A series of essays....
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| "HOW MANY ABANDONED DREAMS HAVE FLOWN OUT OF YOUR TURQUOISE WINDOW.......?" |
as seen through my eyes!
By: Jacqueline E. Hughes
THE WARMTH and softness of a lover’s kiss has become a blissful memory as you are left alone to collect your teardrops in a jar positioned on the nightstand beside the abandoned bed that once caressed entangled limbs with its cool cotton sheets. That was a lifetime ago; one gut-wrenching diagnosis ago. The tomorrows will continue to pull at your heartstrings.
HOW MANY abandoned dreams have flown out of your turquoise window that was once cheerfully painted by a starry eyed young man who carried his beautiful bride, draped in ancestral lace, over your threshold so many sunsets ago? I can still observe your stately beauty long before the landscape crept into your very soul, the creamy white stucco peeled away like ancient skin, and the acrid scent of peat fires filtered upwards through your clay chimney pots and out into the lush countryside beyond. I would not have allowed nature to reclaim you, my friend!
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| GRANDPARENTS |
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| PARENTS |
WE SHOULD never abandon the memories of the people, places, and things that have served to mold the spirit that thrives within us. Our ancestors are the rich reminders and historical landmarks that reside in our DNA, for better or worse, and the carriers of genetic information that we pass on into space and time, ad infinitum. Let us, gratefully, become the storytellers that enrich our future generations by helping to keep these memories alive and well.
WHAT FROSTY springtime morning blankets your brilliant crimson profile with a coat of ice crystals and teases the weary gardener to abandon his oasis of respite? The rich, dark shadow of a naked trellis drapes across your shoulder like a barometric shawl and indicates the possibility of the sun’s warmth as the day progresses. Life is good and carries a myriad of colorful surprises as the mystery of the season unfolds and star-struck gardeners take advantage of your comfort once again!
TO CHILDREN, parents, spouses, and more who consciously choose to create abandoned relatives from those who have loved them unconditionally, it must be asked, why? Emotional cutoff and avoidance are unhealthy coping mechanisms for dealing with anxiety and stress and will reflect upon the innocent grandchild, husband or wife, or grandparent as time goes by. Seeking a solution for all does not have to mean being exposed to negative confrontation. Rather, opening up lines of communication on a gradual scale may be a solution worth looking into if the estrangement initiator truly desires to include her loved ones back into her life and the lives of her family....
WHEN POLITICS bites us in the ass and abandons the welfare of the masses in order to provide incomprehensible wealth and prosperity for a privileged few while attacking the general principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community, the definition of democracy itself, it mocks all citizens it was set in place to represent. To forsake the principles by which we grew-up believing in would place us on the same level of our attackers. We must stay calm, carry on, and rise to the top once again. Future generations depend on us!
OFTEN, WE do not have a choice when it comes to determining which of our dreams we must abandon along our journey through this life while a pristine mountainside in Western North Carolina serves as a prime example of this. The twists and turns of a winding road reveal lush foliage, giant trees, and more purple mountains in the distance and was to snake-up to our ultimate hide-away made of split logs and chinking that would fill the breaths between the logs and the mountains that surrounded us. The year 2008 happened and, suddenly, the economic situation was not our friend. Kenmare, the name we had given to our future homestead in North Carolina, sadly, had to be abandoned.
Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E. Hughes
All rights reserved
Photo Copyright © 2019 by Jacqueline E. Hughes
All rights reserved
