirit I was still balanced precariously on a bean bag sipping a cocktail at the Rock and Roll Bar overlooking the bay.
Skiathos was a place I really fell in love with for its scenery, its people and the overall vibe of the place. It had a certain je ne sais quoi (probably sounds much cooler in Greek). Most importantly it was the break I needed to separate me from the events leading up to and the manner in which I left my job. Skiathos was the perfect break from the mundane realities of life.
But no holiday lasts forever, and though it…

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Heaven help us, he’s been thinking again

I have been working my way through some old notes and came across these few lines.
It is not poetry or anything much of anything in particular, it is just a random thought and as it from old notes, I’m not quite sure what prompted it. Still, I thought I’d share it anyway.

Even if you allow
For reincarnation,
You only get one shot
At this life.

That’s it, no more thinking for now. I’ll go back to some more, aimless, staring out the window.

photo credit: Let there be light! via photopin (license)

© 2015 | Frank Regan, All rights reserved.

Weeble Wobble

My confidence level, very, rarely stays high. As low as the Marianas Trench, now, I can manage that no problem.
I’m so good at having low-confidence I could even give talks on the subject. Not that anyone would want to listen to me droning on…
You get the picture; I love to talk myself down. And given that it is now four months since I quit work. Summer has been and gone, the days are becoming shorter, and doubts are sneaking-up to hide in the shadows waiting to pounce.
Where’s an Alchemist when you need one?
Let me make it clear, I do not regret leaving my previous employment, in fact, I believe it will turn out to be the best decision I ever made. No, NEWSFLASH, it is the best decision I have ever made in my life so far. However…
At the moment the goals I am working towards haven’t been bringing in the big bucks.

“My other piece of advice, Copperfield,” said Mr. Micawber, “you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the God of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and – and in short you are forever floored. As I am!”
From David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

Perhaps they never will. I knew that when I made my decision. But still when someone asks me have I got a job(?), have I been applying for jobs(?). I get angry. Now those that ask me have I got employment tend to know far more about my “Grand Plan” than I have shared online. They shouldn’t need to ask loaded questions, right?
The Big Push
However, the real reason I get angry is because, whisper it, I’ve been asking myself the same.
Is the “Grand Plan” a load of old tosh? I’ll fail at this goal; I’m not good enough to fulfil that role. No one wants to read my poems, let alone my stories. It’s pointless, I’m useless.
For some reason, this time, this self-depreciation made me think of Weebles…

…you know the things that wobble, but won’t fall down.
Because I know it is just a wobble, I’m not falling over; and if I do fall over then so what. At worst, it is a grazed knee or a bruised ego. The plan goes on.
Why?
Well this time there is a difference, this time I actually like and respect the person I am working for, because I am my own boss. That does not mean I haven’t had some good bosses in the past and that I won’t at some future date find myself within a traditional career structure and happy to be there.
For this is not about self-employment, this is about self-respect.
Yes, my current boss makes mistakes, wastes time, spends way too long in coffee shops just staring out of the window, and is the only one who finds his crappy jokes funny. But overall, he is making progress.
Yes, the “Grand Plan” may be held together by sticky backed plastic and forward motion may be limited to a series of Weeble wobbles but I am wholly responsible for my own future.

© 2015 | Frank Regan, All rights reserved.

Smile

photo credit: orangutan mother and baby via photopin (license)

Smile, be yourself,
It is the only person
You’re equipped to be.

© 2015 | Frank Regan, All rights reserved.

Practical strategies for the modern alchemist

The image of alchemy as a metaphor for the path to enlightenment and fulfilment is now firmly fixed in my mind. Shame it isn’t an original idea (there being a kind of famous book with the title “The Alchemist”) but a path isn’t any less of a path just because someone else has walked it before and anyway the image fits.
I am taking my life and reshaping it into something new, by taking a risk and trusting my talents. That is talent with a small “t” by the way but commitment and consistency with capital C’s, in big bold print.
Then there is one more “C word” to add to the list, control. I am taking control. Not necessarily of the success or failure of the alchemy, but by providing the best raw materials, which is a me that believes in himself and is willing to undertake the vital task of stirring the pot and keeping the potion on the boil.

© 2015 | Frank Regan, All rights reserved.

Alchemy

Words from Rush by Frank Regan 2015

Hello, how are you?
I’m now back in the UK after a trip to Greece – the island of Skiathos to be precise. Well to be really precise I’ve been back a fortnight but that was only in body, in spirit I was still balanced precariously on a bean bag sipping a cocktail at the Rock and Roll Bar overlooking the bay.
Skiathos was a place I really fell in love with for its scenery, its people and the overall vibe of the place. It had a certain je ne sais quoi (probably sounds much cooler in Greek). Most importantly it was the break I needed to separate me from the events leading up to and the manner in which I left my job. Skiathos was the perfect break from the mundane realities of life.
But no holiday lasts forever, and though it was tinged with sadness, I had to fly back to normality.

In the last two weeks, amongst other things, I’ve started the enjoyable task of going through my accumulated poems and stories to decide what should be included in my forthcoming e-book collection. At the moment it is a longlist but once I hopefully whittle it down to a shortlist I will be able to discern the shape (crisp smooth lines or gelatinous blob) of the overall collection.
That process of deciding what goes in and what doesn’t has led me to a decision. The collection should be poetry only, my admittedly low-level moans to myself that I am not a poet and it’s just a phase came to naught. Poetry only will just give it a better shape.

On the plus side though it means the next collection will be fiction only. So, once one project is finished, in the back of my mind another one is starting to be formulated.
Then there is the matter of employment – something that pays. Obviously once my two books are published I will be a millionaire or maybe even a trillionaire! But what if that doesn’t happen, what if all I get out of these collections is the joy of writing them – joy alone isn’t going to pay for my ticket back to Skiathos.
I do have a plan for what I want to do with my future and it requires some form of alchemy to take place and no decades of reading fantasy books haven’t finally warped my mind into believing I’m a wizard. By alchemy I mean whatever time and effort I put in to my job is rewarded tenfold emotionally. Yes I want payment but I want (NO I NEED) to derive satisfaction from what I do.
Yes I realise that all jobs have their downsides. The average person spends a great deal of their lives working and the daily grind is always a compromise, I’m sorry kids even after you leave school life is still going to be about deadlines, hard work and stress. Even being a clown is stressful.

photo credit: Ringling Circus clown Emmett Kelly: Sarasota, Florida via photopin (license)

However, the reward for all of that stress should not be limited to a week away on a Greek Island. Fifty-one weeks versus one week? That is not a balanced life.
So while I’m trying to create a more balanced life, if anyone has got any lead going spare, I’d like to try a little alchemy.

© 2015 | Frank Regan, All rights reserved.