Frustration Comes in Bundles!

When feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and frustrated, take a step back and breathe. 

Frustration comes in bundles,

Not so neatly tied

With loose threads here and there,

Leading to angst,

Echoing and reverberating

In vessels depleted by life.

Tearing at minds,

Washing away feelings,

It lives in negative space.

Move Frustration over.

Channel its urges to explode

Into streaming bursts.

Negate the stress.

Open the space.

Breathe in positivity,

So frustration leads

To change in action. 

Written in response to my colleague's blog post: @mssackstein Frustration and a need to humor my inner adolescent...just for a second, http:buff.ly/1g4vvgt

When My Writing Space Needs an Intervention

Cluttered chaos is what I call my office space. Stacks of books (favorites and ones to be read) sit amidst writing tools. Also, piled into my tiny office space are a variety of folders in different colors and many notes that need sorting. I would like to call this my haven but as the piles grow my space lessens. At various times, I get the urge to neaten up the space and do so with vigor. I step back and feel the pride that swells from a sense of balance but as days go on and my thoughts move in different directions, my clutter accumulates again-to the point of hair pulling. That is when I know my writing space needs an intervention. I am at that particular point right now, especially since Bonnie Kaplan created a lovely video, Where do You Slice in March 2015?, in which slicers showed their writing spaces. Perhaps after an intervention, I will be able to post a photo of my space.

Here is an interesting add on to my cleaning dilemma: one year ago today, I wrote the following opener to a post called, "Frustration Comes in Bundles": When feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and frustrated, take a step back and breathe. A poem accompanied the post. I totally forgot about this writing until a Twitter colleague, Jennifer Hayhurst sent me a comment here. Isn't this uncanny that I would have similar feelings exactly one year later?

Today starts a new day of sorting (I'm ready to tackle this), organizing (this task will add on layers of clutter but it is worth it) and continued writing (smooch is the word of the day to build a poem around for Heidi Mordhorst's March Poetry CHallenge at my juicy little universe). 

While musing about today's word, I recollected how much fun the neighborhood children had during our recent snowstorms. They created wonderful snow people. I thought I would be inventive in keeping with my winter theme so my poem deals with a snow couple. 

Snowman Smooch
My snowman looked so forlorn.
He needed a mate to weather the storm. 
I asked the children down the street
to find a partner for him to meet.
They molded and sculpted a beautiful one.
She came alive in the morning sun.
Then, her heart quickly melted away
as Snowman gave her a smooch that day.

Adapted from 123rf.com

To read more slices for Day 11 of the March Slice of Life Story Challenge, please go to Two Writing Teachers.

Internet Bloops Are Annoying

I know that I wrote my March 8th Slice of Life called Grandparent Sitting - Splashing Good Time. I know that some slicers commented and I commented back. I have evidence that I wrote the blog (see below). What I don't know is how that blog vanished into the frustrating world of the internet.  

This is what frustration looks like!

Validation that I did write a slice about the grandgirls.

In 2014, I wrote a blog with a poem about frustration. I added the graphic from 2014 and rewrote a stanza using rhyme. You can see the other poem I wrote back then by clicking here.

Frustration comes in bundles,

Not so neatly tied

Down deep-long tunnels

That I don't want to hide.

©CV, 2023, quick write

Thank you Two Writing Teachers for constructing a meeting place for reflective writers.