Wait, like a plant?
What’s that? I don’t think you’ve met the right person yet It’s just a phase That’s not a real thing How do you know if you’ve never tried? I doubt it Yea right Really? You like pans? Have you been hitting on me? Well now you're making me uncomfortable No... You're too young to know really Get out of my house I didn't raise a boy I didn't raise a girl Okay Cool I'm glad Good for you I am too I will always support you Fantastic I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me that I love you You don't deserve the oppression faced on you Yay! I'll always be here for you
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I sit
crammed, with no room to move legs scrunched in front of me and sticking to the seat a bag rests at my feet my father rests next to me - even more crammed than I am We are just two in a long line of travelers sharing a small plane Who knows where we are all going? What we will see there? Who is leaving for a trip or vacation? Who is going home? Where are we? Where are we really going? The plane begins to move forward slowly then faster faster faster until it soars into the air we leave the earth behind and embrace the sky When the sky darkens
from aquamarine to navy-grey and shadows spread over me my heart beats a joyful, free melody. The rain begins thump, thump, thump against my window and I run down stairs, jamming on my flip-flops, then outside. The rain picks up thwap, thwap, thwap, thwap into a downpour rushing down, pelting from the sky so much cool, wet water WHOOOOOOSSSHHHHH onto me. As the night moves on, I look at the stars and try to locate the Big Dipper and the Little Dopper. Everything is silent, and all I can see are the stars and pitch black. I try to fall asleep; I can see my brother and sister sound asleep and my mom and dad wrapped up in blankets. I think about home and my dogs Dewey and Daisy probably cuddled in their cages as they wait for us to return. I close my eyes, but no luck comes. I just can’t fall asleep. I open my eyes and look around when finally something catches my eye. A pair of eyes looking through the bushes at me! I think it’s a dream, I fell asleep, it's all a dream, but I know it's not. Should I wake someone? I don’t know what to do! It’s probably just a bear or a fox- A BEAR, A FOX. What am I thinking?! This is a big deal! I curl down into my sleeping bag so maybe it won’t notice, but I get to hot and need to get out. I look anywhere but the eyes. I can’t though- it’s so attracting. I look over, but to my surprise there are two pairs of eyes not one pair. I’m even more scared now. I can see the animal coming closer. As it comes closer, I get deeper in my sleeping bag until I can’t see at all. BANG! I scream! It’s on my sleeping bag! My parents wake up as well as my brother and sister. They're laughing. Why would they be laughing?! There are two wild animals on me! I look up, and just like them I burst out laughing. There are no wild animals: it’s just two crazy loyal dogs named Dewey and Daisy. They got out of their cages and followed us here. We all lay back down, and now Dewy and Daisy are spread across our feet. Now I can fall asleep; I have two crazy dogs protecting me from the scary animals here.
I wish that I could stand here and tell you that it wasn’t me, that I was above the foolishness and had the foresight to see what would happen. Well, you know what they say about hindsight... It was just a joke. There was no way that it could actually happen; it was unthinkable, unimaginable, impossible. But, we all repeated that joke until it became serious, and after it became serious it just became, but no I should not say it just became; it was us. We elected Donald Trump.
We did not just ask for this, we looked at all of our other options and used our choice to begin this future. I understand that we deserve everything that has happened since. That is because I am very old, and beyond the ability to remember it, I have had space - packed boats and trains, apartments and cells - to do little more than think about it. Some of the younger people I have met find it hard to believe that there was once a year 2019 AD. They, though we live in places with thousands of years of history in them, cannot imagine 2000 consecutive years, nor do they know what AD stands for. The words “anno Domini” are not as evident in meaning as we are used to. That makes sense, of course, considering that it is 96 ADT, obviously standing for After Donald Trump. Even since you emerged, blood covered and yelling, you have always been one at war. Always the screaming and the fighting and the teeth clenched growling. You are animal. You are battle.
But there was time before that, a time before this burning scream in your lungs. Back then, you did not have any lungs. It was when you first were conceived, before you had thoughts or touch. You were unknown to all, including yourself. You were next to nothing. You were the thickness of a piece of paper, but even then you were not singular. You were two things combined to form into one you. And it was peaceful for a while. After the initial crash, it was just coexistence. There was not much room to spread out, but you did not want room yet. You had no anxiousness or wander lust. Your cells, for the only time ever, satisfied in zygote. It seemed that there was no time. Everything was dark, for you did not have the ability to see. Everything was silent, for you had no ability to hear. Nothing felt like anything. You do not remember this, and even now you cannot conceptualize this. It is impossible to understand yourself at your simplest form, two cells collided into one. It does not seem real but you have never seen your past happiness as quite real. The two pieces of you lived together quite well. With no senses, there was no reason to dislike one another. The embrace, had you been able to feel it, the embrace was quite warm. It was comfort, and it was simplicity. No one wanted air or space, because what use is that to one without lungs? You existed solely inside of your two cells. It was all you knew and all you wanted. It was tranquil, and it seemed unending. It was all chemistry and biology, and no thought. Love in it’s simplest form. Two held together without knowing why and without needing to know why. They, ovum and sperm, melded cell membranes until they were one. Surrounded in each other's embrace. Do you remember how you forgot? Of course not, but know this: things have a way of changing. They somehow always will, and they did. Your two cells forgot somehow. Forgot their content with being small. Forgot that they belonged to one another, fit in perfectly with each other. Perhaps they forgot the journey that it took to come together. They wanted more, got it in their heads that they were destined to be more than just a point paper thin. They had dreams of fingernails and nostrils, of more than just a tight embrace. They wanted expansion and size. They were you, and they were imagining that they needed to split. They wanted more space and more of them. So the purest form of you split. You were no longer two cells formed together into one, but four. You were no longer zygote. After that it happened fast. Like multiplication. Like explosion. From 2 to 512 in one week. Each time one of your cells was divided into existence, it seemed to want to divide itself. They could not find that sameness, and thought that there were two halves of each of them. They saw too much energy, too much potential in themselves to stay so small. So they, you, grew bigger. They did not remember the sameness that they once shared, the unity. Now they were all so focused on different tasks. Some wanted to breathe, other to kick. So curious and so fast in their expansion that they forgot somewhere along the way that they were all you. Call it mitosis, call it meiosis, or call it division. They made you from one into many competing to evolve the fastest, to grow the strongest. They formed some allegiances - muscles together and nerves, but they called themselves different names than you. They were not you but myocyte or langerhans or another tribe name. The muscles made your heart beat as a war song. The you that was once a peaceful two was now a race to see who would be the first and the strongest. They divided and divided until there were 26 billion of them. Each one alive, and each an ancestor of those two that had loved each other so completely. They fought for air and blood and energy. You don’t think of yourself as this, of course. You think of yourself as you, one entity, one being, one unit. You do not think of the electricity in your body, and the fervor every time that you heart beats. Sometimes you think of yourself as divided, as too much. You think you have too much energy, and not enough unity in your brain. You are frustrated that you fight with yourself or everyone else. Why, you wonder, can’t you know peace? Because you were born fighting and growing. You were born a manifest destiny war of expansion between your cells, and it never stopped. Now you have 50 trillion, a number that you will never have a way of conceptualizing. You are made up of 50 trillion living organisms, all fighting for resources, dying and creating. You were born like the universe. The universe started when all the gasses and energy, which were all condensed into one point, suddenly forgot their oneness and exploded, flying off into every different direction, inventing different directions. And this rapid expansion formed the elements that formed the gas that formed the stars. So, on the nights when you can’t sleep, close your eyes tighter. Close them so tight until you can see those colors that travel in waves. Remember, then, that this is what the hubble telescope sees every night too. Remember that we do not see a problem in the great energy of the universe, we see infinite possibilities. Remember your conception. Remember that you are like the stars, and this energy that you have in abundance is not a curse. It is you remembering your creation. It is you. I am Sophie Pettit, best friend and sister of Lulu Pettit. This is the story of the most important day of my life.
I went to preschool that day thinking it would be like any other. I left realizing how wrong I was. I woke up that morning feeling contented as I put on my puffy pink dress that made me feel like a princess when I wore it. I ate my breakfast with my mom and hugged the large bulge on her stomach that would soon be my sibling. Then, I fought through the piercing January weather to get to the car. I had free time when I first entered the classroom, so I played dress up with my friends. We put on elegant tiaras and graceful dresses. The amusement never ended when I was at school. We did finger painting with every color imaginable. Blues as beautiful as the butterflies, greens as bold as leaves. We painted until there was no paint or paper left. That day I was allowed to stay at school for lunch a luxury I was rarely allowed. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some carrots and crackers on the side. When my dad finally picked me up, he had a Cheshire cat grin on his face and squeezed me half to death when he saw me. “What does it feel like to be a big sister?” Dad asked me, his grin only getting more immense. “I don’t know,” I answered confusedly. “You should,” he said as he buckled me into my car seat. I told him all about my day my day as I thought we were driving home. When I realized I didn’t know where we were, I asked him where we were going. “You’ll see,” was all he said. When we arrived at the hospital, my dad signed in at the desk, and a woman in a green dress took me to my mom. She was holding a petite baby in her hands. I did not know who she was yet, but when I saw her I felt a warmth spreading from my heart out. It was like my heart had grown four and a half sizes because of her. “Sophie, this is your little sister Olivia,” Mom said. She had enormous blue eyes as clear as the sky. Her button nose was adorable, and the few hairs on her head were so blonde, they were practically white. All I wanted to do was make her mine forever. She would be my best friend from then on. As I held her hand, I thought to myself, This is my little sister. We are going to be friends forever, and I will never let go of her hand. Slowly, Olivia grew bigger and more marvelous everyday. She learned to talk, walk, and be remarkable. She became known as Lulu Pettit. Those are the most joyus words I could ever hear. Every time I say them, I feel as if I am singing a song of joy and laughter, a song I wish would never end. Lulu has been the best friend anyone could ever have. She makes me cheerful when I am bitter, laugh on the worst of days, and gives my the key to life: love. Something that she had when I first saw her. Something that makes the world go round. All I needed was her’s to make mine go round. Music soothes the soul and does what words cannot do. My mom is a music therapist. On Saturdays my mom goes to her part-time job. There she works with kids who have special needs. During the week she runs a program in which they use therapy to help people with mental illnesses. One of the therapies that they use is music therapy. Music therapy is an amazing type of therapy, that is meant to be used by trained professionals.
Music therapy has many positive effects. In the sessions, music making, listening to music, and discussion may occur. Some effects include, reduction in muscle tension and improved mental state. It increases motivation and verbalization. These are some specific outcomes. There are also some overall results, such as improving general and social functioning. There are a variety of approaches used in music therapy. Some of these include: neurologic music therapy, Nordoff-Robbins, and Bonnny Method of Guided Imagery in Music. There are four general approaches in music therapy. These involve improvisation, listening to music, re-creating music, and composition. After World War II, many of the returning soldiers were suffering from traumatizing events. Music began to be introduced into veteran hospital care settings. This was the beginning of the formal establishment of music therapy. Currently, music therapy is used in a variety of settings such as in hospitals for pediatric pain management and cardiac care; in hospice for end of life care and in schools for treatment of autism and other developmental disabilities. It is also used in working with individuals with mental health issues, such as schizophrenia, substance abuse, and depression. The power of music has been known for centuries. People have been using music to heal and grow for many years. The music therapy profession has formalized and expanded this knowledge . You can emotionally sense music and hear music, but you can’t touch music. Music, however, can touch you. we will go down in history
we signed the Emancipation Proclamation this momentous decree is a beacon of light for millions of negro slaves one hundred years later Negros are still not free one hundred years later the life of the Negro is still badly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination Negro lives on a lonley island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt the whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright days of justice emerge we cannot walk alone we cannot turn our backs when will you be satisfied we can never be satisfied as long as the negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality we search for tranquility let us not wallow in the valley of despair My friends though even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow I still have a dream It was Yesterday
a night’s worth of sleep ago wonder world Yesterday was, especially right before I passed out It was so good I sat, by my window, the stars dusting my fingerprints peered out my window I watched the late night dog-walkers played some Morning Music and I wrote this poem Now the night’s widening the jaws of its sky, and I must go to be swallowed whole |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |