The Color of Life

 

 

 

Like Louis

 

I see 

 

 

What color is your world?

What Are You Thinking About?

 

Original photos on my Instagram page:

Les Dames D'abord

Are You OK?

 

Just listen.

 

And if you've already heard it

 

listen again.

 

Are you OK?

 

                                             Do you have a faith

that will help you 

 

sing

"The Keep Going On Song?"

 

If you don't

 

that's OK.

 

Just keep going until

 

you find it.

 

 

Listen quietly to the softness of your

 

life

 

 

pick up the spills

 

 

 

and watch yourself change

into 

 

a new creation that 

 

you never expected you'd be.

 

 

It takes faith to even

 

hope 

it takes hope to even

 

believe

that you are loved

 

beyond your own understanding.

 

 

Keep going.

 

B A C K S T A G E

 

Unless 

 

you've been backstage for a performance

 

 

 

you will never know 

 

what goes into the staging

 

of

 

a person's story.

 

 

As the curtain of 2020 has risen

we have seen 

 

resilience, collaboration, innovation

 

as well as

 

defeat, division and personal loss.

 

You can be in line at the gas pump

 

or in the parking lot of a home improvement store

 

and a complete stranger will have no problem

 

insulting you

 

lashing out - even threatening you

 

or 

 

breaking down in front of you.  

You never know what has gone on

B A C K S T A G E 

for 

 

a performance as such.

That is why I've changed course.

 

From the political scene to the pandemic

 

I observe from my theatre seat

 

and I wonder and I weep

 

but all it took was for

 

one man

in his mid-70s

 

standing in front of me in line 

 

buying bottled water

to rant 

 

about the closure of his business

 

to question my use of a mask and goggles

and then to

I read his script.

 

 And the uncanny thing about it is

it 

 

was my script.

 

The muffled words sucking in and puffing out 

 

from behind his mask,

 

"I'm so sorry but it's been so hard. I'm losing everything. I deeply apologize" 

were like a tinnitus in my ears

that resonated his pain with mine.

 

His admission ticket of humility 

 

wasn't for a seat for the final act

but 

 

for entrance into the darkness 

 

of 

 

the corridors 

 

of 

 

our humanity.

 

 

 

 

In April

I'm learning

how to garden again.

While listening to one of my students

read his personal memoir draft


the 

teaching experience quickly

reversed roles.

Suddenly

I was looking at 

a newly blossomed  bouquet

emerge on its own

while 

I merely stood in the background.

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

In April

I'm learning once again

that 

You can't force

a tiny seed to grow

in the soils of the growing field.

You feed it.

You allow it 

the space of light

then before you know it

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

rose petals 

fall from the sky.

How Do You Graciously Say Good-bye

 

to someone you love 

but who's

out-stayed their welcome?

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

 With flowers, of course.

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

 Because

now it's time to prepare

for 

a new house guest

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

whose arrival is extolled on every 

street corner

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

and in every 

celestial - earthly place.

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

Preparations are intense

as we greet the most fleeting

yet most 

profound season

that comes 

THEN

in the blink

of

a heart beat

takes 

your breath away.

anita pelayo rivera

To be

vulnerable

is to be

brave.

It sounds lovely

and 

we'd all agree 

that's the way 

to be.

But have you ever wondered how

a rose bud's roots feel

in the chilling chamber

of 

January?

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

If she's ambitious

she's furious

when her plans to gracefully 

unfurl

shrivel under the demands 

of building up 

resilience. 

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

Is she cold?

Or does she reach down for earth's

dark blanket

to embrace the blush 

that will be the rush of her outrageous reality?

Only time will strike 

at the right moment

of her debut.

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

 I'm experimenting with Photoshop Layers

and

this year's goal is to submit 

my heART to 

Bella Grace Magazine -

in other words,

a portion of my memoirs

and a maybe a few photos.

What daring goal do you have for 2019?


 

The First Kiss

from a Minnesota January

is 

slow and still.

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

However

the ambiance slightly changes

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

when I decide I'm simply going to

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

and illuminate the barren landscape

as I wait

to be embraced by the caress of spring

and the heat 

of summer's passions.

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

Be kissed by a rose. 

Follow my Instagram page Les Dames D'abord to see my progress 

with my new camera. Cards and prints to be available later this year. 

Away

I am October

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

and I whisper tails of light

in

the wind. 

 

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

 You will hear me weep

and

you will hear me 

roar.

Then, I will spread gems

of ruby red

and

burnished gold

for you to

behold

but for only 

an instant

until I come again

and 

sweep us both 

away.

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

Just Listen

to what you see.

  Fix your eyes

on what you 

hear.

  Do you taste 

the backward syncopation 

of 

  your life's choreography?

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

Does the primeval perfume of the sea

wash over you

does the acrid taste 

of 

of a single rose petal dropping to earth

move you?

Feel the stars on your fingertips

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

and 

shine light years

on

someone's life.


  Dedicated to my mother

Grace

long gone

but who loves me still

beyond 

the light years of time.

Après un Rêve

The world needs a fairytale

and

this weekend

somewhere around the world

in 

your hometown

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

and in mine

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord

 someone's love bled 

in praise 

for a forever love

for a child

for a forgotten soul

even for 

an enemy.

I don't know about you

but I know

this is what I was meant to do:

To dream

and to love 

it all out

then witness what happens

after a dream

anita pelayo rivera les dames d'abord