Sappho Says: So They Say It’s Your Birthday!

What Would Sappho Say?

Lectori Salutem! or L.S. (Greetings to the Reader!)

AH YES, at 4:52 AM on February 15th, year unknown, I was brought into this world as a healthy, and I am sure, screaming baby girl. Since for most of my readers my persona is anonymous, I will give you a hint as to my age. This year is a palindrome for the number of years here on Mother Earth for me. Now if I were actually some reincarnate muse of Sappho, that could mean I was 323 years old, 121 years old, or a mere 11 years young. You just never know when the muse will strike and the words will come flying forth.


As for birthdays, I have always celebrated mine with the utmost cheer, as it is a milestone of growth, staying power (I have lived through another year), and most of all, reflection on friendships, family, and all the love I have in my life. The latter I suppose is brought on by the closest proximity of my birth to the manufactured holiday of love, Valentine’s Day. I have to admit, it has been quite a blessing over the years to have been born a mere five hours after the couples day of love, especially when I am a single (which I have been entirely more often than I’d like to admit), as the day hardly registers when presents, cards and phone calls are only a day away, many of them arriving early to remind me that February is really all about me!

Some people are shy and don’t like to celebrate their birthday at all because of the attention it brings to them while others fear growing older from year to year and thus shun the day thinking Mother Time will just wipe the previous year off the face off the earth, suspending the months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. As someone who is still in the stage of my life where time is of no real consequence, I welcome each new year as a chance to do better, to practice all that I have learned in the years’ previous, and to eagerly learn in abundance all that is offered in the realms of science, history, literature, religions, the arts, and most importantly human nature via interconnections, friendships, romance, and love between people in this, my life.

If I were to look back on this year from a strictly historical perspective, it started with a bang. I had a major medical event that began February 8th, 2009 and lasted until February 25th, 2009. It would define the change that would come in the year that followed. As I slowly healed and gained strength, I was determined to put my medical problems aside and start life anew. What exactly would a new life look like for me?

I had always written as those of you who have read my earliest blogs have already heard my story of becoming a writer, and this new life started with the written word. It wasn’t an instant idea of “Oh, I’ll just start writing a novel and then I’ll be a writer!” It was a slow transition from going through some of my earlier journals and ideas just started flying into my head for short stories. I wrote these ideas down on a list page on my computer, some more flushed out than others, until one day I sat down and wrote a complete story in a little over an hour. The words and sentences came out fully formed. There was no effort to it. The story was The House of Cards..

It wasn’t that I hadn’t written stories before and I certainly hadn’t necessarily intended to write erotica although it was part of , it was that it was so free flowing and fluent. It felt right and natural. I felt like a writer. I remember reading a quote somewhere by a famous literary author who said something to the effect of when you read your own work and can honestly say to yourself, “that was good”, then you are a writer and no awards, critics, or fans will change that perception of you, the writer. So, in May, I became a writer.

In June, my fin-tailed, chromed-out, Cobalt Blue Harley Davidson 883 Low was stolen from my parking garage and not recovered until after the insurance had made a payout which was a good thing, I guess. The bike was found in a vacant lot with virtually nothing on it, barely an engine, except my license plate. I did not have gap insurance so I paid for the bike for 4 more months after it was stolen. I figured it might be the universe telling me I got two years without a scratch, maybe I ought to go back to a car for a little while. I bought a 2009 Honda instead.

I started my first novel in August. It is called The Night Train or El Treno Notte as it takes place mostly in Italy. I have about 100 pages of it written so far but believe it has much work to be done and that’s when the idea of a blog slipped into my head in late September.

I had never even read a blog. I knew no html, nothing about data storage, FTP, really anything associated with the internet in more than a passive user capacity. It took me two months to learn enough to create a unique site and post in html to start with and enough blogs in the bank that I could work around in case I got sick again. I started with eighteen blogs in the bank and now I only have five. Hardly seems like much of a year, but for me the history is huge. As we go along you’ll hear the filler – it’s got its story to tell as well.

Much Love.


Inspired By Sappho’s Muse

MUSIC OF THE DAY
Well, They Say It’s Your Birthday by The Beatles seems appropriate as well as The Age of Aquarius from the Hair Revival Cast. So here they are in honor of Aquarius’ everywhere.

They Say It’s Your Birthday   The Beatles
The Age of Aquarius             Hair Revival Cast

QUOTES OF THE DAY
I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.
Oscar Wilde

Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else.
Ivern Ball