Star-Crossed Lovers

A tale of love as old as time,

Of the moonlight and sunshine.

Every morning, as she wakes,

Dawn approaches the land.

Through the sky her light breaks;

A beautiful array, so grand.

But where is the moon,

To witness her splendor?

Gone much too soon;

His grace he cannot render.

A sacrifice he must bestow,

Each and every day.

So she can shine her radiant glow;

How he longs to stay.

They meet again as daylight ends,

Such little time they are given.

What a sight as their colors blend;

Toward each other they are driven. 

But together they cannot stay,

As she finally must set.

A given order they must obey;

An end to their duet. 

His love illuminates the night sky,

As his stars come out to shine.

Surely for her, you cannot deny;

A tale of love as old as time. 

-b.m.

Intimate

the second his skin came
in contact with mine,
every particle of my being
danced with excitement,
as if awoken from a deep slumber.

the way his strong hands molded to
the curvatures of my face,
their warmth seeping through my skin
to the deepest parts of me.

his lips crashed against mine like waves
to the shore, and i could taste a hint
of desperation on his tongue, like a bear
discovering honey for the first time.

his long fingers delicately removed my
clothes. he had a gracefulness to the way
he pulled down every zipper, undid every
button. my insecurities peeled away with
every layer.

his eyes roamed every inch of my naked
body, like a blind man seeing everything
clearly for the first time. i had never felt so
vulnerable, yet unashamed in my life.

his soft, delicious lips explored me from
head to toe, as a scientist to a new world.
his tongue traced the outlines of my body
like the contours of a mountain or the
bending of a river.

our bodies entwined with one another,
unclear of where one started, and the
other ended. there was no him and i.
there was only us. 

i felt it all then. all of his emotions, and
dreams, and fears. as if they were a
reflection of my own. he had given himself
completely to me,

and i did the same.

-the moment i fell in love


b.m.

Adventure Is Out There

Hello, moths!

This is a different post from the ones I have created so far, but I have spent the better half of my Saturday watching youtube videos, and this one absolutely astounded me--I had to share! The combination of unbelievable images and hair-raising music quite literally brought me to tears from the spectacularity of it all. Life is just so amazing. The things we can capture today with video cameras absolutely astounds me. We are able to see into the most wild places on earth without interfering in any kind of way. Video footage like this inspires me to take my own camera and capture things no one else has thought to capture. To see things in a way no one else has though to see them. And my God am I determined to do that, because I can do anything I want to do with my life. I am in control. I will see the world in all its glory, and I cannot wait to do so! The Planet Earth series, among many, is what has inspired me to become a wildlife conservationist so that wildlife, as seen in this video, will continue to exist in all their raw beauty for generations to come. This is my passion. This is what I was put on this planet to do. My raison d'être.

Here's to a life of adventures, to a life of passion, moths. xoxo

Masterpiece

She watched life from
A distance,
Never getting too close.
She was met with
Indifference--
Outside the wind blows.

But within her shines a
Bright light,
Merely kept at bay.
Like stars decorating a
Dark night--
Invisible during the day.

She wonders if anyone
Truly knows,
The sparkle that she hides.
Or the hypnotic way her
Blood flows--
Like the moon to ocean tides.

Until then she has made
A vow,
A promise to her heart.
To lose herself she won't
Allow--
An eternal work of art.

-b.m.

Nostalgic

Happy Monday, moths!

What a crazy Super Bowl ending huh? I hope you were all as stuffed with good food as I was last night. I think I'm still in a food coma from it all...there's always the gym, of course. Whether I actually go to it or not....well, that's another story.

Anyway, I had a thought pop up earlier along the lines of, "there's most likely nobody that actually reads these posts, so what's the point of continuing with what is probably just me talking to myself.." What's my motivation for staying with this blog thing? But then I remembered the whole reason I began this was to stray away from the social constructs of today's social media, where everything you post is a battle for the most likes or the most retweets (I haven't actually used twitter in about four years, mind you). It's so tiring checking my phone every five minutes after I post a picture on Instagram to see if anyone new has liked it. This blog wasn't made to be popular, where everyone talks about it and shares my posts. It is an outlet for my creativity, and thoughts, and passions--an online journal, of sorts. And if someone happens to come across my blog, read some of my posts, and take an interest in them, then that's wonderful! I hope that what I talk about (as crazy as it sometimes seems) reaches someone that feels the same way, or helps someone to think about something from another perspective. I love my blog and the content of it, and I hope others do too, but whether they do or not will not change my feelings for it. That's what makes this unique compared to other social media outlets.

So, I quickly threw that thought away and here I am, writing a new post: onto my discussion of the day!

If you visit my blog, you may notice that you are greeted with music playing. The songs I have on this little playlist are a couple of my favorites, so if you want to know more about me just have a listen to a couple of them. I know I know, none of these songs are from this decade, but I am thoroughly convinced that I was born in the wrong year. 1996? I missed all of the good stuff by then! I listen to 70s and 80s music more than anything from today's hits. They just don't make honest-to-God music like they used to because today's world doesn't have the patience or the ears to sit down for a few minutes and actually listen to what the song is saying. "Stairway to Heaven," by Led Zeppelin is eight minutes long, and at least a third of it is just instrumental. Hell, I'm pretty sure there are some Bee Gees songs that don't have any words in them at all! The point is, people got together to listen to this music because of the power it had to make them feel. There are some songs today that I am convinced are made up of imaginary words. Literally, some of them are just mumbling with some added beats created in a computer app. I didn't want to have to do this, but listen to this if you don't believe me, and comment on this post if you honestly can understand A SINGLE WORD IN THAT ENTIRE SONG. You've been warned.

I am a twenty year old Grandma--that is what I am often told when I say these kinds of crazy thoughts. 

I am not ashamed.

Where am I going with this again...oh, I remember! The songs on my playlist are some amazing pieces of work. But they all had to be inspired by something--or someone. Listen to the first song, "She's Always a Woman to Me" by Billy Joel, and really listen to the words. I'll give you a minute.
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Beautiful, isn't it? The point is that there had to be a woman of "She's Always a Woman to Me" that inspired Billy Joel to write a song after (or in Elton John's case, a man). Music back then was often inspired by real people, and to think they inspired songs that twenty year old grandmas, like me, are still stricken by forty years after it was released astonishes me. The same thing goes for poetry, or art, which is why I love it so much. Some poems/works of art are from hundreds of years ago and they are still discussed in college classes and romanticized in movies or high school plays--they stand the test of time. The idea that famous poems today were written centuries ago by someone who was so madly in love with someone else, moved to write down these beautiful, heart-aching words just to attempt to describe the hopeless passion they feel for them is beyond romantic (some may say I am a hopeless romantic, or something like that). It also pains my heart to think that these things only exist in the past, and that chivalry is truly dead. In a world full of hate and empty words and famous-hungry social media posts, it's hard to imagine that there are still people with pure souls, capable of living without the societal pressure of upholding popularity or the need to be liked by thousands of strangers behind computer screens they probably will never meet. I may have high expectations, but I'm firm in what I want, whether I find it or not. Maybe it's a stretch to try finding someone that writes poetry for me or wants to live out in the mountains with little phone reception, but I won't settle.

Wait, how did this become about my love life..?

*Sidetracked*

Anyway, I'm ending this with the notion that ordinary people have inspired famous poems/artwork/music for centuries, and you never know if you'll be the next source of inspiration for a song that fifty years from now is still being sung by a twenty year old grandma (again, like me)! We all have stories waiting to be told, the question is, are you going to keep waiting for someone to pick up a pen and write it for you, or will you tell it yourself?

Go on and inspire, moths. xoxo

Bedtime Bliss

Good evening, Moths!

Hope everyone had a lovely Saturday! Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, which means good company and delicious food. But let's focus on the here and now and leave tomorrow where it belongs: in the future. Maybe you're a college student reading this from the comfort of your dorm room, or a mom of three unwinding from a busy day, finally getting some time to yourself. No matter where you are reading this from, or what your situation is at the moment, I think we can all agree that night time is a magical time. It's a time to reflect on everything that has happened that day without having to expend anymore energy, and a time to feed your exhaustion with delicious sleep. It's a special intermediate zone between the sweet ending of one day and the fresh beginning of another. Sleep can do wonders for the body--when you get enough of it--and it is filled with that magical (I know, I said it again!) thing called dreams. Dreams are our subconscious playing out scenes from deep within our mind where anything is possible, like a film being projected directly from our imagination. Some people can recall the most specific details from their dreams (like my mom), while others lose the memory of them as soon as their eyes open and their senses are awoken (like me). Either way, we're all dreamers. We all dream of something while we sleep, whether we remember it or not.

My eyelids are drooping just typing this post..
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One of the greatest feelings in the world is waking up in the early morning hours thinking it's around the time you need to be awake, only to find that it's three in the morning and you have several hours until your alarm will ring. I am a very restless sleeper (probably due to all of the technology I look at right before going to sleep..) and almost every night when I inevitably wake up, I check the time--I somehow always remember that time the following morning--and it's such a scrumptious feeling knowing that I can drift right back into blissful sleep. Sleep itself is such a weird thing. Our body goes into a stasis of sorts, where our breathing is low and our muscles are completely  relaxed, not needed for the coming hours. Complete darkness. Time is such an interesting component of sleep because we have absolutely no concept of it when unconscious. Similar to getting anesthetized for surgery: you count backwards from ten for as long as you can hold on, and in a blink you are awake and the surgery is over with zero recollection, in some cases of the hours it took for them to complete it. While our brain is still active, our senses are muted and the world is silenced. That statement is what makes up the difficult debate over a patient in a coma. While the physical body may be immobile, the mind still has the ability to be conscious. Can they hear someone that is speaking to them and comprehend it, but simply be unable to respond? That's an interesting discussion question, but let's leave that for another post.

Let's return to the present moment. Are your eyelids feeling heavy? Is your body sunken into the mattress beneath you? Let go. Let go of all of the stress, all of the thoughts, all of the activity that today brought. All that happened today belongs in the past and cannot be changed, no matter how much you think about it. Let it live in the past while you allow your body and mind to rejuvenate itself for the new day ahead. Let every single muscle in your body let go of any tension. What I like to do is listen to a guided mediation (for example: Guided Sleep Meditation) which I find to be highly successful in helping me to focus on falling asleep and quieting the activity of my mind. What I love about the one I attached a link to, besides his voice, is that he talks you through every muscle--from your toes all the way up to your scalp--so you can identify what parts of your body are holding the most tension, and ease them to relaxation. Everyone has their own experience when meditating, but I get this warm, almost tingly sensation that moves up through my body like a wave of comfort that simply washes over me, leaving me numb and completely at ease. He counts down from ten towards the end and I almost always fall asleep before reaching one (which I know because the next morning I can't, for the life of me, recollect what number he got to before I fell asleep). If you've never listened to a guided meditation before, I highly recommend you try implementing one into your daily regimen. The app Buddhify is my #1 favorite guided mediation supplement and it is perfect for beginners! It may feel silly at first listening to one, but they are so spiritually healing and buddhify is broken up into different categories so you can listen to one no matter what you are doing at that moment--anywhere from eating, trouble falling asleep, difficult emotions, or even walking in nature!

That's all I have for tonight, I really hope you try guided mediation for yourself if you've never done so before, especially the one I attached a link for in this post.  It's one of those things that is tailored to you, and is completely different from one individual to the next. There's no right or wrong way of doing it. Some people love it, some simply don't have the patience for it, but you can train your mind by listening to them, similar to how you train your muscles by lifting weights. If you decide to try it for the first time, comment on here and share your experience! I would love to hear how it went and how you feel about it.

***It's that magical time!!***
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Well, go on.
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Let go
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Relax
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Dream
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Sweet dreams, Moths. xoxo 

Take a second to reflect on the day you've had
and use it as a learning experience for
the days ahead.
Love the person that is you. 

Wilting

The magnificent sunflower,
Masked only by nightfall,
Holds a magical power,
To capture and enthrall.

Among the sea of gold,
Lives one above the rest.
Her stories have been told,
With passion and with zest.

Her brilliance attracts many:

The buzzing bee,
Alive and free.
The charming butterfly,
The brilliant firefly.
The secretive bat,
The sauntering cat.
The noble blue jay,
All in one day!

Her brilliance attracts many.

But beauty only lasts so long.
Her stem begins to tilt,
Her petals begin to wilt:
The ending of a favorite song.

To the earth she belongs.


-b.m. 

On the Outside, Looking In

Happy Humpday Ya'll!

I didn't post yesterday *gasp* because it was a verrrrry busy day. I hope I haven't left you all in suspense--you can breathe again, I'm back!

Despite my online absence yesterday, I was thinking of the topic for my latest post. I was riding the university bus after class when we passed one of the esteemed Rutgers academic buildings. Mind you it was night time, so the lighted rooms were clear to see into from the inside of my rusted transportation beast--I am a firm believer that there is beauty and wonder in the most mundane of things, if only we have the patience and imagination to see it. As I passed this academic building, I got a little glimpse into each class being held at that moment. In one room, two students were standing in the front of the class, most likely presenting something, and I caught a few smiles from the students watching. Another room had, from what I could gather, a most enthusiastic professor waving her arms in the air, speaking of something with passion. I couldn't stop thinking about those rooms with the entertained students and lively professors for the entirety of that bus ride. Even now I am amazed by that brief, yet everlasting and unforgettable scene.

This is feeling very 'Girl on the Train' Bri....

Don't worry, I'm not involved in any type of murder mystery....

..that I am aware of..

That's besides the point! What struck me so much about this is that each room contained different people from different places, with different backgrounds, pursuing different degrees, at different points in their life (wow, that's a lot of 'different's), and yet they all came together in this one little room at the exact same time to learn the same thing. It's as if each room was their own world. I was seeing each as an observer looking in, but they were fully unaware of the bustling of the streets outside, or the "worlds" right on the other sides of their own walls--or me, for that matter. Each individual remaining in tune with what was happening in their room, what was happening in that present moment. It was almost like an out-of-body experience: physically I was riding this overcrowded, deafening, odorous bus, but mentally I was exported for a brief second into each of their worlds, smiling as I saw the students smiling, or furrowing my eyebrows as I saw that professor discussing something quite heatedly. With a bump in the road, I came back to reality, but it was a bittersweet moment. I know, I know, no one thinks this deeply about a building they passed on the bus, but it's just the way my brain interacts with the world around me in an attempt to make sense of it all. Is this what 'La La Land' is about? 

Another moment in time that I ceaselessly think about this kind of thing is when I am entrapped in heavy traffic. Most people hate traffic, but for me it's an excuse to blast music and sing (not so well, I'll admit) as loudly as possible! When I'm not breaking the glass with my voice, I like to imagine the lives of each of the passengers in their cars. Where are they all going? Where have they all been? What was their day like today? All of these strangers that I have never met in my life, and most likely will never see again, converge to be at the exact same place as me in that given point of time. It makes you feel so small in this world, that there are so many people living their own lives that don't include you in it. Individuals whose paths may never cross yours, yet they continue on to some unknown future. It gives you a different perspective of those around you. Rather than disregarding them as 'just strangers', maybe recognize them as individual souls on the most epic hike that is their life.

Maybe that's what links us all as a human race...

Start looking more closely, moths. xoxo