Time To Say Goodbye

Summer is the season that is most difficult for me because it ws in August 2017 that I lost my husband and soul mate Martin. However, after that I looked to find ways to make the transition easier and the grief less hard to bear. I found many helpful sites online that gave me encouragement to go on.

The best thing that has helped me is that I am very sensitive to the world beyond and have a sixth sense so I often find ways to contact with those who have passed on. This sensation was inherited from my whole family because they all had the possibility of contacting with spirits.

After my husband passed on I had the opportunity to contact with him up above. At that time I discovered several things among them even if you wanted to join your mate right away in the afterlife you could not do it because you still have a life path to follow, what we as the living see up above is similar but not totally how those who have passed on see things, life is good up above and there are even the four seasons and many other things we cannot even imagine. For those of you who have pets and wonder about what happens after they leave us I can tell you that you will see them up above as well.

Finally to help others with the transition I wrote an article for Medium about celebrating and remembering the life of a loved one, I have included the link here.

https://rasmasandra.medium.com/celebrating-and-remembering-the-life-of-a-loved-one-a0eb58167445

#afterlife, #celebrating-the-life-of-a-loved-one

Catcher In The Rye

Author J.D. Salinger is an American author best known for his novel “The Cather In The Rye” which was published in 1951. You can read more about this author in my article, following the link I have provided.

Catcher in the Rye

#catcher-in-the-rye, #j-d-salinger

Nobel Prize In Literature

Famous writer John Steinbeck’s first great success came with his novel “Tortilla Flat” which was published on May 28, 1935. It told the story of a group of friends enjoying life and wine at the end of the Great War. It was made into a movie in 1945 starring Spencer Tracey and Hedy Lamarr.

Steinbeck was born in California and later on moved to New York. There he worked as a manual laborer and journalist. During this time he wrote his first two novels. After he got married in 1930 he and his wife moved back to California. Finally financial success came with “Tortilla Flat” describing the adventures of drifters sharing a house in California.

His next novels were “In Dubious Battle” and “Of Mice and Men”. Both were a success. Then Steinbeck came out with his masterpiece in 1938 it was “The Grapes of Wrath”. It told the story of an Oklahoma family who had lost their farm and had become fruit pickers in California. This impressive novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. I remember struggling with it in my English literature class and was extremely grateful that Hollywood had made a movie out of it starring Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell.

After WWII Steinbeck’s other novels included “Cannery Row” and “The Pearl”. “Cannery Row” became a movie in 1982 starring Nick Nolte and Debra Winger. He is also known for writing some successful films such as “Forgotten Village” and Viva Zapata!” After becoming interested in marine biology Steinbeck published a nonfiction book “The Sea of Cortez” in 1941. For those of you as inquisitive as I am, the Sea of Cortez is also known as the Gulf of California. The writer made a trip across the U.S. in a camper and records his adventure in a travel memoir titled “Travels with Charlie”. Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. He died in New York City in 1968.

#john-steinbeck, #literature, #nobel-prize-in-literature, #the-grapes-of-wrath

Author Interview

In response to @dancinglightofgrace here are my answers to your questions

1. Actually I did not start out to blog. It was in 2000 when I first realized all the possibilities of wring online and had not fully comprehended the meaning of making money online. I found a site called Buzzel where I could writ about any topic and get my voice heard. So I started expressing myself by writing various articles. It was also the site I firet posted poems on and was happy to get a favorable response. From there I moved onto another site called HubPages where I still writ to this day. Here I was informed I could make some money but I have never made any but have been satisfied anyway because it is a good platform for my poetry. After all of this the light dawned that I could create my own blogs through WordPress and that was when I began blogging. Today on WordPress I have a poetry blog, a armchair travel blog, an animal blog, and on Blogger I have a music blog. I am including a link here to my poetry blog.
   https://nothingbutpoetry.wordpress.com/2021/02/20/wildest-dreams/
   Over the years so many poem have been written that I have two self-published books of poems on Amazon – Poetic Thoughts Fly and On the Wings Of Love and here is a link to my author page which will give you more information about me and my books,
   https://smile.amazon.com/Ms-Rasma-Sandra-Raisters/e/B07BD1YWRW/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
2. Besides blogging I enjoy reading, drawing and coloring, and listening to music. However, there often seems to be less time for the things I really enjoy because I am also hard at work being a content writer and freelancer but I find it helps to listen to music as I work.
3. I think my mission in life is make others happy with my writing and write things that they enjoy reading, Making money with my writing is an added bonus.
4. At present I live in Daytona Beach, Florida,
5. I found Blogger’s World through WordPress and subscribed to the emails and found I enjoyed what others wrote and what I found so I was only more than happy to become a writer on Blogger’s World as well.
6. I enjoy reading series of books like the Lucky series of books by Jackie Collins and also the Bones series of books by Kathy Reichs. I have a wide range of books i enjoy including classics like “Little Women” and “Pride and Prejudice.” Since I am fluent in both English and Latvian I also have some favorite books in Latvian I enjoy reading. At present I am reading a biography about Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury.
   My writing keeps my imagination dancing and I always attempt to keep the child in me alive which provides me with a lot of inspiration for both my writing and poetry. The photo is of me at the age of 3 with my favorite beach ball.

An Artist Inspires

I have always thought that poetry and art go hand in hand. The artist paints what he sees on his canvas and the poet paints what he sees with his words. I was inspired by the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent Willem van Gogh to write a poem dedicated to him. Afterward, I also wrote about this artist and have included a link to my article here. A tribute to this artist would not be complete without the wonderful composition by Don McLean “Vincent.”

Beauty In Art

An artist not always understood,
painting by candlelight you knew,
there was inspiration to be had,
in that golden glow.
The world never understood you,
breaking your fragile heart and soul,
madness was a pattern,
a way to hide away,
when you were misunderstood.
It was a strange thing,
to be living yet have a tombstone with your name,
all these things were but a game,
it was your art that made you what you were
and art that saved you from fading away.
You may have lived in your own world,
but your paintings uncovered what was beneath,
you left the world as quickly as you came,
but left behind your lovely inner self,
in the paintings that were to be admired.
And yes, Vincent perhaps you were too beautiful for the world,
that you lived in,
but each starry, starry night,
I can raise my glass of wine
and express my admiration,
for the art that now adorns many a wall.

©R.Raisters

The Awesome Work of Van Gogh

#art, #artists, #vincent-van-gogh

Nobel Prize For Literature

On September 5, 1958 the romantic novel “Dr. Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak was published in the U.S. The book had been banned in the Soviet Union but still won the Nobel Prize for Literature that same year.

Boris Pasternak was born in Russia in 1890 and by the time the Russian Revolution broke out he had become a well-known avant-garde poet. His work was frowned upon during the 1920s and 1930s when under the communist regime Joseph Stalin put strict censorship on Russian art and literature. It was during this time that Pasternak made a living as a translator.

The novel that would make Pasternak known the world over was completed in 1956. “Dr. Zhivago” is an epic love story set during the time of the Russian Revolution and WW I. Soviet officials were angered by the novel stating that it romanticized the pre-Revolution Russian upper class and degraded peasants and workers who fought against the czarist regime. When the official Soviet press refused to publish the novel Pasternak found admirers who were willing to secretly smuggle the manuscript out of Russia bit by bit.

By 1958 “Dr. Zhivago” had been published and translations began appearing all around the world. The novel became an instant classic. When it came time for Pasternak to receive the Nobel Prize the Soviet government wouldn’t allow him to do it and banished him from the Soviet Writers’ Union. This action ended the writing career of Pasternak. He died of cancer and heart disease in May 1960.

However by leaving behind his novel “Dr. Zhivago” he left behind something wonderful and worthwhile for future generations. In 1965 Hollywood took over and created a hit movie from the novel starring Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago. The movie has many scenes that are rather hard to take but with the romance woven into it, it is very memorable. We all know that the world has gone through numerous wars but the one thing that has never died even when times were tough was romance. The movie itself depicts the wonderful romance of Dr. Zhivago and his love Lara. It also brought into the world the memorable song and music of “Somewhere My Love”.

In 1987 when Mikhail Gorbachev began democratic reforms, the long deceased Pasternak was readmitted to the writers’ union and the novel was finally published in Russia.

#authors, #boris-pasternak, #dr-zhivago, #novel-prize-for-literature

Red Badge of Courage

The author of the well-known novel “The Red Badge of Courage” was born on November 1, 1871.

Stephen Crane was born into a family of 14 children, being the youngest one. The family lived in Ashbury Park, New Jersey. He got his education at Syracuse University until he dropped out to become a journalist in New York City. He was hardly able to make a living when he started to closely observe the people around him. In 1893 at the ages of 23 he published “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets”. It was a story about a girl who descended into the world of prostitution and finally suicide. Even though the book was a success it did not sell well.

It made Crane look into more popular topics and in 1895 he wrote “The Red Badge of Courage” and by the age of 24 he was internationally known. Due to the success of his novel the newspaper syndicate sent him to cover the West and Mexico. Crane went to Cuba to write about the insurrection against Spain in 1897. While there he stayed at a rundown hotel and met Cora Howard Taylor, who became his lifelong companion. In Cuba the boat he was in sank and he barely survived and he wrote the short story “The Open Boat” about his experiences in a lifeboat with the captain and the cook.

Crane went on to cover the war between Greece and Turkey finally settling in England where he made friends with other authors like Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells and Henry James. It was unfortunate that he contracted tuberculosis in his late 20s. His companion was there to nurse him while he tried to pay off his debts. All of this made him exhausted and his condition became acute. He died at the age of 28 in June of 1900.

“The Red Badge of Courage” remains his greatest work. It was made into a movie in 1951 starring actor Audie Murphy and in 1974 starring Richard Thomas.

#literature, #red-badge-of-courage, #stephen-crane

Creative Writing and Imagination Go Hand In Hand

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any. Orson Scott

Just think about it – Have you taken a walk and thought, “Wow, that would make a great story?” then gone home and forgotten all about it or could not remember what it was. To avoid this carry a small notebook and pencil with you and when a thought occurs quickly stop an jot down what it was then when you get back home, you can start writing while it is still l fresh in your mind.

1. To keep your imagination active and thinking of new ideas be a reader and read as many books as you can both fiction and non-fiction and don’t forget to look through a poetry book now and then. All of these books can give you plenty of ideas to sit down and do some writing of your own.
2. While you listen to your favorite music ideas might come to you about different things to write about or perhaps a poem you have in mind. As you listen to music, write down the first thing that comes to your mind and go from there.
3. Always keep a notebook handy it is a great place to jot down ideas that come to you and work on them later. I get ideas often just by searching for things on the Internet and as I go along the ideas that come to me get written down so that soon I can begin writing.
4. Once you have ideas and jotted some things down, don’t just put them aside. Take your first great idea, and begin writing. If you get to a point and it seems like it does not all come together, take a look at your next idea and see if somehow you can combine the two.
5. Once you have an article ready, read it over and imagine you were the reader, not the writer. See if it makes sense to you and if you would enjoy reading it yourself. If it all comes together, the next step is checking your grammar and making sure you put your idea forward just right without any added things that make it seem repetitious.
6. Always keep in mind that creative writing is your thoughts, imaginative, and engaging to readers.

#creative-writing, #imagination

Tuesday Trivia – Queen Victoria

Little known facts about Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria’s full name was Alexandrina Victoria and she ascended to the throne on June 20, 1837. She was crowned in Westminster Abbey on June 28, 1838.

1. Her first act as queen was to ask to have an hour alone. At this time she was 18 years old and had been strictly raised always kept isolated, sheltered, and controlled. Governesses went with her everywhere and slept in the same room until the day she became queen.
2. Victoria met Prince Albert while she was a teenager. She liked him right away but did not look at him romantically. Then Prince Albert and his brother Ernest arrived in Kensington in the spring of 1836 and Victoria could get to know him better. However, it was not until his second visit in 1839 when she was already queen that romance blossomed.
3. It was Queen Victoria who made the white wedding dress popular. She wore a white satin gown with a very deep flounce of Honiton lace. On her head she had a wreath of orange blossoms and a diamond necklace and earrings. On her wedding dress was pinned a lovely sapphire brooch which was a wedding present from Albert. After her wedding, white became the tradition for wedding gowns.
4. Queen Victoria was very much involved in politics and did not hesitate to make her views known.
5. She was the first of notable persons to try out chloroform. It was her physician who gave her this new drug to numb the pain during the birth of her youngest son, Leopold. She was highly in favor of it.
6. When Prince Albert passed on in 1861 Queen Victoria’s very secluded mourning was highly criticized by the public. By 1865 she seemed to have abandoned her royal duties.
7. The well-known quote “We are not amused” is commonly attributed to Queen Victoria. This was her response to a vulgar joke that was told at a dinner party. However, it is not known if she really said this and she was shown as being stern and dour when actually she could be very fun loving and enjoyed laughing at jokes that others might find scandalous or shocking.

Stop and Smell the Roses

People often advise others not to take life too seriously and to stop and smell the roses. Meaning to enjoy the simple things in life and not to pass them by. However, if we take this saying literally them stopping to smell the roses can get us bitten on the nose by a bee or if we reach out to touch the roses get pricked by a thorn. One way or another you have to admit that life can be unpredictable and it all passes by so quickly.

If you seem to be working too hrd and feel stressed out it is time to stop put on the music, head on outdoors, and see what nature has to offer. By slowing down you appreciate life more and you definitely will feel much better. Once you have taken a walk you can get back to work with more renewed energy.

Look for the happiest scenes around you to bring a smile like old couples that walk hand in hand or children running along. Often you can see dogs on leashes in all shapes and sizes and they all look so cute.

So even though to stop and smell the roses does not mean to seek out roses because all flowers are beautiful and have their own fragrance. It simply means there is more to life than work and life can be beautiful if you take the time to put aside your work and get out there and just relax. If you wish you can also stay at home as long s you sit back, put up your feet, perhaps listen to music, and dream about the beautiful things in life.

#memberspost, #stopandsmelltheroes, #enjoynature