The Edge. Still Got the blues for you…a TToT

Gary’s dead. Unusual circumstances notwithstanding, those of my generation will all succomb at some point. Death stands, red brocade rope on either side, hand extended waiting to take our ticket, tear it in half. But the popcorn is free, as is everything at the massive concession stand beyond those red ropes.

Good morning! Hm. I wrote the intro paragraph yesterday morning. What a difference a day makes. Or does it? Do we trick ourselves into thinking “today will be different”? How do we/can we measure, gauge, what I like to call, self-evolution?

Clark, the creator of the Wakefield Doctrine, the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers, and the blog of the same name, hosts the Wakefield Doctrine Saturday Night Drive Call in show. (necessary info is on the Doctrine’s home page.) Cynthia Sageleaf is a frequent caller and last night was no exception. It was an enjoyable call and, as is often the case when Cynthia calls in, the conversation extends well beyond the 8:45 pm “end” time. Last evening, while catching up on the most recent developments and acomplishments in Ms. Sageleaf’s life, we got onto the topic of “change” and “self development”. How does it manifest? When, can we, as the subject take note to it’s effects in our lives, other lives?

You may be scratching your head and thinking, “damn! what stimulating  conversation…not!” lol…and yet, it is! We always have a delightful, engaging, often humorous exchange of life’s observations. Since Clark, Cynthia and myself are clarks, the conversation naturally is centric to how we continue to learn the language and behavoir of the scotts and rogers in our world. As clarks, it is all about understanding. With understanding comes recognition. With recognition comes action. See how that works for a clark?

If you are a clark, no doubt this will resonate with you. If not, remember the basic principle: scotts act, clarks think and rogers feel. What is the Wakefield Doctrine? It is a perspective, it is a tool. It is, for me, indispensible.

Hey Josie! You still there? Order comin’ right up….10 Things of Thankful:

1. the Wakefield Doctrine. For the obvious, but also as the vehicle by which I made Cyndi’s aquaintance when she called in that Saturday night so long ago:)
2. The results show the osteoporosis in my spine can now be considered ostopenia. Break out the streamers and balloons. Good news:D
3. Music. Always a thankful. And not just music but the obvious! the artists who create the magic that provides escape, energy, motiviation, calm, sadness…the emotional engineers in my life.
4. I am thankful for the encouragement I receive to not give up on writing. To not give up on re-learning to play my bass.

5.  So the picture over there from the eclipse is supposed to be on this side of 5. What the hell. Someday, oneday, if I have some more of them, I will work on the whole inserting pictures into a post. The thankful? I’m not embarrassed by my seeming inability to manipulate basic blog features/functions!

6. Second Chance Thrift store run by my local Humane Society.

7.  Rockin’ Rasberry Cheesecake Ice Cream.

8.  So this is going to sound weird but, I’m grateful that I still notice shit. Let’s face it, sometimes, we all kind of rush through the day without taking the time to remind ourselves to slow down, all the while not having a clue of all the cool stuff we missed out on. Observations of people, places, synchronistic events, weather, the hue of a sky, the timbre of light at a precise moment. We lose the sense of being in the moment.

9.  Dammit! Look at the form this post has taken. See! I should have put the picture at the very end. Then I would have a nice centered list with a fanning out at the end. OMG. What an old person I am. Or, is it the lack of patience. Or thinking that I should be doing something else more important. Higher on the scale of “stuff I want to accomplish”, the worrying about a future that doesn’t exist and won’t if I don’t take the damn time to turn off my brain and be in the moment right now. Enjoy it, take care of it and not look so far ahead. Afterall, there may not be a tomorrow. So, be happy with today. Funny, that also was a topic that came up in the call last night. The idea of time. How to better use it, what causes us to lose track of it in the first place and the helpful methods for staying “on track”

10.  Today. Not tomorrow. Today. I will not tire of reminding myself and you, that today is our gift. Let’s not squander it. That doesn’t mean it has to be filled with activity and “doing stuff”. It simply means we should engage and participate in “the moments that make up a dull day”.

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Even at the Edge, there’s a TToT

Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge. I am your hostess, Girlie. As is my prediliction as a clark, I find myself in “transition”. Self induced. My body’s own reaction to…life. In it’s present form. We, the perenial journeymen (and women!) struggle always to find our way, our place in the world around us. LOL. Now if that doesn’t resonate, you know you’re not a clark 🙂

New readers, I speak of the Wakefield Doctrine, aka the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers. clarks, do yourself a favor and click on the Doctrine link. No thanks necessary. scotts, rogers? Please do the same. I will not be offended if you come back here and ask me, what for (rogers). I would be doing newcomers a disservice if I did not mention that there are scotts and rogers with a strong secondary clarklike aspect who will also find the Wakefield Doctrine….curious and helpful. Enjoy. All of  you.

I offer today, a 10 Things of Thankful post. In the tradition begun by it’s orginator Lizzi O’Ryan, née Lewis, and now presented under the administration of one Josie Two Shoes, I offer these 10 thankfuls.

1.  Thunderstorms. And the new sense of comfort I feel listening to them.

2.  the Wakefield Doctrine. (goes without saying, but doesn’t hurt to acknowledge)

3. Libraries.

4. Serendipity. While at the local library, I picked up a summer events calendar. Perusing the free upcoming concerts, I noticed this name, Eilen Jewell. I never heard of her until now. I will be going to the show on August 24th 😀

5. Discovering new music.

6. For sunshine after the rain. Here, I can’t help myself lol

7. New post at the Rag, the Secessionist Rag. Yep, the progenitor roger has re-emerged.

8. other clarks.

9. Speaking of! A clark with a wellspring of incredible writing projects, Claire Perez Ekman, has just published A New Season Revisited. Now available in paperback. Congratulations Claire!

10. Today. My only day. A day I began with a very particular schedule in mind and which has been altered tres drastically. The special thanks is my ability to accept and adapt and embrace nonetheless. Embrace people. Embrace.

Fairytales and Thankfuls. Let’s Talk TToT.

Here I sit in my tiny room, chores unattended. I try and coax a little sunshine into the space created by these four buttercupped walls, beyond the cinammon sheers and upturned blinds… but there is none to be found. Gray hovers hopefully, somewhere there is light and eventually it will find its way…

…it is early evening. I have returned. Still no light shines through any pane, chilled by cooling air, the world out there remains the same. Sunlight is not necessary to illuminate the thankfuls, the gratefuls, the how lucky I ams. No sir. I can write this in the darkest gloom or the brightest of sunlight.

Let’s give pause to thank Josie, who has taken the baton, taken the mantle and made it her own. Here’s to you Josie for providing a link to possibility and participation.

Hey! Look at me! I woke up again today, Sunday. In good health (as far as I know) and that, my friends, is ALWAYS a thankful. To boot? Unlike yesterday, the sun is shining this morning. Here, why don’t we proceed, we’ll even employ the more conventional numbering system…..

4  Technology! Phones! The YouTube! for sending me a suggestion this morning. It’s a 3 hour (yes, 3 hours) long recording of Johnny and Edgar Winter at the Bottom Line in NY in 1978. The recording is of excellent quality. *sigh* Johnny. My first guitar crush.

5  The possibility of anything. Why, yes, getting oneself into this particular mindset is not easy to put it simply. At times, it seems impossible! So, when faced with the stubborn refusal of my brain to allow my body to participate in this consideration, what to do? Trickery! That’s right! By whatever means necessary, trick yourself! It worked on Carlos, it can work on me, right? lol The catch of course, is I have to perpetrate the trickery on my own damn self 😀

6 the Wakefield Doctrine. #5 was a good segue, non?

7 FB friends. Yes, they are friends to me even when/if I don’t comment or if all I do is click the “Like” button. They are all still part of my “world”.  If I’ve all but disappeared to them, they remain friends because they share of themselves. When individuals share, possibility has opportunity to become reality. Somewhere, in some fashion. “Cause and effect” come in all kinds of packages. And it goes without saying that it is the positive of which I speak!

8 A dog barking somewhere outside of my abode. A short time ago, earlier in the morning (which makes it all the more special) I heard the deep timbre of a dog’s bark. Deep signifying large canine. This is important as unfortunately had it been the barking of a smaller dog, I would not have had the same positive reaction. No disrespect to the smaller canines out there and their owners 😀  I am thankful for the duration of that barking while the light of the sun shone through my cinammon sheers, because I felt….the imminent, almost palpable, on the cusp, seasonal change. Just a few moments 🙂

9 SR 1.3 (go ask Clark)

10 Music, moments in time captured for perpetuity, the awareness that today is the only day. Sing whenever you can…

It’s all about Tense, Right? Writing, Not Writing and the TToT

Hey! Welcome to GirlieOnTheEdge’s Blog! It’s a beautiful Friday. In fact, it is a perfect beach day! 90+ temperature, screaming ass sunshine and little to less than zero, breeze. A standstill, summer afternoon. All fine and dandy if you live near a beach.

Girlie no longer lives near the beach. She finds herself once again a resident within the nation’s capital beltway, more specifically Northern Virginia. Presently, she sits upon her bed eagerly awaiting the possibility of the day. The 18″, light gray stand fan oscillates air that otherwise would be a tad on the stifling side. She sits, ancient lapbaby resting confortably on her upper thighs. Her jean clad legs stretch straight out at an almost 90 degree angle, left foot crossed over the right foot, red polish still bright upon toes deprived of beach sand. Sitting cattycorner against 2 pale, buttercup yellow walls, she waits for the thankfuls. Let’s wait with her, shall we?

1 …do we have a number 1? We do and a couple more. Not in any particular order, priority and/or preference, our 1st thankful is for this day (well, yeah, this one’s a priority lol). For the waking up to another opportunity and the fact that it is a stellar weather day, and that, my friends, is the cream cheese frosting on top of the carrot cake.

2 the move. Office move that is. All is packed and the transition is in motion. And so the timelines be shifting. They don’t have to of course, but Girlie, she’s about recognizing the opportunities that always surround us but for our own myopia or plain old stinking resistance to change. Or…fear.

3 vacations! Huge thankfuls for time away from normal environs. Don’t we become dulled by routine after awhile? Of course! And so, somebody invented the “Vacation“.

4 how do 3 clarks react when contemplating taking a selfie of all 3 of them together? There is another like picture in which the 3 clarks are pointing their cameras at the mirror to take said “selfie”. lol (see below)
Great thinking Clark! 😀

5 the Wakefield Doctrine. Go back to #4 🙂

6 meeting Cyndi, Cynthia, Sageleaf and all incarnations of this amazing clarklike female.

7 sucessful selfies

8 (going to “steal” from Clark. That’s right. Going to post this today, Friday, and leave at least 2 spots for the weekend thankfuls. There’s going to be some.

9   Wendy’s TToT post this week. As hostess of this, the bloghop that Lizzi built, Wendy’s posts are example of why the TToT is so successful. It is not only about each of us recognizing and acknowledging those things, people, places, etc that we give thanks for each week, it is about seeing reflections in another’s thankfuls and realizing how much we have in common.

10 My #10? Why, it’s for today. I’m thankful I got done a whole lot of “stuff” I needed to do before noon. Went to the gym. Enjoyed a little “lounge” time then headed into the new office to set up my desk. Hopefully, when I arrive in the morning our IT guy will have connected my computer and scanner and I’ll be ready to work. New beginnings…

Hey! It’s Another Draft… I mean TToT!

Hey! GirlieOnTheEdge here. Welcome. I completed a 6 Sentence Story last night. Finally. Except at the end, I realized I had not employed the cue word. Damn! But guess what, it’s not a bad thing (well, yeah, in a way it is) but rather a thankful contained within this post. That’s right. My 1st of the 10 is that I finished a 6 SS. Doesn’t matter to me (well, yeah, kinda does) that I didn’t publish it. I wrote one start to finish. Not exactly compliant but I wrote words that coalesced, made sense and did not exceed the stipulated sentence count. Go Girlie!

This is late to the tablet, but I am more than thankful, grateful, relieved, astonished that the racing across the residential street to get to a dog on the other side grey and white pitbull was not killed by yours truly. Holy shit damn! my reflexes are still good because it was all instinct, no thought, that found my foot slammed to the break pedal as the dog appeared smack dab in the middle of my bumper to miraculously exit on the right. I thought surely I can’t not hit and kill this dog yet, as I started to slowly engage drive, I caught the dog in my right peripheral vision still running to finally reach the dog of his attraction. I then looked in my rear view mirror to see the dog’s owner also racing across the street to get his dog (hope he looked both ways before running). So you know what? TF #2 and #3.

It goes without saying that each day I awaken is a thankful. The TF for yet another opportunity (and I hope there are many more to come) to try and get it right. No pressure there, eh? lol And so, it will be on my list every time I manage to eek out one of these posts.

Has anyone decided yet you can’t claim TF’s from the future? Clark? Anyone? Hm. I suppose it’s risky but I’ll take a chance. It’s my post after all, right?! TF #5 & #6? I’m going on another roadtrip north. To my homeland for 4th of July week. Always a TF to see my family and friends once again. If all goes well, I will also be meeting a friend and her husband irl (hint!) as they too will be journeying on the road. And the twain shall meet 🙂

Here’s a thankful for ya (but you have to sit through the backstory). I suddenly “realized” why it was that I was always walking “on the wrong side of the hallway”. That’s correct. Folks at work have been admonishing me (for the last year!) when they nearly collide with me rounding corners, for walking on the wrong side of the hallway. Who ever heard of such a thing! Apparently there is. There is a protocol to follow, protocol I apparently was not aware of. This is a first. I had never known there was a right or wrong side of the hallway to walk on until my rogerian coworkers pointed it out to me. The aforementioned TF? There’s actually 2  3. TF#7 I’ve managed to walk on the “right side” in the hallways 🙂 TF#8 is that I finally figured out why I did this, why I walked on the left side of the hallway instead of the right side…because, duh! I was French in a past life! TF#9? Why, that such a thought would cross my mind, even for a nanosecond, as a viable explanation for why I walked on the wrong side of the hallway 🙂 🙂

Hey kids. Here’s a different TF and my #10. Diane Keaton. Yeah, the patron saint of clarklike females. She recieved an AFI lifetime achievement award the other night. That makes me….proud. She stands as beacon to all clarklike females (and you too guys) that we can be successful. We can achieve. We can be….happy.

Thankful. Each. Successive Day. TToT Time.

24 hrs. I did not open the laptop since yesterday morning early. Wasn’t in me. I was am, in escape mode. (hey Lizzi! you know what I’m talkin’ about). And so, you might say I’ve got some hypo gratitudes amidst the self-indulgence (or is it more a restorative process?). Do they need to be named or identified? Naah. To do so gives them more life than they deserve. Let them starve. We’re all gathered here today (and the rest of the weekend) to enjoy the offerings of those writers who participte in the weekly hop known across time as The Ten Things of Thankful. Originally created and hosted by our friend, in the truest sense of the word, Lizzi Lewis,  its stewardship has more recently been under that of the famous wordsmithstress Josie Two Shoes. Thank you Josie for transitioning this hop.

You know, I don’t go on the FB much anymore. Every day or 2 or 3 I’ll open ‘er up. I was thinking of Michelle Liew last week. Was it fortuitous that this morning was one of those days I went on the FB? Oh yeah. Because today is Michelle’s birthday, even though her day is practically over at this writing (she lives in the future you know lol). Which is the roundabout way I came upon the reprint below. It came up in my FB feed in one of those ‘hey, look what you used to do” taunts. (no, really. not in one of those moods)

Today is about the thankfuls. The reprint? It represent all kinds of TFs. The least of which is an example of writing as if I didn’t have a care in the world, which in 2012, I surely did. And yet, it shows me that it is within my power to excel in spite of circumstance. It reminds me that all is relative. It reminds me that I am more than I could have thought I was.

Life. Music. Creativity. Choice. Good health. Friendship. Love. Family. Safety. Technology. Enjoy the vintage Girlie. I included the comments because, well, they still make me smile.

Edge remnants and such…

ON MAY 20, 2012 BY GIRLIEONTHEEDGEIN GIRLIEONTHEEDGE, PERSONAL, THE WAKEFIELD DOCTRINE

I have a coupla posts about the Cat.  So what?  Of mice and men, cats and magic….there but for the grace of the Cat go I.  Timelines?  Did someone mention timelines? What?  That was “timeframe”?  I see.

I’m thinkin’ I have one more post about the Cat here.  I mean, who doesn’t have a “Trilogy”?  Back to the Future, The Matrix…The Godfather.  Besides, you know what they say about trilogies.  OK, the number 3 at least…. “it happens in 3’s, they go in 3’s, 3rd times a charm”, etc.

All of us can easily conjure up on the giant screen inside our brains, famous movie  trilogies. Or recollect fondly? from our formative years the various religious references involving trilogies -Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Taoist Trilogy, the theory of clarks, scotts, rogers.…  Aren’t there 3 major food groups?  And what about the I, IV, V?  Huh? Huh?!  Triads, whether they be religious, criminal, physical or musical in nature, are significant.

Life is a triad. Can we call it a Trilogy?  There are 3 “events”: we’re born, have a “life” and  we die.  3 components that are linked and intertwined, in my humble opinion, in an Escher kind of way.  There is no starting point A that immediately and linearly produces the B that ends with the flatline C.  As a clarklike female, I prefer to think of life more like a Mobius strip and my existence as simple “configuration space”.   I know what you’re thinkin’ about now….”any minute Girlie’s gonna go off on a Pythagorean rant with a side dish of discourse regarding the importance of adhering to proper Euclidian etiquette when in the company of  well to do, hypontenustic people. LOL

……don’t worry.  I’m better now.  Sometimes when we freefloat, ponder the past, search the present or plan for the future we find ourselves veering off into all sorts of uncharted territory – landscapes morphed by memory, the litter of lingering feelings strewn along the roadsides… it’s easy to miss the paw prints.  But if we are lucky, like little Jamaal, we’ll have a shoulder upon which to perch for however brief the moment, and the world will open up again to life lessons and the Cat….

9 thoughts on “Edge remnants and such…”

1. clarkscottroger

   Need I point out that the biped in your photo is dressed in a cat.5 Tee Shirt? Sort of a Piltdown of Doctrine Fashion

   Like

   MAY 20, 2012 AT 1:17 PMREPLY
   1. GirlieOnTheEdge

      Indeed he is. Astute eye sir!
      I myself am in possession of a cat.5 tee shirt. It would be considered vintage today. It is still wearable and dare I say still in fashion. It resides in a drawer directly underneath my new Wakefield Doctrine tee shirt. And what a coincidence! Both are of a black and white design. (sigh)

      Like

      MAY 20, 2012 AT 2:12 PMREPLY
2. Jennifer Wilson

   OK. I’ll bite. What the hell is a cat.5 tee shirt?

   Like

   MAY 24, 2012 AT 6:18 PMREPLY
   1. GirlieOnTheEdge

      Well my dear. Glad you asked and in the absence of Clark and Roger and even the Lunchbox, I shall respond to your query. They, of course, are always welcome to supplimentate. (my homage to rogerian expressions today. lol)
      The shirts were commissioned in honor, in deference to the feline, Arthur…deistically known as “the Cat”.
      Gentlemen? Anything to add?

      Like

      MAY 24, 2012 AT 6:46 PMREPLY
3. clarkscottroger

   FUCK!!! KA! KA! *

   (*standing in for Lunchbox Lennie)

   lol

   The expression at the time was, ‘he was a cat and a half’, which was to pay homage to the feline form of ‘Arthur’ the cat pictured in these last few Posts.

   Just a little more lingusitic silliness from those mental institution outmates down at Treasure Rd!!

   (linguistics YEAH I got ya lingustics!!! )

   .
   FUCK!

   Like

   MAY 25, 2012 AT 9:40 AMREPLY
   1. GirlieOnTheEdge

      The ‘Box would be proud, no? LOL
      Yo Roger! Where the hell are ya buddy? Need some help around here….we be called “mental institution outmates”!

      Like

      MAY 25, 2012 AT 10:45 AMREPLY
4. RCoyne

   There is no ‘in’ or ‘out’ for the mentally hamstrung. It is a frame of existence that you bring with you everywhere, and a damned good thing too. How tedious this would all be without an alternate reality or two in your back pocket.

   Like

   MAY 26, 2012 AT 7:03 PMREPLY
   1. GirlieOnTheEdge

      Couldn’t have said it better:)

      Like

      MAY 27, 2012 AT 8:23 AMREPLY
5. clarkscottroger

   … I could have.

   …
   lol

   Like

   MAY 27, 2012 AT 8:44 AM

Ten is the Number of Thankfuls. +

Hey! It’s stupidly late, 9:37 pm, to be opening up the ‘top to write a 6 Sentence Story that should already be “running”. But lately, I can’t say I’ve been on top of the writing thing.

I was hugely excited when Zoe posted the entire month of 6 Sentence Story cue words figuring I had a huge advantage knowing the words so far in advance. No excuse for not writing a story each week. Right?! Right?! Am I right?!

And you wanna know something? When I read the 4 cue words, I thought to myself, “ye-e-sss! these are good words. I can write a story for each one. won’t that be a great comeback!” So much for the comeback. Maybe, after awhile, you don’t get any comebacks.

Ahem….you can guess the date of that draft, eh? In my own words, I tell myself! that after awhile there are no comebacks. So here I am, for better or for worse, participating (for better or for worse) in Josie’s Ten Things of Thankful bloghop. (ya started a good thing Lizzi).

Nothing like death to help re-align one’s priorities, sharpen one’s perspective. It was with sadness I attended the viewing and service of a friend’s mom this past week. I am thankful to have been among the many who had come to pay their respects and lend their support. The residuary thankful, a reinforcement and reminder that life is way too short.

Thanks be that the root canal I underwent went…well! Can’t believe that I am saying this but it was surprisingly painless. Unless you take into consideration the jokes told by my endontist. While I appreciated his attempt to make it a comfortable experience, he had a rather unfair advantage 🙂 The residuary thankful, I only have to go back to my regular dentist for a filling. Not a crown. Except I’m not quite sure how that came about….mine is not to question why? Except that I will lol. I’m a clark.

Speaking of…I am thankful always for the Wakefield Doctrine. It is by far, in my humble opinion, the most efficacious life tool ever disseminated. Also known as, beginning as, “the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers”, it has helped me navigate the social network of life. As an “outsider“, I was often at a total loss as to why people behaved as they did (in particular situations). Today, having the benefit of being able to identify a person’s worldview, ie how they relate themselves to the world, I have a tremendous advantage. The residuary thankful, I am more confident interacting with people, more relaxed in social situations.

Home and Heart. I’m thankful for this most pleasant glimpse into the lives of very enjoyable characters. Characters whose origins came out of Blogdominion. The residuary thankful is witnessing the power of practice. Practice makes perfect, isn’t that what they say? 😀

I am thankful for faith. The ability to believe in the face of “odds against”. Is that not the nature of faith? The residuary thankful is that I will not ever truly give up. Faith may be considered by some a rationalization, denial of reality. I choose to believe that to believe, is to never give up.

I am grateful to have found a Honda Dealership whose service department is open on weekends! and whose service, if I am to judge on my 1 and only recent experience, was excellent. The residuary benefit is, should anything more be needed for my “legacy car”, I have a place to take her that I feel confident will do right by her 🙂

Wow. I’m up to #7 and still going, lol. Many of you are familiar with one Cynthia Calhoun. Author, artist, educator, activist. She recently posted a guided meditation at her new site Intuitive and Spiritual. I’ve got to say, Ms. Sageleaf is a natural for guided meditation. Her voice is soothing, relaxing. I’m hoping she produces more guided meditations for clearly she has the knack! The residuary thankful is that I have a little more motivation to make sure that each day, I try to “meditate”, communicate in silence, my intentions for the day.

I give many thanks for the roof over my head, the food I eat (doesn’t matter if I eat half a box of Froot Loops for dinner lol), transportation, a good job. The residuary thankful here? Endless.

I will never, ever stop being thankful for music. It is the lifeblood, it is self exression, it is catharsis, it is motivation. It is all things. Residuary thankful for music is that it has been with me when there has been no one, been with me when I am with others, it is eternal.

No! No way am I at the 10th thankful. No, it doesn’t have to end at 10 but if I am to adhere to the rules (excepting the option to invoke SBOR/BOSR 1.3) then I will conclude with the thankful for having awakened another day. The residuary thankful, as you will all guess, is yet one more opportunity to get it right.