Dear Friends, it is now time to catch up on the blogging buzzes flying by my ears of late, and which I have avoided participating in until now so that I could have time to clear the hillside of brambles and burn them in a great fire. So that I could go off and dance the kitchen dance, the garden dance, the groceries dance, and the improvisational music dance with my lovely new dance partner (aka boyfriend, yes that's right), I avoided blogging. It's not that I have abandoned all of my wonderful invisible friends, it's just that I have now added one very important friend made of flesh and blood who I am suddenly spending a great deal of time with and have decided that it is actually MORE IMPORTANT THAN BLOGGING. But I digress. I will not abandon you, but I will try to confine my blogging and schedule it in, rather than schedule life around blogging. If I visit you less, I know you will understand.
So to the task at hand, let us get to our chores. Thank you K, for tagging me for my influences. I now have to admit that I am not much of a book reader. It is not that I don't enjoy reading, or that I don't read, but I never seem to have time for reading much. Also, I read very slowly it seems. For instance, my mom and sons went with me to Hawaii a few years ago, and it rained a lot so we were forced to stay in. My mom read six books in the time it took me to read one. It is pitiful. However, I have watched a thousand movies to her every one. So movie dialogue has influenced me. And as a singer of just about every genre, I have learned a whole lot of lyrics (most of which I have now forgotten to make room for more), so lyric poetry has influenced me. And there are a few writers that I swallow whole, and they have influenced me. So here we go, I'm now going to really break the rules. Are there rules? My 25 influences.
1) ee cummings-somewhere i have never traveled.
2) Bernie Taupin-Burn Down the Mission (Elton's cohort you know?)
3) Franco Zefferelli-Movie maker, Romeo and Juliet, Brother Sun Sister Moon, Jesus of Nazereth.
4) Rumi via Coleman Barks
5) Khalil Gibran
6) Gabriel Garcia Marquez (all of his books, especially 100 Years of Solitude)
7) The King James Bible
8) Joe Frank (Work in Progress radio series)
9) David Sedaris (This American Life writer)
10) Carl Jung
11) Joseph Campbell
12) Mary Stewart (The Arthurian series)
13) Joni Mitchell (the album called Blue)
14) Clarissa Pinkola Estes (Running with Wolves)
15) L. Frank Baum
16) C. S. Lewis
18) William Shakespeare
19) Petrarch
20) Dr. Suess!!
21) Anonymous (an amazing lyricist, I highly recommend him/her)
22) D.H. Lawrence
23) Mary Oliver
24) Dorothy Parker
25) and like Sarah Hina said, YOU! I have made great improvements as a writer by watching all of you great writers and entering into this friendly circle with you. Thank you all for the dance!
And-added late, I just realized that I TOTALLY FORGOT to put down one of the most important influences and I simply can't change out any of the ones already there so:
26) Hildegard of Bingen-Her entire life and body of works both written and musical and all of her poems which were, as she said 'Music from the spheres'. I'm pretty sure she was an INFP.
I now tag these three:
Jason Evans of The Clarity of Night (I know you are resisting, but now that I've broken the rules, I suggest you give it a try, it's fun!)
Linda Socha of Psyche Connections
Deb (aka Qualcosa di Bello) of Piacere and Write Away
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20 comments:
Am so happy that you have found a boyfriend and have something better to do than blogging (unlike us less mortals, sigh).
But one has broken free, we shall follow in time too (though I don't intend to mak a BOYfriend... its be a pretty GIRLfriend in my case. :-D)
And hats off to you for bending the rules your way. I have been influenced more by movie characters too. Know what, I plan to start my own meme now. :-)
We'll miss you frequest visits, but you're right... we understand. Go... break free! :-)
AH...so off into the misty sunlight she ran....fleet of foot and toward the dance
LOVE that you have found a dance partner. Glad you are going to keep us in the schedule!!
I will take on the challenge....
Thanks for the invite!
Hugs
Linda
Cat, your list is as creative and full of joy and life as you are! If my list had gone longer, Rumi definitely would have shown up. Your other choices are equally inspiring.
But enough about that!!! Yay Cat! I am so glad you have found someone special. I can't imagine anyone who deserves such happiness more. Yes, stay off the blog. Dance and play. We are all so happy for you!! :)
Yes, we will understand!! Go! Dance! Be Merry! Light the world on Fire!! We will watch the flames from here. :D
I like what you did with the list too, Cat. Inspiration and influence flow from many sources. And rules are made for breaking. :P I love Sedaris, Marquez, Mitchell, Zefferelli, Campbell, and Suess, too!!
I enjoyed seeing this glimpse of you. Now go dance some more, ya crazy kids. ;)
grats on the new dance partner, cat :)
great influences you have, most of whom are mine, too
Hey Aniket, Jen, Linda and Sarah, be sure to check out the 26th influence which I added after you read.
Ok- Off to go dancing! Love you guys.
Hi Laughingwolf! I'm glad you told me that, now I know why you always make me giggle! :-)
And I take this opportunity to dedicate this song... or more like one particular line of the song (coz it suits the occasion):
Garbage - Cherry Lips
"Go baby go go... Yeah, we're right behind you. Go baby... Go baby!"
Cat, you know I've been celebrating in my heart for you. :) You deserve every happiness!! Go live (after all life is beautiful!) Blogging does need to be confined when there are more important things in our lives! (Though I LOL'd to hear a P type talk about scheduling... ha!)
And I love your list, too. (Especially #10) ;) I'm curious about Mary Stewart's Arthurian series. I think I'll go look that up now. Have you read The Mists of Avalon?
Hey Cat - what an inspiring list, indeed. So many notables there.
I loved #21! Glad to see Mary Oliver on the list. She is a good poet. In the next weeks, I will check out those with whom I am not familiar.
How wonderful new love in the spring! Have fun and don't worry, just visit us when you can. XO
Cat, I love the way you have made this meme conform to YOU, rather than the other way round. Why am I not surprised by this? You have such a unique way of looking at the world, and I believe your creative talent is reflected in this eclectic list. I like so many of the same artists!
...but, as the others have said, congratulations on the new relationship. I think it is wonderful that you have someone special! Invest your time in that relationship. Will we miss you? Of course, but imagining the fodder you're gathering for songs, paintings, poetry, prose, and LIFE will sustain us. :-)
what a thoughtful list~~ i found myself nodding many "yes's" as i read through. to be tagged~~ an honor, cat...thank you. this will take some time as it deserves much thought.
&...a new dance partner~~ fabulous!!!! :-)
Catherine,
You've added one very important "friend" made of flesh and blood? Flesh and blood? Is that what you're into now? Is that the "hip" thing? Flesh and blood?
After all that "essence" we shared in your last post? Was that just a comment to you? Is that all I am to you? A comment?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN BLOGGING?!?!?!
Are you mad, woman?!?!?!
I know all too well about scaling back on blogging; I've had to prioritize my writing projects.
Awesome list! Lots of interesting food for thought.
Of course, we understand if you can't visit us as much as you used to! But I do hope you can post here. I'll still be lurking in the shadows to see what's new.
Congratulations on your new relationship. It sounds like you're having a great time with all that dancin'.
I had to laugh, though. This is the first time I've been an "invisible friend." Usually, I talk to invisible friends in my head. Ha! Ha!
Have fun!
Aniket-I'm holding out for that wedding thing. :-)
Linda-Yay!
Jen-I was simply SHOCKED the Rumi wasn't on your list. Glad to know he wasn't far from the 25. ;-)
Sarah-Rules are made for breaking, especially if you have a P at the end of your DNA strand. Put two P's together and rules start to swirl around like dust devils in the field.
Aniket-Thanks! I will too.
Aine-Knew you'd be with me on that one. You will love the Arthur series, the first one is called The Crystal Cave. Yes I absorbed The Mysts of Avalon, it may be one of the only books in the world that I read twice. And about scheduling, it's a buzz word, right? What exactly does it mean again? It keeps popping in and out of view.
K. Yeah, me an anon are like 'that' (fingers twisted over each other). I'm especially fond of his/her lyrics used in John Dowland's songs but there is so much more.
Karen-Thank you for these very nice words! I hate to conform. It hurts me so to try. I can do it but only in short bursts, and then I have to go be a bohemian again.
QDB-I can't wait to see what you have come up with. I'm thinking I might have a couple of guesses, but I'm very curious about the rest, which is why I tagged you!
JR-Thanks for understanding, bro. I have loved the support of all my friends here, and wouldn't want to give that up, but balance in all things, you know?
Writer on Board-yes. Flesh and blood, it's what I'm all about these days. I'm so sorry to have led you on like that into thinking I'm all about essences. I am actually, but essences with flesh and blood attached just have, well, so much more feeling! What can I say? But you are so much more than a comment, you are a comment from an invisible friend and dare I say that from where you sit, you probably believe you are actually flesh and blood too. Just remember, don't believe it. Here in this world, essence is the thing, baby. BE the essence.
Julie-You are only partially invisible, since you are so close there is hope that one day you will be visible and I have a feeling one day soon we'll be spending an afternoon laughing together in between discussing our most painful poems to write.
Hmmmm...gee, no comment from Jason...I guess he doesn't want to be tagged! ;-)
I'm thinking of how I can integrate the meme into some other thoughts I've been having about writing. We'll see what I can cook up.
hi cat
i totally loved your list... and i loved that you included rumi… rumi has inspired me so much…
Jennifer tagged me with this same tag, please come read my list (if you get time from other important stuff :))
my hero too :) thank you...
if you liked the blog please become a follower. it would be so cool to have someone as a reader who is such a good writer as you...
i keep reading your comments in aniket's and jennifer's blogs... it would be great to get feedback from you. :)
ah, yay!! a boyfriend..woohooooo....have fun!!
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