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By the Pond
01 Jul

Stepping Outside (My Comfort Zone)

sidonamarie Blog 0 0

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I have always wanted to try painting. I am a poet. I cannot draw. I used to watch a painter on PBS. He would walk you through a painting, and I would dream. A friend of mine on Facebook started something she calls Pray & Paint. The pray part can make me a bit weary. My faith is a deeply private and quiet part of my life. I am not one who can just in the spur of the moment lead prayer. It would need to have thought carefully and written it out.

I watched Patti advertise over the course of a few months. Finally, the lighthouse above was to be the next class. Sea and shorelines weave into and reoccur in much of my poetry. The shapes looked like something I could do – very simple. I signed up. It got canceled twice. I thought that would be it. Then, a painting of dandelions showed up. Dandelions (weeds, wildflowers) also weave their way through my poetry representing most people on Earth. We lack monetary wealth, and yet have a wealth, a beauty, the privileged cannot understand. I signed up again and this time the class went on. Below I am painting. My daughter went with me and took the picture.

The prayer was just a simple one at the beginning of class. Patti did not preach at us. She took us step by step through the process of painting the dandelions. It went so well I decide to host a class. I picked the lighthouse painting (my painting above). There were only 5 of us at the class. Great fun. I have 2 paintings of my own hung in my house where I can see them. I get a lot of peace seeing them – not sure why. Writing poetry is a different kind of release for me. It is deeply personal, and many times I cry while writing them. My poetry comes from dreams and the emotions I attach to them many times. Poetry I create alone. While cathartic, it can be emotionally wrenching. When painting, I am with others laughing. Yet, I chose the paintings because they reflect something in my poetry.

I am going to try again at the end of July. This time it will be a bird in a teacup hanging from the branch of a tree. I write about birds once in awhile and trees and breezes. It looks much more difficult, but I am game. I am no Picasso, but who knew I could paint. I will share it after – even if not so good.

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About the Author

Written by sidonamarie

My poetry has been my therapy over the years. In 1993, an unusual traumatic event occurred with me. Poetry over the years has been my sorting out process. I have always had a strong spiritual nature balanced by strong doubt. During period of tremendous confusion, my poetry (sometimes more like stories my son thinks) helped me remember who I am, how I feel, and what I think and always have from a child. The theme I hope comes through is that we should not have our heads too far into the clouds or too deeply into the dirt. Life lives as balance somewhere in the middle with little visits to both edges. All 56 years of my life I have lived in Michigan. I was born in Kalamazoo September 16, 1958. My parents separated when I was young do to my mother’s mental illness. Dad died in 1965 at 29 from a cerebral hemorrhage. I was 6 when he passed. Grandma Peggy (my dad’s mother) went to court 7 times in a year and a half to fight for my younger sister (Kim who was mentally impaired) and me, because my dad had asked her too. She won custody of us. So, I lived with her in Bangor, Michigan through high school and college. I didn’t begin to write poetry until I went to live with my aunt (my mother’s sister) in Wartervliet, Michigan while attending Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor. My aunt lived near my mother and her mother (my Grandma Elsie). After 2 years there, I attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts major in English and minor in Elementary Education. Right out of college fall of 1984 I was hired at St. Mary’s in Paw Paw, Michigan as a kindergarten teacher. I taught kindergarten for 1 year half days and was moved into a full-time first grade position for three years. I met my husband Gary during that time. On October 17, 1987, we married and I moved to Fennville, Michigan where I still live. Gary and I have a son age 24 and a daughter age 19.


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