Author: D.M. Sessous

Home is where…

by D.M. Sessous

…the books, wine, cats are.

My home is in flux now. I’m moving in with my boyfriend at the end of this month. My apartment is becoming less and less home, but my boyfriend’s house hasn’t quite become home yet.

So, how does one define home when it’s in transition? What does home really mean?

When I was in high school, I used to sketch partial faces with sad eyes captioned with “I want to go home.” I would say it under my breath throughout the day. It became my mantra. One day, I walked through my front door, heaved my book-bag to the floor and said, “I want to go home.” This woke me up in a way. I was home, but I still wanted to go home. So, where did I really want to be? I realized then that home wasn’t a physical place, but a state of mind. When my heart and mind were at peace, I was truly home.

My world is in upheaval again. Not so much due to teen-angst, but the stress of paring down, getting a new space ready for all my stuff and getting all my stuff ready to move has me thinking about home and what it means.

Since taking a photo of my physical home is not an option, I decided to snap a pic of the things that bring me comfort. I had wanted to show a cup of tea or cocoa, but all my mugs are already moved. I had enough forethought to keep a few bottles of wine here. Thankfully, one of my cats (Birdie) decided she needed to get in on the action and added the warmth needed.

Lastly, for any book geeks out there, here’s a list of the titles in the photo. These all have special meaning to me and contributed to the breadth and color of my imaginary world.

  • Flutterby, Stephen Cosgrove
  • The Oversoul Seven Trilogy, Jane Roberts
  • Emir’s Education in the Proper Use of Magical Powers, Jane Roberts
  • Virtual Mode – Book One, Piers Anthony
  • Night Mare, Piers Anthony (not shown)

If you keep the feeling of home in your heart, you will always have peace, love and joy.

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Dirty Laundry

by D.M. Sessous

Dirty Laundry - web

I love sleeping in the laundry basket
Snuggled in your dirty clothes
Feeling closer to you I purr
My ear twitches and my eye glows
Odors wafting to my nose
Love your dirty laundry

Love your smelly shirts and underwear
In the darkness no one can see
Still feel you when you’re not here
Your body odors fascinate me
Snoozing happy as can be
Love your dirty laundry

Gimme dirty socks
Gimme stinky shoes
Gimme dirty socks
Gimme stinky shoes

Love your dirty laundry

Dirty Laundry2 - web

Many thanks to Don Henley…

And, apologies to everyone else…

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My favorite time of year…just got better

by D.M. Sessous

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The air is getting colder, the leaves are changing color, the sun is setting earlier…and it’s Peanut movie season.

So, not only do I get “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” I also get a full-length feature film that looks to be true to the TV movies I grew up with.

In celebration, I decided to Peanut-ize myself.

If you want to get in on the fun, here’s a link to the official site: http://www.peanutizeme.com/

Have fun and have a great fall!

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Hello, my pretties…

by D.M. Sessous

 

*cackling laugh*My Pretties - web

I know it’s a bit late for Halloween humor, but oh well.

Just some late birthday goodies I bought for myself with my birthday gift cards – thanks again Mom, Dad and Sweetie-pies!

I feel the creative juices flowing at the mere thought of playing with all my new colors and brushes. I typically use the Chinese brushes as my work is usually loose and contemporary. I also invested in a new bottle of rubber cement and a “pick-up” eraser to play with resists. And, I’m very excited to experiment with the Prismacolor markers. They’ll be a step up from the Sharpies.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy…

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Chakra Healing Heart

by D.M. Sessous

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I created this piece for my dad. In my Reiki studies and reading about energy healing, I learned that when the kundalini energy rising through the chakras encounters a closed or blocked chakra, it can manifest as health issues in the physical body.

Men in particular tend to have blocked heart chakras from a lifetime of suppressed emotional expression. This causes heart issues in the physical body such as heart disease, blocked arteries and heart attacks.

So, I wanted to give him a gentle and safe environment to balance and clear his heart chakra and in the process bring his other chakras into balance.

This started as a small sketch in a pocket-size journal. I knew that I wanted the color of the heart chakra (green) as the focal point. I added the grounding energy of the root chakra (red) to add balance on either side of the piece.

The energy of these complementary colors (opposites on the color wheel) makes this a very powerful and striking painting.

Prints of this piece along with a piece that I created for my mom are available on Etsy.

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Inspirations from my childhood

by D.M. Sessous

TARDIS_in_the_woods_cropped

After writing my last post, I felt compelled to reminisce…

Here are the top five influences on the imaginary play of my childhood. I draw from these for inspiration today.

• Doctor Who (Tom Baker) – It wasn’t just the coat, the fedora and oh-my-god the best scarf ever, it was the promise of adventure and spontaneity. I remember playing in the expanse of woods that was my back yard and hoping that I would come across the TARDIS. It was one of my greatest childhood wishes to join the Doctor on an adventure or two.
• Star Trek (Original Series) – Oh yeah, Kirk had his charms, but it was Spock that I admired (I even had a bit of a crush). He helped make it okay to be intellectual and different.
• Twilight Zone (80’s reboot) – There were so many episodes that affected me on an emotional level, they should have a list of their own.
• Fairy Tales (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin) – For me, these stories were about discovering I was more than what showed on the surface, and the potential to move past it into who I could become.
• Romancing the Stone (1984) – What I loved (and still love) about this film is that our heroine lived in her fantasy world, then she has a real adventure and became a real version of the heroine she wrote in her novels.

Seems there is a theme emerging here…

Copyright information on the posted image is found here.

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Writing 101

by D.M. Sessous

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So…I haven’t been paying much attention to my blog…

It’s a sad, unfortunate thing. Thankfully, Blogging-U came along and pulled me out of my rut.

Crazy overachiever that I am, I chose not only Blogging 101 but also Writing 101.

Even though I signed up for both, my main goal is to write more. Primarily, I’m using this blog to open up and share who I am and what’s going on in my head. I’m the type of person who usually sits off to the side, listening and observing. This blog is my opportunity to share the craziness that churns below my sane demeanor.

And now, the first assignment: why do I write?

Stories find me everywhere I go; when I’m walking in the park, driving in my car, at work or standing in line at the grocery store. Even when I read a non-fiction tome, there’s a part of me that finds a nugget that could be a concept for a character or story idea.

These ideas have lived happily inside my head for most of my life. It is only within the last eight years that I’ve attempted to write them down. The decision to tell my stories started with a spontaneous visit to a bookstore where I discovered a writing group. With a deep breath and a brave step out of my comfort zone, I joined the group and began my writing journey.

Finally – and not just because they read my blog – I want to thank my parents. They let me have the time and space to play in my imagination long after most kids were told to grow up and get serious. I consider this the strongest reason I am as creative as I am today. My imaginary play from my childhood is a large source of inspiration for much of my writing.

 

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Resourcefulness

by D.M. Sessous

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When taking my office mail to the collection box on the corner, I take a short cut through the alley behind my building. One day, I was surprised to find this ingenious, little fern growing out of a small crack in a brick wall.
It struck me then as a metaphor for my philosophy that there is a solution to every problem.
We are all surrounded by obstacles, brick walls that can seem so thick and insurmountable. All we see sometimes are the bricks and mortar, but if we relax and breath, we can find a crack. And as with this fern, a crack is all that’s needed to grow.

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Healing Waters

by D.M. Sessous

Healing Waters - CroppedI created this piece for my mom. (Aww…) She has very high energy, almost akin to perpetual motion. She’s always on the go, doing for others to the point she has very little time for herself.

So, I wanted to give her a respite, a cool, calm sanctuary to bring her Aries energy in check and allow her to relax and heal.

Healing Waters Sketch - webThis started as a small sketch in a pocket-size journal. I had initially wanted more detail, but as I worked, I realized I needed fewer lines.

It took about two weeks to complete this piece. Soft ocean sounds and whale song played in my studio while I worked, layering wash upon wash of tranquil blues and greens.

When it felt finished, I hung the rough-edged pages on the wall. I wept as the love I had poured onto the paper washed over me.

In my Reiki studies, I learned about kundalini energy. I discovered that if the energy encounters a closed or blocked chakra as it rises along the spine, it can manifest as health issues in the physical body.

Women tend to have blockages around their throat chakra from repressed expression of voicing their own needs, ideas and feelings resulting in thyroid issues. The color representing the throat chakra is blue. So in hindsight, it looks like my higher-self intended healing with this painting all along.

The framed original hangs proudly at my parents’ home. Prints of this piece along with a piece that I created for my dad are available on Etsy.

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