My First Commercial!

If you've read any of the Champion Realty back page ads in the Capital, Maryland Gazzette, or Star Democrat lately, then you've seen some of my handiwork that has resulted from my position as Director of Communications at Champion Realty.

Last night we launched a commercial that will be airing on Comcast, Verizon FIOS and of course, YouTube. Let me know what you think! I wrote the content and assisted with the directing. We have a series of spots planned through the rest of the year.

Invitation to a Reading at the Whole Gallery in Baltimore

Once upon a time, there was a group of writers referred to as the Bloomsberry Group. While the group of writers at The Whole Gallery are defined by other parameters, I marvel that I am invited to swim in their pool. I am invited to read at a reading that I attended last year - when Heather was still in Baltimore - and I listened to her and others at The Whole Gallery. Hi Heather. We will be missing you.

This year, Heather asked a few of us to get in touch with Ashlie - I did. So I'll be reading. I am distinguished, or rather undistinguished, in that I am referred to as Mary, rather than Mary . . . (fill in a last name, a middle name, a definition).

Here is the invitation Ashlie created. This will be a unique rich night. I am privileged to be among these artists.

Last night I wrote a poem

Last night, late, late
I wrote a new poem.
It is about you.
I don't know if it is about
you. It is always about you.

I wrote a new poem be
cause Ashlie is reading all
new poems and I wanted some
thing new, like you, are all
ways new. And I want to wait

and read it aloud and let the
words reign and the mares
whinny and The Whole Gallery
inhale each c and o and carry
the words around forever.


So I wrote to you.

Again.

Kings Contrivance

There is a place not far from
here called Kings Contrivance
where Francesca likes to build
her cardboard condominiums and
structure life into frames.

She fashions a roof then
cuts it to make a chimney; she
shapes a window then decides it's
a door and flies right through.

Manifesting

As some of you know by now, I enjoy getting quotes and words of the day to my email. I find that they deliver an opportunity for me to examine my life and events in light of whatever happens to show up; to trust the randomness and synchronicity of all things moving in concert, even though sometimes the sound can be quite discordant.

Here is what I read today:
"You have everything you need in the present situation to work with
impeccability. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't work toward
manifesting additional resources and opportunities. It does mean that the
present situation supplies you with everything you need to take the next
step."

- Jonathan Zap, "A Guide to the Perplexed Interdimensional Traveler"

I've taken a new job; a position that is not quite within my comfort zone. Yet, with gratitude to my years of experience and subsequent resilience, I find that I am not deterred or even discouraged as I take my small leaps of learning.

I have a firm belief that all will be well. I am doing my best, and it is hard work, but not "hard" work; it is gratifying, engaging, brain massaging, happy labor.

I was out having dinner with a friend tonight and feeling that I was yet again neglecting my son, Dylan. Who had gotten up early, gone to school, made a pit stop at home and headed off to his job at Arundel Computing. He was arriving home from work just as I was headed out. "Tomorrow night is family night," I offered as I walked away, expecting little drop of regret to trail me down the walkway. How come we can never be everything we want to be to every one all the time? Even to ourselves.

I worry that he is too alone. I worry that my daughter is too alone. I know that there are times I am too alone, so perhaps that is the nature of grown children. We are, at times, too alone. That is when the work happens, maybe.

We climb inside, outside, move the furniture on our own, clear the shelves, write the sonnet, the ballad, paint the walls, draw the beloved and the tree, run the extra mile along the creek, knit the winter warmth, see ourselves, truly. Maybe it is the necessary ache to compel evolution, an evolution of self, a space and time of all we might create or become.

After dinner, I stand at the door alone, slip the key and through the turn realize the door was unlocked. Inside, I find Dylan sitting on the piano stool, playing one of his own songs softly, working through a set, timing himself. He was not alone; he was surrounded with his own purpose, his own creation, his next opportunity. He's been offered to play a set in a coffee shop and he is working with impeccability because he knows he possesses everything to take the next step. And although he may never say it, I prefer to believe his veracity, his comfort, his assurance is in some small measure founded on both the times I stayed by his side and the times we both walked on our own. That is what I like to think. Maybe there is some truth to it.

At the end of the day

Her mind spinning
conversations,
the words skipping
satellites, between
missed heart
beats.

Sleep only for
the innocents,
she dreams with her
eyes open, your words
her nightmare and
lullaby.

Velocity, she's
turning to threads
like jet trails
losing herself,
losing gravity.

The Holiday Never Ends

Last night was the Gardiner Holiday celebration at my brother Michael's house. Michael and his wife, Debra,
hosted and my brother David and his wife Susan joined us
and my beautiful daughter Sara,

Michael's good friend Tommy and his lady, Kathy and Debra's friend, Kathy and my sister, Pam and her husband, Frank.

Food, music, wine, and laughter shared with family and friends are the best gifts. My luck hasn't come in a conventional package, but having two brothers that I can rely on come what may is just about the best luck a girl can have.

New Job

I start my new job tomorrow. Enthusiastic but apprehensive and curious and motivated and I get to write, wear grown up clothes, be with grown ups! Wish me luck.