By
Joan ELLEN GAGE
Get Your Hip Chic Wit!
Copyright 2011 Joan Ellen Gage
ISBN: 978-1-4660-8165-9
Smashwords Edition
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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I Dreamed a Dream. . .
Excerpts from Water Running Downhill! and Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader!
Dr. Connors and the Brain Child
I cannot reconcile the feeling
My skin or making a pupa over it!
As I would emerge svelte and energetic
A doppelganger of my former self!
I realize that this is another
Passage—I’ve enjoyed all of them
Until now; this one makes me suspicious
Of more wrinkles, aching joints, etc
Not seeming very attractive to me!
I Dreamed a Dream. . .
I am aware that I was held back
I know many of us won’t make it
However, it is imperative we try
We must trust what’s in our hearts
Upwardly Immobile
Women, can you ascertain
Your true feelings
And comprehend what meaning
Life casts you
In nets choked with
Distractions and commitments
Many of us have been
Insensibly suffocated by survival’s struggle
Nostrils closed with the earth of duty
Ears filled with the roar of technology
Eyes blinded by years of imprisonment
In personal, domestic or corporate darkness
Or worse yet, we exist (?) as brain-washed
Busy soccer moms, AKA mini-van chauffeurs
With ears adhered to cell phones, caffeine driven
Stressed out hearts fluttering in
Living-the-dream designer corpses that mouth
The mantra of “I need more, I need! . . .”
Sadly, we may remain ever clueless to
Who we really are, the free spirit
That we might become, and to the
Enlightenment that a simpler life
Really look at your life, before it’s too late!
In the home, around the house,
And say it with feeling—out loud
“I am a wonderful woman And I rock
So how do I come to accept and love
First, I have to spend some one on one time
Secondly, I must exercise self-love
This is how I look and it’s fine
Aging is not the adversary we think it is
Pass the truth on to our daughters
The revelation is that women are
We always were, we always will be
Go with hearts and eyes wide open
Not all of us are moms who have led a full live
And done it all, or executives
Who have crashed the glass ceiling,
Left, and found their “true calling”
Trying to make a living as worker bees
Who buried any creative or other need
For self-expression under a load
I swallowed the work ethic myth hook, line and sinker
I was the “perfect” employee—hard working
Taking a personal interest in my job
My Mary Poppins’ era; But, it left nothing for me
I still work hard, but now I work for me
First and foremost, I take care of myself
And my responsibilities to family
Then I take a little time for me
As time passes, we need to deal with
And understand what lessons each decade teaches us
Hopefully we learn and embrace the wisdom
These life lessons flesh out who
We are becoming and who we grow to be
We are unfinished works of art
To be unveiled by the universe
And not at a time of our choosing
I am trying to reconcile myself
Where the journey will take me
That 50-something person morphing into
An unrecognizable flesh, foreign
It’s that contents shifting “thing” again
I confess I thought some of the body changes
We are easily duped into thinking this
When women with perfect skin and bodies
Peer out from women’s magazines
I feel a bit deceived, actually
50 felt and looked so good on me
Of course, that was before the menopause fairy
Bopped me on the head with that aging wand
Being estrogen less is a mixed blessing
As the older folks love to say
To purge the cerebellum’s cells of
The wasted life that smothers them
Spins the web, that reels you in
Entertainment?, or mind-numbing
Seldom enlightening, blah, blah, blah
We cannot do that wonderful thing we know
We subconsciously reject our dreams
Because we are afraid of criticism
Afraid to fail, afraid to succeed
And yet we do not accept any blame
As addicts using this technology
Keeping ourselves from the truth
Live without fear, not without love
Water Running Downhilll!
Words of Empowerment for Women in Midlife
And
Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader!
By Joan Ellen Gage, From: Water Running Downhill!
In your self-made prison of busyness
Of a precious few moments, not distractions
Lock out your outer life—meditate
Find that it is almost a new experience
You may have forgotten the sensation
Of pure awareness, and nothing else
So used to being the “amazing balancing act”
You have found it hard to stop doing and planning
Discover that one can see so much clearer
By Joan Ellen Gage, From: Water Running Downhill!
Of youthfulness as we know it!
News flash—we are supposed to age!
Let’s not fear our natural metamorphosis
And who we are becoming, with fortitude
Photo Four
One Tribe
By Joan Ellen Gage, From: Water Running Downhill!
When we come together, we are at home.
Epiphany
By: Joan Ellen Gage, From: Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader!
By: Joan Ellen Gage, From: Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader!
What have you done to deserve this?
You say, not expecting an answer
We have all asked this, at one time
Or another, when we are hurt, or
Under attack on some unexpected front
We usually do not see the “blow”, or
Brick falling on our head, until it hits us
Then BAM it strikes us to the heart
And soul of our being, we are floored, pinned
Unable to move and uncertain of what to do
Eventually, we get up and limp along
We try to get that “stiff upper lip” thing
Going on; moving through the motions
Until some sense of normalcy eventually
Creeps in and healing takes place
As women, we need be strong enough
We HAVE to, if we want to continue
To grow and compete in this world
We will believe and achieve all
We will do this together, you and I
Make a promise today to help your sisters
When they are down, raise them up
Raise them up, and believe in them!
The Call of the Wild!
By: Joan Ellen Gage, From: Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader!
Or take a life-changing adventure!
Can you find your heart’s compass?
Plot a path that you can follow
Enlist your friends to fund you emotionally!
That education that you put off
Or volunteer for a needy cause
Explore your wildest possibilities!
And succeeded in their midlife expedition
You too can do it; follow their lead!
With newfound confidence to guide you
(Fake it if you have to!). Set out for
It’s as late as you want it to be!
Joan Ellen Gage, a farmer‘s daughter hailing from the Finger Lakes area in New York, moved with her family to south Florida as a teenager and has spent the lion’s share of her life there. She now resides in Central Florida, vacationing as often as possible at her family’s mountain retreat in Western North Carolina.
Joan is a writer of poetry, women’s humor and inspiration with a spotlight on the midlife experience. Ms. Gage aspires to be a cheerleader for women of all ages, and self-published Water Running Downhill! Words of Empowerment for Women in Midlife, in 2007.
Embracing Your Inner Cheerleader!, is Joan’s next ‘brainchild’. The author enjoys speaking to women’s groups and has had several book talks. Additionally, Joan relishes writing a blog for women at joanellengage.com. Click in to get your hip chick wit!
Connect with Me Online:
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http:// The Joan-Zone thejoan-zone@blogger.com
