Early Morning Departure.

Today, I depart for North Carolina, and I was wide awake before the alarm went off. I was so tired I went to bed early last night and I woke up around 3am although, I had the alarm set for 4am since I have a early flight. Yesterday, I found myself getting nervous about my interview, but today I am fine and feeling confident. I have been apartment hunting online and I think I have found just what I need and the virtual tour if it is really the apartment is stunning and I love the layout. I need to call the agent today as a matter of fact.

Here is a early morning picture of me spending a little alone time with Cara before I leave. Andrea is going to take care of my beloved pets while I am away. I cannot run yet since I am healing from surgery, but I am going for a brisk walk before my shower.

POET AFTER MIDNIGHT

Poets will go on and on

They have the stamina to fight

After all the rest have gone

Some praise Chaucer, some praise Donne

Living rivals are heaped with spite

Poets will go on and on

Being brief is seldom done

They drone their woes into the night

After all the rest have gone

"Publishing is one big con

The money making grip's too tight"

Poets will go on and on

Booker, Costa, Orange won,

For novelists the future's bright

After all the rest have gone

They argue over who should write

They have the stamina to fight

Poets will go on and on

After all the rest have gone

Written by Amber Wilson 2010`

Vain Evasion

Dense blackness yields

To a chill grey dawn

Clammy air sticks

To my skin

Dread stalks me

Death marks out its targets

Nearing with each step

Soon enough, it will strike

To my very heart.

Much better to face

The threat myself

Than watch helpless

As it takes those I love

The terrible calculus

Of such balancing

Sours the soul

But denial is vain evasion

The memory of yesterday's

Crisp sunshine seems

An age away

A paradise

Before the Fall

Written By Amber Wilson 2007`

Wilderness Song

Burning the wild lands, the moon rises gold; gold the eyes of wolves

Running in a rapid crouch up the snowy hill.  Exhaling,

I slip into the aspens, follow their tracks into a threshold of

Light under the firs.  The moon squats fat among them. I

Linger and watch, afraid.  Discard the fantasy that

I could be accepted, that I could be safe, that I could run.  With them.

A screech of owl cries. Wolves sing: close chorus, far response.

Nothing contains the fierce sacredness of this music.  I want to

Call back from this hidden body.  I pluck a tuft of fur from a drift,

Embrace bare branches, moon-bruised sky.  In

A cloud-smudged mirror of ice, shadows flicker, a broke

Face of moon shimmers.  I whisper: elk, caribou, antelope.  Stubbornly,

I reclaim the dream of hunting with the wolves.  Oh folly!  Will I return to this

Evening over and over, sifting through these images, lies and dreams?

Late-night owl calls again.  Wolf tracks fade in drifting snow.  I glimpse

Deer, then fox.  Braid my tracks into theirs.

Written By Amber Wilson 2009

I'm a Artist

I don't need to see my work on a fancy gallery wall nor do I need to sell my paintings to know I'm an artist.

I am an artist because I see beauty everywhere. In everything.

The way ice melts on a spring day, they way the clouds form during a storm, the stunning colors of the lake on a sunny day, the rust on a decaying shed and yes even the march of ants (not happy they are in my kitchen but still amazing and awesome and I was really sad I killed some of them)

I see the beauty in all those things and I HAVE to attempt to recreate that feeling in my own little way. Never do I come close to capturing the simplicity and splendor that happens naturally all around us. What I do is create something that I can keep as a reminder of the beauty of life.

I'm an artist.

SOCIAL MEDIA & OPINIONS

So I am a self admitted Internet junkie. Facebook is my crack .... along with maple syrup and sharpies ... but back to the Internet. It is a wonderful wonderful tool. The information is mind blowing. The world is really at our fingertips and that is, well, amazing. I have found friends, made friends, been inspired, been challenged, learned about myself and others and shared my work which has allowed me to partake in opportunities that would not have been possible just a few short years ago...again... AMAZING!

So here is my problem. The Internet has also been something else to me. Something very very different and actually the opposite of amazing. It has made me realize that we all have become very opinionated (NOT excluding myself at all!) and kind of mean when it comes to others. I try very hard to only post positive messages and share things that I feel really strongly about but I find myself being more and more bombarded with messages of negativity from friends who I don't want to think of that way. 

I don't want to be seen that way. I don't want to put down others to pick myself up. I don't want to label a whole group of people to make myself feel better about my position on issues. I want to be able to talk without everyone taking it personally and I want to be able to do the same...because like everyone I do take things personally. I wonder if when I post my thoughts if there are people out there who think that I am negative when really I try to always come from a place of understanding. 

I want to not care and care all at the same time. 

Do you get it? 

So how do you get over this age of wayyyyy too much information? What have you done to speak your mind but still be kind? Is it possible to love each other and disagree completely? Some of my favorite friends have different opinions than I but we can talk about it and still respect each other. 

Is there a way to do that online or do we just have to become numb to the negativity and like everything else in life just choose to see the good? 

Share your thoughts please!

Tiger eye sign (Eye of the tiger sign)

- Lets begin from the basics and go on to the main stuff ....

*At birth, the central nervous system does not contain any iron in it.

*As the child grows into an adult there is (physiologically normal) gradual deposition of iron in the central nervous system.

*The part of the central nervous system where this iron deposition is most significant is the globus pallidus.

*Given below is an axial MRI image (T1 weighted) of the brain showing the exact location of the globus pallidus.

*Now this excessive iron deposition in the globus pallidus bilaterally with a central area of gliosis and edema changes gives the appearance of tigers eyes because of the different shape of globus pallidus.

*The peripheral iron appears hypointense (black on MRI) and the central gliosis and edema changes appear hyperintense (white on MRI) giving the appearance described above.

*One of the conditions in which this occurs is Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome.

*The exact image of the tiger eye sign cannot be posted here due to copyright issues, but you can see the image here ----> http://radiology.rsna.org/content/217/3/895/F1.expansion.html