Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 08:03:06 -0500 From: Jo Doran Subject: [WRITERS] FILL: Introduction August 6... I think (My computer has the day and the time... no date) Since getting a new computer and server a week ago, I've been performing my daily early morning internet stumbling. Somehow, I found this group. Now, don't get me wrong... having worked with computers and people for the past seven years, it's the internet protocol that sometimes gives me problems. I've sent various messages, only to have them "die" and yet re-sent them... "I don't see any difference... do you?" "Noooo... not really." Anyway, I thought I would say a bit about myself, as I look forward to being a regular. I am a writer... if, by definition, that means my soul cannot exist without a continuous expression in the form of the written word. Just in the past two years, I have dealt with myself and life to the point that I have the freedom to justify my feelings and ideas. This gift has led to an outpouring of varied sane and insane feelings within me, which gave me sanity for the first time ever. I have a soulmate for a husband, five children (ages 12 - 23, the oldest three are living on their own; at least for the most part!) and instead of working, I am going back to college (English major), taking an art class, and making wonderful friends with some old characters in a nursing home. My interests in this life ( I'm going to be a guitar player in my next life... just kidding) are people, music - my mind has these different switches that various music flips on - and I'm 'gone', piano playing, nature, and as I live and breathe, writing. Poems have been my natural outlet, but I have thoughts and ideas in my head that I would someday like to put into a book. I have spent my life taking care of many different people. I put all my energy and time and myself into it. No matter how hard we try, we all know where that leads to. I am divorced, remarried, and I now find myself in a situation where I have this freedom to be me... to do what I want, have the safety to think what I want, and am overwhelmingly supported to be myself. I am not a quick and/or bright thinker like many of you, but do know that bouncing around inside my head are worthwhile thoughts and feelings. I am interested in being a part of this group. I have not published any of my poems, but have shared them with a few close souls. I had planned to jump in yesterday with all of this, but a long and tiring trip to Cedar Point built the groundwork for constant squabbles and crankiness which totally distracted me. But, I straightened my self up. Anyway... here goes! Jo _____ Tapestry How little we know when it all first begins, the weaving of threads, first out, then in. The crossing, the mixing, how each intertwines; combination of thread weight, some heavy, some fine. A pattern is seen in some people's lives, (in others an abstract, moved by a drive to live independently - free thinking souls) where routine, tradition, mundane take their toll. A thread woven through, many lives it has touched. Its influence seen though its colors are hushed. Itself changes each time it's woven around another life soul; so still yet profound. If we could see our life, as tapestry, and stand back objective yet heartfelt and see.. how great is our influence, by plan or by chance, could our souls fill with meaning... our hearts dance the dance? Copyright C.Jo Doran 1998 ____ A dirty knife laying in the sink, used last night for stir fry... slicing diagonally through bright orange carrots, separating flowers of broccoli, cutting stripes of green pepper for color, sectioning circles of onions to turn brown in the sauce. Washing my hands the next morning, unable to avoid the knife laying in the sink, it cuts through my simple plans for the day and lays bare my soul. Copyright C.Jo Doran 1998