Warts, Witches, bats and little gray cells. 🦇🦇🦇

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Night dawns...I shift my human form...becoming a winged thing that flies way up to the mountaintop. Here, I reappear---human...standing in awe of the darkness. I bask in the freedom of standing high above the drone of the dissonant hum of humanity...up here where I am alone with myself...at peace...

Closing my eyes**I breathe deeply of the pure untainted mountain air...one with nature...one with the quiet thoughts and the inner voices of my perambulations...I am happy here in this place.

----------I appreciate my creative soul, that which transports me to the vast heights and depths to where my imagination can soar. My mind knows no boundaries here...beyond the universe or just here with myself. It is up to me to decide how far creativity soars unbound.

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............Hey, I got to visit Dracula's palace...and visit 221B Baker Street. I went to Transylvania and got the real dirt on Vlad Dracule. I walked the hills where Arthur Conan Doyle may have walked when he wrote Sherlock Holmes, upon the open moor and wild English shires. I felt free and unleashed...The poet within me stood and composed poetry to the air and sky.

I visited Greece, where the warm Greek sun kisses your skin as you settle into the golden sands, the scent of salt and sea carrying on the gentle breeze. Across the waters, the sapphire Aegean shimmers, its waves gently ebbing and flowing against the shore. Midday reflects light like scattered diamonds. On the horizon, the outline of Turkey rises---the coastline undulates in quiet defiance of the ocean between them. The air hums with history, as seagulls cruise overhead, their cries punctuating the vast expanse of water that connects and divides.

Yes...I appreciate this unexpected and welcome pathway in my life's journey...my fantasy in books became a bit of my reality. "Whoohooo".

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-----------I totally appreciate my little gray cells, though they are playing tricks on me. I am not leaving the glasses in the freezer just yet, but I hear them whispering and plotting...I am watching them closely. They won't get me, those gray matter...'no siree dearie'.

I tortured myself into schools, colleges and a host of related courses preparing myself for life. I remember 'Finishing School' . They tried teaching me to be a proper lady...the fine etiquette of how to eat, speak, enter and exit a vehicle (stand by vehicle with back turned... gathering skirt, softly pivot, placing bum delicately on seat, grasp folds of frock and with ladylike movements, swing both legs in, keeping thighs and knees pinned together like steel zippers, gently place feet on floor of vehicle) settle in charmingly and coquettishly... I never wanted to be a proper lady, I was wild, self-willed and outdoorsy...not created to spend so many years in confined spaces.

I fully appreciate that I did get the chance to reverse my course and do some of my favorite things.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Snowflake that stays on my nose and eyelashes

Silver-white winters that melt into springs

These are a few of my favorite things

When the bee stings...When I'm feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don't feel so bad. (Thanks Julie).

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Not so long ago our household was pure ebony...I appreciate the changes which have now made it a kaleidoscopic rainbow of Black and White, a happy place. It is not in color that we find peace. It is in the hearts of those involved. Our new 6 y/o drew me.

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I remember that sinking feeling of loss the first time my best friend stopped voice speaking to me and began using tech...he loved it...I mourned it...Social media had arrived.

Voices...I miss voices...But embrace that the world is at my fingertips...new tech and lifestyle.

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--------------I appreciate the achievements and hard work that have brought me safely, if slightly damaged, to where and who I am now.

Thanks...family members, friends and ALL those who have contributed to the person that I am today. I appreciate Vocal and Vocalites for allowing me to vent.

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I still love the awe in everything... I procrastinate...but can craft a great poem from anything...or write a funny short story if I try.

Thanks younger version of me that pushed me to...being and becoming.

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I appreciate that our shells may crack.

How we handle that cracking matters.

It may not be visible on the outside...but crack us open and take a peek on the inside...There are fissures, tornados, storms and wildfires tearing a path through our inner facade. We pick them up...gluing them back together.

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........I appreciate having written three different versions of the prompt, stitching them together from their pieces...Am I happy with the finished product..UMMMM!!!

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I completely appreciate My:

Black identity...Empathy, Strength, Pride...and Just Being Alive.