August Blog Bash, Day 4 - Lana Phillips

Welcome to the Debut
of the August Blog Bash 2012!

I am very much excited and honored to be hosting this new feature series... and it is a great way to end the summer!  This Blog Bash is an impressive talent showcase of poets, artists, and writers/authors from all walks of life.  For each day of this month, one individual will be featured here on this blog, at Origami Lotus Stones, my Twitter (hashtag will be #augblogbash), my Facebook community page, and on my blog page on Writing Our Way Home.  Please be patient while I post on all platforms. 

**Please note that all authors/artists have given me permission to post their work on the following platforms/sites I have just mentioned.  Please do not plagiarize, modify, reproduce, or distribute any work without permission from the original authors/artists.  Thank you!**

If you are interested in participating in this Blog Bash, feel free to check out the details here.

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Today's Feature:  Lana Phillips

"Looking Up and Letting Go" is simply a poetic mantra.  I can't describe it any better than that.  I remember when I first read this, I was almost in tears just because I needed to read something like this every so once in a while.  The reader does not have to be wrapped up in any poetic elements, but just simply in the conviction of these words.  Both the balance of self-love and the love of others are important as described in this poem.  This poem is like the author's own version of the Serenity Prayer and the Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, but I love how the repetitive use of "I" statements creates that acceptance and realistic optimism of moving forward and letting go.

To Blossom or Not To Blossom?

 "And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud became greater than the risk it took to blossom." --Anais Nin

I was an English major, so I guess it's no surprise that sometimes I phrase questions in Shakespeare-verse.  But let me explain this sudden transition into a different, more literary prose.  I am taking Jess Morrow's Invincible Summer writing e-course, and this prompt challenged me to try something new--well, maybe not new, but something I hadn't brought into this part of my life.

You may or may not know that reading is what has sustained me throughout all the ups and downs of my life.  Even before I found writing as a way to see the world differently, I read as a way to see the world throughout other people's eyes.  I learned to look outward through others' eyes, not my own.  I saw the world through their eyes and thought that my own way of looking and seeing was somehow not as important as that of Anais Nin, Shakespeare, or even Ray Bradbury (who passed away yesterday at the age of 91--rest in peace).  So I read.  And I kept reading.  I learned the art of empathy long before the first time I interacted with a hurting soul by reading and empathizing with the hurt I read about.

Then I got lost in the pain of real hearts, real souls, real spirits--even my own.  It hurt.  It hurt much more than it had ever hurt when I read stories.  I started to carry the pain, but when the pain got much too difficult to bear, I withdrew.  I went about my work the same way, but suddenly something was missing.

After pulling myself back from it all and taking a badly-needed break to deal with everything I had taken on, I finally know what I need to do.  It's time to reach out again.  It's time to get involved with the hurting souls again.  It's time to be a part of the world and do my part to heal it.  Through that reaching out, my soul will blossom.  My spirit will grow light again.  And my heart will carry healing to others.

Phillips' perspective of reading and writing is perhaps not unusual to many of us, but what I really admire about this beautiful prose is how Phillips made the startling discovery of the "art of empathy" and noted the cycles of her own "ups and downs" in her life, which is something we all struggle with in life.  In telling us that she is breaking out from her own world to "carry healing to others" is a courageous statement, but to Phillips, this is her way "to blossom" even if she gets hurt along the way.  Sometimes the gift of pain and suffering is a way for not only human communication but also for human connection, a part of the human experience that binds and ultimately heals us.

Such thought-provoking work, Lana!  Thank you so much for sharing and being one of the contributors!

(NB:  Text arrangement on MS PowerPoint by Kathy Uyen Nguyen.  Please note that graphics/text will be in this format.)

To check out more of Lana's work, you can click on the following links:

The Sad Cafe Community (blog)
The Sad Cafe Community (Facebook)

Please do promote this new feature on Facebook, Twitter, etc.!  Thanks so much for all the support!  And look, my blog now has buttons (see below) to make your life easier!  Come back tomorrow for a new artist/author feature!