Tag Archives: fears

talking heads.

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*LEARN AND PRACTICE VENTRILOQUISM AND PUPPET SKILLS!

(*This offer recently popped up on my local Meetup Group feed, inviting me to join. It would be one of my worst nightmares. Hopefully, the puppets don’t know where I live.)

‘This group is for anyone who wants to learn to do ventriloquism. After buying a puppet and learning to do ventriloquism, I decided to form this group.We will go through all the basics. I have a guide that will help us and we will follow the lessons. I will only use the skills from the best ventriloquists in the country. This group is something that I have wanted to get together for a long time. This group is open to the public. ‘

noooooooooooooo……..

“here’s something you never hear:

now that i’ve worked through all my emotional issues,

i’m free to dedicate my life to ventriloquism!”

– dana gould

 

 

 

image credits: google images

 

“if you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been.” – robert h. schuller

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norma and  her therapy dog, ringo on the road.

Norma Bauerschmidt, who decided to take a cross-country RV trip instead of undergoing cancer treatment has died at the age of 91.

More than 400,000 people have followed Norma Jean Bauerschmidt’s journey with her son and daughter-in-law on her “Driving Miss Norma” Facebook page. Her final stop was San Juan Island, Wash. San Juan County Coroner Randall Gaylord said Bauerschmidt died Friday, Sept. 30.

When 90-year-old Michigan native Norma Jean Bauerschmidt learned she had a large, likely cancerous mass on her uterus, she wasn’t going to waste any time with what she saw as debilitating treatment. Instead, she spent her final days experiencing as much of the world as she could.

Bauerschmidt, a native of Presque Isle, died in her motor home on San Juan Island, Wash., on Sept. 30 at the age of 91, but not before she’d traveled more than 13,000 miles in an RV, sleeping in 75 different locations in 32 states.

In that time, “Miss Norma” became in internet sensation, with more than 482,000 people following her travels via a Facebook page set up by her daughter titled “Driving Miss Norma.”

Her story has since gone viral, appearing on CBS News, BBC, Huffington Post and NBC’s “Today Show.”

Bauerschmidt’s decision to refuse treatment was made just two days after her husband, Leo, passed away. While sitting in an OB/GYN office talking about treatment options, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, a doctor asked her how she would like to proceed.

According to Facebook, Bauerschmidt, a tiny woman at 101 pounds and under 5 feet tall, looked the young doctor dead in the eye and with the strongest voice she could muster, said, “I’m 90-years-old. I’m hitting the road.”

And that’s what she did. They did, “what they don’t teach you in medical school,” and hit the road on Aug. 24, 2015.

While on the road, Miss Norma experienced many things for the first time. Big things like riding in a hot air balloon or on a horse, to little things like getting a pedicure or having her first taste of key lime pie, oysters and fried green tomatoes.

She was hosted by the U.S. Navy, the Atlanta Hawks, the Georgia Aquarium and the towns of Winthrop, Mass., Marietta, Ga., and, according to her Facebook page, what felt like the entire state of South Carolina.

Miss Norma also visited the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Walt Disney World and Yellowstone National Park.

She began hospice care after arriving in the San Juan Island town of Friday Harbor in August, according to the Associated Press.

A celebration of Miss Norma’s life and a memorial tree planting is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 7 at 4:30 p.m. at Friday Harbor’s Overlook Park.

“Our families, friends, and the many thousands of former strangers have lifted us up and kept our spirits high,” a message from Miss Norma’s family reads on Facebook. “We continue to be overwhelmed by the kindness and love that has been directed our way.”

credits: mlive.com, brandon champion, pittsburgh post gazette/ap

 

dark shadows.

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Shadow of the Cat (01)

i woke up in the middle of the night

to loud screaming

coming from

glen frey the cat not the rocker

who was downstairs

in my living room 

 shrieking

not like 

a cat

but like a rocker

being attacked by something

 i

carefully

crept

down

the

stairs

tiptoeing

expecting to find him

in a death match

with a

massive rabid opossum

or

grizzly bear

or?

as i got closer

i saw who he was

running from

and

terrified of

and

 his enemy

was his own shadow. 

running and running and running

in a circle 

it was

chasing him

nonstop

 he was terrified

running for his own survival

 i shut off the lights

called his name

 pet him

talked to him

after a while

he calmed down

finally

he laid down

exhausted

 heart pounding

i thought about

the many things 

that he might have

had to endure 

before he was rescued

and

understood 

that it all felt very real to him

as if those things were happening to him all over again

but now

he was home

and

he was safe once more.


“everything that we see is a shadow

cast by that which we do not see.”

– martin luther king, jr.

credits: universal pictures, google images