Well, hello, Wonderfuls…Rambling Prose here…thanks so much for catching up with me!  As always, here’s Context–with more to follow at the very end.  Don’t mind what you don’t get….hopefully, it leaves more room to enjoy what you do. 🙂

Context: A recovering optimist, I’m doing what I can to avoid a–

beating-a-dead-(whine like it’s a hobby)-horse re-laps.  

So, although I can’t afford a sunny vacation, I know laughter is the magic medicine that provides free health care.

And so, I write….

(*Oh, and since I’m beginning as I mean to go on (and on…), I must pause for the clause…for, at the risk of inadvertently hitting a Judge Mental-Low, I need to say that–regardless of race or (another) colour–horse battery is  an utterly repulsive act if ever there was one!*)

(*Also, judgemental-low pun is tied to the King Of Queen’s character who wanted a Mentalo (fictitious old-school kid’s toy) for Christmas…*)

(*Now, back to the (mountain) point of my inner peek…*)

Here’s where my reflections find me…

Pre-Me:

Feeling the effects of stormy winter weather, dancing around the tissue-issue du jour, and preferring to face the strain when I think it’s behind me…

Here–and “Wow!–” Me:

There are no shortcuts where I’m going…which requires tuning in to life’s high notes–verses blaring its one-hit wonders that are not long for the music charts.

For instance, if I avoid growing all the way to the top–once I get there–I won’t be enough of me to enjoy it…a literary Queen who’s biography might as well be titled, “Another One Bites The (Upper) Crust….”

Instead of a soulful celebration–a la, “The Jefferson’s” theme song–I’d find that, after all that trying, the hill I climbed wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans…

And having burned on the grill, those baked bratty-worsts (*beans and wieners pun*) would serve only to torpedo my (pent)house of cards in a char and feathers shame-spiral…

Now, Amazers, time to board another train of thought…(different direction, but same destination in the end…)

Thanks to the (Freddy) Mecurial winds of change, this Dorothy finds herself enrolled in an ivy-league graduate school of hard knocks–a mental health institution where one is required to practice growing/showing up (with or) without fail!

As such, my “Hi”cost of living has turned my (larger than) life chapters into a series of books yet to be written…

but “I’m on my way, I’m on my way…tome, sweet tome.”

Oh, and write on cue, here’s another thought…a metaphor that ties into my theme of moving forward when feeling bogged down in a quagmire…

An extroverted homebody (I love people, but need a good deal of alone/recharge-my- battery time), I’m trying to expand my social circles given my recognition that…

A (Blue) Bird (Of Happiness) in the hand is worth two in the bush…

unless, those shrubs are of the (Kate) Busch Guardian variety…

(*BTW…the above puns are tied to my previous post: it had a “garden variety” theme*.)

For, in those bushes, you can find additional earth angels who remind you that “you have friends…and a place where you belong“.

Ever by your side (if only in spirit)—each offers a unique spoon from which to take the sugar that helps the medicine go down…

Perhaps one will encourage you to “take a vacation from your problems“…

And, another will offer to water your seeds of greatness while you take time to make a pit(y party) stop at an amusement park (your keister and give your dread a shake).

And yet another will loudly cheer you on as you make your “go big or stay prone” expression of interest in finding your way to the Promised (Boogie Wonder) Land (on-your feet)…

(*Okay, I figure you might need a break right about now…a musical interlude if you will.  The “Boogie Wonderland” pun is tied to band Earth, Wind, and Fire’s (1979) hit…which ties it to the aforementioned Mercurial winds of change, and the strong winds that generate cyclones…a launching pad for the Dorothy/Wizard of Oz pun.*)

So, having landed in a Whole New World…

(*although, not entirely sure-footed*)

I’ve decided to make my new stand a Lemon Aid one…pink, I should think…to match the shamelessly-rose-coloured glasses I dare to wear 🙂

And, that, dearhearts, is how you come to find me this grey winter’s day…sitting in a Sunny Daze original….knowing that I’m not designed to be waylaid by nagging cold and dreary thoughts.

So, half-way through wading it out, I’ve decided to shake-it as I make it…

To Zanna-doo-doo-doo-doo-de-da-da-ay…my oh my, what a wonderful way

to revel in mind-shine”, happy to say,

“Oh, Mr. Blue Sky, why on a day as glorious as this would I pull the cloud cover up over my head?  For, such an (un)mellow-dramatic act would only bring me down”.

Today, I’m taking a page from Victorian poet, William Ernest Henley’s (1875) poem, Invictus…

“I am the captain of my soul“…

Commanding myself to use my “Sure will, Sister!” determination to (Sledge) Hammer my way onward and up-word…for, “I’ve got miles to go before I sleep‘…even if that means that I must creep.

Yes siree, safe in the knowledge that, loyal as (Joe) Cocker Spaniels, “I’ve got all my sisters (and brothers) with me”, “I get try with a little help from my friends”. 🙂

No longer stressed by a–somehow, someway I “gotta walk out of here, I can’t take any more“–desperation, “I’m gonna stand on that bridge” (“over troubled waters“)…(so high on life) that I see the skies down below…”

And, spirits boy-oh-buoyed by our connection, Wonderfuls,

“Whatever may come and whatever may go”,

in this moment,  I’m smiling at the imagining of my (Bob) Wiley version of a “vacation”…

I’m on a whole other planet–where it rains mostly silver-lining tears–and, I’m bravely putting myself out there where “every (Juan) can see, nothing really matters, nothing really (shatters new) me.” 🙂

As ever, thank you from the bottom of my heart, friends….God bless you and your loves 🙂

P.S. “Another One Bites the Dust” is a (1980) hit by Queen; “; Wikipedia states, “A tome is a large book, especially one volume of a multi-volume scholarly work” /“Home Sweet Home” is Motley Crue’s (1985) hit; Blue Bird of Happiness is a (1908) play; “Take a vacation from your problems” is a prescription given to character, Bob Wiley, in (1991) comedy “What About Bob?; a hobby horse is an old-school child’s toy horse; mountain point/peek is a reverent nod to Martin Luther King’ Jr.’s (1968) “I Have A Dream” speech; “go-big-or-stay-home (prone) pun; nag is a horse; wading is a, waiting it out, pun ; Xanadu (pronounced, Zannadoo) is a 1980 movie; “De Doo Doo Doo De Da Da Da” is a (1980) hit by the Police; Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah is a (1946) hit, sung by James Baskett,; Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) has a (1978) hit with “Mr. Blue Sky”; A Whole New World”, is a (1992) duet by Brad Krane and Lea Sonloga ; “Don’t Give Up” is a (1986) Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush hit/duet;  Sister Sledge/Sledge Hammer puns are tied to band, Sister Sledge ((1979  ) hit, “We Are Family (I’ve got all my sisters with me)” and, “Sledge Hammer” is Peter Gabriel’s  (1986) hit; “Miles to go before I sleep”  is from Robert Frost’s (1922) poem, “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening”; “(I Get By) With A Little Help From My Friends” is Joe Cocker’s (1968) hit/cover tune;  “gotta walk out of here…whatever may come and whatever may go…you’v got friends…there’s a place where you belong” are lyrics from (1986) Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush duet, “Don’t Give Up”…exception being the reference to (bridge) over troubled water, which is a Simon & Garfunkel (1970) hit…and, see the skies down below is a play on Gabriel’s lyric, “keep my eyes down below”; puns tied to “Bohemian Rhapsody–(197)5 hit by band, Queen…any Juan can see” is a Mexican vacation (from my problems) pun, and I substituted splatters for matters 🙂