Be yourself; everyone else is taken. – Oscar Wilde
When I turned fifty a friend asked me what I wanted to do now that I was half a century old. I replied, “I want to be an original.” I felt it was long overdue for me to stop paying attention to what other people expected of me and dis-cover the creature I am meant to be. It has been a fascinating journey. Twenty-eight years later I’m just entering my prime as an original.
In March I went to Costa Rica with a tour group I’ve traveled with previously. The first evening I knew to expect the familiar ritual of telling each other something about ourselves and what we do. Before when I traveled with this group I introduced myself as a retired pastoral counselor. This led to people’s expectation that they could tell me their problems and seek advice. I’m glad to help people but realized they did not see beyond my profession to the whole person that I’m evolving into. As I was flying down to Costa Rica I decided to show my new face Vivachange and to do and say whatever I wanted to. In the “tell something about yourself” circle I said that I had recently started a blog and had made the joyous discovery that I have a gift for writing poetry. In the following days nobody came up to me to talk about poets and poetry! I learned something new about the world I’m entering and am excited to continue my journey here.
poetrybyheart.me
Sometimes everything has to be enscribed across the heavens so you can find the one line already written inside you. Sometimes it takes a great sky to find that small, bright, and indescribable wedge of freedom in your own heart. David Whyte
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You’ve done a great job with yourself! Did you choose your blog name as a goal for yourself?
That’s soooo cool. I’ll start saying I’m a poet (leaving off the pastor). If I say “writer” then they want to know what I write and where I’ve been published and what’s coming next…. mercy. But poet? Oh. That’s nice. They say (often followed by I don’t understand poetry) in which case I (and you) can smile enigmatically…:)
I chose it because of huge life changes I was making at the time. It is a good goal as well since change doesn’t stop. Thanks for your comment.
I like your comment. You get that same response! It is fun to be an incognito poet. 🙂
Nice to meet you. I am 68 and began Act III of my life in July 2014. My husband Tom and I left the familiar world of quiet small city living in West Virgnia. We downsized from 2500 sq ft to an 800 sq ft loft apt. In Pittsburgh PA. I have never been so alive! Be well. Penny
Hi Penny. Good to meet another person reinventing her life. This is an amazing time to be alive. I left a three story town house in Chicago without my husband to move into a small apartment in Cleveland where two of my sons and families live. Enjoy your adventure!
I like your post very much, and I LOVE your reply to your friend.
I do have to say, however, that that particular quote is NOT an Oscar Wilde quote, but one of those Internet quotes that are attributed to Wilde. I have read every word that Oscar Wilde published, and this is not his syntax, nor his style of writing. It’s a more modern, more American almost-Oscar-Wilde-sounding quote.
Thanks for the heads-up on the Oscar Wilde quote. I found it on the website Cheri listed in her email about today’s assignment. Glad you like my post.
You’re welcome, and I loved your post!
It’s a great phrase whoever wrote it! and I love that when you said a poet no one asked you about poetry… lol! And you get to be that mysterious wise woman of the group. In general, when I say I’m a blogger, I get a lot of blank looks, especially from the over 50 club. Nice post!
I get it from a good friend (definitely over 50) who says she doesn’t have time to read blogs. I’m not sure she knows what one is. Thanks for commenting.
Well, if your friend watched “Jeopardy” she would know that one of the big winners this past year, Arthur Chu, described himself as a blogger. And, if you introduced yourself to me as a poet, I would have a lot of questions to ask you, based on a class I recently took where I was informed, much to my surprise, that there are any number of different defined forms of poetry. I kind of knew about haiku and sonnets, but I guess there are different sub-formats even in those specificities. Bottom line, stick to haiku. It’s nice and short, right?
She does not watch Jeopardy but I do. Arthur Chu is from an area close to where I live in Cleveland. Last summer I took WordPress Poetry 201 and wrote poems in more forms than I knew existed, like you. Did you know that there is another WordPress Poetry class starting in two weeks? I do like to write Haiku. It is like a word game to find words to fit the number of syllables allowed that express what I want to say.
Creative way to look at an otherwise difficult art form.
I like your comment. thanks.