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Come to parallel universe time on Mondays at 8:30 am pacific. It's free. A place to get things done while people hold the space for you, and you for them, to do that. Let me know if you'd like to be put on the reminder list. The link - click when ready to attend:
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03/17/2023
03/12/2023
There's No Need to Be Perfect
As some of you know, I have ADHD. I am clumsy, moody, easily overwhelmed, resistant to instruction, and short on frustration tolerance.
I have a few strengths as well.
But I have no interest in doing the work to make ocean waves that are so precise they practically splash out of the painting like my perfectionistic mother did, mainly because I lack the discipline, patience, and coordination. Yet, at the same time, I inherited my mom’s perfectionism which makes drawing with precision a lot like a driving a car with no steering wheel.
I believed with all my drips, drops, and stains that I wasn’t good enough but I was still in love with art, not just because I could bring funny doodles into existence for the amusement of my friends, but because it was also a place to stave off anxiety, neglect, and depression.
The escape into a world of blues and lavenders melding together, the discovery that I could make flower pots fly, and the improvisation and intuition that freed creatures and inventions that would not exist without my imprecise approach became as important as finishing something, teaching me early that process is where I want to hang out: The Wild Abandon process.
If you have ADHD and the H stands for "highly sensitive," stay tuned. I'm putting together mindful creative programs just for us. Mindfulness meditation can actually rob our creativity if we are not aware of the advantages of having a distractible mind. If you want, let me know who you are.
In the meantime, I have a Wild Abandon workshop next Wednesday at 3 pm pacific/ 6 eastern on Zoom. Free for Underground Members, $25 for civilians, and $15 for KMC3 members. More here
Best, Jill Badonsky
Come to parallel universe time on Mondays at 8:30 am pacific. It's free. A place to get things done while people hold the space for you, and you for them, to do that. Let me know if you'd like to be put on the reminder list. The link: Also on March 15... I'll be co-hosting Danny Gregory's Art for All podcast. I could sure use some of my peeps (you) there. It'll also be live on Youtube at 10 am pacific.
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Some Creative Things You Can Do
From Jill Badonsky
- Author/illustrator of three books on creativity
- Corporate Dropout
- Certified Yoga/Mindfulness Instructor teaching in corporate, prison, and retreat environments
- Multi-media artist, performance poet, and playwright
- Award winning inspirational goof-ball and author.
- Dispenser of thousands of weird creativity prompts including on Facebook
- Highly sensitive person surviving in a kind of insensitive world.
- Yours Truly
03/01/2023
It's rainy here in San Diego. I wrote a poem and podcast last year about things talking in the rain. I was in an Airbnb for two months because my bathroom was being renovated. It seemed fitting to share it with you now.It's slightly different words but with sound effects as a podcast,.
"I’ve been taking a masterclass from poet, Joy Harjo.
She says -- one of the elements to writing good poetry is listening. Everything has something to say. The trees, the sky, the potted plants on the front porch.So I started listening.
I was stuck in an Airbnb in Hillcrest for two months and listened.
And what I found is that if you pay attention closely, things are talking, A LOT.
The desk, refrigerator, the sink, the comforter, my robe, the fern were all were chatting.
The coffee pot was percolating in laughter, the heat was humming a mambo,the cabinets were complaining about crumbs.
Where once there was silence, there was a cacophony of conversation…because I was listening.
My attention turned to outside the window where the talk was louder.
This Airbnb was on a busy street and the street was wet from rain.
Every time a car went by it said sssssssshhhhhsss, which I believe was “yes”
Every time a car passed by on the wet concrete I heard the word “yesss.”
When a group of cars went by one after another, it was a flurry of yesess in a tag team procession.
The yeses came and went… nothing ssstayed yesss for long,
The noissse evaporated into sssilence as sssoon as the cars …. passsssssed.
So I asked the quessstionsss I wissshed were anssswered with yesss..
Will people ever live and let live? Will peace ever stay? Will the violence stop soon?
There was a sudden absence of cars. Silence. No “yessses.”
Not too long after, more cars came, but they didn’t say yes, …
They said, “wisssh … wisssh .. wisssh..”
That’s what I heard as I listened to the cars driving on wet pavement…” wisssh “
A truck said, “Get out of my way”… then a bus said, “Same old routine, same old.. route, day after day.”
The rain came down heavier and it started talking, I listened… this is what it said:
Yes, is not the ansswer to your impossssible questionsss, …. that’s just your wisssh. Peaccce can be elusssive, … lisssten closssely… the carsss aren’t saying yesss…and they aren’t saying wisssh : they are saying thisss too shall passsss the rain, the darknessss, the conflict, [yes] this too shall passss, carsss on a rainy street, the thought you’re thinking, the pain you’re feeling, thessse too shall passss, and then whatever comes next, that shall passss too.
Listen to the peace inside of you."
Listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1301089/12353927
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01/14/2023
Where Do I Love?
From A Muse's Daydream, here's what happens when a coaster turns into a metaphor.For my morning writing I picked out a prompt from a favorite book about poetry and it asked me to:
Find a totem, a shell, or a rock and ask it a question and then write about the answer.
I thought that was imaginative and maybe even a little intriguing but I am a little lazy ---sometimes--- so instead of getting up out of bed and finding a totem, a shell or a rock, I picked up a coaster on the end table beside my bed thought and asked,
"Where should I love?"
I meant to ask, "Where should I live?" because I had been thinking moving to a different city with no idea where to go, but I asked, "Where should I love?"
"Love" was a typo, as it has been occasionally in my life. But I stayed with the typo.
"Where should I love?" I asked my coaster again. My coaster began to write in my journal:Love the teacup and the soothing mint tea, on the end table by the bed. The cup is warm and feels good on your back.
Love saving fine furniture from rings that take away from its beauty.
Love being a souvenir from a castle in Scotland.
She must think I’m a coaster, I thought.
And then she wrote, Love being round.
I got a cup of mint tea and put it on top of her by the bed and wrote this:
I love being a round. I think I’ll stay .. around.
I love the way the subconscious volunteers things that don’t seem profound at first and then, when you daydream, their meaning hits you right in the saucer. I love being around.
I hope you love being a round. There’s so much to love:
The way the birds sing songs that tell their mates they’re still here each morning as the sun makes it’s morning debut for the billionith time.
The way paint makes a white page a celebration of azure, turquoise, and violet.
The way the comforter on the bed feels when the day seemed very long.
The way music takes us on a journey beyond the mundane, the way wherever you go… there you are – accessorized with a creative mind that can be transport you to best parts of life both in reality and ... in a daydream.
And sometimes I am a coaster.
Writing Prompt:
Find a totem, a shell, or a rock and ask it a question and then write about the answer.
Art Prompt:
You have been assigned Chic Coaster designer. It is your role to invent a new design for coasters that will thrill and amuse the general public. But you must start with something crappy in order to morph into something brilliant. Whatever you invent... believe in it, see it's uniqueness
Find a totem, a shell, or a rock and ask it a question and then write about the answer.
Art Prompt:
You have been assigned Chic Coaster designer. It is your role to invent a new design for coasters that will thrill and amuse the general public. But you must start with something crappy in order to morph into something brilliant. Whatever you invent... believe in it, see it's uniqueness
New Shoes
“Hello New Shoes… good bye blues” from New Shoes by Paolo Nutini
“Hello New Shoes… good bye blues” from New Shoes by Paolo Nutini
I like to get new shoes at the beginning of the year. They set a condition that makes walking more effortless.
These are Hoka brand and I feel like I'm walking on air...
Other ways I set conditions. Re-reading writing I liked gets me in the mood to do more and lowering the pressure and just playing with art with complete permission to be uncoordinated. Also, using the Self Control App to block social media.
© 2021 Jill Badonsky
01/04/2023
B is for Bird-Blob, Bravery, and Bewilderment.
Dear Diary,
I think I will put a little yellow blob on the page and make it into a bird. It may not be a perfect bird- actually it may end up being a blob (art demo). 8 out of 10 of my paintings are blobs… sometimes I’m a Blob. That's okay.
If I let go of the need for my painting to be anyway other than it is, that's good practice for allowing myself to not be anything other than what I am ... and what I'm not. We get so much more from art than a painting.
"Painting is self-discovery.
Every good artist paints what he is."
- Jackson Pollock
Today I am a Bird.
"When life hands you a blob,
make a bird...
or just leave it a blob if you want."
Whatever...
~Jill Badonsky
Bravery
Creativity takes Bravery.
When my painting or drawing is half done, it takes bravery to continue because there's a chance I'll mess it up. I take photos at various phases along the way so I have a record of the earlier unblundered phases and because sometimes I like the drawing better without the paint. But when I do take the step to continue, the bravery I'm practicing spills over to being brave ... about life. And I need that cause life is sometimes downright terrifying. Sometimes it's rather nice. though.
When I write something, it takes bravery to share it. Not everyone likes my books, my writing, or me for that matter. That's okay, my inner brat keeps me on track by saying...
SO WHAT!
Begin again as necessary.
I'll choose a Georgia O'Keefe state of mind and say:
“I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.”
Bewilderment
Let's take apart the word “bewilderment” and make it “be wild.” When I wildly let loose and am a kid again, I lower expectations and am braver. The intention to be wild is made of bravery, audacity, and sometimes too many cupcakes.
Many people I work with in the realm of creativity are bewildered why they have lost their inspiration or desire to do anything. If you're feeling resistant right now, you're not alone. Many of us are in PTSD from the pandemic. politics, and the globe heating up. PTSD can suspend creativity.
Be kind to yourself, trust that your juju will be back. Lower your expectations and do something small and crappy. Or just trust that it’s okay to take a break, your desire to do your work will be back. And when it is... begin again.
Sometimes it's okay, to not be okay... sometimes it's okay to be bewildered, blob-like, and bashful. This too shall pass. Have a cupcake.
For monthly creative workshops and two creative Badonsky prompts a week, shared in a community of beautiful, non-competitive, anti-overwhelm supportive beings, join the Underground Highway to Creative Results. Low pressure, low cost, lots of love. Especially for intimidated beginners. Our next workshop is January 12.
12/26/2022
Love What You Do in 2023
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My trajectory is not linear. It weaves and bounces, shimmies and jitterbugs, soars and crashes, then dusts itself off and cartwheels through my dandelion garden. The cats are used to it.
crankiness ensues. 
. 12/13/2022
The Rain
“The real world is much smaller
than the imaginary”
~F. Nietzsche
than the imaginary”
~F. Nietzsche
I wrote imaginary stories during the pandemic to make the confinement of the real world a little larger. With the collective exhaustion from the aftermath of Covid, divisive politics, and climate change - the imagination is still a way to find restoration, refreshment ... and to enjoy the music that is the rain.
I'd like to share the healing, wonder, and relaxation of these stories with you.
It's raining right now in San Diego and that's what this first story is about. What if rain played music as it came down? Read the story and hear the music in your imagination or here's the podcast - music is synced to the rain.
The Rain (from A Muse's Daydream podcast)
It’s been a tough day… year, it’s been a tough year. It’s sad and scary and frustrating.
So I’m headed up to my writing loft. It’s upstairs.
And when I get there, I instantly feel more present to this moment where things are safe and comfortable.
There’s a floor to ceiling window looking out into an enchanting little forest of trees, all green and reliable. Inside is the smell of cinnamon clove tea and cedar from the wood, a welcoming red cozy rug, my ballerina mobile is dancing slightly, breeze in the high roof, and my big teddy bear recliner chair, where I write poems and prose and podcasts can almost be heard saying – get over here, sit down, and surrender, so I do. The chair is deep and easy, plush and padded, I sink in and feel taken care of.
Breathing in and breathing out, I go deeper.
I hear rain against the window.I love the sound of the rain, its percussion, its erratic insistence, and then I listen closely and I do hear the music of rain…the rain becomes music. I close my eyes and imagine rain falling down on me like musical notes falling from stars. Everywhere the musical notes rain around me, on me, and near me there is a sense of relaxation, I relax in this shelter of imagination, in this daydream. I breathe again. And then I write this:
We run between lightning and shudder from thunder while in this world. But the rain doesn’t care, the music still plays just as it did when the sun was out, and stars still send light. The world gives us so much beauty in so many forms that all we can hope to do is welcome it into our daydreams and make it medicine for the days, or the years, that don’t feel so good.
We can replenish our clarity so we can see the moments that lead us to creative celebration and believe in the power of daydreams to do just that.
Stay safe, Jill
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The Muse is IN Creativity Prompts
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Writing Prompt:
Write a rain or snow haiku or three line story. Then write another one, going outside your usual first response to something more novel or edit the first one until it makes you smile. Art Prompt:
There may be one person you haven't thought of to send a holiday card to who would love to get one from you. Make a simple one like the bear on the left and surprise them.
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Upcoming Creative Things:
Tuesdays, January 3- 31, 2023 Wild Abandon
Ror Sketchbook Skool's Spark Program: Letting loose with sketching and watercolor painting especially for the intimidated beginner but for all levels wanting to have fun and find an artistic voice. More information
January 23 - May 15, 2023
Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Certification Training
Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Certification Training
A new 17-week training begins January 23, 2023 on Zoom. Something for yourself as well as others. Get trained as a creative catalyst but it's also a sure-fire way to take your own creativity to a new level, especially if you're feeling resistant, overwhelmed, or unsure. 19 years of training.
Check it out here or email me for a chat.
Check it out here or email me for a chat.
Two unsolicited testimonials from the last training:
"You and your program have changed my life in many wonderful ways. I’m very grateful." ~S
"It’s been such an amazing learning experience …I .have drawn so much from the experience. It’s been deep learning and enriching. With a heart full of gratitude. " ~JW
"It’s been such an amazing learning experience …I .have drawn so much from the experience. It’s been deep learning and enriching. With a heart full of gratitude. " ~JW
February 21 - May 9, 2023
The Nine-Modern Day Muses Facilitator Training: Meet 10 powerful creative principles in the guise of modern day Muses - they will take your creativity deeper and teach you how to run groups to do the same for others. Based on the book, The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard). More information and registration here.
October 1-6, 2023 Wild Abandon at Omega Institute in NY
Save the date for Omega Institute of Holistic Sciences in the forest at Rhinebeck, NY. I'll be teaching Wild Abandon Creativity. Watch for it in their catalog.
Save the date for Omega Institute of Holistic Sciences in the forest at Rhinebeck, NY. I'll be teaching Wild Abandon Creativity. Watch for it in their catalog.
10/14/2022
Rewiring Wonder
Wednesday I travel to Crete – a beautiful island off the coast of Greece to lead a creativity retreat. That’s 15 hours of flying from San Diego International.
I have a little Anxiety Thing. I’ve had it since I was nine years old when everything from a thunderstorm to the film, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken sent me hiding in my parents’ bed.
My anxiety comes in several varieties, including but not limited to social anxiety, fear of losing/neglecting details/forgetting/ throwing away important stuff, and… travel.
Preparation for the trip took a more stressful-than-usual turn a month ago when I noticed that my passport has expired. My Port of Entry card doesn’t expire until 2024 which is what I was looking at, thinking it was my passport.
Port of Entry cards don’t work as passports no matter how creatively you think about them.
The "Neglecting Details" anxiety is actually fueled by a series of events where not paying attention brought real calamity. If you have my brand of ADHD, you are familiar with overlooking important details which cause undo complications, hair loss, and laying in bed face down.
Hi, Anxiety
Passports take 5-7 weeks through regular channels. My travel at that point was in THREE weeks away. The get-your-passport faster channels require waiting until 2 WEEKS BEFORE travel to make an appointment and getting an appointment is not guaranteed. Real not imagined anxiety was my companion until I secured that appointment.
After a few hours of panic, I took out all my mindfulness tools to move into a less frazzled moment with a LOT of meditation. I put the anxiety in a separate mental compartment so it wouldn’t further sully my sanity and fed it Oreos. I got my passport. Most of what we fear, doesn't happen, might as well enjoy the ride.
Travel Variety
One of my favorite paradoxes is that I follow and teach creative mindfulness, and yet I forget, neglect, and lose things. But I am also fortunate enough to know how to inhabit and celebrate the majesty of moments and all they have to offer in terms of creativity, beauty, and wonder. We all have flipsides. Those with ADHD often have a remarkable ability to see ideas, imaginings, and amusement in details others may miss.
Rewiring Anxiety to Wonder
As the trip draws closer, the usual free-floating travel anxiety ramps up.
Noting anxiety with equanimity can neutralize it I never experience anxiety 100%, it’s more like 30% of my emotional preoccupation.
I also love travel, the feeling of the plane taking off, being captive to a good book, clouds outside the window, landing in a new place, people watching, food from different countries!. I have a Wonder Thing in addition to my Anxiety Thing. It’s about 50% of my awareness – 20% more than anxiety. That leaves 30% for habits, on-line shopping, and applying facial cream.
Plugging into the Wonder Thing with awareness feels MUCH better than focusing on the Anxiety Thing. It comes from reframing my experience which is one of the most important uses of creative thinking. How can we think differently?
How's your Wonder Wiring?
Let me know,
Jill
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The Muse is IN Creativity Prompts
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 Writing Prompt:
Use the word OCTOBER as an acrostic (different from an acronym).
Use each letter as the beginning of a sentence that weaves together a poem. Here's more about acrostics.
Let it DRY and add the veins with a thin brush.
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In Person: Wild Abandon Creativity Workshop and Lunch
November 12. 2022 10 am - 4 pm San Diego: Rancho Santa Fe
Join me for some liberated, loose, and fun art in a beautiful setting in San Diego. Limited space More information here
And save the date for Omega Institute of Holistic Sciences in the forest at Rhinebeck, NY. I'll be teaching Wild Abandon Creativity again October 1-6, 2023.
More workshops and trainings here
09/07/2022
Found Poetry
Writer, Henry James said "It is by detecting patterns and meanings in our experiences that we become artists."
I've been detecting poetic meaning in unlikely places lately. When I'm feeling stuck creatively in any pursuit, I find poems by blocking out existing texts and leaving what's left as a poem I never would have discovered otherwise.
It stokes the embers of my poetic soul without having to start with a blank page (mind). Found poetry, the literary equivalent of a collage, is often made from newspaper articles, graffiti, speeches, letters, or pages in books.
I've been finding them in on-line science articles and art reviews. I made it a dailyish habit in my current Finding Uber Bliss class so for the last several days, I've fed my poetic self with these crazy little verses that lay hidden until I take the rectangle tool in my Adobe Illustrator and block out everything that isn't a poem. I don't add or change the order of the text, that's what make it a challenge and often those limits save the quality of what comes out. Brevity in poetry can be more powerful than length at least when I write them.
Classically people use a hard copy of a book or document and black out all the words they don't want with a marker.
Here is a quote often attributed to Michelangelo when asked if it was difficult to sculpt David: "It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David." It was later debunked that he said it, but I still like the concept because that's what sculptors do and found poetry is a little like sculpture.
Found poetry is also referred as "black-out" poetry by some, including creativity guru, Austin Kleon. But "found poetry," which is similar, is traced back to the 1920s, when the Dada movement was first emerging, followed quickly by Surrealism. I call it therapy and am addicted.
In case you're curious, there's more of my found poetry on Instagram and the Google images has a plethora.
Thanks for being a subscriber!
Jill
FOUND WORKSHOPS
THE MUSE IN WINTER, TAOS
The Muse in Winter retreat in Taos, New Mexico happens for the 12th year this coming February 4-8, 2023.
Seems a little crazy to think about sitting around a fireplace in winter while we are still in the dog days of summer, but my mind is already traveling to the next nurturing and creative gig at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House. We sit around the fire making art, writing, and sharing. And meal times are spent in awe of Sophia's 3 course gourmet meals as well as laughing and making friendships that last for years.
All during an immersion in creative exercises even the intimidated introvert loves... A private concert with original songs from Kate Mann and Mark Dudrow, yoga classes, and an evening salon make this one of the highlights of my year. I love that people come back four and five times but if you haven't been, you're always welcome.
08/02/2022
Diving in Again
Jumping Too Soon
“So much of what is neurotic or damaged about me is the thing I tap into to be creative or to write or to create comedy, it’s all from the wound in some way. I find myself swimming in it creatively and in my imagination to create stories. “
-Writer, director, comedian, Judd Apatow (from Sam Harris’s Making Sense podcast interview)
There are moments in our childhood that shape our lives. realizations: first time I saw a cat… first time I sat in a movie, first time I went out to eat, the first time I made my parents laugh.
Begin Again
Some mindfulness teachers teach that there is no “self,” but that doesn’t stop my fascination with the neuroses that seems to follow me around. I may not have a self, but I am a person with quirks. They are a cocktails of ADHD… the H standing for Highly Sensitive and not-soendaring personality flaws When I’m in a mindfulness zone, I watch them as a benevolent observer. When I’m not, I feel damaged, awkward, and outcast.
There are moments in our childhood that shape our lives. I clearly remember the first time I sat in a movie 101 dalmations– I was hooked and I became a cinephile, I remember vividly the first time I saw a kitty kat, and I’ve been in love with cats and owned them ever since. And I remember the first time I made my parents laugh.
“Laughter is carbonated holiness.” ~Anne Lamott
Humor
Although there are exceptions, in the 60s and 70s, kids weren’t a high priority so making my parents laugh was pretty much the only way I could get their attention other than putting a thermometer on a lightbulb to feign a high temperature.
Humor can help us skirt reality, channel anger, and process awkward circumstances with laughter instead of suicide. I used humor for skirting, channeling, processing, and to connect with parents preoccupied with tennis, the stock market, and what the neighbors thought.
At three-years-old, there is reel to reel film evidence of me wearing my dad’s boat-sized shoes and a rubber nose with mustache glasses dancing around the living room, my mom laughing demurely. To make my parents laugh was a newly found three-year-old discovery that I found delightful and if you had given me a cigar, I’d have willingly headlined at the local comedy club.
When I was five, we moved to from New Jersey to Miami and my family joined Kings Bay Country Club where kids waited in line at the high diving board for an exhilarating jump into the Olympic sized pool beneath. When it was my turn, I’d climb to the top, dance in clown-like antics, then purposely fall into the chloride sea, making sure I pushed off from the pool floor fast enough to catch my parents laughing. That was the important part.
Does Not Rebound Quickly
One time I jumped too soon. I just missed landing on top of six-year-old Eliot Kleinberg. Mrs. Kleinberg came over and in a New Jersey accent shouted,” You almost killed Eliot!! What is the matter with you, you’re a terrible little girl.”
My parents shook their head at me in disapproval, then put magazines in front of their faces. I did see Eliot, but it was shortly after I jumped off the board so all I could do was wiggle in midair as best I could to avoid him. Gravity doesn’t work that way. Wiggling did nothing to change where I landed, which was close, but not on top of Eliot.
I did not like being yelled at by Mrs. Kleinberg. It ruined the rest of my swim. I wasn’t used to being yelled at because my midwestern parents never did it. They disciplined me with passive aggressive looks of disappointment. I thought the words “terrible little girl” was terribly unnecessary hyperbole – although I did not know what hyperbole was back then. I did not rebound too quickly from the Kleinberg incident. As mentioned earlier, I was highly sensitive, and we hang on to embarrassment as long as is earthly possible because self-torture is an effortless by-product of being highly sensitive.
Impulsiveness
What I didn’t know was that the diving board incident was a precursor to other instances where I jumped into things too soon. Unsuitable jobs, unwise purchases, … hot tubs. A few years ago, it was a destined to fail romantic relationship. As a child, I believed that when you ask a prince, “So how long since your last relationship ended, your majesty?” he would answer honestly. This guy told me he was out of a relationship for two years, so I went ahead and let infatuation blind me because he was the lead singer in a rock and roll band, and you know how that is. Turned out his last girl broke up with him two weeks prior to our first date and he was still seriously, SERIOUSLY, hung up on her.
He was desperate not to be lonely. He had no courage to give it time, go it alone and heal, nor to be honest with me … when she wanted him back. He chose me as the placeholder, the fool, the rebound. As I mentioned earlier in this very same chapter, I do not rebound well. My delusional thinking flared up and I was certain my charms would overcome his pining for her. You know, that old fairy tale. Nope.
Aversion to Being Ignored
Relationship Physics: When someone who was dumped (him) gets into a new relationship (me), the party who dumped him (her) often thinks twice about the breakup because this new love interest (me) seems to have discovered something appealing about the dumped one (him) that the dumper (her) took for granted. “Her” wanted him back, so she stealthily played on his aching affections. Because he realized she was jealous, I got a free trip to New Orleans as his ploy to deepen her envy. I didn’t know this until well into the trip. Once very attentive before his ex-wanted him back, he now treated me like an annoyance and spent an inordinate amount of time responding to her posts on social media. That’s nevert a good sign. The jazz, jambalaya, and beignets almost weren’t worth the heartbreak. Almost. Then he invited both of us to his next CD release party and I, with poor judgment despite a red flag the size of Jupiter waving in my face and covering my neighborhoo. When he sang a song he wrote for her right in front of me I walked up to his face and said, “Bye.”
Snarky
If he was ever in a pool under a high diving board, I would jump right on top of him even if his mom was watching. That’s a snarky thing to say but I was snarky as a child too – and there ya go, snarky then, snarky now. I am a terrible adult.
Writing Inclined
When I was in Junior High School, I would write and illustrate elaborate notes for my friends complete with satire, gossip, and commentary on boys. There were news stories, multiple choice questions, fill in the blank, doodled pictures with captions. I loved writing then and am a writer now.
So, it should come as no surprise that if you use me as a rebound to a relationship you aren’t over, I will write about what a coward you are and it might end up somewhere public. Like here. Beware of relationships with writers.
Creative
When one jumps off life’s diving board, one might get a scolding from Mrs. Kleinberg and a heartbreak from the lead singer in a rock and roll band. Stories. Everywhere, every day, there are stories to write about. … and things to eventually, laugh about.
A highly sensitive person in a family that finds high sensitivity irritating can become alienated and lonely. As humor hurdles over, in between, and under the pain and in these downsides of existence, it cultivates in to a stand-up comedy act, a handy coping mechanism, or amusement that lends perspective.
In the book Delivered from Distraction, Drs. Edward Hallowell and John Ratey mention that ADHDers typically have zany senses of humor. Humor is often a gift of attention challenged. Our busy brains can spontaneously put random, seemingly unassociated items together in funny ways that entertain those around us and relieve us from being banished from the kingdom.
