My 2025 One Little Word

A new pathway opens for my 2025 Spiritual Journey. It is guided by a new one little word. My former collection of OLWs will not be forgotten or discarded. They are the foundation that I have walked on since 2014. While reflecting on my stepping stones below, I open my heart to the possibilities for 20225 with a new guiding word.

My collection of one words strengthens my spiritual journey each year. In December, I eagerly awaited a new word, a connector that creates newness. Little did I know that my word had been waiting for me since 2014. In that blog post, I wrote the following about my one word openness. "A connector on my journey, the enticer to find possibilities in life by shifting, reflecting, redirecting, redesigning, and renewing my course of action."

I intentionally paused life since May 2024 due to a medical issue. I am ready for RENEW to restore what has faded and create newness in my life. I hope 2025 will provide a fresh start and a positive change to restore, revitalize, and make life feel fresh again. Psalm 51:10 holds the essence of my one word. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit  within me."  After last year's interruption, I confidently return to my spiritual path.

Logo created by Margaret Simon

Please join me at Margaret Simon's Spiritual Journey 2025 post to read what others in the community have chosen for their new word.

I am celebrating the start of Poetry Friday 2025 with our host and keeper-of-the- calendar, Mary Lee Hahn. She is full of wisdom today, a positive way to start poetic writing in 2025. Happy New Year to all! 

Welcome to "Destination: Summer's End" Gallery

Enjoy a stroll through the museum-like gallery of artistic expressions comprised of image poems (ekphrastic poetry) in different formats of digital designs.

The theme chosen for the Summer 2023 gallery is Summer's End. 

Travel throughout the United States from east to west and on to Australia to see the endless beauty of the summer season as it closes and falls into autumn. 

A range of poetic voices from adults to children splash across the page at the Destination: Summer's End Padlet here.

From there be dazzled by the gallery 2:48 minute slideshow designed in Canva. Click here.

A stream of the Destination: Summer's End playlist music will be a backdrop for the gallery walk. Listen here.

As you enjoy the gallery walk, reflect on your summer adventures that brought carefree days of relaxation and renewal. While we shall miss the the days of lounging at the beach, hiking in the woods, or traveling with the family, we can hold on to our sweet memories of summer "as summer gathers up her robes of glory, and, like a dream glides away."-Sarah Helen Whitman

Thank you for joining the gallery experience that connects two seasons as summer's sun greets autumn's cooler breezes and autumn leaves.

As William Shakespeare said centuries ago:

Summer's lease hath all too short a date.

🌻🌄🌅🌇🌻

Thank you to the poetic voices who added their beautiful words to this gallery.

Linda Baie

Robyn Hood Black

Matt Forrest Esenwine

Karen Elise Finch

Patricia Franz

Bob Hamera (arjeha)

Jane Heitman Healy

Molly Hogan

Michelle Kogan

Sally Murphy

Anastasia Suen

Janice Scully 

Carol Varsalona

Student Voice from Margaret Simon's gifted classes in Louisiana

John-Rober, Adelyn, and James

🌻🌄🌅🌇🌻

Adieu Summer!

into the wind

summer goes

without a worry

without a woe

Then, curtsies

to fall and all

Adieu!

©CVarsalona, 2023, quick write draft

photo of the LA sunset by Devin Hartnett

And so, Summer may be over but it is not forgotten.

There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart.

-Celia Thaxter

🌻🌄🌅🌇🌻

For another poetic experience, travel with me to the Poetry Friday Roundup. Our host, Catherine Flynn, is ahring her thoughts on Irene Latham's new book filled with poetry, The Museum on the Moon: Curious Objects on the Lunar Surface and an original poem(You can read my book review of this amazing book here.)

Thank you to the many poets, writers, artists, friends, and family who contributed to the various summer galleries I created. See the list below and click on titles if interested in the Who's Who of the Galleries of Artistic Expressions.

2014

Unveiling of Summer Serenity Gallery

2015

Unveiling of Summer Splashings Gallery 

2016

Unveiling Summerscapes Gallery

2017

Sunkissed Summer Gallery Unveiled

2018

Unveiling of the Art of Summering

The Art of Summering Mini-Gallery: Goodbye to Summer

2019

Moving Beyond Summer

Summer's Enduring Beauty

Summer's Enduring Beauty: Part 2

2020

Introduction to Embraceable Summer Gallery

Unveiling Embraceable Summer Gallery 2019

Sending Summer Goodbys from Embraceable Summer Gallery 2019

End-of-Embraceable-Summer Slice

2021

Introduction to Nurturing Our Summer Souls Gallery

Nurturing Our Summer Souls Gallery, Poetry Friday Edition

Nurturing Our Summer Souls Gallery, Section Three

Last Edition of Nurturing Our Summer Souls Gallery 

2022

Farewell Summer 2022

Savoring Summer

Summer is slipping by but one of the highlights this July was designing and hosting The First Ever Kids Summer Fun Fest in our community's grandchildren. After the event, I wrote a blog titled Summer's Magic Comes Alive! and posted it on our community Facebook page and other social media sites. The Lumen5 team noticed it on their site and created a video with the same title and emailed me. The video intuitively captured parts of my writing but let me choose photos and music to accompany the words. As you might expect, Lumen 5 is an AI-powered tool that creates videos to accompany written content." Below you will find what was sent to me before the video.

Introduction: Experience the joy and excitement of a kids' summer fun fest. Watch as children enjoy hula hoops, face painting, water tattoos, and more. See the smiles and laughter as they splash in the pool and receive prizes.

Conclusion: Let the magic of summer fill your day! 

You can see the final 30-second video by clicking here.

I have used Lumen5 for several years and find the experience interesting. It does not replace the writer's creativity apparent during the writing process but quickly generates photos to accompany the text. What it does is create an initial video from the writer's post, and allow enhancements with free photos for a fun experience with video making. The process reminds me of the swimmers I saw in the pool at the Kids Summer Fun Fest. Some splashed around, others floated in a sea of kids but then there were those determined to master the stroke, dunk the ball, or dive into a clear spot. Below is another digital tech-driven image poem created with Canva using free photos found at the Unsplash and Canva sites.

Taking the advice of William Shakespeare, "Summer's lease hath all too short a date", I plan on savoring summer right up to Labor Day.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is a teacher, author, and poet Margaret Simon's website, Reflections on the Teche. Margaret created a yummy post today about delicious homemade strawberry jam from a fellow teacher writer, Molly Hogan. There are photos and an ode to the jam. Now that is a wonderful way to savor summer.

Introduction to Nurturing Our Summer Souls Gallery

"Rejoice as summer should...chase away sorrows by living." - Melissa Marr

The Summer of 2021 came with a dream of a joyous outdoor life not hampered by masks and pandemic woes. It was to be our season of letting go, finding contentment and self-fulfillment, pondering life, and promoting self-care. While it opened as a means to breathe in the joy of new life, it was tinged by constant reminders that the journey was still an upward climb. 

With this in mind, I turned to nature for a new season and a new beginning. While it is true that the pandemic heavily influenced the way we lived and reduced our accessibility to enjoyment as we knew it, it did not erase the quest to wander, wonder, and discover elements of nature that provide joy. 

Join me as I unveil the first section, an introduction to the Nurturing Our Summer Souls Gallery of Artistic Expression. Enjoy the virtual presentation that blends poetry, art, technology to bring a virtual experience to reflect upon life. From various corners of the world and across the states, creative individuals come together to create a space for relaxation and renewal. Sit back and 

Credits

 Nurturing Our Summer Souls promotional poster

Designer and Curator of the Gallery

Carol Varsalona

Nature photograph offered by

Jan Annino, Fran Haley, Donna Smith and myself

This gallery was created with Canva. 

You can view the digital presentation on Canva by clicking the button Present here.

May your summer memories fill your soul with hope that the following seasons will bring a sense of peace and renewal.

Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers for continually offering space for writers and to the Slicers who contributed to the introduction to Nurturing Our Summer Souls Gallery. 

March Musings 9: Pancakes for Dinner

I am in the habit of coming up with spur of the moment plans so when I invited my husband out for a quick dinner, a quizzical look appeared on his face.

"Let's go to IHOP. It is National Pancake Day."

"I just ate lunch."

"Why not go for dinner?"

"Pancakes for dinner?"

And that is how a new tradition was formed. At five o'clock, off we went to IHOP to celebrate National Pancake Day*, thanks to Twitter for sharing the advertisement. 

"I can't remember the last time I had pancakes smothered in boysenberry syrup."

"I remember Grandma used to make me pancakes when I was little with a Mickey Mouse cutter."

"I can't finish my pancakes."

"Delicious!"
"Aren't you glad I knew it was National Pancake Day?"
"I guess we weren't the only ones who got the message!"

Pancakes for dinner was such a treat for my family 
and it appeared to be for many others too.

The digital #imagepoem was created by app smashing  PicMonkey and Canva.

*IHOP graciously offered free pancakes to all those who graced their restaurant on March 7th, National Pancake Day. Thanks, @IHOP.

This post is the 9th in the series titled March Musings for Two Writing Teachers' March Slice of Life Story Challenge. 

March Musings 8: Be Bold For Change

Today is a day to officially celebrate women around the world for it is International Women's Day 2017. I honor the campaign theme, #BeBoldForChange. It is a strong call for action.

Backstory:
I come from a family of strong women who gave up much to raise their families with pride. My grandmother came to America, with her infant daughter (my mother), from Italy during the 1920 immigration wave. She took a bold step to leave her home to journey to a new land where her husband was waiting for her. Never learning to read and write in English, she provided her family with a strong sense of identity, love of learning, and an ethical lifestyle. My mother continued the tradition, passing on her love of life and learning to my children, whom she helped raise. During her high school years, my daughter was accepted into the Girls' Leadership Program at the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill, NY and has continued her leadership journey in the business world. Women in my family have had and continue to have commitment, perseverance, and pride.

#BeBoldForChange Commitment:
At the International Women's Day site, there are commitment slogans to choose. My choice: 

I'll celebrate women's achievement 

and champion women's education. 

Poetic Thought:
The following is the first stanza of a poem I wrote for a challenge created by Donna Smith. You can read more about this here. 

Created with Canva

How will you #BeBoldForChange? 

This post is the 8th in the series titled March Musings for the March Slice of Life Story Challenge created by Two Writing Teachers.

Merging Two Art Forms: Photography and Poetry

Photographs have always had a place of importance in my life. There were the black and white photos of my childhood. Birthday parties and summer events were remembered and kept in small family albums. During my teens, all the girls had a scrapbook with memories. As I married and had children, each child had a beginning of life photo book. Soon after their births, I returned to teaching and the photos were stored in boxes with the idea that later on in life, I would sort them and place them back in albums. Now, the Digital Age is here and photo collections are able to be stored online. Behind each photographs is an underlying story, the backchannel tale of a life event that we want to savor and applaud.

The old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words, has a new face in this digital age. Photos can be easily transmitted now through the instant capture of a single scene with a camera, iPhone, or SmartPhone. Instagram has a one stop, easy access for public viewing of special shots. Digital tools are being advertised via the internet and sites like Pinterest and Facebook store photos with quick uploads. 

While photography tells stories through images, the fusion of poetry with photos creates another layer of storytelling. Vibrant images embedded with poetic expressions or poems are engaging readers on Twitter. Educational chats are posting flyers composed of superimposed wording on photographs or images. Free photos sites like Pixabay and Morguefile are stocking their collections with additional images to supply the demand for topic-centered photographs. 

You can take the process of capturing lasting memories through photos, one step further by adding another layer of creativity. The merging of two arts forms, photography and the written word, allows for the seamless blending of literacy and technology through simple photo-editing tools, like PicMonkey, Canva, and Microsoft Word. The connection becomes a collaboration of the heart and the mind to make public what the voice inside has to say. Multi-sensory feelings are evoked in this process of blending art forms that are transferred from writer to readers and viewers. 

Let's look at the process of how I create one image for public viewing. In this case, I use a screenshot of an antique postcard dated 1910 and turn the artifact into a jpeg for further use.

I decide to create a visual that will enhance the card and have it as a focal point. I use both Canva and PicMonkey to create the following image that I save as a jpeg.

Next, I go to PicMonkey to upload my new image and superimpose the poem that I created from listening to a sound prompt for day 21 of Laura Shovan's Sound Poem Project.

The end result is an attractive visual that enhances my postcard and showcases the poem I wrote.

The combining of photos and poetry creates a striking visual for viewers. I have designed gallery collections using the technique described. Please view the latest one, Finding Fall Gallery here. To the left is one sample from the collection that was a collaborative effort between the photographer, my daughter, and the writer, me.

Photography and writing have always been a part of my life but now this connection is enhanced through digital tools. Join me as I continue to make these connections vibrant messages of positivity in the next gallery of artistic expressions, Winter Whisperings.

The digital age is providing me with many new outlets to merge two favorite art forms of mine: photography and poetry. 

Now travel over to Margaret Simon's DigitLit Sunday site to view her contribution, Shades of Grey.