brightlotusmoon: (Asha)
'Reborn' by Laura Sava (anotherwanderer.deviantart.com/)
'Mirabella' by Rachel Anderson (www.silverstars.us/‎)

Two forms of my own story character, Asha Clara Night, my strongest, most individual, most personal fiction character.

These paintings. Completely different images that look almost exactly like incarnations of the same character of my own subconscious creation Women who look almost exactly like the dreamself I am becoming in my dreams and visions.

Laura-sava-Reborn

Rachel Anderson Mirabella


She was in my dreams last night and many nights before. I haven't decided exactly who she is yet, but in my dreams her name is Asha, meaning "desire, hope, hopeful; life; alive; she who lives." Which says so much, so so much.

She is another dreamself, not a spirit guardian, but much closer to my Self than my other characters (Alicia, Serena, Ananta: my spirit guardian coping mechanisms for epilepsy, memory loss, insomnia, sleep problems, [Alicia], chronic pain and fatigue, depression, anxiety, physical disabilities [Serena], neurology, neurodivergence, autism, total mind-body connection [Ananta].

Asha seems to represent many internal things about my emotions, my heart and mind, my rhyme and reason, my logic, my science, my creativeness and creativity, my power, my energy, my beauty. If she were to reveal herself as a guardian, she would be for emotional states, creative thoughts, desires, loves, patterns, ideas.
Asha is definitely powerful in a way I always wanted to be since childhood: Fae and and Elemental Mage and Neurodivergent and Autistic Witch and Quantum Magic Scientist and Story Crafter and Shape Shifter and Magic Librarian and Magic Keeper.

Asha seems to represent my deep, obsessive, compulsive wish and desire to be one of the psionic-mage superhumans in my stories, to take over for be when I feel failure and self-loathing and terror and panic. I think Asha may in fact be an actual entity, one who communicates outside instead of simply speaking into my visions, dreams, pain flare withdrawings, anxiety attacks.

All I know is that Asha was in every dream last night and throughout the past several sleeps, long detailed intense dreams, and she quoted Kosh. She spoke in a soprano version of my voice that could sing. She was always here She is always here. She has always been here.
I think she was with me since I was a baby. In different forms, in different species, with different names, in different imaginary beings, in different fictional characters. She was made of fire. She used to be a phoenix, a unicorn, a dragon, a star, a nebula. I know Asha. I know Asha in the way I hope to know myself.

The thing is, Asha has a fully active voice when I am completely conscious, aware, awake, functional, and stable. She didn't completely create herself, but she grew and evolved over my lifetime in her own way as a character in my subconscious. She took ideas I worked with and wove them into her personality, behavior, and mentality. My disabilities are hers. She stayed and changed and grew with me like a permanent piece of my spirit. Asha also represents my fluid sexuality - I often visit her in the place she calls home and we make love, representing my desires for love and orientation.

She lives with Alicia in the Wonderland cottage, but she freely moves about my brain more often. She shapeshifts into elemental energies, she moves around my hippocampus and amygdala and temporal lobes and cingulate gyrus and thalamus and auditory cortex and somatosensory cortex and parital lobe and the back of my brain.
She has altered the Wonderland cottage to be something else entirely, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two office rooms, a large entertainment living room, a large kitchen, a basement. The outside build would contain concrete, cement, hemp and limestone, bamboo, steel. The glass windows are shatterproof. The doors are hemp-lime and timber. That must say something about my mind's inner workings. Especially since the main reason for hemp being illegal is due to its threat to corporate patentable synthetic fibers and wood and paper product industries, while the medicinal drug potential became subject to false claims and fear mongering alarm campaigns until the original industrial potential became buried under the alarmist anti drug campaigns. Part of me probably knows how powerful this is. Medicine from nature itself and the human brain itself is usually denied and seen as worthless.

Asha represents that part of me that firmly supports the controversial balance of traditional pharmaceutical medicine and nontraditional botanical medicine.
Asha is my activism and advocacy. Asha is the fire that moves my belief in the combination of synthetic drugs and organic drugs. Asha is the phoenix in me that rises after every defeat, every failure, every attack, every oppression, every attack and assault on my truths and faiths.

Throughout many names, faces, back stories, lives, personalities, and individual growths... she has always been Asha Clara Night. And this is how she asked me to look so I could see that there is beauty deep and shining.

I must find and thank the artists for these images, since I found myself taking these pieces of artwork and subconsciously turning them into incarnations of my own fictional character.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151978626835684&l=17dde55bf4

Asha may well be the character in that second novel after all. It won't be this Asha, my Asha; just a version, a more humanized incarnation I can bring out to show the public. This excites me. She could help me write it, just by living in my mind.
brightlotusmoon: (Snow White Ruby Blood Dragon Witch Light)
I wear a dark green Russian Amazonite ring on my spastic hemiplegic left hand to represent cerebral palsy. I wear a purple charoite ring on my right hand to represent fibromyalgia. I wear purple lepidolite bracelets, blue kyanite bracelet, labradorite bracelet, fluorite bracelet, purple charoite clear quartz pentacle pendant, to represent all of my awesome disabilities of which I am proud.
Because I can. Because colorful gems are cool.

*Obvious Disclaimer Is Obvious*
Just because I have purely personal anecdotal experience that crystals and stones have healing powers does not mean that crystals and stones will work for anyone, and it does not mean that other people would have the same experiences. I am fine with being mocked, belittled, and teased.

http://www.crystalhealingforwomen.com/amazonite.html
http://www.crystalvaults.com/crystal-encyclopedia/charoite
http://www.crystalvaults.com/crystal-encyclopedia/labradorite
http://www.zoultier.com/gem-historical-metaphysic-zoultier/lepidolite-historical-metaphysical-healing-properties
http://www.controverscial.com/Flourite.htm

"Lepidolite is a type of mica, it is shy and created of many layers of hexagonal plates. It occurs in sparkling masses around pink tourmaline crystals. Due to it's cleavage, as with most mica, Lepidolite is rarely faceted. It is rich in lithium, which is what lends it's beautiful color. Lepidolite cracks and breaks easily.
Placed on the body, Lepidolite is used to locate the site of the body's disease; vibrating gently to indicate the source.
Lepidolite will:
strengthen the immune system, restructures DNA, enhances the generation of negative ions;
relieve allergies, exhaustion, epilepsy and Alzheimer's;
detoxify for the skin and connective tissue;
assist in an excellent stone for menopause, especially as an elixir;
be laid directly on painful parts of the body, it helps with nerve pain, sciatica, neuralgia and joint problems;
be known as a powerful pain remover, it can also reduce the ill-effects of anesthetic and dependency on medications, alcohol, tobacco or food; and
also told to provide a wonderful shield against the effects of modern pollutions.
Lepidolite is:
a stone of calm, trust, and acceptance;
extremely useful in the reduction of depression as well as stress;
used to halt obsessive thoughts, and relieves despondency, as well as overcomes insomnia; and
supportive in releasing one from addictions and complains of all kinds, including anorexia;
known to clear out all of the redundant messages and voices form the past that hold us back from happiness and/or success;
an aid in attracting supportive friends and colleagues, as well as bring opportunities to succeed; and
will help any and all living in unavoidably stressful experiences (such as city dwellers) to maintain a calm, and serene center.
Due to its calming properties and its often vividly purple color, Lepidolite can be used in rituals or carried to promote spirituality. It is a mineral carried to attract good luck, it also drives off negativity, although it's protective properties are not extremely strong. To promote a restful nights sleep free of nightmares, place Lepidolite near the headboard of the bed.
Called a 'stone of transformation" Lepidolite releases and reorganises old psychological and behavioral patterns, thus inducing change.
Stay Healthy!"

"Fluorite is highly protective and is a beneficial crystal to help guard one from picking up negativity or negative energies from those nearby. It cleanses and stabilizes the aura and is extremely effective against computer and electromagnetic stress. Spiritually, Fluorite grounds and integrates spiritual energies. It heightens intuitive powers and makes one more aware of higher spiritual realities. Psychologically, Fluorite dissolves fixed patterns of behavior and opens the door to the subconscious, bringing suppressed feelings to the surface for resolution. Dissolving fixed ideas, it helps one to see the bigger picture. This crystal dissolves illusions and reveals the truth. It can be very helpful when one needs to act impartially and objectively. Fluorite increases self-confidence, improves physical and mental coordination and counteracts mental disorders. This crystal is an excellent learning aid, increasing concentration. It helps one to absorb new information and promotes quick thinking.
Emotionally, Fluorite is stabilizing and helps one to understand the effect of the mind and emotions on the body. In relationships, it teaches the importance of balance. In healing, Fluorite is a powerful healing tool, drawing off negative energies and stress of all kinds. It cleanses, purifies and dispels anything within the body that is not in perfect order. Fluorite helps with infections and benefits teeth, cells and bones. It repairs DNA damage and is powerful against viruses. Fluorite is beneficial for colds, the flu and sinusitis. This stone alleviates arthritis, rheumatism and spinal injuries. Stroked across the body towards the heart, it provides pain relief. Fluorite rekindles sexual libido.
Fluorite is one of the healing crystals that everyone MUST have. I literally use it every day in a protective grid at my computer desk, to guard against excess electromagnetic radiation, to keep my work flow and focus in harmony and to heighten my intuitive gifts. It guards against negativity and unwanted outside influences, psychic manipulation (think the media) and stress of all types. One simply cannot overuse Fluorite or even have too much of it! On the physical level, it is a strong healer for almost everything, but especially bones, joints and teeth; surgery, injuries like bruises and cuts; colds, flu, viruses; pain relief; heals the skin including shingles; as well as disorders in the stomach and intestines. Position the Fluorite over the affected area - you can even tape it or bandage it to an area that has a cast or stitches where it can work 24/7. Mentally Fluorite is a strong intellectual and learning crystal, It is extremely organizing for the mind and can be used in cases of ADD and ADHD where the brain is "mis-wired." It is a good crystal to use in order to coordinate the body and mind together. Emotionally it is stabilzing and helps balance mind and emotions. Fluorite heightens mental abilities, assisting in rapid organization and processing of information and can bring mental clarity and stability to an otherwise chaotic situation.
Due to its powerful ability to absorb negative energies, Fluorite should be cleared often."
brightlotusmoon: (Snow White Ruby Blood Dragon Witch Light)
My darling Cara Liebowitz wrote a lovely post that I had to share:
*
"I was going to bed, I swear, but The Brooke Ellison Story is on TV. Gotta say, as cheesy and inspo-porny as it is, I love it. And on some level, I AM inspired by Brooke Ellison, mostly by her sheer determination and drive to not only succeed, but excel, not only in the face of such a life changing injury, but in the face of everyone who told her she couldn't do anything.

I don't know, I feel like maybe its different for someone with an acquired disability. For us congenital folks or those who acquired their disabilities very early on, we just go along living life the way we know how. We've never known any other way. But for folks with an acquired impairment later in life, especially one as severe as Brooke Ellison's, it requires such a radical restructuring of your life and worldviews. I am inspired by those who push through and come out the other side. I'm not so sure that's wrong.

Thoughts?"
*

I shared this because it is exactly how I feel regarding being a congenital and seeing an acquired do something dubbed "So Inspirational TM!". In the disabled community, most of us have a very strong opposition to "inspiration porn" - (the most well-known example, perhaps, being that Scott Hamilton quote and poster of Hamilton and a child both with those expensive prosthetic legs, saying 'The only disability in life is a bad" attitude" and any photo of someone in a wheelchair or crutches with a quote of "If they can do it so can you" or "What's your excuse" Fuck I hate those phrases so fucking much fuck fucking fuck - But every so often something comes along that falls into a category) that is only mildly inspo-porny and actually uplifting, even though nothing inspirational actually happens that we can see.
Like the quoted story, about a woman who becomes paralyzed and gets into a top-rate university after overcoming many challenges. Now, to people like me and Cara, with our cerebral palsy, it's like, So? That's it? What else happened? What made her so incredibly inspirational that it required a sappy movie? Why isn't there a movie about my life? I was born three months early in the late 1970s, nobody really cared about my cerebral palsy because it was mild, nobody thought I was autistic because it was the 1980s when autism was barely being looked into, I in fact had no idea of any of my invisible illnesses until I was in my late 20s... You get the idea.
Now, I have extreme respect for anyone who must go through a radical reconstruction of their identity when something like an acquired disability happens, because fucking fuck that is shattering and destructive and requires a particular rearranging of so many parts of their lives and their thinking.
There are some acquired folk who get snotty about it and either insist that everyone must "fight for a cure!" or throw themselves a public pity party and beg everyone to "find a cure!" which I can't really sympathize with.
Then again, I'm the type of cripple who embraces my cripplehood... because I have never known anything else. That may, in fact, make me seem snotty, snobby, snooty, etc.
But having a disability that permanently impairs daily life, whether congenital, acquired in very early childhood, or acquired later than childhood, changes your mindset, outlook, and indeed your soul, in ways that nobody can predict. And sometimes, you literally have to just roll with it. Limp with it. You know.
brightlotusmoon: (Snow White Ruby Blood Dragon Witch)
Some random rambling about my own mind, my imaginary friends, and how my mind likes to invent coping mechanisms that talk back.

One of my imaginary friends, Amara, who is the human coping mechanism in charge of all the neurochemical, neurodevelopmental fuctions, has been interacting with me more and more ever since Alicia (the epilepsy mechanism) and Serena (the pain, fatigue, psychological, neurobiological functions) urged her to show herself more often after I fell into a chemical depression with severe anxiety. Serena and Koan could only do so much.

Amara, at the beginning of her creation, was not even human; formless and elemental. These days, she is human shaped but she loves to take bits of my writerbrain as inspiration. Her ears are pointed and her eyes and hair change color with her moods. She likes to mimic my bone structure and basic figure shape, just with more muscle intensity. Serena says it's because Amara wants to show me that I am beautiful.
Also, when I saw a Google image painting of a woman with elf ears and a unicorn horn, posing with a unicorn, Amara insisted I make it my current Facebook cover photo. She made herself up to resemble like that character while still mimicking my features, including the horn that represents the third eye - just with chestnut brown streaks in her white-lavender hair and honey brown flecks in her intense blue eyes... although none of that is her true coloring. When she made herself human, her coloring randomly became alabaster skin, gold eyes, and pale flame hair, essentially inhuman. But she kept the mirror shape of my skeletal structure and body shape. She even plumped her lips, made her eyes bigger, and made her nose smaller, because she knew I desired that. It makes me smile, which I think she likes. She wears the same jewelry as me, the same clothing colors, the same makeup colors. She is determined to "reboot" the parts of my brain that are having trouble accepting the recent flooding overload of information about these disabilities and chronic illnesses. The name Amara means everlasting, eternal, immortal... which is why she was formless and elemental to begin with. I finally understand why I created her. And she wouldn't mind being the inspiration for any stories I write. I'm grateful for that.
She insists that my jaw, hair, and eyes resemble the jaw, hair, and eyes of Elena Risteska from Macedonia, which I agreed with and humbly accept with a simple thanks. The only way I even knew about Miss Risteska was through searching for shades of brown.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Elena_risteska.JPG
http://img27.fansshare.com/pic34/w/elena-risteska/1200/12861_elena_risteska.jpg
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/18051115/Elena+Risteska+elena+r.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p480x480/578088_479387062121006_1822646409_n.jpg
http://img27.fansshare.com/pic34/w/elena-risteska/1200/12858_elena_risteska.jpg
http://tekstovi-pesama.com/g_img2/1/e/28986/elena%2520risteska-10.jpg
She just wants me to feel better, to feel my own positive human emotions. Since Amara is still learning about humanity, she looks to Serena for help. In my dreams, they have amazing conversations.
I'm so glad I created these characters. They help keep me sane, emotionally stable, intellectually stable, and psychically curious. Also, every time I meditate and concentrate on my third eye, I actually feel a short unicorn horn on my forehead.
https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1469926_10151743304270684_204893984_n.jpg
I just love that my own mind is creative enough to make up whole people with entire personalities, back stories, individual appearances, individual likes and dislikes, and actual behaviors. They mainly come to me in sleep dreams, daydreams, and meditations. My psychotherapist adores the fact that they exist, which relieves me. It's just one of those things that I, Joanna, have in my brain to help me handle all the stuff that life gives me. Awesome.
brightlotusmoon: (Snow White Ruby Blood Dragon Witch)
[Originally posted in two disability forums and chronic pain groups]

I've realized that I may be the only person here who has stopped applying Spoons to myself. And there may have been some miscommunication or misunderstandings in other groups and forums. I am happy to call myself a spoonie and use spoons, but I use spears more.
I really wanted to explain why.
I'm totally happy with the Spoon Theory, but I decided to expand on it after a discussion with a friend who has almost thirty separate health conditions. So, I wanted to tell you all what I mean when I say Spears instead of Spoons. I'm linking to some of my blog posts that talk about my Spear Theory.

I know this is a lot of links, but they really explain why I use spears. I am still a spoonie! I do use spoons. But I also use spears. They just apply more intensely to me.

And then there is this!

http://internal-acceptance-movement.tumblr.com/post/61136577036

- I emailed the creator of this artwork, and she was incredibly flattered that her piece reflected the exact thing I feel about myself. It is so uncanny that I keep coming back to it in awe. Every time I look at it, every time I read it, I get chills.Ah, and here is email exchange between me and the author:"Hi Jenny!
I recently saw that extraordinary art about being your own hero in the face of chronic pain. A friend said, "This is your Spear Theory!" And it is. I was born with cerebral palsy and a host of issues including fibromyalgia, major depression, panic disorder, a spectrum disorder, and around two dozen separate diagnosed disabilities. I created The Spear Theory as an alternative to The Spoon Theory. I'd love to chat with you about it!
In fact, here is a note I wrote up about it... and isn't it amazing how well your art piece illustrates what is in my head when I think about my theory? Because I always imagine being outside in a forest, wrapping myself in bandages and armor, waiting outside my cave-like fortress for the Pain Monsters. [Note Attached}
-Joanna"


"Joanna,
That's so amazing. I love that. I love it so much, and I love how it instills more of a self-empowering connotation to the situation than the Spoon Theory (which still stands as a strong theory, but the connotation differs greatly, I'd like to think!) It's so funny how my comic like, pretty much EXACTLY depicted your Spear Theory! The universe is crazy sometimes, I swear.
And thanks so much for sharing with me your story and experiences. To be honest, I didn't even know about the Spoon Theory prior to this e-mail and its ties to fibromyalgia, so thank you for enlightening me.
You're such a strong soul and individual, I can already see that just from reading your livejournal posts. I don't even know you personally!
Keep being beautiful, okay? Keep writing, keep sharing your experiences.
I only wish I had half the courage you have to face the day from a day-to-day basis.
Much love,
Jenny"

The fact that she hadn't even known about the Spoon Theory and had described the Spear Theory so well was also impressive in a very Jungian way.
Here are my blog posts tagged with the tag 'spears'. Feel free to browse.

http://brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com/1473230.html (the entry that started it all with my friend; aka "The Genesis Of The Spear Theory. Hi, Mandi!)
http://brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com/1520669.html
http://brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com/1571702.html
http://brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com/1565840.html
http://brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com/1565955.html
http://brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com/1555991.html

[Also, I had to save this somewhere...]
brightlotusmoon: (Snow White Blood Red Light Pale)
I stretched the hell out of my back and legs and arms. It was lovely. I did it my way. I am very pleased and very satisfied. I won't discuss the various burning barbed wire pains that are distracting me even through the codeine, but I will talk about the beautiful meditative exercises I've been working with. Peaceful, serene, tranquil, calm, relaxing, refreshing, fantastic in multiple ways. The scene always changes, but always appears Zen in some way.
I had mentioned that my human coping mechanisms, my spirit guardians, had begun communicating with each other deep in my brain without my conscious knowledge, which leads me to believe that parts of my brain are starting to come together as part of the story, as my unlimited imagination and writerbrain is starting working on a whole new, amazingly unique, private story all on its own. No wonder I have been working on Amber's story beyond these bits of my brain. Amber has also given me free reign to write her as a fully developed character and not just a created coping mechanism.
In general, I am just... very happy.
And the funny thing is that I am in a depressive episode. I have all the symptoms, and I am quite conscious and aware. But I have things that are helping distract me: Talking about my imagination and my creativity, talking about the triggers for my panic attacks and my simple seizures, talking about comedy TV shows and powerful fiction books. Somehow it all is able to keep the major depression away, although it is a very intense fight. Sometimes I find myself weak and struggling, even physically, as thoughts of worthlessness and hopelessness, frustration and terror, pessimism and guilt all slam into me and my wall and my shell.
I suppose I could say I am happy. I feel happy.
But... what is happiness?
"Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy." Sure, I feel those things. However, there is a strong undercurrent of the exact opposite.
Brains, man. Brains are wild. Brains are weird. Brains are so complex. One day, I want to have an MRI and see exactly what my brain is doing. I want to sit with multiple brain specialists for hours on end, and just... talk. I want to talk about my brain.
Brains, man.
brightlotusmoon: (Snow White Blood Red Light Pale)
You guys, I amaze myself. I've been writing helter skelter all over the place: Novel, stories, novellas, blogs, facebook, notebooks with various pens, everywhere... in the middle of a postictal migraine and insanely horrific agonizing chronic pain flare-up following recovery from a panic attack. If I didn't have a computer or paper I might write on the walls. I hurt so badly I have no idea what I'm doing. I feel half fire and half water. Wild and raging, and all I want is a crackling bonfire and a rushing river.
I doctored up a photo of myself and it came out half gold light and half blue light. It looks inhuman. But part of me adores it so much. My face is two different parts. I am two entities in one. When I burn, I am cool. When I am cool, I burn. It is ying yang, dragon phoenix, up and down, left and right, I don't even know. I don't speak out loud except to my cats, I just speak through Story. So much Story inside me.
That rock. That rock that my husband gave me, the rock that he held while standing in Room 217 of the Stanley Hotel, in which Stephen King wrote "The Stand" and used as an inspiration for "The Shining". That rock is still next to my laptop. I am covered in words. I am filled up with Words. I may disappear into Story. I may not even see the world until I have to.
Is this what it is like to live in the land of the Fae and then come back to the land of humans?

jowitchzen2

Maybe it was the super moon. Maybe it is the heat from the sun now. Maybe it is anything.
brightlotusmoon: (Snow White Blood Red Dragon Witch)
"Only Glass"

It was shortly after she had woken to the sound of glass breaking that she began to investigate. It was two in the morning on a Sunday – or Saturday night, still, technically. She sat dangling her feet over the side of the bed, stretching and slowly preparing to move more fluidly. She took the metallic blue cane that was always propped against the wall next to her nightstand. She kept canes in various rooms for that sort of reason. Her husband was away on business again. People might say that a young disabled woman home alone should never go out at night. Those people were background static. She had been born like this and it had never stopped her.
Slowly, she dressed fully: socks, panties, jeans, bra, tee shirt. Hiking style pull on boots. Her arms shook a little from the spastic hypertonia. She considered at least bringing a couple of daggers. Of course, if it wasn’t a physical kind of danger, the daggers would be somewhat useless. She grabbed a charoite wand and a black tourmaline wand and put them in her back pocket. Next to the daggers.
The sounds had come from well outside the house, so she turned on the hall light, went casually downstairs, and unlocked the door.
Taking a deep breath, she said out loud and mentally, “I am armed in both manners. I am willing to face you. If you represent a threat, you must understand what I will do to you.”
In the utter silence, the sound of glass breaking came through much louder and much closer.
In her front yard.
She opened the door, hands at her sides, right palm open to the wind while her left hand kept a firm grip on the rubber head of the cane. The glass-breaker seemed to hesitate.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said verbally and mentally. “I don’t need the cane all the time. Now. You woke me up. But you haven’t disturbed my cats yet. So you may just want something. I’m willing to talk.”
The leaves on the maple tree in her yard rustled. The entity made the sound of a wine glass striking a wood table and materialized.
“Ah,” she smiled. “It’s just you again.”
brightlotusmoon: (Fae Dragon Alien)
Oh, those little moments, those brief windows of choice and chance...

I took the bus to the Redland Road shopping center, walked to the post office to drop off a care package for an online friend, and walked back into the shopping center to get an eyebrow wax at Karen's Salon. As I walked past Hair Cuttery, I figured it was time for a new look. I asked for a mix of Redken's Cappucino and Maple, a light and dark brown. The wonderful lady who took care of me suggested light, textured layers at the ends of my hair instead of my usual standard blunt straight trim. Biting my lip really really hard, I went for it. She flat ironed my hair, which had never been done, and then I held my breath as the scissor and comb gently fluttered through my ends. The results were stunningly astounding. I gave her a large tip.
I posted photos to Facebook and received so many compliments that my little ego flailed trying to figure out how many ways to say "thank you." People's jaws were dropping through comments like "Stunning!!" and "WOWZA" and "Rawr!" and "It really flatters you and it really brightens you! It really perks you up! Your features and gentle skin tone really stand out! Fantastic color! Layers take getting used to, but you add so much body when you add them in!!! I think you look incredible!"
And then... Naamah said this: "You look like a brilliant and tough librarian about to go on some crazy time-travel fairy-tale totally awesome journey. AWESOME look."
And it took off from there. And now the seeds of a story are planted not only in my head, but in Naamah's head. I'm going to scratch out a quick, simple outline, and someday actual flesh out a story, but it will happen.

The first photo that planted the story seed.



The next photo, which made me consider whispering, "I know all your secrets. I can see into your soul."



The last photo, which featured a voiceover by a witchy librarian.


"Why yes, the bizarre and arcane and occult books are here in this section. I must warn you: Some of them are hostile toward new people in our library. That's why I'll be coming with you. Only magic practicing librarians can handle the really strong books."
Oh, my jewelry? Nothing major. That's a ring of round lepidolite stones around a silver nickel pentacle with a round clear quartz stone, and the other is a round charoite stone that I can spin. And the other necklace has an amber cabochon in a pentacle circled by an ouroboros; the pendant behind that is a vermeil lotus mandala butterfly pentacle charm. I'm a soul healer and a dimensional seer; the stones help me see things beyond the veil that most people are never aware of. That's why the other librarians call me the Moonlight Witch. Oh, don't touch that book. It's skittish and full of languages that humans were never meant to comprehend. If you tell me exactly what you're looking for, I can open it and translate for you."

Two new photos, which my Facebook friends are raving over for some reason.

Posing with paintings by my father and my husband.
librarianwitch


A less shaky version.
librarianwitch2

"Just your friendly magic practitioner librarian in a library that holds portals to various worlds, realms, dimensions, and universes. Can I help you find something? I specialize in the interdimensional metaphysical magic section. The children's room there is probably the simplest place to start."

Stories come from everywhere. Just keep looking.
brightlotusmoon: (Default)
Well, shit.
I feel another depression episode starting to happen.
Hate this. Hate hate hate.
Then again, I am a week away from my menses. But I can't blame that entirely.
Stupid self. Stupid body. Stupid brain. Fuck you, every part of me.
I want to cry. But the Soma and Flexeril has made me too relaxed. Pain is eased, anxiety is eased.
But you know when you can feel that heavy darkness creeping in, jaws open, talons clicking, eyes glowing. I don't want to eat. I don't want anything. Thinking of sleep makes me shiver, but I don't want to be awake,
I have an appointment with my pain specialist tomorrow, or rather one of the main nurses, and I will mention this.
Loved ones keep asking about the novel and the short stories. When will I finish writing anything? Will I submit anything else that might not get rejected? I cannot think about that without crying. I wrote pages and pages of something, and it might be a story, it might be a chapter. I will edit it later this week.
My cats adore me. My husband adores me. He will be home from out of state jobs tomorrow, or the day after, or who knows. It's always a surprise. It's hours and it's money. Bills will be paid. We miss each other, but we've been doing this for over twelve years, it's routine.
I need to meditate. My head feels so dark. Time for Klonopin and deep breathing exercises.
Fibromyalgia and spastic hypertonia are ruining me. I feel punched and stabbed in the gut by fire and stone and electricity. I can't cry.
I will hug my cats and my pillow pets, and I will brush my hair until my scalp releases endorphins, and I will read books, and I know I am loved.
My muscles are so stiff and sore and it is so hard to speak with the mild dysphasia, so I write and write.
I know this will fade soon, this will end. I will make it better. I need to care about things, I need to want to do things. I need to remember I am a beautiful soul. I am writing this now, so I can look back and remember, before a seizure strikes and I think I am falling all the way down, dirt in my mouth and glass in my skin. I will medicate. I will meditate. I will supplement. I will do everything I can. My brain will gradually soothe itself. I will help it. I have to. Poor sick brain, poor demolished neurons, poor damaged body, and it could be worse, and it could be so much worse, and I know that forever. So I push on and on, and I do everything I can to love, love, love.
Just love.

I am sorry about this. I swear I will blog about happy shiny things as soon as I can.
brightlotusmoon: (Default)
http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/753596.html
I need to remember this. I really, really, really need to remember this.
brightlotusmoon: (Default)
"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive. To them... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off...
They must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating."
--Pearl Buck
US novelist in China (1892 - 1973)
brightlotusmoon: (Default)
My brain is sort of fuzzy today. It is raining and gray outside. I barely got work done on the book yesterday. I needed a shower and rest. My knees ache too much, but they always ache. Although, I discovered a skin cream that takes the pain away for a while. I found out that if I rub it into my hands, the muscles in my left hand unclench, and the trappings of cerebral palsy fall away for just a little while. It's a vegan cream with very organic ingredients. The cream contains tamanu oil, helichrysum oil, rose oil, and sea buckthorn oil, which might explain the CP release. Those oils are good for pain, inflammation, muscle aches, and nerve and muscle pain.

I've been reading Sandman: Book Of Dreams which is a collection of short stories inspired by, and about, Neil Gaiman's Sandman stories. Gaiman edited it, and Tori Amos wrote the afterward. The preface is one of the most brilliant essays I have ever read. It makes me think of college, and literature professors. Even if you don't buy the book, pick it up and read the preface. Here's most of it.
I read the book years ago, but I remember not liking it much because it wasn't Neil Gaiman. Now I have a deeper appreciation. After all, Gaiman would only choose the best of authors to write about his creations.
And Barbara Hambly's "Each Damp Thing" still scares the everliving crap out of me. You want nightmares, read that story. Damn, she is good. Now I want to visit Dream's palace (but I don't ever want to see that mirror).

I must get past this block. It's not distraction -- far from it, even though I browse online every night -- but it's more stagnation. They are there, in my head. I can see them. But the words will not come. The story is there, so where are the words? I have been writing this novel for seven years, and I can usually make the words crawl across the screen even if I am exhausted.
This is why I am frustrated that I cannot find answers on whether or not certain epilepsy drugs interfere with a creative person's ability to think and express words. I'm worried that the Trileptal is taking away my words. I'm not sure how to explain this to the doctors. If I do switch medications, the next drug might do the exact same thing. I need more epileptic writer friends. I need someone who understands.
Who understands here?

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