Falling or Flying

GUEST AUTHOR EVENT:  AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION REQUESTED

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Each guest author this week will be identified by a captioned photo: clicking the image will take you to the home page of the author’s blog.

Hello Dear Readers,

As some of you know, I have, in the past, provided a prompt and invited guest authors to write here on Temperature’s Rising.  I’ve found it a great way for my audience to get to know new authors, and vice versa.  This week you will be seeing a series of guest posts on this blog, written by friends – old and new.  The prompt this time…

Well, I guess the best thing to do is just let you figure out the prompt – or the gist of it, anyway – by reading the invitation I sent to the participants:

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THE INVITATION

I have been thinking a lot lately… about change.  Causes, effects.  Reasons, results.  The impacts – positive and negative – on self, others, relationships.  The steps forward, one at a time.  The leaps backward.  Losing faith.  Gaining ground.  Moving ahead, little by little, until the precipice presents itself, stark and clear and jagged, dropping into the unknown.

We are all there.  Each one of us, in our own way.  We walk to the edge of our plateaus and traverse the escarpment.  And it is *there* that we feel everything that came before, nervously anticipating what comes next.  In our breathless abandon, we become.  (Life, said Myrna Loy, is not a having and a getting, but a being and becoming.)  Standing in the present, we become.  The before and the after.  The open sky and the craggy descent.  Part of all, apart from all.  Do we stand?  Undecided, waiting and wondering?  Do we stay on the brink?  Or do we leap?

It is the threshold.  The fringe.  A starting point and a point of departure.  Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.

I think of Learning To Fly – Ice is forming on the tips of my wings / Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything – and the difference between price and cost.   What we pay – willingly – for what we want.   What we lose in the process.

And we are all there.  Change – an experience as individual as it is universal – unites us.

Transitions.  Revolutions.  Modifications.  Adjustments.  We grow and stretch and when we become too big for the space we are in, we break away.  Metamorphosis is what gives us wings.

Sometimes we feel the effects of change; the earth moves, shaking our feet free of their frozen stance.  Other times we affect change; the tiniest shift along our internal fault lines can throw us off balance.

And then, of course…  We can be change.  For richer or for poorer, for better or for worse.

Sometimes change means closing a book.  Other times we start a new chapter.  Always we are turning pages.

I wish I could be more articulate, but this… this concept… of being, becoming, morphing, changing… has been very much at the forefront of my existence lately, and I would like to host a series of guest posts on my blog about it.  I’ve debated how to go about phrasing the invitations, because in the past when I’ve had guest authors, I’ve given a topic/prompt that was a bit more… solid.  But the very nature of change is that it is nebulous.  So I don’t know how else to put it than to say:  If any of this resonates with you, would you be willing to write?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the “rules” for such things:  Pretty much there are none.  (See here and here for previous examples.)  It’s an expression of self, in whatever form you see fit, on whatever topic you choose.  Personal or general, individual or communal…  Physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, sexual…  Life and Love and any or every part thereof.

This is an invitation.  I hope you will accept.

And because I love the song by the same title, and it fits so beautifully with with my own interpretations of this concept of change, I intend to title the series…

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FALLING OR FLYING

Lyrics:

We got lost again
Drove to the end of a road
And a red-faced man
Taught us to do what we’re told

And on the 23rd night
Things ain’t bad but things ain’t right

Are we falling or flying?
Are we falling or flying?
Are we living or dying?

I guess we’ll never know

The air’s so heavy it could drown a butterfly if it flew too high

And I get the feeling that the truck driver ain’t shy
‘Cause he’s looking at me, but no wind in my eyes

And on the 35th morning
Things ain’t good but things ain’t boring

Are we falling or flying?
Are we falling or flying?
Are we living or dying?

I guess we’ll never know
Striking rock but hitting gold

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if there’s a life behind a song
But I know tomorrow, today won’t feel so long

‘Cause on the 42nd night
The room was dark but the stage was bright

Are we falling or flying?
Are we falling or flying?
Are we living?
Are we dying?

‘Cause my friend, this too shall pass

So play every show like it’s your last

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Much to my (surprised) delight, my invitation was accepted.

So I will be playing host this week.  And I know you – yes YOU, dear reader – will make my guests feel welcome.

Each day this week you will see a new post, by a different author each day, on the subject of change.

Likes, comments, blog exploration, smiles, support, and general participation are encouraged and appreciated.  And if something you read inspires you to write a post of your own, all the better.  Link-backs are welcome.

Thank you all, as always, for being such an awesome bloggy audience.

🙂

xoxo,

Feve