Another Dark Creature of Folklore

When reality and the world as you know it gets turned topsy-turvey overnight, you irrevocably fall in-love with someone who's so beyond your dreams that they cannot be real, and they are really a character of dark folklore, then disappear after six months of bliss; you're left empty. Devastatingly so. Suddenly what was holding you to this Earth is gone, and you feel like a planet just blankly following the orbital patterns it was once held to around it's sun... but the sun is now gone. It did not blow up, consuming everything around it in flames. It simply vanished, as if it had never been there before... leaving a few minute details behind to remind you of it's once glorious existence, leaving you desolate and cold.

All you can do is follow the same steps you must make, but vacantly. There's no feeling of meaning, of purpose, of the air moving through your lungs, no sense of smell, no notice of anything going on around you. You've checked out. Everything was so interwoven into them, that they took you with them when they vanished. Now you're just a corpse repeating the same patterns that once held meaning for you, feeling nothing.

And then someone is trying to wake you up. They're yelling at you. You look up from whatever mindlessness you were sunken into at the moment, and see genuine feeling in a face you love with all your heart. Suddenly you feel your heart as well, hurting from the unmistakable  pain and torment anguishing this face. This person is the only reason you've even been thinking, while being hollow. To protect them. To not hurt them. But you've failed. You promise them that you'll do better, and they let out a bark of hysteric laughter. They point out to you that you couldn't try any harder, and to see you do so even more is going to kill them.

 Suddenly you have a reason to live.

You arrange a movie date with a girlfriend, a Chatty Katty who won't even notice your void expression or lack of response. You find yourself easily caught up and lost in her drama-filled hormonal teenage stories, that it's nice.

You get to the Cinema, and sit down for two hours of blood and gore, and most of the world's population turning into zombies. The movie begins romantically, and you dive for the doors. By the time you get back with a bucket of popcorn, nearly every character in the movie is now the walking dead. As you sit there, watching the animated corpses, you start relating to them.

 Reality hits you like a ton of bricks.

You've been a fucking zombie for the last... however long it had been since they... don't want to think of them. Anyways, you can't believe your own stupidity at being so sure you had been fooling everyone. The movie ends, and you and your friend head to grab a bite of food. You're so lost in your thoughts that you didn't notice she had been babbling to you until she wasn't anymore. You look up, alarmed at the thought of offending her. She's looking straight forward, eyes focused on the burger place at the end of the block, jaw set tight, and walking with a brisker pace suddenly. Her eyes glance quickly to the side, your glance follows.

Four men stand outside a bar, smoking their cigarettes and being drunkenly obnoxious. Obviously your friend feels they are dangerous, but you still don't FEEL very much... let alone danger; hadn't you already experienced the worst thing that could ever happen to you? But these men brought back a strong feeling of deja vu... one of those painful memories you tended to avoid was brought to the surface. Of four different men in a dark alley, of being cornered, and suddenly saved by...

You stop in your tracks and take a step towards the men. As adrenaline pumps through your veins, "Stop. Turn around NOW." growls a very loud and distinct, painfully familiar silky voice. As you keep approaching the men, the voice keeps telling you to stop, go back to your friend, be safe... suddenly your illusion is broken off.

"Hello, Beautiful! Can we help you?" one of the bar men ask. You notice that these are definitely different men from your memory. Your friend is having a panic attack behind you, while you walk towards the bar.

"No, no. Sorry... thought you looked like someone I know, apparently I was wrong." you say, and turn around to hurry back to your friend.

"Are you INSANE?? Do you have a death wish??" your friend whispers to you, as you both finish walking to the burger joint.

Offended, you stop and say, "No. I don't have a death wish." As your friends expression of shock sinks in, you realize that it had been a rhetorical question... you had taken her too seriously. Wow. Oops. Well then...

After eating quickly in silence, your ride home is quite the opposite. She blares the music too loud for conversation, and sings along while driving ten miles over the speed limit. When you get back to your house, you are very sure that she's probably never going to talk to you again...

The next day you pick up two free rundown motorcycles off the side of the road, and take them to the only real friend you've got left. As soon as you pull up in his driveway, his brilliant smile and radiant personality can't help but warm you a little as well. The pursuant weeks are spent in his company, being happy and almost back to normal whenever you're with him. When you're not with him, it's easier to cope with life a bit, because you can look forward to his sunshine brightening your barren and shabby insides soon again.

   
But unexpectedly he leaves you, too.

You dive into a worse pain than before, because now you can't crawl back into your shell of numbness. When you originally broke out of it, it shattered and you can't rebuild it again. Now you have to deal with the pain, and the agony is torture.

You finally go to see him, and he shatters your hope entirely. But in the dark of night, he's at your window. He gives you a trail of midnight riddles to figure out in your half-asleep mind, then slips away once again. Upon awaking, you're not sure if his appearance at your window had been a dream or not, but it led you to the answer.

 Another dark creature of Folklore.

It can't be. But it's the only answer...



After having read the Twilight saga, by Stephenie Meyer, through several times, I still get completely sucked into Bella when I peruse these pages. This is my rendition of chapters 1-12 of "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer, the second book in the series. That's as far as I am into reading it for my fifth time through, at the moment.

These books are very different from the classic ideas of mythical creatures. But don't let those differences stop you from picking the book up. Don't let the age-old Christian objections keep you from reading this amazing book series. Just because these books cast a different light on creatures we're so familiar with, doesn't diminish the fantastic romance and love story that ensues. The impossibilities that are overcome, and the beauty of it all.

May you have a beautiful day, full of magic and myth.

Until Next Time...

~Tanya~

Rain in May

Rain, rain go away,

I want more sunshine in May.

The squirrels and the bees can come out to play,
while I soak up every ray.

To smell the scents warm and sweet,
to feel the grass under my bare feet.

So please, little storm go away,
leave me be until another day.

~Tanya~

Harry Potter: Reaching Across Generations

 When I was nine years old my mom brought home a book she had heard a lot about from coworkers, who had bought the book and taken it home to read. One night, we cuddled up on the couch, me freshly bathed and ready for bed. As I snuggled into the comfortable and familiar spot between her chest and armpit, nestled into the curve of her arm, she opened the book and began to read.


"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense..."{1} And my imagination took flight from there. I was riveted! Every night my mom and I would cuddle up on the couch, and she would read a chapter to me before bed.

As I grew older, and the books took years for the series to be completed and published, I eagerly read them myself. Even when I was sixteen and pregnant, I had my nose inside the newest Harry Potter book. As I started my family, I began to collect the movies. Willow at four-years-old was very much into the movies and watched them continuously. My step brother Darren and sister-in-law Harmony gifted us the first five movies, because they just weren't into the series the way I was, and the movies had been collecting dust in their house. When we lived in San Diego, we had a very awesome neighbor named Mike who had all seven Harry Potter books! He let me borrow them for nigh on a year before he moved, and I read through the series seven times in a row that year.

I have found so many truths and life lessons intertwined in the pages of these fictional books that have shown and taught me how to be a good person and live with integrity. My favorite people are within those pages. I wear my patterned socks mismatched in honor of Dobby. Hermione taught me to stand up for what I believe in, no matter if the whole world is against me. Dumbledore... is just an amazing old man; here are a few of my favorite quotes of his from the books:

"After all, to the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." ~Dumbledore{2}

"It is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." ~Dumbledore{3}

"It’s the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more." ~Dumbledore{4}

"There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends." ~Dumbledore{5}

"Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" ~Dumbledore{6}

Well, as my daughter Willow has grown and out-shown all the rest with her reading abilities, I started her on reading the series last Fall. I checked out the first two books from the public library, and she finished them within two weeks. I turned around and bought her a second-hand copy of the third book from a little local used book store called "The Bookery," located at 326 Main Street, Placerville, California. I gave it to her as an early Christmas present, and she finished it so quickly that my mom turned around and bought her the fourth book for Christmas. She now owns books 3-6. She had read through them many times, nearing as many times as I have now.

The world of Harry Potter is truly a magical place, where imagination and magic thrive. Where heroes are created out of babies, wisdom is gained and shared through experience, and one teenage boy has to and does make the right choice to save the magical world from the reign of a selfish and evil Wizard.

May these books be a blessing to you and yours, may they inspire you and other people world-wide to live true and noble. May they remind us that good people ARE out there, even if they are few and far between, and even if the only ones you currently know are in the pages of a fictional book.

May your light always shine, and may you always find a reason to smile.

Until Next Time...

~Tanya~ 

{1} Excerpt from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling

{2} Excerpt from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling

{3} Excerpt from "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" by J.K. Rowling

{4] Excerpt from "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling

{5} Excerpt from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling

{6} Excerpt from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling

"The Host" by Stephenie Meyer

I just finished reading "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer, for the second time through. The first time that I read it was two Summers ago, when I was living in our small apartment in Pollock Pines. I had just started going to the library again in search of new books that I hadn't yet read. I've read my favorites through multiple times, and found myself frustrated with my limited collection at home; and having been broke at the time, I turned to the vast assortment available to me at the library. I read many books that summer, in which I intend on reading again and blogging about, but one of my favorites was "The Host."

A couple years before, while living in San Diego, I had gone to our local library in hopes of checking out and reading through the Harry Potter series again. That's one series I have read more times than any other book in existence. In the same section, on the same shelf even, were the Twilight books. They had been out for a handful of years at this point, and the first movie had already come out on DVD. I was just coming out of a very Christian phase that I went through for a couple years, and I had heard a lot, I mean A LOT, of bad repertoire about this series. So, being the rebel I am, I checked the first one out, and within a week I had read all four books!

So, when I was browsing the library shelves up here in Pollock Pines, I noticed that Stephenie Meyer had written another book unrelated to Twilight. Being familiar with her writing, and quite enjoying her first books she had published, I eagerly grabbed The Host. I devoured that book in no time! I didn't know what to expect with this story, but it was a surprise every chapter. I thought the idea of alien invasion being presented in such an alien way was genius. The fact that, as a reader, you fall in love with the alien species, and then the twist of an alien falling in love with not just one human, but a community in which she isn't even fully accepted, is brilliant! Wanda (the main character, who goes by "Wanderer" through part of the book) being such a selfless soul really reminded me of myself, and how selfless of a person I am. It was so nice to meet, and even be in the head of, a gentle and pure soul, even though she was a fictional character. That is why I love Fiction so much, there are so many life lessons intertwined in the pages, and it's a thrill of the imagination simultaneously!

My Christmas present from my Grandmother last year was the Twilight series, gently used and read by herself. There's a nice note scribbled in the cover of the first book from someone I do not know, leading me to wonder how many hands these books had passed through before they came to me! I don't know if my Grandmother read "The Host," but she gave it to me with the Twilight series. I was stoked! I had just received the "Divergent" series from my husband for Christmas as well, and now I had TWO series that I had already read and LOVED to add to my small collection, and an additional book too!

In "The Host," an alien species invades Earth and takes over the human population by attaching themselves to the inside of your body, like a parasite, through medical insertion. The only way to tell the difference between a human and an alien is the silver glint to their eyes, that refracts light brilliantly. In an attempt to seek out the last remaining rebel humans, the alien species would comb through the memories of their human "host" in order to seek out and find any relatives that hadn't been caught and used as a Host yet. Our main character Wanderer gets placed inside a very strong-willed human girl named Melanie. Melanie had been living as a rebel on the run for years with her younger brother Jamie, and boyfriend Jared. Melanie went back to Chicago to find her aunt and cousin by herself, and barely survived a suicide attempt when she was about to be caught by the aliens. Wanderer was inserted into her and supposed to use Melanie's memories to aid her own species in finding more humans for insertion; but instead she falls in love with Melanie, because Melanie refuses to go away and allow some alien to use her body as a host. Together (in the same body) they go in search of Jamie and Jared, and what they do find is completely unexpected, all the way through to the very last page of the book!

So, if you haven't yet read "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer, I HIGHLY recommend it! Even if you don't think you're "that into" sci-fi novels, this one will surprise you! And I promise there aren't any sparkly vampires in this one.

Until next time...

Love Laughter & Light,
Tanya

Let's Play Catch Up

It has been a long time since I've sat in front of a computer and shared my thoughts, life, happenings, and goofs.

I have been through a lot since I even had internet access at home last. I was living in San Diego, my husband and two girls. David was working with Canvass For A Cause (http://www.canvassforacause.org/), Willow was in Kindergarten; and Aliana was a bumbling baby, chubby as could be, just learning to crawl. Then, one night after the girls were fast asleep, David and I sat down to a Skype chat with a couple friends from back home in NorCal, as was usual. We Skyped with these friends weekly. Well, they had some issues with their roommates and offered for us to rent two rooms from them, and our opportunity to move back home to the country. We had an angel of a friend whom financed our move, as well as flying down and renting a uhaul to move us 800 miles back home. A month after that fateful Skype call, we were back home in Placerville, CA.

Our new home did not have internet, though we did have satellite. Willow began First Grade at the local Elementary school, riding the bus for the first time. Neither David or I drove at the time, so I walked Willow one mile to the bus stop every day. In all, my six year-old walked two miles a day, I walked four miles a day, and Aliana strolled in a jogging stroller for four miles a day. David worked out of town for his dad, and was only able to come home once every two weeks, or so. This living situation lasted nine months before things went sour in our household between our friends and us.

We moved out and up to Pollock Pines, 15 miles up the mountain from Placerville; just up the street from David's work and all. The downfall was the second-rate apartment we ended up in. The Landlord was awful; he was a Landlord/Tenant Law Attorney who used his title to scare his renters into living in poor conditions. Upon move-in we didn't have a bathroom door handle, let alone a smoke alarm. No screens on the windows, and we were upstairs. The stairs themselves were so rickety, it's a wonder the children never got hurt. Not only that, but drugs were being peddled from the neighbors in the back complex, and there was drama over-flowing. The benefits were, that first summer in the apartment, my best friend and cousin in-law lived nextdoor, my sister-in-law lived directly under her, and my older brother lived directly under me. A lot of good summer nights and barbecues commenced.

A year in that apartment, and a better deal fell in our laps! Now we live in a 3-bedroom house with Pear trees and a garden, INTERNET once again (after three long years), and a family truck named "Ruby."

So, now that I have internet, I have decided to start blogging once again; with a fresh start. I plan to talk about a range of my interests, and hopefully entertain you at the same time with my writing and wit.

Until next time...

Love Laughter & Light,
Tanya