Summer’s on it’s way

How to have a bikini body:
Buy a bikini, put it on 👙

Haha, that’s funny, but it’s no joke that the first day of summer is only three weeks away. In preparation (and because I am determined to wear a bathing suit in public this summer) I signed up for a June fitness challenge.

It’s a little surprising when a nationally recognized fitness coach calls you IN PERSON to ask if you are familiar with how intense her program is because she noticed your age combined with your height to weight ratio 😳 and you have to tell her that you have not been doing any intense exercise lately 😩

After I assured her that I was familiar with her programs (a close family member does them) and the level of hot water I was jumping off into. She finally agreed to let me participate if I promised to work at my own pace and not try to keep up with her. I agreed. 😁

🏃🏼‍♀️🏋🏼‍♀️👙So bring on the oxygen and the smelling salts and the achy-joint salve…. 🔥 the intensity begins tomorrow 💥

E.A.Fussell

05.31.2021

Death leads to freedom

Death & Freedom
Seem to go hand-in-hand
Death leads to freedom
Regardless of whether it is
A noble soldier on the battlefield
Seeking freedom for their country
Or a patient on the battlefield of disease
Seeking freedom from pain and suffering
Or a drug addict on the battlefield of life
Seeking freedom from their tortured mind
Death leads to freedom in all cases
Then grief engulfs families for decades
The price of freedom is very high
For families of soldiers as well as
For anyone who has lost someone
Who didn’t survive
Their search for freedom

E.A. Fussell
05.31.2021

Bravery or Ignorance

Photo by Robert J Wagner Photography

Bravery
Can
Make
Us
Look
Ignorant
To
Those
Unwilling
To
Take
A
Stand

Ignorance
Can
Make
Us
Look
Brave
To
Those
Unaware
Of
Our
Circumstances

Compromise
Can
Allow
Predator
And
Prey
To sun
On
The
Same
Log
In
The
Middle
Of
The
Day
Without
Letting
Bravery
Or
Ignorance
Get
In
The
Way

E.A. Fussell
05.30.2021

Fragments of life

Fragments


Experiences


Thoughts 


Feelings


Words


Given away

Collected


In different sized pieces


Wondrous 

Glorious

Terrifying


How much there is 

To take

How much we have

To give


A never ending supply

Fragmented pieces

For as long as 


We live

E.A.Fussell

w10.11.2017 

r05.17.2021

Peace somewhere in the pieces

May we find peace
Somewhere In the pieces
When we must come undone

Losing our ability
To hold ourselves together
In the face of life’s tragedies
May we fall apart beautifully

Knowing that eventually
We will pull ourselves back together
Forever changed
With some cracks remaining
But back together all the same

May the cracks in our soul
Created by the lost pieces of ourselves
Shine brightly as beacons
To other suffering beings
Letting them know they are not alone
And that they will survive the pain

E.A. Fussell
05.09.2021

Thoughts can trip you up

Note to self:
Today’s thoughts
Become today’s choices
Which become
Tomorrow’s reality

What reality do you desire
Be mindful of your choices today

Or you might find
That your old thought pattern
Has tripped you up
And landed you on your keister

E.A. Fussell
05.08.2021

As Mother’s Day approaches

Son
Since your death
I’ve been renovating 
Wrecking myself
Crashing down heart walls

Stumbling through the rubble
Of a life wasted 
Pulling invisible cables 
Trying to hoist myself up
Out of the depths of despair 

Depression can’t have me
I’m elevating
Adding multiple floor levels
Insulating and protecting myself
Layering bricks of numbness 

Upward out of the mire
Of should have 
Could have
What if
If only

Tears flow 
Like a fountain
Forming a mote of memories 
Surrounding me
On all sides

My thoughts are the bridge
Separating the fragile glass castle 
Of my heart
From the dark mired forrest of grief 
Threatening to overtake my mind

E.A.Fussell
05.08.2021

A twist on Childhood memories

Lately life feels like I’m playing a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and that creepy Jack-in-the-box keeps spinning me around and moving the donkey. 🤡🎯

Where is my trusty wooden dog Snoopy? 🐶

He would chase Jack back into his box so I could ride off into the Lollipop Forrest of Candyland on my bouncy Wonder horse… toy guns a blazin’ 🔫🤠🍭🐴

E.A. Fussell

05.06.2021

Your path is your choice

There is no failure

There is no success

There is only feedback

If you like the feedback

You are receiving

Then continue with your path

If you don’t like the feedback

You are receiving

Then change your path

The mind likes to classify

Failure and success

The ego likes to compare

Itself against others

The Universe is indifferent

We have a free will

To walk whatever path

We choose

Feedback is freely given

Based on our choices

How we use

The feedback

Is also

Ours to choose

E.A. Fussell

05.05.2021