Showing posts with label beat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beat. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 09, 2019

And The Beat Goes On

Pss. 55:6 “And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.”

And The Beat Goes On

In between all the angst of the chemo days, a lot of cruddy things happen in what seems like the beat of a drum. One thing, two thing rat a tat tat, and the beat goes on. This might be the proof I needed to show you that NEGATIVITY breeds NEGATIVITY! All of the instances below began at the beginning of the acceptance of Herceptin, it's when everything was negative to me.

In the midst of our illnesses (my hubby's and mine), our three-year-old fridge decides to make an extremely loud clanking noise in the middle of the night. Loud and irritating, (fridge not hubby) my husband decides to be jarred awake and go bang on the side of the rowdy fridge. The clanking stopped, but the momentum had the cookie jar on top of the fridge, toppling over, the lid came crashing down on the floor shattering into a million pieces, and at three o’clock in the morning, clear eyes are not to be had! Clean up. * sigh *

Then our twenty-year-old clothes dryer decides to play the fridge game and begins its own riotous annoying noise. Not at three a.m. and still heating and drying, its all good, just a pain in the EAR!

His twenty-one-year-old truck decides it’s going to do some booming and banging and as we were heading home from the doctors one day the clanking was obviously the muffler, that had fallen off, dragging behind us. We pulled into a safe place (there are no safe sides of the road here), and hubby pulls the muffler off and places it in the back of the truck. We don’t litter. More sighs are in the works with maybe a few eye-rolls. Next...

Hubby looks all over for his thirteen-year-old phone. I hear something heavy and noisy clanking (this post title should be clanking) in the washer that he had just loaded and started up. I tell him the noise doesn’t sound right from a new washer, but as a man (all men) who don’t listen, goes on with his day, until its time to get clothes out of the washer and what drops to the floor? His phone! The old phone went through the entire wash, rinse and spin cycle. He fruitlessly tries to save it, to no avail. He panics. Our phones are everything to us out here in the middle of nowhere with no landline. Besides being a shop-o-holic, the man is addicted to technology (like the rest of the world)!!!!!

I finish up the clothes, drying and folding and putting away as he runs off to the store to buy a new phone. Payment will just be added to our bill so no out of empty-pocket cash necessary. My anxiety rears its head because it just seems like everything is hitting us and hitting us hard. The fridge, the dryer, the truck, chemo crud, and a clinging cold/allergy session, and now, the phone.

Two hours later he returns with what they had to offer. A deal. UH OH! I hope he didn’t… he did. He fell for what they had to offer: a Smartphone and a FREE tablet with all the fixins and trimmings. A case, a keyboard, and they even tossed in some GPS thing for the car. Swindled. A week later he was returning, the phone shield (not free) and protective phone cover, keyboard to the tablet and the case (also not free). For what they were charging him HUNDREDS of dollars for, he purchased on Amazon for under fifty bucks!

I happen to despise the smartphone and everything that it stands for. I’ll hold my ground with my stupid phone as long as I can, but wouldn’t you know it, ironically, maybe less than two weeks later since his purchase, my phone stops working. Keys don’t function, the battery barely holds a charge, and the only key that worked in the end, was a way to get my contacts before my dumb-phone went dark, never to open its eyes again. 

I cried! I wanted my stupid phone! My only active contacts on the phone were my texts to my son, a text to hubby when he was on break at work, and two calls on the weekend to my mother. That’s it! Now the phone has gone into the ether. What will this poor woman do??

Hubby snapped into action, he ordered me a phone online and it would take two days to arrive. Thank God my son has a FB messenger app that when I write to him from Facebook, it goes right to his phone. Two days not talking to him, my lifeline, would tear me to pieces. Facebook finally came in handy! The only problem? With our phone service (I have no idea what it all entails, and I don’t care to know. Technology is a blank to me, a total blank!) the only phone they force on you is, you guessed it, the Smartphone! They offer NOTHING but smartphones! 

So my phone conveniently goes up in a puff of smoke when his phone was accidentally fried. Now I'm forced to get a new phone. It’s a conspiracy. It seems everything can and is going wrong like a train derailment skidding into a stop position but no sign of slowing any time soon.
But wait all of this began happening when my perky positive self took a turn for the worse. I’m an optimist, positive sharer of love, and giver of smiles and joy, but when I knew I was going for chemo in the vein, my world toppled! TOPPLED! I lost hope, I lost laughter and joy and optimism. Optimism is what God wanted me to have but hope was veiled, I couldn’t find positivity and every single day it is a struggle to see the Light shine, and lack of sun and warmth is no help.

Also on the familial level, I feel like a forgotten soul. Do you know how hard it is to love online Spiritual Family, that actually embraces me daily, more than any other family I'm connected to? Don’t get me wrong, I love the families God has surrounded me with but it is hard to see people as caring with an every-three-month email or visit (if that) saying I’m praying for you, hope things are okay. I’ve shut down. If you want to know how I am ask ME, I’ll be glad to tell you, if you don’t ask, I won’t, it’s that easy.

I’ve written a blog for well over ten years. My family could sure learn a lot about me if they read the pain in my words but no, they’ll wait until I pass and say, “How come I didn’t know about this?” Well, you did but you didn’t care enough to read the very heart and soul of the one you claimed to have loved.

Now to turn this around into a positive! I HAVE to see positive beauty in life, the life I WANT to live and not give up on. I have a husband, a son, and a Spiritual Family that cares for me, touches me, and gives me strength every single day to go on and be the me they know me to be! I am HER!!! It’s just hard digging her out of the trenches the sandy soil has encompassed me with.

The truck still runs, the chemo might get better, we did get new phones (that’s a whole different story) and my hardy Salvias are trying to peek their heads out and show me that life IS worth sticking around for. Until I got wind of a Blizzard Warning for the end of the week. HA HA HA HA! 

I’m looking up! I need to continue writing because that is the emotional healing that I NEED. Where you all follow along, read, and support me, my family here doesn’t know much at all and is full of questions. That pretty much sets me back because my path is NOT the path they’d choose, nor would any of you for that matter, but you RESPECT my chosen path! I love you for that. 

When I say I don’t look forward to living. The family gasps! You guys reading this understand me and know that this is just a phase and offer prayer, support and strength as I wiggle my way through this setback. You lift me up and make me WANT to live! Give me a REASON to live! And just as I typed this I peeked at Facebook before posting this and here’s what greeted me. “Our thoughts and feelings have an electromagnetic reality. Manifest wisely.” 
I think my Spiritual Family actually gets this, I thank you and love you for knowing and understanding me! Manifest positivity and it powers through! Manifest negativity and everything can and will go wrong. 

Mark 1:10  "And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:”



Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Music... Healer of the Soul


1 Chron. 15:16 “And David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers with instruments of musick, psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy.”



This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.” ~ Pete Seeger

Have you ever listened to music that made you happy? Sad? Melancholy? Have you ever wondered why music does that to every single person alive on the planet, young and old? Growing up I always wanted to play an instrument but lacked any encouragement as my house was flooded with marijuana smoke (older brothers), cigarette smoke and beer cans. I feel it hindered any growth in the musical aspirations I might have had but one thing I DID have? My Holly Hobbie record player where I would sit in my room and sing my heart out listening to music of the day.

I trained my voice early on by listening to the likes of Barbara Streisand and Karen Carpenter, two of the greatest singing teachers I could ever ask for. My musical likes were influenced by my older brothers (Beatles, Clapton) not necessarily my parent's music (Sinatra, Patsy Kline) and my likes in later years would turn out to be a mix of them all. I have four brothers so the music spanned many generations from the early sixties until today where my tastes have grown like a vine climbing the tree.

It’s amazing how times have changed and technology allows you to teach yourself amazing things instrumentally. Grace Vanderwaal, twelve years old, taught herself (via YouTube) how to play the ukelele and if you don’t know who she is, now it is my turn to say, get your head out of the sand! She is the America’s Got Talent winner of one million dollars and a contract with a recording label.

As you all may or may not know, I don’t watch television so how I clicked this child from a rare visit to YouTube is beyond me but I connected with this little girl the moment I saw her cherubic face, seeing what happens when your family surrounds you with love and nurtures your blossoming talent.

I may have missed the mark on a singing and dancing career but music, was well absorbed into my soul from a very early age. I wonder if that is the reason I write poetry? Is it a form of music to my soul via words? Hmm now that’s interesting, isn’t it? 

Music whether instrumental or filled with words touches the soul! I do believe since the beginning of time a simple hum filled the humans and they had to get it out of their system so they began designing instruments. While the age of a musical instrument may be off since some believe the earth to be 6,000 years old, either way, music has been around since the beginning of time.

Biblically we know as early as the book of Genesis the singing and instruments were alive and on the scene. Imagine that, we were created to bring forth music from the very beginning, I wonder if it was the first form of medicine, psychologically speaking.

Gen. 31:27 “Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?”

1 Sam. 18:6 “And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick.” 

I can honestly say that had it not been for the healing properties that music has brought to my life, I would not be the woman I am before you today. Poetry, singing and writing, (I no longer dance because of my disability) are my outlets to the musical healing, while I have SEVERAL friends who play the guitar, piano, keyboard, drums, flute, violin, and a husband who plays the sax or they are avid singers professional or otherwise. Is it coincidence that God surrounded me with this palette of friends? I don’t believe in coincidence! 

So let me tell you of healing that takes place via music. Whether praise music, hymns, rock, country, soul or jazz each avenue is an outlet if internal healing that you WILL carry with you AFTER death.



Music Divine
Divine is the dancing pirouette of sound. 
Bathing in the luminosity of space. 
A bastion of baubles blazing boldly. 
Rhythm masking in the ticker-tape of time. 
Reverberating in reverent chime. 
Compliant to the composer of conceit. 
Fastidious to the feasible feast. 
Notorious notes nourish in sync. 
Melody meets a measure combine... 
Divine is the dancing ~~ pirouette of sound!
Copyright ©joni zipp

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Poetry Sunday ~ Lift Me... I Fell Today

Job 14:22 “But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.”

Lift Me… I Fell Today

I fell today upon my face
At Jesus’ feet here in this place.
I bowed my head in humble grace
The Lord spoke to my soul.

I fell today at His feet
My eyes are sore my body beat
Chin now raised our eyes did meet
I praise the One who makes me whole.

I fell today my body pained
He washed a heart forever stained
I thanked him for all I’ve gained
As we take our heavenly stroll

I fell today but then He lifted
The weakened me whom He gifted
The me who once He’d thought had drifted
Redeemed I’ve reached my goal.


Sunday, February 14, 2016

Poetry Sunday ~ My Forever Love

Our First Valentine’s Day
As Man and Wife

My Forever Love

We painted the world kaleidoscope lined
Colors that meshed lyrics defined
A love that grew from words on a screen
Into a forever love a wildflower scene

Everything happens with definite reason
Forever love grows in changing season
Once we found within our shelled walls
An explosive love amid angels calls.

You came running for me, I clung to you
A forever love blossomed; eternal love grew
Too many years we spent worlds apart
Our two souls collided merging into one heart.

We’ve walked through shadows in the dark
Swept through peaks with promising spark
Sailed in thought through the ocean waves
Sheltered from storms that forever love braves

My one true love mends in mind-meld form
Two hearts that beat, keeping each other warm
My forever love soars to infinity -- beyond
Our enduring love shows eternity’s bond!

For my husband! 

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Poetry Sunday ~ My Graduate


Ex. 40: 36And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:

My Graduate
2014

Out of my womb, placed in my arms
Not yet touched by worldly charms.
I counted ten fingers then ten toes
Traced your lips, then tapped your nose.

I saw in you complete perfection
I cradled you with motherly affection.
I watched you as you began to walk
Loved when you babbled thinking it talk.

I tended your journey as you strode
Lending you strength with every load.
I gave you love and watched you grow
I did all I could, just so you know.

Today is the day I hold pride in my hand
You get your diploma and there you’ll stand.
A flip of the tassel, to the future you’ll stroll
Taking on life and your new manly roll.

Go with God always letting Him guide
Forever I’m here for you to confide.
My work in you now seems complete
March to life’s drum, your very own beat!

Congratulations Adam on a job well done!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

And the Beat Goes On...

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. ~World Health Organization, 1948

Months of Healing

I know as the tale moves forward, the beat goes on. In my head I hear the drums of the Native Americans, edging us forward to one more day of healing and we dance right along not missing a beat.

A lot of people have expressed amazement (even the doctor) at this wonder of wonders, the Blind seeing again, and how proud must that doctor feel, knowing his was the hand chosen by God to bring forth this miracle. He probably doesn’t see it that way, because he is a man of science after all, but we know, as the journey moved along, we were being led and guided by a higher power that man can not ever explain.

Now it seems everyone thinks it is 20/20 onward and upward. Well my friends, it is a little  more than blink and all is well in the household. He gained sight from the moment the bandage came off. What did he see? Blur. Point blank, blur. But he SAW a tree and cars and colors, all things he had not seen for two and a half years.

The next day it went from blur to a smudged blur, and that is why we’ve had so many trips to Omaha. But by Mondays visit, the blur is improving. The doctor has him on many eye drops and anti-infection meds, he MUST sleep with the patch on at night possibly for a few months. And he can not lift anything over five pounds! AND he can not play his saxophone for a month or two. What? No SAX??? Oh, that will surely put a damper on the Christmas party, but like I said, “You’re family will much rather come to see you SEE, than to see you PLAY!”

All of this activity has really drained the both of us. As much as you’d think he’d want to get out and go all around seeing people and just run here and there, it is all draining, not just on me, but mainly on him and all that the brain has to take in. His brain has been through a marathon of vision and sights and while he gets his rest, each day out is like a new marathon, a marathon everyone wants him to win, nobody more than himself, but still, a tiring marathon.

So, as we take our breaks, we need respect for our space. There is months of healing to take place and I imagine it’s not going to be easy around any corner we turn.  Everyone wants a small piece of him and he’s more than willing to give and share, but I do believe he likes to breathe in between. And hey...I could use a nap too. :)

Thank you for understanding.


The wings of hope carry us, soaring high above the driving winds of life. ~Ana Jacob