51 Years Around the Sun (19 Mar 2023)

Another week in the book for this 51 years around the sun; and another morning of meditation. I’ve been meditating now for 41 straight days and can tell you it has made a world of difference.

I thought I would share a quote from my journal by Eleanor Roosevelt.

Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try. For one thing we know beyond all doubt: Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, ‘It can’t be done.’

13th of March 2023- Art Work

I created this inspired by a photo I’ve taken. I really enjoy using Procreate to produce these images.

14th of March 2023- 3 word prompt (A storm, a couple, a pest)

The line of clouds was building, ominous and dark, a wall of pure power ready unleash a storm that no one was prepared for. Jeff and Ellie looked out the window knowing they had to get home as soon as possible because they knew this storm was going to be be big, bigger than they had ever seen before. As the newlywed couple approached there farmhouse the funnel cloud started to form in the northwest, god why did they decide to stay in Kansas…the heart of tornado alley.

Pulling up to the house Jeff hit the brakes hard and yelled at Ellie ‘We need to get to the cellar pronto’, Jeff grabbed Ellie’s hand and pulled her, almost dragging her across the yard to the food cellar. Just as Jeff opened one of the doors the wind blew hard and yanked the door off the hinges. Ellie looked at Jeff and asked “What do we do now?”, Jeff looked around and said “get down in the far corner as far as you can”. Ellie did precisely that and Jeff followed.

The food cellar was dank and dark. Ellie pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight app and lit everything up and screamed. There was a rat, a nasty fucking pest that she feared more than anything else other than the tornado that was headed their way. She would put up with the pest at least for tonight as her only thought was surviving.

Jack held her tight as they rode out the storm.

15th of March 2023-Poem

Flailing, falling forever crawling, yearning for release from this hell that has been unleashed.

The pain, unbearable sting.

These screams forever ring.

©Chris Chonos

16th of March 2023-Poem

The hustle and bustle of the day, no time for play.
Work
Work, is all we have time for fighting to fighting to keep from being poor.
But what makes a person rich?
It is clothes with a fancy stitch?
Is it a flashy car?
Something that can take you far?
These big houses with more rooms than you need, Or the the food on which you feed?
No, they are possessions and things that are excess you see
All in the world I need is you and me.

©Chris Chonos

17th of March 2023-Quote

“I like to say it’s an attitude of not just thinking outside the box, but not even seeing the box.” – Safra A Catz

18th of March 2023- Lazy Saturday photos

Chloe likes her pillows and will bury herself in a fort- I put the roof on but a lot of times you will find her on top of or in a bunch of pillows sleeping.

It has been a good week and hope everyone enjoys the upcoming up week and can’t wait to share more.

51 Years Around the Sun (12 March 2023)

This week has been one of writing and working on my journal. I have even investigated a new journal app and have abandoned the paper journal. To me it seemed overly repetitive and keeping up with both was actually becoming a little too much.

I still keep notes in my poetry notebook but haven’t been writing much poetry just notes for myself and possible future poems. So today I’m sharing a few notes from my journal and bits and pieces of my writing.

6th of March 2023-Poem (Thoughts)

I was inspired to write the following while watching a show on tv about a serial killer Jared Fogel.

The monster in plain site, not in the shadows or hiding away, in fact you may see them every day. Not a scare figure at all, yes the monsters are all around.

7th of March 2023 – 3 word Prompt (A scratch, A hallway, twins)

A rumble ran through the house as Mikey road his big wheel down the hallway, his mom Michelle laughed, “Be careful Mikey” she said. Mikey could be reckless, he was only 6 and the huge house provide an almost racetrack feel as he peddled away with the little spring making the little three wheeled vehicle sound like it had an engine. He was having fun and wasn’t hurting anyone so Michelle focused on her other son Jeffrey.

Jeffrey and Mikey were twins but with such different personalities. Mikey was the reckless one and Jeffrey was the sensitive artsy one. He was busy working on his recent creation, a clay bird that he had been working on all day. He was covered in clay from head to toe but he made sure he stayed on the papered area that his mother had set aside for him. He smiled as he stood back and looked at his creation, “What do you think mom” he asked her, “Looks good honey” she replied.

Michelle loved both her boys and started to hum to the song on the radio as she washed dishes. The peaceful and comfortable life her family enjoyed were because she had worked hard and made good investments and because she had lost her husband in a terrible car accident a year earlier. It had left a terrible hole but she was determined to use the boys as happy as possible.

She was just finishing her last dish when she heard a thud and heard both of her boys cry out for her. She nearly dropped the plate but luckily caught it just in time. She went to see what the problem was. When she walked around the corner she saw that Mikey had flipped his big wheel right into Jeffrey, both boys were crying and had scratches on their forehead. She ran to them and took them to the bathroom. As she was looking at them she was amazed to see the scratch was on the same exact place on their forehead and arms. Even when hurt they would be identical, she just shook her head in amazement.

8th of Mar 2023 – Excerpt from Journal

I started working out again.

Had a good workout tonight, starting to feel better as I workout more and work other areas…I always like arms and shoulders I might add some more shoulder stuff later but for now this works good.

9th of March 2023- The big storm is coming

Yes there was a big storm on its way and I just had to get a screen shot…I don’t do that very often but this is the second storm we had so far in the matter of 2 weeks and we are in another one now.

10th of March 2023- Meditation

I was up to 30 days in a row meditating. The calm app helps to keep me on track. I have thoroughly enjoyed meditating each day and have found it to be very helpful. I think 30 days is a pretty remarkable streak for someone who has a hard time sticking with anything…lol. I set a goal to try and have a 365 day streak. You heard that right a full year, it is lofty but I think I can d it.

11th of March 2023- Journal

I downloaded a new journal app called Stoic to possibly replace the journal I am using now. It has a lot more features but is a little more expensive for a year but with the extra tools to help with journaling including prompts and including meditation in its features it might be a viable journaling tool. I’m going to test it for the week free trial and will make a determination after the that.

This has been a week of rest and taking care of myself which is something we all need. The next week I’m planning on do more creative things, but you never know what the week will bring.

51 Years Around the Sun (5 Mar 2023)

Another week in the books and another post. It has been a week of work and trying to create where I can. This quote may not be from today’s mediation but I found it inspirational, it was actually from yesterday’s meditation.

“Surrender is a Journey from the outer turmoil to the inner peace.”- Sri Chinmoy

27 February 2023- Poem

Falling and falling, snow covering the earth 
A cold blanket waiting for a rebirth
Soon winter must melt away,
Let the warmth of spring be felt.

The flowers will boom
The trees will blossom
Showing the flowers hidden when winter melts,
And spring days can be felt.

©Chris Chonos

28 February 2023- Photos

Took a half day off from work to enjoy some of the nicer weather and took some photos around the area. This is a trail that crosses the Fox River near where we live.

1 March 2023-Trip to the dentist

A trip to the dentist is never a fun thing but afterwards I usually grab a quick bite to eat at Culver’s to take the edge off.

2 March 2023- Bowling

Well, not a lot really happened but work, and that was filled with, well work. But on every Thursday I bowl on a league and had my best series to date, I had a 522 series with scores of 153, 180 and 189. I was pretty proud of myself that night…had fun and bowled pretty good.

3 March 2023- Prompt

Do you enjoy your job?

This is a loaded question only because the most straightforward answer is no. I don’t have any interest in what I do but the money is good and pays the bills. It deals with things that are so serious and really not fun at all, the typical office job where I sit at a desk and just fill in spreadsheets, read emails, write emails and look at numbers. It doesn’t feed my creative side and I must admit I’m sick of having someone always asking for things without any creative aspects at all. So yeah, I pretty much hate this job is not what I pictured doing for a living.

4 March 2023- Working out again

I started working out again and it felt good, got the blood pumping. I started working out at the local Planet Fitness…lots of purple and yellow.

20 minutes on the elliptical and worked legs, they are sure to feel it tomorrow.

51 Years Around the Sun (19 Feb 2023)

This week has been a hectic one and sometimes creativity is lower than others but another week is a good week.

13 Feb 2023- Poem

This is a poem I shared on my blog. The inspiration of this poem came from my first times sharing my poetry and sometimes delving into the political environment.

Disjoint

Mundane words fall upon deaf ears
Raised upon woeful fears
To not hear what I say 
This fateful day
Of loss and destruction upon us now
How we will escape I don’t know how
A desperate measure we must take
Or a regrettable mistake we will make
To not take action at this pivotal point
The whole machine will disjoint

© Chris Chonos

14 Feb 2023-Photos

The lazy day for a dog. Chloe and Claire relaxing while dad works. Claire works in the office while Chloe works remote on the couch.

Claire in the office. She is my daily coworker in the office

15 Feb 2023- Poem. It is was a windy day and I was inspired to to write a poem about the wind. I find nature amazing and can inspire so much writing, the beauty and beast of it.

The Beast

The wind wailed as if a beast, wanting in.
Feel the shake causing the house to quake.
Whistling a tune to set my mind at ease, let me in please

For I know your game, you will whirl and twirl things about, bring chaos to this place, leaving with only a disaster to trace.

So you stay outside, until you calm down and decide to subside.

©Chris Chonos

16 Feb 2023-Quote

I have been meditating daily for the last 13 days and the app I use for meditation has a daily quote. Sometimes I find these quotes inspirational or have a deep effect on me and the following is one of them.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”- Aristotle

17 Feb 2023- Photography

I have been taking photographs for years now and I don’t share a whole bunch here and I think my camera is starting to get upset with me and captured this in a photo, or at least I think I did.

I think my camera wants is watching me and wants to get out

18 Feb 2023-Thought

I wanted to share a little thought I had in my poetry notebook.

“I feel as though my writing has become stagnant and am at a loss of inspiration.”

I wrote this and have seen several blog posts where people have taken a break or feel as though writing isn’t coming as easy to them; and I want to let people know that I have felt this and my writing is evolving and maybe how I write is changing as well and they are not alone in this struggle.

I hope you enjoy these weekly posts as much as I enjoy creating them.

51 Years Around the Sun (12 Feb 2023)

The first full week of my project and here we are a collection of paintings, music, prompts, poetry and even a little new art added to me. I hope you enjoy the collection.

5th February– I created this in Procreate, my digital drawing app of choice, My inspiration was a hat that I received from my wife for my birthday.

Poem I wrote the day of my birthday.

Big Five-One

A birthday over the big five-one
Seems so much older I know
But young at heart I will be
Age a state of mind you see
So bring in many more years
Numbers bring me no fears

©Chris Chonos

6th February- Created this little ditty while I had one last day off before having to go back to work…it is called ‘Funk Feeling’.

7th of February– Sometimes making something involves a little help and today my son and myself made some Irish Guinness Beef Stew. He isn’t much for the camera so I cut him out of it…just a thumbs up. It is nice to be able to do things together like this. I got the recipe off of Pinterest, the link is below.

https://pin.it/3vBn4NU

8th of February- I have been watching a lot of episodes on coerced confessions or false confessions if you will and wrote this poem today.

Already Guilty

I did not do it, it wasn’t me
Look at the evidence and you will see

But you must have , no one else could , hit him with a bat made of wood.

But I didn’t, wasn’t even there
We’ll lock you up no one will care

An innocent man put away for something he didn’t do, hard to believe but still true

Men are fallible  this fact can’t be denied
But found guilty before even tried

Injustice seems to be the state, so many times determines man’s fate.

©Chris Chonos

9th of February– Writing Prompt (Person A wants to get through a door that Person B is on the other side of. How does Person A try to convince Person B?)

“Come on let me in” Mike said as he knocked on the bathroom door. “No, I know you’ll yell at me” Joey yelled back. Joey was in trouble for breaking the lamp playing with bat like he was told not to, but his dad had to use the bathroom after eating Mexican for supper, it was tearing him up inside.

“You are in trouble but I do need to use the bathroom so let’s compromise.”

Joey thought about it for a second but didn’t really know what compromise meant, “what does compromise mean?” He asked. Mike explained to him that he would get in trouble but also it would be minor like no dessert tomorrow if he would let him in instead of a week of extra chores.

Joey thought about it as his dad clenched his ass hoping he didn’t shit his pants and finally said “it’s a deal” and opened the door.

Mike shook his sons hand and slammed the door shut behind him as he hat sounded like a huge explosion had gone off…he giggled to himself.

10th of February– I have started meditating and have a goal to meditate 3 times a day; and at the end of the first meditation my app presents me with a quote. I found this quote inspirational

“There is never anything but the present, and if one cannot live there, one cannot live anywhere”

11th of February-Tattoo day. My wife an I went and got new tattoos today. This is my fifth and wanted to get one for my other forearm. It was a quote my wife put for me on an inspirational sign. “My soul speaks through words and music”