My Mother and Reality

My Mother has been sick for two weeks. She is 96 years old and lives in a rest home fifteen minutes from me. She has lived there for three years after living in the house my Father built for 56 years.

A week ago my phone rang at 1 am to tell me that my Mother was hallucinating. This has happened before when she is sick. Normally, when she is not sick, she has very little working memory but she is lucid and quite with it in the present. She always knows who I am and I trust her judgement as long as she doesn't have to remember anything past thirty seconds.

My Mother is a vibrant woman who fully appreciates her life. But when I arrived at her room at 1:15 am, she was restless and confused. I realized quickly that she was operating from a different time and place. I have learned that when a person is hallucinating, it is not helpful to tell her/him that what they see or feel or hear or believe is not true. It is much more helpful to enter the world they think they reside in, because they are more likely to understand and make sense of that world.

My mother was agitated. "I have to get back to my own bed," she told me.

"Mom, this is your bed." (Okay, I started with reality, but not for long).

"kj," she said firmly, "Now you know my bed is downstairs. And these men in the room. I 'm not staying here with strange men. Two of them are in this bed. I am not going to have people talking about me."

I want my Mother to safely stay in the bed she is in--her bed. "Mom, those men are going to sleep in the bed downstairs. You and I can stay in this room alone for the night. They're leaving any minute."

"Oh good," she says.

A few minutes later, "Should I heat the chowder now?"

"No," I say. "Let's wait."

"Oh, Okay."

And, "Those men have a nerve just showing up like this. They probably expect me to fix breakfast for them. I could be mad about it."

"I'll help you fix breakfast, Mom."

"Oh, okay. You are such a good daughter."

This exchange took place a week ago. Since then my Mom has been lucid and then not lucid. She has some kind of virus and she is sick and weak, mostly in bed, not eating. This morning the wonderful nurse at the rest home called me first thing and told me my Mother said she is sure she is dying. She asked the nurse and two aides if they were angels, asked them if she was already in heaven or still alive.

I hightailed it to the rest home. "I've never felt so sick," my Mother told me. "Do you think I'll make it?"

"Definitely, Mom. It's just the flu. You're getting better."

"Really?" she asked me.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"I'll be glad when my head feels right. And what's wrong with me?"

"You're sick with the flu and besides that, when a person is older and they're sick, they can see and hear things that aren't there. It will be okay, Mom."

My Mother smiles.

Later, she asks me where 'our' mother is. I hesitate. I'm not sure what to say.

"Mom, it's me, kj. I'm your daughter." and then, "Mom, do you know how old you are?"

"I'm close to a hundred, aren't I?" A lightbulb goes off. She realizes if she is that old, her mother is not around.

"You're 96."

She smiles again. "I still have a ways to go."

"Yes," I say. "Most definitely."

My brother cannot bear to see my Mother this way. Myself, I'm glad to know how to calm and comfort her. And another thing I'm glad about: when she mixes her past with her present, I feel like she is sharing some authentic part of her life that I haven't known before. I find myself playing different roles with her, responding to her questions about where her car is parked or does she have bread to make sandwiches or how will she get to Aunt Betty's party. I tell her, not necessarily as her daughter, that her car is parked outside and she doesn't have to fix lunch today because she is sick and Aunt Betty is canceling the party until she feels better.

"Oh, that's good." I like hearing my Mother say that. She believes me and she puts her head back on her pillow.

I've always believed that time is not linear; that the past and present and future all exist collectively, all reside within us as us.

Maybe this is one reason I am able to accept my Mother's reality; in addition to the very simple fact that I love her, and it is my honor to help her find her way.

love

kj

Animal Wednesday: Emily Rabbit in New York and a Letter from Uncle Bunny

Dear Emily.

This is your uncle Bunny. I am writing from Hollywood where I am still working with Steven Tyler while he is doing American Idol. I am helping him match his clothes and stay out of trouble, neither of which are easy, especially since he likes to put stripes and even plaids together, not to mention that he wears long earrings that too often get caught in his floppy hats. You might remember that I met him when he and I were both in rehab, him for drugs and me for my addiction to radishes. And speaking of addictions, we have to talk about you and your jellybeans. I think it is out of control.

But first let me tell you your Aunt Fluffy was 100% right about Jennifer Lopez: she is not smart at all and she is mean to all the stage people and i have sadly discovered especially to rabbits. Steven needed some dark purple nail polish and I made the mistake of borrowing some from Jennifer’s dressing room and she made a federal case of it. Steven told me it is now okay if I swear at her under my breath if she bothers me again and so far I have said eight different swears on four occasions in three different languages. It was easier to work with Janis Joplin, that’s for sure, because she just told people to ____off. Steven is too nice so he just rolls his eyes ad he swears under his breath too.

Emily, I have recently learned that you are currently working in New York City. I won’t tell you who told me but i know you are the one lone rabbit on the Carousel in Bryant Park and I am not comforted by the fact that there is one lone cat also besides you, among all those horses with the giant teeth.

For one thing, you are too young to being working and for another I don’t think you have the maturity or the temperament to work with the public. I order you not to bite anyone no matter what. This is especially true for anyone under six years old. You made the foolish decision to let children ride on your back in a public park--and for what, more jellybeans?, not to mention that you should not have spent that bail money on gummies no matter how good a deal they were--and now you must deal with little sticky fingers and maybe even being pinched.

I am also ordering you to keep your paws to yourself and do not borrow or take anything that isn't yours from the children or their parents. This includes wallets, watches and lunch bags.

The New York Police Department will not be lenient with you, Emily. There do not have much experience with rabbits and they especially don’t like crimes against children. Your mother and I have enough worries trying to get your father released from the National Institute of Health. He is still there involuntarily although he has been promoted to unit manager, which means he has a larger cage, more carrots and an extra hour of free sniff time every day.

Now, about your obsession with jellybeans. If you could just sneak into someone’s garden, get yourself a good supply, and hop off, that would be one thing but you have to have money for jellybeans and that is where the trouble starts. I learned in rehab that money is the radish root of all evil but I think jellies and gummies are worse.

I am proud of your enterprising spirit in starting the Green and Mean Avocado Company but have you thought about the damage frozen avocados can make if they accidentally hit a nice person instead of a mean one? I think you should stick with frozen peas and frozen grapes. I would also like you to consider a brief stay at the Jellybean Canyon Treatment Center here in LA. I will make the arrangements and I promise you a new bikini and rubber flappers that you can use at cape cod when you get out.

How did you get to New York anyway? Why aren't you in school? Your Mother contacted Mr. O'Hare and he told her you are attending school everyday wearing a head scarf and burqua; he said you told him you are doing that in honor of international women’s rights, which everyone knows doesn't even sound like you. You probably think you are pretty clever having some bunny show up disguised as you in school, But didn't work my way up to be Janis Joplin’s road manager without knowing when someone is trying to pull my rabbit’s leg, so the jig’s up, Emily.

Please call me collect when you get this letter and we will make arrangements from there. Meanwhile, do not bite any one for any reason, not even their toss.

With love

Uncle Bunny

happy things

1. This is our yard in Provincetown, which we share with two other units and where I will be as often as possible.

2. A trim store in New York.

3, My Mother is sick with a virus that has had her in bed for a week. This afternoon I told her she looked cute anyway and she grins, "You're just saying that because someone said I look like you."

And yesterday she asked me how old she is. "96." I told her. "Gee," she said, again with a grin, "You're lucky I know who you are." (very true) ♥

4. New York City.

5. Twenty six years later, I would still choose her in a crowd.

6. And speaking of JB, she made it to Mood. Project Runway is one of our favorite TV shows and the designers are taken to Mood to buy their fabrics. JB could hardly contain herself.

7. And finally, this is old but too clever to pass up. Be aware of the next expected mergers so that you can get in on the ground floor. Watch for these consolidations:

1.) Hale Business Systems, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Fuller Brush, and W. R.Grace Co. will merge and become: Hale, Mary, Fuller, Grace.

2) Polygram Records, Warner Bros., and Zesta Crackers join forces and become: Poly, Warner Cracker.

3.) 3M will merge with Goodyear and become: MMMGood.

4.) Zippo Manufacturing, Audi Motors, Dofasco, and Dakota Mining will merge and become: Zip Audi DoDa.

5.) FedEx is expected to join its major competitor, UPS, and become: FedUP.

6.) Fairchild Electronics and Honeywell Computers will

become: Fairwell Honeychild.

7.) Knotts Berry Farm and the National Organization of Women will become: Knott NOW!

love

kj

Four Adoring Chicks in Manhattan

New York is a big city. The buildings are big. The convenience stores and salad bars are big. The prices are big and the fun is big.

for andrea

I am in the city for less than 24 hours. I am with three super women and we are gallivanting into late afternoon toward dinner. Marianne who has arrived barely an hour before from Holland takes us to 230 Fifth Avenue to a rooftop bar overlooking all of Manhattan.

We walk, we talk, we drink, we are amazed by the views of a skyline moving from dusk to dark.

credit to JB

We leave 230 Fifth and catch a cab to Soho. We are headed to a restaurant called Boom, which I mishear as Boob. :^) Soho is one of my favorite parts of New York New York. It is upscale and bohemian and even window shopping is interesting. We don't have time to do that, however: instead we eat and laugh and talk and eat and laugh and talk. A guy at the bar tries to pick me up and I am flattered in part because he has all his teeth and looks rather normal. JB tells him I am with her and he grins and tells her not to let me out of her sight. It's been a hefty while since anyone has come on to me and I quietly gloat.

We dunk our bread in perfect olive oil. We toast. Honestly I cannot believe that this is only the second time Marianne and I have spent "real" "in person" time with one another. She is a friend I now know well and the comfort level between us and among the four of us is obvious and lovely. We have met through blogging & live on different continents. And here we are, we four, settled in like long lost friends.

There is no other city like New York. I hope this photo shows the scale of it. Huge buildings. Bright lights. But not everywhere. We are traveling in a ten block radius around Times Square and Bryant Park and the Fashion District. Beyond this super sized area, there are charming neighborhoods and corner grocery stores with fresh fruit and fresh flowers set up outside.

In New York you can't be surprised if you happen to pass Sarah Jessica Parker on the sidewalk or stumble upon a department store window displaying the real deal all gold suit Elvis wore for his Vegas shows. The glitz is not phony.

New York has trees. Plenty of them: trees and parks and small tables and chairs strategically placed throughout the city.

Ah Marianne....

The next morning we meet at le pain quotidien for breakfast. I am glad to be able to recommend this place, thanks to Lori my special friend, and once again it does not disappoint. Breads and cheeses and Lo's butternut squash fritatta and large cappuccinos. We are in no rush and we linger.

We take pictures everywhere. Do you know already how much fun it is to be with people who also take pictures everywhere?

We walk. We will walk through Bryant Park and later JB will orgasmically find Mood from Project Runway on 36th Street. In a random grocery store, we will find a lunch buffet spread that is longer and larger and fresher than any of us have ever seen, even though it is probably just a bit above average for New York.

We will all say farewell by 1 pm. Goodbye Marianne kiss kiss. Goodbye lo see you soon kiss kiss. JB and I will head back to le pain quotidien for a final fruit tart and handleless cup of coffee before we too leave New York.

It was a grand time.

A Very Grand time.

♥

kj

ps. for more: http://mandarianne.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-york-part-i.html

New York & Friends: a tiny part 1

I have just spent 24 hours in New York City.

JB and I drove in to meet up with two great friends: dear dearest Marianne, who arrived by air from Holland and dear dearest Ms. Lo, battle fatigued from the Providence train station. Without a flinch I say for the hundredth time that New York is an incredible, oversized, one of a kind gorgeous, vibrant melting pot of a city.

We started late afternoon at a rooftop bar overlooking the Empire State Building and the Chrysler building and the Manhattan skyline, all blanketed in a deep dark blue sunset sky. We ate dinner in Soho, met up for the coziest breakfast on 40th Street, strolled into tree filled Bryant Park where we made a shocking discovery about Emily Rabbit (more on that later); darted through the fashion district to JB's orgasmic delight; and sadly sadly said goodbye to Marianne, who flew back to Europe, this time all of us knowing we will meet again, maybe even more of us, no longer wondering if but now wondering only when.

I have no good excuse for the fact that I ended up using four different cameras (don't ask), not to mention I am new to using IPhoto and my Mac laptop, so please bear with me while I figure out how to properly post the photo story of Four Adoring Chicks in Manhattan.

Meanwhile, here is a nibble of the city that never sleeps.

Thank you Lo, thank you Marianne, thank you JB, thank you le pain quotidien, thank you Bryant Park, thank you Boob (heehee), thank you Mood.

That I am able to most easily spend a night and a morning in the heart of New York City with delightful delicious company is something I will never take for granted.

More pix coming.

Love kj

Animal Wednesday: How I Got To the Green and Mean Avocado Company by Emily Rabbit

(If you have to squint to read this, it's kJ's fault. She cannot figure out how to enlarge the letters, even though she has fiddled with the template 20 times. Plus this probably looks too small and too long to read, but isn't reading it better than paying bills or cleaning the kitchen?)

I am not a fan of silence. I watch people trying to be polite and not get in trouble and honestly what is the fun of that, not to mention that who’s listening if you don’t say anything?

My name is Emily Rabbit and I am about eight years old except by now I might be older but either way I try to use my age as an advantage, which works about half the time and the rest of the time I try to blame someone else if I get in trouble, which happens more than it should since almost everything is not my fault.

I am currently on the run because I spent my bail money on gummy bears, which made alot of sense at the time but I admit it was not my best decision. I was in California in search of avocados. The reason for this is because I have a business plan that should assure me jellybeans for life.

I should tell you first that my ideas almost always come from watching most people not having enough fun because how could anyone have fun if they are worrying or snuffing down a good cry? i have tried my best to teach kj what to do when she is upset; it is not my fault that she is still doing something else.

As you may know already, what almost always works for me is to throw myself on the ground, kick my back legs high high in the air and move them in all directions while I wail deep deep deep from my stomach. Boohoohoohoohoobooboo I cry. Even if you still get in trouble I guarantee you will feel so much better afterwards.

The night of the church board meeting it was not my fault that I hit that whiny little girl in the face. I was preparing to sell her rabbit pellets disguised as multi colored jelly beans when some mean man told me no solicitors, whatever that means, and said I had to leave. I threw myself on the floor and that whiny girl walked right into my foot while it was still in the air. I am sorry she got a black eye but it was hard to have sympathy just listening to the way she cried. Anyway, I was not arrested but my opinion of church goers has not been the same since.

It’s true that I have been in jail once. Even my best crying didn’t help and thank god I ended up in a cell with three women who were nice to me and showed me how to open a lock without a key. One of them said she did tricks and of course I liked that because I don’t think people do enough tricks, unlike rabbits, who have fun even when they are doing long division and slow multiplication

This brings me to my very stressful trip to California. well, kind of: I should first tell you how the idea of the Green and Mean (International) Avocado Company came about.

Besides for throwing myself on the floor and kicking while crying from my stomach, i started throwing frozen peas when I was mad or upset. I would throw them at the back of kj’s garage but sometimes I would throw them at a mean person. I am a pretty smart rabbit, even though I’m little and innocent, and not just because my Uncle Bunny was Janis Joplin’s road manager, so imagine how things improved when I started using a shooter for the frozen peas?! I could really bop someone from a distance and let’s face it, a frozen pea is not going to leave a scar or even a big bump, so it was a good idea all around.

It was not my fault that I advanced to frozen grapes and then frozen Brussels sprouts.

So I was in California because I absolutely have to have my own money. I write a column on kj's blog, trying to give advice that people are just too serious to follow, that is not my fault either, but I am not paid enough; why should I be worrying about running out of jellybeans at my young age.

So I got this idea to freeze avocados to use for really really mean people. And then I heard on television about green businesses and first I thought, ‘Perfect! Avocados are green” but kj explained to me that that meant good for the environment, like you don’t waste anything if you can help it.

You’re thinking the same thing I was, aren't’ you? Yes! first you fling the frozen avocado but THEN you can recycle and reuse the pit and throw it too!!! The Green and Mean Avocado Company: I don’t mean to brag but really i don’t mind if I do because what a good idea, right?

So I am in Carpinteria California where kj’s friend Lori lives and I am tryng to figure out how to get several crates of avocados which should be easy since it’s the Carpinteria Avocado Festival. All I can say for now is isn’t it so mean that anyone would mind an innocent rabbit taking a few hundred avocados?

The police chief who never even asked me my age told me I could avoid jail If I paid $ 37 in bail money so of course I asked kj and first she said no but I knew she wouldn’t let me go to jail again after my first time so she sent me cash and now I am in more trouble but who could resist all those gummy bears especially when someone told me the police chief was on vacation for a week playing black jack in Lake Tahoe?

Even though I am in trouble with kj, who is threatening to withhold my blog money for a year, the Green and Mean Avocado Company currently has several orders for frozen avocados and I have business manager named Jos who lives in England. I think I have a graphic designer to help with advertising and Lori in Carpinteria is thinking about how we can get enough avocados to fill the orders. Not to mention I have a resident poet named Anne who I think will also agree to make marketing videos showing how to throw the avocados just perfectly. I need help with pricing: I think the madder the person is, the more they should pay, don’t you agree?

Do you think I will cause problems for myself if I arrange a demonstration at the Hadley Mall? And if I do cause problems, of course I will throw myself on the ground and start kicking first thing. You haven’t asked but I think this is what you should do too, the next time somebody is mean and especially if they tell you the jellybeans aren’t worth it.

Sincerely Yours,

Emily V.V. Rabbit

(Note from kj: Emily read this to a group of writers last night, making her 'out loud' debut. I have to admit they laughed their rear ends off and of course, now Emily has been strutting all day.) (sigh)

Renee

It's been two years since Renee died. I met her on the blogs and along with dozens and hundreds of other people, I am touched and transformed through knowing her. I don't say that lightly.

Renee started blogging for her family. She did this because she had stage IV cancer and she knew her blog would be a legacy. What she didn't know, or maybe she did, was how many people she would teach how to love. I don't say that lightly either.

Her blog is www.circlingmyhead.blogspot.com. Some rainy Saturday afternoon you might head there and 'meet' her yourself. You will find her fighting cancer ('those fucking bats') but so much more. You will find a family that for some incomprehensible reason was struck by cancer and loss and multiple deaths, to a point of impossibility even....and yet, you will find Renee, fully alive, teaching you about gods and goddesses and art and ohmygod courage.

Renee called me one day out of the blue. I was reeling from a horribly failed relationship and I was vulnerable. Renee knew the story, she knew, and she was screening some unsavory comments on her blog aimed in my direction. She never took sides: she just took stands but she didn't mince words or honesty either. She loved o swear. And, she convinced people, many many people, many people she had never met in person, that they were loved and special. I don't for the life of me know HOW she did that, so consistently, but I do know there are at least a hundred people she befriended here on the blogs that would testify that what I say is true.

I gave Renee a poem for her birthday. I wanted it to honor her, in her pajamas in Winnipeg, reaching out to people like me all over the world. I will never forget her. I will look for her right away when I find myself at the days beyond days. I think of her husband and her children and her grandchildren and I know that their loss is a million times greater than mine could ever be.

But, so too is their legacy. This woman Renee Khan could love like you just wouldn't believe.

Oh body!

How did you manage
To step aside,
To transport me to a different universe
Where divine intention
Heals my cells and quells my fears?
.
It's soaring sisterhood
across keyboard miles
leveling my fate,
carrying me past uncertainties
I don’t deserve but manage to don
With designer strength and magic words.
.
In my old pajamas
My bones so deep,
Still they find me, allign me,
Send me words and pictures
And mile-wide hearts,
These friends who travel
Beyond the plains, to reach me here.
.
Oh body!
When did I become so lovely
That in this place
I find community?
And how did I shed my form and frame,
To be recast the leading lady of honest words,
Love washing over me
Like summer rain?
.
When did I become this beautiful?
So wild with grace,
So perfectly shaped and shapen:
I have become myself,
Full and true and open wide,
Comment boxes signed xoxo,
Alphabet orgasms punctuated
with blazing art.
.
Oh body!
I’m walking here!
Don’t bother slowing down.
I am the oak Renee,
My branches wide from Japan to California--
They bend and stretch and reach,
Offering rest and reminder
That the world is rich
Simply and fully
Because of who I am.

On Renee’s 53^rd Birthday,

by kj with love

Blogging

I've been blogging for six years. I started with four followers, my big yellow fellow writers, then somewhat accidentally found a site called Illustration Friday where any artists or illustrators who want to will create and post something from a weekly prompt. I visited about ten of the artists I liked on IF and about 6 or gave me the courtesy of a visit back.

Today I have 143 followers, which means only that at one point 143 people were at my blog and at least initially liked what they saw. I have about 50 more- than- occasional visitors and I'd say between 20 and 25 regular visitors, some (many) of which are now friends not just visitors.

If I wanted to double the number of people who follow my blog I believe I could do that. The first thing I would do is start visiting other writers and other blogs, leaving comments on their posts. It'a not guaranteed, but the chances are good that someone I visit will visit me back.

I also would visit some of the people who leave comments I like on other blogs that I visit. That is how I have come to know and happily so Annie of Wine and Words. She is complicated, challenging, honest, and a hell of a writer and poet. I don't know where Wander has come from, but he is 34, 35 years old and he write these hard-earned poems that I love to read and comment on. And now, when Annie or Wander comment on my work, my posts, I am happy.

I might also search out artists and other interesting people. I would do all this with the understanding that if I do not visit and support the blogs of others, they will not likely visit and support me.

I screen to some degree. I always always appreciate anyone who comes to my blog, who takes the time. But not every connection sticks. this works both ways: there are a few bloggers I really enjoy but because they never come to my blog, I either forget or it's not a priority to go to their blog.

In the universe of possibility, know 100 followers, or 50 followers, or 25 followers is not much. But in my little universe, I am thrilled to have met the most wonderful inspiring people. Plus, My blog is like taking courses or going to college. I can't begin to comment on what I have learned.

I know so much more about Australia. (kiaakiss Hells). My poems and stories are cared about and treated tenderly, I get feedback! I have twice witnessed dying with such dignity . I have fallen in love and alas fallen apart. Discovered South Africa. Treated to the delights of gardening and cooking and photography (Lori!) and poetry and my paintings and illustrations and skellies and mandalas. Learned about paper clay and collage and micron pens and a zillion creative ideas of every kind imaginable. Found a friend for life (♥ Lo) and actually, I hope, several.

I regularly "talk" to and share and visit people very much like and very much unlike me from all over the world: Iran, Argentina, England, Oregon, British Columbia, India, Australia (even Perth: Hello Robyn!), Italy, The Netherlands, Florida, California, Malaysia, Indiana, Tennessee, Canada, the Philippines, Maryland, Oklahoma, Chicago, New England, France, Detroit......

.....I could go on.

I am writing this post on blogging because I have noticed a number of people lately who want to start blogging and are looking for the marketing and the science of it. My message is something different.

I say: Use blogging to meet some incredible people and make some incredible connections and learn and share something about yourself and others. That alone will be the most unique and gratifying reason to blog.

And if you want to expand your blog, think in terms of how much time you have to support the bloggers who will be supporting you.

And be real. That part is hard to fake.

Oh, and one more thing: Blogging a most wonderful world. It's intoxicating and exhilarating. My god the writers and artists and creative fantastic people I have met.

I can't wait to see the comments and takes on this!! :^)

Love

kj

A Writer's Best Friend

I wrote this in my Monday night writer's group. I was thinking about brevity and some of the things I've learned about the craft of writing. Because I haven't figured out spellcheck yet on my new laptop, I apologize in advance for any misspelled words.

Who the heck is the narrator in this poem? That may be the silliness of it all.

Love kj

Take me on vacation

I’ll toss a proclamation

I’ll show you how to flutter,

to mutter, to stutter,

I’ll astonish, admonish, and stew.

I know how to be bold

slicing through the ice cold

I’ll be here when your colors run dry.

I’ll tackle and spackle

fractile and cackle

Together we’ll casade into blue

I won’t let you down,

Even way across town

I’ll tilt and I’ll twist and I’ll rant

We’ll regret, we’ll beset, we’ll procure on a bet

Cast the wind, fall on sin, refuse to give in

and guess what, I’ll stand up with you.

I’m a friend, don’t you know

I make sentences blow

I reduce strength to whimper,

can embellish a temper,

rend hearts to a crimper

make sunsets look limper,

all this with the glide of guess who

Forget all those words

that describe the absurd

Not needed or deeded or grand.

For half of the price I’ll show you not nice

pontificate trice, slam and damn the whole alice

Squeeze the story inside a brown shoe.

Do you see me unbutton

the bone from the mutton?

Banish those fancies, abscond all those prancies,

hose adverbs as dandies

Obliterate adjectives, admonish the tranies:

Allow me to conjugate too.

But this once I except;

take my bow and my step.

I’ll allow one embellished like word

I deserve all this credit

With me there’s no debit

Because I’m absofuckinglutely a VERB!

Be Brave

What would it take for you to be brave enough to do one important thing?

Feel free to copy/paste this icon on your own blog if you'd like. It's a good reminder.

I know I should answer this question myself since I'm doing the asking, but my answer will have to wait a bit.

Love kj