misc quotes

Boz Scaggs crooned "Once a story's told, it can't help but grow old..." to many a brokenhearted dorm mate long ago. I pondered the beautiful song all these years & finally disagree with this line even though it is perfect for the song. A living story does not necessarily grow old, I think. It is ever fresh & ever renewing. I'd like my heart, my mind, my spirit to be like that even if my body cannot be. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

I am learning more & more how to love me for being me, how to see myself as important esp. to me, & how to be kind & gentle with me. It's a road still under construction I travel, but the scenery is interesting - sometimes surreal, sometimes gothic, sometimes stellar, sometimes breath-taking - & it's all me. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Imagination, fantasy not escapes but playful work of creation, inventiveness, of finding patterns, solving puzzles, of living life & love. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Sometimes in dreams I see you, a deeper you, my deeper thoughts, feelings, a type of prayer. Sometimes in dreams a crazy reality surfaces, reminding of a wider humanity or a bigger meaning. Sometimes in dreams it is the smallest detail that tells the tale. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Too many believe a male & a female cannot be friends but what sexual play must be involved. How sad for our world to fear real friendship or sexual play and to confuse one with the other. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Thunder roared as lightning flashed, the deluge rolled down the mountain. Luna dog, Mischa cat, & I were on my hospital bed enjoying the storm while the rest of the household slept soundly. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

I sing Berlin's lines from West Side Story "someday will find a new way of living; we'll find there's a way of forgiving. Somewhere there's a place for us..." & pray, hope, dream, & long for such a time & a place to be here. We can do it if we wanted to do so... if our will to do so were strong enough. It will never be enough to tear down or allow the old system to fall. The new way must be built right here beside the old one... here, now, by us. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Sometimes I feel it is important to offer encouragement as a sister & friend despite no response from the one encouraged, sometimes even despite unfairness from the encouraged one, but only for as long as my heart says it is ok. Then I go silent or leave altogether. But, I always felt it was compassion & kindness when I was offered encouragement when I did not know how or could not respond. I like passing this gift forward. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Sweetness, gentleness, kindness, compassion, & other good qualities are not weaknesses at all. Only the most ignorant of predators or the most flagrant of con artists would believe this. True goodness is forged in multiple refining fires, yielding a strength that is awe inspiring and even frightening to behold. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Heart ablaze, mind fluid, spirit arises, twirling & undulating, love aglow as voice sings creation of self & beckons joining. Come, dance, my beloved. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

I dreamed the stars into my being to find the twinkling already within. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

One of the things I tried to install in me but ran into repeated "incompatible file formats" was to be authentic in every way. This included not allowing myself to run merely on automatic drive but to allow me to act deliberately even randomly daily so as not to be in a rut or easily stalked. It really isn't hard to stalk someone who stays in her cave though, is it? My forays out usually include me getting extremely exhausted & often hurt or in some kind of trouble... usually of a hurt feelings/confused Daphne sort. So, I declared my trog-like qualities to be random enough & my authentic file format. Phooey on installing new drivers, eh? ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Away I'll run, dancing up upon roofs, waving at the stars, singing love songs to the moon. I'll be all clothed in just me & smiles, a giggle or three, & the dog & the cats will join in merrily. We'll cuddle up tightly, calling to distant planets to see if they'd care to join in for a nighttime nap. Then the meteors begin to dance as we drift off into the never never land of our souls. I wish you were on the rooftop too. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

I am not the only walker between worlds. I am not the only weaver of peoples. A storyteller to touch hearts & minds, a musician to touch souls, a poet, a writer, a dreamer, a crazy person to most eyes, no, I am not the only one. But, a throng of many harmonizing even in discordancies through many ages, many beings, many places, many manys. I hold them all within & without, needing them all. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Concessions from the Powerful are the only ''Rights'' you will ever have. They are Concessions only - temporary, convenient. Show weakness & they will be removed. NEVER forget this. ~ Alan Cranswick

True. Which is why we must fight the same battles throughout our lives & in each generation. BUT, that does not mean we & all living do not have rights & responsibilities. Rights get stolen, co-opted, corrupted, erased...... Responsibilities get perverted, added to, co-opted, corrupted....... The Powerful truly believe they own you, me, the whole planet as their own personal playhouse. And, the less powerful will climb over you, back-stab you, kill or sell their own mother or child... whatever it takes to get ahead. Never forget this so you are aware & prepared WHILE at the same time holding onto as much goodness of heart & mind as you can muster - for your own sanity & peace of mind if for no other reason. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Some, if not most, of us are invisible & made to seem/be non-human because the Powerful taught us to un-see & then to see only what we are taught to see. Then we, in turn, don't see because we refuse to see AND also refuse to un-learn un-seeing. To be fairer to us, having our illusions shattered & facing the truth of the lies we believe - & the sheer extent of those lies! - is painful, & the hard work of healing that betrayal then of re-learning is also painful. It is worth it, but most of us will not even try to do it. We cling to the lie that seeing the truth of our situation will cost us too much, that we'll lose too much, or that it is better to be among the herd than alone in our knowing. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

I was most often told I was ugly, but in my heart & mind I determined I'd be beautiful even if no one ever knew it. I was most often told I was unlovable, but in my heart & mind I determined I'd be loving even if no one ever loved me as I am. I was most often told I was too fat to live or to be acceptable living as me, but in my heart & mind I determined I would live until it was my time to go & not leave a moment sooner. What I was most often told was cruelly untrue & I had believed it for so long, but in my heart & mind I determined I could go on, heal, & become all I was told was impossible for me never knowing I had been all these things & more all along. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

What also annoys me & sometimes outright discourages me is that so few want to understand system structures of power & responsibility. Israel is the 3rd most powerful military nation but with the support of all its allies is way beyond #1 & therefore has the total responsibility & culpability in these war atrocities & almost completed genocide. Our world seems hell-bent to blame victims in most if not all situations & to side with the aggressors/bullies/evil rather than face the dangerous & hard-work of dismantling the lucrative system & building one that is based on real justice, real mercy, & real anything for ALL.

And before anyone whines & lies by saying that I hate Jews, Israel, or anyone else, let me be even more abrasively clear - I am anti- NO one or country or people, BUT I also make those responsible for wrongs (including myself) hold/own the responsibility of those wrongs. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

I said I loved you, & I spoke truly. But, I did not say or mean I want sex, romance, or entanglement. I love you as a dear treasure, a friend, true family, as someone I admire & respect. This is a longer & stronger love than mere sex or romance. And, I frightened you. Apologies to the wind for you some day to grow to understand. For me, someday to grow to understand. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Such fragility in strength, strength in fragility, like silken cords or spiders' strands in webs, beautiful indestructible finite heart threads. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

The sentiment "there's nothing between us - we're just friends" disturbs me deeply. Friendship is so valuable a love that it hurts to hear it disrespected like this. Sex is such a sacred bonding of two people that it hurts to see it disrespected this way. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

The music haunts me still, flying on chills up my spine to my nipples, chasings up & down my arms in goose flesh, & exploding into my brain with "ah!" of pleasure. I dream of far away places I'll never see with these eyes, yet feel so deeply within me that I must be a ghost refugee from there somehow. Dreams, prayers, soul songs, I kiss the sky for the wonders to touch me so. On the wings of music I send back my love. Does another ghost refugee somewhere hear me & feel this same haunting chill? ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

You prance through the forest playing your pipes, luring & alluring. Flitting from tree to tree in a giggly game of peek-a-boo, the nymph dances dressed in the flowers & leaves in her dark almost black hair that shines red in the sun's rays. Sitting in the oldest part of the forest, the pan flute painting a desire of primeval dance, your flute grows, Piper, as you pretend not to notice the nymph's steps just beyond your easy reach. Aha! A lilting laugh, sparking eyes in the sometimes dappling sun rays, the dance is wild, untamed, then free of restraints as the dancer leads a merry chase through the forest while the sun & the pipes try to grab her. Here. There. Flitting, flitting, just out of reach then vanished to reappear many trees further. Then gone. A shimmering tree standing by the river sways in the wind beckoning to the winner to take the laurel crown. Noble love, entwines the roots & the branches but meets in the trunk. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

The children scream in agonized fear for mothers rammed with sadistic shafts of raging bloodlust full covetous greed for power & wealth in a massacre from centuries of conflict for crossroads for resources & continents. Run to that ancient stronghold to weep, defend, & die. The Rock of the Arabs will sing the ancient songs of lament, grief, death, martyrdom, & hope with you as you now face your time of choice to die or to die. The weapons this time include effects lasting for millenia to come, but these start in torturous villainy now as your innocents perish. Damascus, Damascus, if only weeping could stop the evil befallen you. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Atop a precipice viewing foggy mountain, hearing the roaring of water or fire somewhere below, I fall. Falling, falling, down down down falling into a death spiral unto flight downward through a shattering of illusion that becomes perception that becomes awareness that becomes a type of knowing that is still lost, I see a new vista that seems real until a haloed smoke ring surrounds me. Is this real? Laughter from a hookah-smoking caterpillar on a mushroom. Foggy mountains again. More illusion. Do I dream?  A butterfly flaps it wings, smiles. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

The needle, the spoon, the dot, the bottle, the trips all difficult to watch the damage done as a living soul is devoured, but worse a trip perhaps are some pains that cannot be faced, not uttered but merely covered, denied... denials deeper & more damaging that long-term free-flowing radiation or other poisoning. No wonder our ancestors despised poisoners so. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Another young African-American black male dead by firearm, another one imprisoned, & the drumbeat of genocide beats on. It is structural, intentional design, & ubiquitous. Emmett Till's grave is overflowing while the party continues atop with the tune of he had it coming...but none did. Where are the tears of remorse for the holocausts we profit by to secure our exceptionalism, our easier way of life? And, another mother grieves. Where are the sons eaten by the predators we are? ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Yes, I want to bomb Syria & the whole world with love, kindness, good food, clear water, clothing, cloth, books, whatever would make lives easier, happier, healthier, & more beautiful. Let's send in rescuers & love caravans. All those in leadership positions of any kind need fired immediately. Some need prison sentences for life! As Michael Jackson once sang, "All I wanna say is they don't really care about us." ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Yes, I am a mess. Crazy, too. But, what beautiful insanity! Care to join me? ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

When I asked why I must make up a boyfriend to protect myself while I was in school, I was told it was because jerks would leave me alone if they thought I had a male in my life. Being ever the skeptic, I then asked if 16 pounds pressure on the tip of the nose or 6 pounds pressure on the collar bone might be easier & more effective? I was told I should have no worries then. And, here I had a reputation as a very quiet, gentle young woman. My motto must have been "walk softly & carry a sword." ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw

Quick! Let's behave really well & make them wonder why we're smiling. It'll drive them crazy. ~ Daphne Yvonne Bradshaw