World Poetry Day and the Start of Spring

Here are two poems I wrote a while back that I am sharing for World Poetry Day, and for the start of Spring!

Spring Enters the City

High over the Hudson spired aeries
gleam in the sunset, casting long shadows
below in the streets
where scurrying commuters
follow prescribed paths.
At a sidewalk table rich coffee steams
delightful for so late in the day
and a woman with red shoes pauses to savor
the gift of spring in the city
hands wrapped around her cup.
Daylight lingers at the corners
shining through the scaffolding and posters
that hide the skeleton of the Russian Tea Room,
just two doors from Carnegie Hall
where families laden with flowers
await their children's debut performance
on the hallowed ground.
Later, they pour from the edifice into a night
bursting with light and sound
from city doors flung open to the warmth.
Travelers taxi to the river, ferry-bound
and turn their faces to the skyline
now enrobed in strands of light
a great lady of night, bejeweled, becalmed,
as spring enters the city.
©1999 Noreen Braman



The Hyacinths

The hyacinths have raised their heads
above my muddy flower beds
their optimistic growth will bring
my garden to the brink of Spring.
©2010 Noreen Braman

For World Happiness Day and National Poetry Month 2017

The Last Race

The last runner of the relay is making her sprint

feeling the strangeness of the desire to slow

she carries hope in her hand

the last light creature from Pandora’s box

Encased in human form.

Can golden apples thrown at her feet

make her slow down, turn away

stop to examine their worldly beauty

consider other beauties around her

expanding her time, ignoring the clock?

The finish line no longer the goal

rather examination of the path

reflection of the race from its start

with all stumbles and missed passes

still time to change the course.

The medal to be won is but a shroud

awarded as the sun dips below the horizon

no looking back into the settled darkness

 lines on the track blow away

the stadium as in Sarajevo, turned into a graveyard.

The last runner slows her step

opens her arms to slow feel the wind slow her

steps onto the wet, uncharted grass

breathing in the scent from a far off garden

she will take her time to find.

©2017 Noreen Braman

Pursuing Happiness with Forgiveness in Preparation for International Happiness Day

The United Nations declared March 20 of each year as the International Day of Happiness. Below is a statement from their International Day of Happiness website, that explains that happiness, on a global scale, depends on much more that being in a good mood.

"Climate Action for a Happy Planet

What is the International Day of Happiness? It’s a day to be happy, of course! Since 2013, the United Nations has celebrated the International Day of Happiness as a way to recognise the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world. The UN just launched 17 Sustainable Development Goals that seek to end poverty, reduce inequality, and protect our planet – three key aspects that lead to well-being and happiness.
The United Nations invites each person of any age, plus every classroom, business and government to celebrate the International Day of Happiness each year on March 20."

 https://www.un.org/en/events/happinessday/

Here, in the United States, we are lucky enough to live in a country where "the pursuit of happiness" is considered a civil right. I suspect "the right to be happy" was left out because of understandable legal complications that might arise from citizens demanding that the government provide them with happiness. Yet, as the United Nations points out, governments are intimately involved in the happiness level of their citizens by their work in the areas of poverty, inequality and protection of our planet. It appears that having a Happy Planet is their theme for this year.

So, toward that end, and considering Earth Day occurs a month after International Happiness Day, I urge you to not only pursue happiness for yourself, your family and your community, but also for you planet. Although 7 possibly Earth-like planets have recently been discovered, I don't see humanity being able to move to any of them anytime soon.

To help you in these pursuits, I am going to be sharing links as I discover them, to point you in the Happiness For You and For the Earth direction. And if you have any ideas, or know of any community-based activities, let me know!

To start off,  Action for Happiness would like you to take a Happiness Pledge and get some Happiness materials. 

Live Happy offers this Happy Acts calendar of things you can do this month. Today, the calendar encourages you to forgive someone. That someone could even be yourself.

Forgiveness

Today I forgive myself

for not understanding

the life you lived

the pain you endured

that shaped your life

and the demons that pursued you.

Today I forgive myself

for not forgiving you

once I became an adult

experiencing life

learning the family heritage

in all of our blood.

Today I forgive myself

today I forgive you

mourning your loss

and the unfinished conversations

withheld in anger

regretted too late.

 ©2017 Noreen Braman

The Political is Personal (with apologies to Carol Hanisch*)

The Women's March in Trenton NJ. ©2017 Noreen Braman

  To answer the question heard often after this weekend’s global Women’s Marches, Why did you march? 

 For me, it was not only a sincere desire to join together with other women to peacefully make a point about recent threats to hard-fought rights, protections and programs; it was also a way for me to exorcise some of the ghosts of the past. Times when, I, or a member of my family, was treated as “less than.”  Taking the political personally? Yes, I am.  I think we all should.

Because

Because of the priest who told my mother she was doomed to hell

for a tubal ligation after life threatening childbirths,

and almost leaving three daughters motherless. 

 

Because of the man who cornered me in the boathouse

attempting to remove my clothes while laughing,

knowing my adolescent self would be too ashamed to tell anyone.

Because of the knife held to my throat

at the workplace where I was the only woman on the floor,

working too fast and making the men “look bad.”
 

Because of the men in the office addressed as “Mr.”

while women were addressed by first names,

and paid significantly less for doing the same job.

Because those same men felt entitled to grope women in the hallway,

make job security contingent on sexual favors they demanded,

or withheld them to punish your noncompliance.

Because of the insurance providers holding the key to healthcare

denying treatment for my children and myself,

until a protracted fight was engaged.

Because women who came before me fought so hard to get here

bequeathing me a country where I can raise my voice,

continuing to demand that we don’t go backward.

Because it is too easy to get comfortable

allowing erosion to do its deadly work,

destroying the firmament under our feet.

Because the women that come after me should never suddenly find themselves

back in the dark places that exist in cultural memory,

but rather go only forward,

reaching their hands down to pull other women up,

and with them humankind as a whole.

©2017 Noreen Braman

*Carol Hanisch is the author of a paper that came to be called “The Personal is Political,” an expression that came to be used in many different ways over they years. The interpretation that I like the most is that issues in women’s personal lives, such as childcare and healthcare, were actually political issues that were being ignored.

           

Can Hyundai Motor Finance Solve America's Cyber Security Issues?

While I spend a lot of time on computers, and have become a power user for some software programs and operating systems, my expertise in “cyber security” doesn’t rise much beyond controlling spam and keeping stuff off the internet.  I’ve never fallen for an email about how I can share millions of dollars with an ousted despot, and I’ve no interest in foreign beauties who want to correspond with me because of my wonderful email address they just got from someone’s hacked contact list. I only laugh when something completely written in a foreign language or characters shows up in my mailbox. However, I have been disturbed to see that unnamed persons with locations in Russia have been looking at my LinkedIn profile. So, I have a healthy respect for the abilities of Russian hackers. I’ve been waiting to hear about a new system that can block them. And now, I think I’ve found it.

My radical idea is for government entities that need classified documents made really, really secure, is to give them to Hyundai Motor Finance. This is an operation whose security is so impenetrable, that even Hyundai USA cannot crack it.

Here’s how it works.

Say you have an important document, something like the title to a car. You certainly don’t want this document to fall into the wrong hands, especially if you are the lien holder for this car and you want to get paid. You give this document to Hyundai Motor Finance and they send it to a mysterious title storage company. My theory is that the document then goes into a secret underground bunker at Area 51, but I have no proof of it.

If, in the rare circumstance that you may need this document —like maybe you have actually paid off the car weeks ago—the procedure to get that document released from document prison is not rivaled by anything else, except perhaps the Nuclear Launch Codes. If you make a mistake in your request, the reaction is complete silence on their part, allowing them to move the document further down in the bunker. They know, eventually you will try to find out why the document never arrived, and here the beauty of their security system is revealed.

The secret title company cabal can only be communicated with by fax. Genius! Who is spending time trying to hack faxes these days! And not just any fax system. A system that sends the fax through a secret and circuitous route that takes 72 hours to process.  Questions about this request cannot be made directly by mere mortal consumers, but requires the assistance of a Customer Service Rep. And here, the system goes from genius to truly brilliant. First, as a matter of policy, each Customer Service Rep is given a different set of information and instructions. They cannot confirm or deny anything that another Customer Service Rep has said, even though they say they are looking at “your complete records.”  They may request you re-fax your request, but will never let you know if they got it, and if it is an acceptable offering to the Title gods.

Requests to speak directly with the Title gods are denied, as there is no incoming or outgoing direct spoken communication allowed, not even by the Customer Service Rep. It is possible that, in an attempt to pacify a caller and hold them off for another day, they will pretend to speak with the Title gods, come back on the line and tell you that your request will be expedited. They may even have a little joke on you, saying that if you send another fax by close of business, your document will be sent out by overnight delivery, THAT VERY DAY.

Take my word for this. Do not explain that you are not at work, where there is a fax, because your car is untitled, unregistered and illegal to drive. Do not say that you will attempt to find a fax machine somewhere nearby. Do not run across town to said fax machine to meet the end of day deadline.  If you do, you will fall on your face in the middle of the street, and drag yourself to the fax machine location, all for naught. A call to the Customer Service rep (#8 you have spoken to) will reveal the truth about the process, the absolute impossibility for ANYTHING to be expedited, and the chances of you getting the title to your car anytime soon being less than zero. Besides, even if they COULD do it, the overnight delivery company has already been there and gone.

Also, don’t fall for being told to call the Hyundai Consumer Affairs team. (Which, strangely enough, shows up on the internet as being located right here in New Jersey, but whose phones are answered in Arizona). Even this special team of problem solvers is nothing but another call center that will tell you to call back Hyundai Motor Finance Customer Service, because they “cannot intervene” in finance company matters. Even their own finance company.

So, how can anyone hack this system, when Hyundai corporate has set up a system in which they can’t even talk to their own finance company? I suggest that they run to the CIA TODAY, and offer up their security system for the protection of classified government documents. Then, turn the care of their own documents over to someone who knows what they are doing.

The Universe Reacts to My Word for 2017

Ok, Universe. I've packed my Captain's bag. You're on!

 My Life

Juggling flaming chainsaws 
while riding a unicycle
on a tightrope.

Blindfolded.

©Noreen Braman

Yesterday, after lots of deliberation, I settled on the word "Renewal" as my theme word for 2017. It has nothing to do with magazine subscriptions, but rather, about going back along some of the life paths I abandoned to see what I might have dropped along the way.

I thought it was a great word for me, representing a commitment to burn some new neural pathways to keep bad brain things away (I can't even say the "D" word) and go back and find some of the things that I used to think defined me. Things such as, writing, playing music, exploring new places, and spending time with friends and family that I may have had too little contact with over the years.

Not to make excuses, but there are really good reasons that I dropped some of these crumbs along the path; taking care of others while juggling all the glass balls of life being pretty high on the list. And of course, dealing with the fact that the Universe often had other things scheduled for me. Some were supernovas that could not be ignored, some were black holes that threatened to swallow me, others were just passing comets and meteors who blazed through the sky and then moved on.

So I am not surprised that the Universe has a different definition of "Renewal" than I do. What did surprise me was the speed at which the cosmic storm arrived. First the new medical vocabulary word, "osteoarthritis" and its incompatibility with freezing weather. I may need to invest in a George Jetson-style bed that can just pop me up in the morning, as the regular way of getting out of bed isn't working so well.

Then came today's adventures with going back along previous trodden paths that I really didn't want to go back on. First, was the Oh-My-God-will-the-screw-ups-with-the-end-of-my-car-lease-never-end-path. The path I cannot drive on, because the car has yet to be properly re-titled which prevents registration, which ends up with me being without transportation. Not the time of year to see if I can walk/run the 10 miles to work, although it would be great training for the 5K race I want to enter in May. Thanks, Universe, I had a less drastic training regimen in mind.

Adventure number two started as I sat down with the Love of My Life to a nice dinner I had been able to prepare because of being stuck in the house with achy joints and no car.  I dropped my napkin under the table and it immediately became soaking wet. In fact, the whole side of the kitchen was awash in cold water. Cold water that led across the kitchen to the washing machine. The washing machine that was just fixed in October. The washing machine in the kitchen for which three new cabinets have just been delivered in preparation for a new pantry/coffee station to replace a plastic garage storage cabinet. The project I scheduled because finally finishing the kitchen re-do was a good "renewal" path. 

Obviously, the Universe wanted me to go back down the here-we-go-again-with-the-washing-machine-even-though-the-dishwasher-has-been-jockeying-for-a-turn-at-being-repaired path. This is a parallel path to the drop-everything-because-you-need-a-new-furnace-and-a-roof path of 2016. A path that intersected with the time-to-save-your-teeth-before-your-gums-turn-to-mush path.

This is not what I meant by "renewal," Universe. Your interpretation is way down on the list. (see below)

So, the battle begins. Good thing that's the kind of path I know pretty well.

Definition of renew

1. :  to make like new :  restore to freshness, vigor, or perfection <as we renew our strength in sleep>
2. :  to make new spiritually :  regenerate
3.  a :  to restore to existence :  revive  
   b :  to make extensive changes in :  rebuild
4. :  to do again :  repeat
5. :  to begin again :  resume

*"Renew." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 9 Jan. 2017.

PS, Universe: Taking my favorite, life-saving doctor out of my insurance plan as of February 1 was just downright mean. I really don't want to go down the find-an-endrocinologist-who-isn't-crazy path again.

My Word for 2017

Let's travel the path together.

On Facebook, a number of friends have posted variations of the same request. Pick a word to define the New Year. Some want a word that starts with the first letter of your name, or the third letter of your name, or maybe a word you pick by opening a nearby book, closing your eyes and pointing.

For purposes of example, I grabbed the book on the couch next to me, picked a page at random and pointed to a word. Ok, first try, I pointed to a blank spot on a new chapter page. Second try, I hit on the word "slept."

No, seriously. I randomly hit the word "slept." Could sleeping be my theme for 2017? Sleep has truly been a dominant theme in the past for me. I've suffered from a sleep disorder which led to fibromyalgia, and have taken some heavy duty meds because of it. During various illnesses I have slept in such a coma-like fashion that my son and his wife were so concerned that I hadn't moved in 13 hours they debated about putting a mirror under my nose to see if I was breathing. I've also been known to be so sensitive to sound that I've jumped up in bed, heart racing and gasping. Most recently, a haywire thyroid raised my anxiety level so high that I was barely sleeping, and would wake up to sweating and nameless fear coursing through me. But that was 2015. 2016 was my year of getting healthy and I've been successful. The only focus on sleep for 2017 is going to be sleeping in on weekends and having breakfast in bed.

My real word for 2017 is "Renewal." Originally, I considered "reinvention" but that is a road I have traveled several times, and in my mind, it implies new paths. This year, I want to go back down roads where I have already been. Not to go backward, not to indulge in nostalgia (although "Nostalgia" IS a tempting theme for someone whose name starts with "N").

What I want to do is find those paths where I left behind parts of myself that were too heavy or inconvenient to carry along with me. Interests I set aside while raising children, working numerous jobs and treading water to survive. Things such as unfinished or even unstarted personal, creative and artistic work. Activities that once defined me as a person. The joy of sharing discoveries.

It does, at first, sound a bit self-centered. All about me. Reading this, my loved ones may feel that I might be considering abandoning them for a narcissistic romp of self-indulgence. What they should remember is that they traveled with me along many of these paths. They may have noticed when certain things were set aside. What they may not realize is that some of the paths were abandoned so that I could continue traveling with them. And I don't intend to leave them behind now. I want them to see that by being my authentic self, I can be there for my children, my grandchildren, my extended family, my friends, and the Love of my Life in new and exciting ways.

So, come along with me, loved ones. Let's explore the path of renewal together. It leads right to the Smile Side of Life. You may even find some things you dropped along the way.