National novel writing month

Happy New Years

Well it looks like we made it to the end of another year. 2023 ends tonight and with it, all the things we can release.

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My morning began with my usual prayers for all my relations, in the four corners of the world. “I send you love, peace, healing and joy” I walked around my property giving thanks for the earth, sky and unknown ancestor spirits that guide my path. They have been in my dreams lately. I walk out onto my dock, which is now frozen to the skin of ice that layers the lake. It’s magical looking down into the water. Time has frozen the plants and rocks and rendered them unreachable. I take a moment and remember the flow from the waterfall, that gently guides the water in my lake, off the mountain down to Lake Huron. Could this possibly be a metaphor for my present life. Breathing in deeply, with my coffee cupped in my hands, I believe there is nothing better than the smell of coffee and cedar. No matter what happens today my heart is set in gratitude.

As we teeter on the edge of 2023. This is a great time to reflect on all that has been working in our lives and a time to release all that has not been working. Looking to the wisdom within, listen to your heart. It will guide you. If your one who makes resolutions let them be needed changes and attainable ones. What will 2024 look like? It will be all you want it to be. It starts and ends with you and what will make you happy.

Namaste Tribe

As we reflect on the time past and look forward to new beginnings I would like to offer you a chance to support my writing. If you would like to follow me please press the FOLLOW button and fill in your email. This will inform you each time I write and if you can, please donate some spare change to support my coffee habit. In the New Year I will share my new book of poetry with you as well as some of my favourite coffee supplies.

FYI

Hello Tribe, I would like to remind all those who have bought my book “Lake Erie Calling” to please take the time and write a review on Amazon.ca or the Amazon of the country you purchased a copy from. I will be publishing my second book of poems hopefully by the end of this year or in early 2024. My second book will be called “Soul Expression: The awakening of humanity through poetry. I will be heading to Scotland in the spring for an official book launch with my publisher “Bold Fish Publishing” I will also be attending a second book launch in Southern Ontario, Canada in the summer of 2024. Thank you for all you do to support me especially by following my writing.

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Namaste Tribe Love Jacqueline

Perspective is Everything

My plane landed in Toronto, Ontario Canada and the captain informed us of the 38 degrees fahrenheit weather outside. I had just spent a week in Costa Rica with my granddaughter and a close friend. The weather there was 100 degrees the day we departed. Having another 6 1/2 hour journey home I decided to stay in the area with family to acclimatize myself. You see I live in the True North where all the days are short and our winters are long. I knew the weather would be changing soon because we were at peak season for the beautiful fall colors two weeks before I left. Having rested my intuition was pulling at me to leave now before the snow came in. I prepared myself as best as one can, to drive 6 1/2 hours by myself and I left with a positive outlook. I listened to a few podcasts, stopped for needed breaks and felt grateful for the few people who were on the highway at the time. The farther I drove, the more the scenery reached out and grabbed me. I love that island, that rockface, that rest area! More importantly, I loved the trees. I was witnessing the end of the Carolina Forest and welcoming my beautiful Boreal Forest. The scenery became my eye candy. The universe was blessing me today and I acknowledged that! Before I realized it I was safely home, as I expected.

Once home I felt a sense of peace pour over me. I really did miss it. I love travelling but I’m beginning to love being at home just as much. It’s quiet here, it’s my nest where all I love and covet lie. Before falling to sleep I was thinking, this is my grounding spot, where I am balanced and nurtured by the sky, lake and trees. This is home. After a restful night I woke refreshed, I opened my bedroom curtains and this is what I saw.

Our first snow of 2023 fell overnight. Silently shocked, not ready to deal with snow I began to panic. The clouds in the distance told the story of an all-day snow fall. Where are the shovels, salt, boots, winter coats? I haven’t unpacked them yet! I immediately began taking pictures and sending them out to family & friends. Two responses came back. The first one “Yuk” the second one “It’s beautiful” Then I remembered it is all about perception. It is not about our reactions to life’s curve balls it is how we respond to them. I took a deep breath and I chose to respond instead of react. I then appreciated the beauty unfolding, for hours, all day, piling up and I searched for a shovel and cleared my decks & steps. I then sat down and wrote this article to remind you. It is your perspective that creates your day. It is your responses that build the experiences you will encounter. It is remembering you are in control of you!

As I teeter on the edge of reacting from my emotions, I am reminded to respond instead out of a grateful heart, whether my curve balls are positive or negative they are my curve balls to transform so that all things work for my good benefit.

Thank you, Tribe, for following my journey!

Love Jacqueline

Writing Prompts

Hello Tribe, I thought I would share with you today a recent writing prompt that I completed as my never ending journey at writing better articles & poems. Feel free to try this yourself and let me know if you would like more of these prompts in the future.

ALL CLOCKS SUDDENLY STOP. Write about what happens next.

I was sitting in the lounge chair at home reading my next Sasquatch book when a strange feeling came over me. A stillness enveloped the air and I struggled to swallow my next breath. I looked up at the clock 1:11. My first instinct was to blame it on the Angels. They are probably around me confirming my love to connect with the Sasquatch peoples from the 8th dimension. As I curled into myself more, I began reading again. After what should have been a good 20 minutes of reading, I stretched and looked at time again. 1:11 pm My next thought was oh great the batteries have stopped on the clock again. That was strange since I replaced them a month ago. Blaming the dollar store for inactive batteries I ran to replace them. I grabbed my cell on the way to check the real time and 1:11 pm appeared. What the hell! feeling a little strange I walked room to room looking at the clocks which were yelling it’s 1:11 pm you idiot. Dazed and confused I dropped my cell as it began to vibrate and ding. What the hell was going on? Family & friends began to call me asking, as if I had a connection to the divine, what should we do? I smiled and said “Think of your happiest day and what that would look like. Then dream your most amazing dream” that is what I believe we should do. Allow yourself to be in constant state of happiness and bliss, because a synchronicity like this doesn’t happen every day! 

The Day Out of Time: the mystic power of July 25th – WeMystic

July 25 is called
— Read on www.wemystic.com/the-day-out-of-time/.

Today I am recognizing all that has not worked for me and letting go with surrender. Today I am re aligning with my dreams and true heart desires and setting goals for my future. Mostly today I am living in the present and balancing my spirit & body, my feminine & masculine sides and surrendering my past to my future.

Today I am teetering on the edge of time! Happy, peaceful and ego free.

Namaste Tribe -Jacqueline

Walking with a poets eye

I’m feeling stiff and need a walk, the sun is gleaming and the wind is faint. Song birds wrestle against the spring roar of the waterfall. The hill in my driveway is my first challenge. It is saturated beneath my feet from recent rains.

The firs, cedars and pines bouquet fume the forest. I drink the intoxicating smell. How many times can I walk the same path and still see new life? Grouse and birds scatter, pecking stone and earth. a feathery flustered day. I stop and face the sun, allowing it to enter my space, so warming, healing. I carry on feeling energized.

As my path narrows I see my friend the crow, still dead beneath the fir tree. I placed him there after a nasty car encounter. I memorialized him by plucking some feathers off his bones and placed the feathers on my animal alter at home. I miss his caws. I, like the birds feel free to pick and peck at the garbage thrown from windows, a hasty retrieval to bag and dispose.

As I march I mark time at the Artesian well that springs forth down the mountain, carving new waterways to the inland lake receiving in the valley. The soothing sound echoes against the rocks in its path and bubbles appear then float away. My hike circles around pussy willows bursting the branch, a sure sign of spring. The rock-cut blasted is fractured and falling. Vertical lines like an abstract work of art remind me of human veins. Yes natures art created by human hands.

Now I am mountain climbing. Lichen and moss growing over the incline make it slippery as I plant each foot slowly. Standing tall, queen of the hill, I notice the sky is full of dragon clouds. Spiney outlines, surrounding and protecting, floating ribs of transparency. I imagine one of them is mine and send telepathic messages calling her down. Oh what an imagination conspiring when walking with a poets eye!

Take The Challenge:

On your next walk write down all the things you see, hear, feel or sense. Be present, be creative. Walk connecting yourself to nature and to your imagination. Please leave me a comment below if you accepted the challenge and walked with a poets eye.

Namaste Tribe, Jacqueline

Creating You in a World of change

There comes a moment in our lives where we can go insane worrying about who we are in a changing world or surrender to the fact that although we are connected as humanity, each of us is experiencing life with our own perspective. Surrendering to this fact can help us develop empathy, compassion and a space for grace.

Deep within us lies the need to surround ourselves with others who think like we do, believe what we believe, dress, act, eat and play like we do. This actually limits and separates us from others. Gone are the debates, conversations and agreements to disagree. We rarely even look others in the eyes or care about their soul presence anymore. By soul presence I mean when is the last time you questioned “Who is this person in my life and what do they want to accomplish during their life journey?” “Can I help them even though it doesn’t interest me?” With our heads buried deep in the software and technology of the future many seek answers that others give them, or fall victim to accepting and complying with someone who says they have your best interest. Doctors, lawyers, politicians, pharmaceutical companies, spouses, the list goes on.

In reality creating you in a world of change demands we bring it home to our own hearts and surrender to the realization that; You are the only being on this planet that knows what you need, You have your own best interest, You can make your own decisions, find your own answers and only You can create the present and future that best serves you! It’s time to step up to your uniqueness.

There are two pillars to which we create and I believe they are Love & Hope. The first involves Love for all we thought we knew, ways in which we patterned our lives and love for the moments we recognized our need for joy & happiness. Our intensions for understanding our need for love in our lives is not selfish, it is filling our cup so we may move forward to help and support others. Love involves forgiving ourselves and others while continuing down our paths. The second pillar is Hope. Hope is the glue that binds our desires to their creation, our spirits to our minds and bodies, and our uniqueness to a shared vison with others. Hope is being seen in a crowd, heard under the ocean, and felt with someone’s heart, especially in times of conflict and worldly change. As society shifts people will be for us or against us. It is their fear that may lead them. Fear causes separation. It is your role to understand Fear is the evil we fight against, not our brothers & sisters. Fear is the force that has held us in control our whole lives and it is the force that needs to be obliterated! Once we surrender to love in our hearts for our fellow humans, fear dissolves. It melts away and it can not come back without invitation. Fear is a choice just like love and it is my hope that you understand this as you teeter on the edge of your human transformation. Your new life, new journey, begins with a step towards what you really want for yourself, your family, your world. I am here to remind you we can co-create anything and everything with love in our hearts and hope in each step we take.

Namaste Tribe,

Jacqueline

HAPPY POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY!

Poem in Your Pocket Day is an international movement that encourages people to centre poetry within their daily interactions.

On PIYP Day, select a poem, carry it with you, and share it with others at schools, bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, coffee shops, street corners, and on social media using the hashtag #PocketPoem.

This is my donation:

The morning light draws the crow
from labored flight to cedar bough
it speaks a song, it caws a note
I do belong it’s message spoke
from dreams I wake, a silent sleep
the veil a gate my soul to reap
how do I know my missions call
I speak to crow between the lull
You’ll know when love from hearts do tell
from up above a feather fell
when you alone answer a call
with loving tone when humans fall
the morning light draws the crow
away in flight caws the echo
the blackest feather in my hand
love the tether God’s command
my missions call reminds the crow
when feathers fall, this now I know

Jacqueline Denis

This year’s Poem In Your Pocket Collection features poetry by: George Amabile, Manahil Bandukwala, Rae Crossman, Jannie Edwards, Y S Lee, Kyo Lee, D.A. Lockhart, Briana Lu, Anthony Purdy, Sneha Madhavan-Reese, Richard-Yves Sitoski, Michael V. Smith, Eleonore Schönmaier and Pujita Verma.

Read their poems below and share with others! 

These poems are also available as audio recordings, in plain text and a printable booklet. To print and share from your home, check out the 2023 Poem In Your Pocket Day Booklet from LCP. 

Poem in Your Pocket Day – League of Canadian Poets

Lisa

It’s been 14 years today since your life was taken from our hopes & dreams for you. Someone else determined your path. We know death is an illusion and you thrive elsewhere. Here is my Haiku poem for you as we still teeter on the edge for understanding.

Lisa’s life- no poem no song – only rain

For 14 years – how sharp – the silence

Stone cold – joy and grief – one brushstroke

A painted life – canvas expectations – framed white

Love Jacqueline