Where Are You From?

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Permalink Reply by Callie on June 2, 2008 at 5:44pm

This is a wonderful excersize I hope all do it I plan to run them off and keep each one.. I love them.. Thanks for the idea. Love you. callie

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Permalink Reply by Violet Parr on June 2, 2008 at 6:39pm

Thanks for posting your version Callie, it was lovely and very well written. A compilation of these would make a nice book.

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Permalink Reply by Callie on June 2, 2008 at 6:46pm

thanks just wish I could spell you are right about the book.. this is such a good thing for everyone to center themselves with and spill over with graditude about thier entire life. thanks for the chance to do it. callie

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Permalink Reply by Violet Parr on June 4, 2008 at 6:13pm

Once school is finished I'll ask some people I know at school and work if they would like to complete their versions. I will then try to put something together maybe an e-book or something via a self publishing site e.g. http://www.lulu.com/uk. It'd be kinda cool for everybody who would like to submit their version (along with a photo, permission would be asked of course) to see their names and faces in print. It may also be a nice way to generate some money for a good cause, all proceeds to a charity of course. Dunno, what do you think? sorry for waffling, Gx

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Permalink Reply by Denise Wagner on June 2, 2008 at 11:21pm

The WHERE I'M FROM Template

I am from the wild west, from a former airbase town and oil boom town.

I am from the drought ridden west, sand storms, fires and plant explosions.

I am from the mesquite trees, the cactus, and lantana.

I am from eating alot and laughter, from Granny Vigus and Nana and Eula Belle Wesson aka Grannie Bowen.

I am from the Southern Baptists and depression poor.

From family gatherings and lots of cousins.

I am from Southern Baptists. My grandfather was a baptist preacher.

I'm from Texas tried and true, fried chicken, pizza, hamburgers and grilled steaks.

From the Eula Belle coming to Texas in a covered wagon, the smoking grapevines, and the Aunt Johnnie running away from a girls school as a small child.

I am from boxes of pictures, grandmothers and great aunts stories.

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Permalink Reply by Fiornan on June 4, 2008 at 5:54pm

Ok this is a long one, but I wrote this for a very important person in my life, which I guess is the best reason for doing this at all. Hope you enjoy reading my version.....


I am from chocolate bars and crisp packets, sherry trifle and long Christmas days and the smell of slowly cooking turkey.

I am from many different places, all of which I can no longer consider home. A family house in North West England, that fell into disarray as the family within destroyed itself with spite. A Scottish coastal city where I have lived three lives, one that has gone never to return, one that will forever be a scar on my heart and one that as yet is still undiscovered. I’m from tall Canadian mountains where my heart found peace; my spirit found solace and where another decided it was not to be.

I am from tall oak trees that I climbed in my youth, falling often but always refusing to stay down, learning one of life’s valuable lessons that has never left my heart. From long afternoons in the shadow of fences that surrounded our garden and the smell of roses on a summers afternoon.

I am from great family gatherings where my grandparents loved me, from others who laughed and played along side me. From parents who cared and were full of opinions, from great roaring laughter and nights to remember. From a youth that was full of such family fare where love was all around me, to become a young man whose life was full of despair.

I am from the people that seemed so much larger than life, but when it came down to it where really just as human as I am. Holidays in the sun of Cornwall, sitting on beaches with a grandfather that pretended never to notice his grandson was out to bury him. From a grandmother that was quiet and un-assuming, but talked so much sense upon reflection. Another grandmother that was the definate head of a family, she taught me many things about life and the will we must all have to survive the tough times, a woman that I loved more deeply than was known, one I held in great admiration, a woman that I betrayed in the depths of my own despair later on, a woman who forgave me long before I forgave myself.

From a young man that was driven by internal strife to bring nothing but misery to those he held dear. From a youth that was filled with such riddles and so much pain, from the words you’ll never succeed, never be anything, and never have the happiness I longed for, to a bright shining woman who gifted me my life back.

From new beginnings that showed me that there are new ways. From colleges that showed me my brain was alive, that my mind could still learn and it’s never too late, to aspiring for heights that I’ve still yet to reach, to universities that taught me learning was fun, a life changing lesson that I now live by today.

I am from God in the beginning until I met death, when my child was taken from me leaving one huge gaping wound, he went without ever uttering a word, without ever knowing just how much he meant to me, when it came it was sudden and my regret is he left us when he was all alone in the dark of the night, not having me near him holding him tight. From carrying a small white coffin, and saying goodbye, from standing alone, falling downwards once more, and re-living part of that life I'd led so many years before.

From the man who emerged ready to stand again, from destruction of a home with my beautiful children and the resulting guilt I live with everyday. From youngsters that give me the strength to go on, their lights shining brightly with love and forgiveness. Now they are grown a little more, they show me that love can always find a way. From negative people who want never to let go, they live in past and are not part of my life today. From finding a way to finally forgive, the ones that continue to lash and to flay, and finding the strength to move on, finding faith in myself to know that I can, and leaving behind those that hurt others towards a brighter day.

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Permalink Reply by Fiornan on June 4, 2008 at 6:00pm

I am from a love that has taken me completely by storm, a woman I‘ve known of for a number of years, but never really knew until one summers day. A love that has filled me with a new purpose, someone that has grown into a rock in my life, someone respected, such intelligence and depth that astounds me still to this day. A Personality so bright, full of fun and delight, such caring and thought, understanding and play, to dealing with life as it comes everyday, not always looking back and making that part of today.

From a person that sees something in me to love, a woman that I wish to have close in my life, a woman I know finds strength in me too, a woman I want in my life everyday. A life that moves forward with joy and with promise, a light that shines in my eyes for the first time in years, my heart full of love and compassion and freedom, an understanding that knows not a single black day. A woman I now know I have to make mine, to make her understand the love in my heart, a woman who’s proud of the man I am today.

When I see me for me and accept all in my path, acceptance of me and the errors I’ve made, all things considered, is the greatest gift she could give, apart from the day she asked me to be her’s, a ring and a white dress made my heart leap with joy, a day I look forward to with every beat of my heart.

From changing myself in almost all that I do, from knowing I can and choose to do so. From making a life choice, more than one I can say, from eating the right food and saying vegan is for me, from getting back to my health as once I knew it, pushing those limits and knowing I can do it. From tattoos on skin that is older than some, from strange lettered designs that only I know where they came from. From looking much stronger and knowing I’m just that, from swinging from ropes and climbing up walls, from running for joy and pushing the limits, finding in the mirror a man I now find, i can look in the eye and say that I’m proud.

From the things that have made me, from the things that broke me, to a future that is much clearer and grows inside me with each new day. One thing I always remember til my dying day are the lessons well taught me as a boy now almost gone, to the man I have grown to, one lesson that life is short and is once, lessons about when falling, to brush off the pain and the hurt, the scars they do fade, for life is not life unless you climb higher each day.

I thank those great mighty oaks.

Tols you it was very long :)

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Permalink Reply by Violet Parr on June 4, 2008 at 6:05pm

Wow F!

Tis not like you ;) thanks, the words are lovely x

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Permalink Reply by Bhagvati Kaur on June 20, 2008 at 6:47pm

Thank you for this amazing exercise I've been blocked for a couple of weeks now and this reminds me of freedom - thank you thank you -

This is where I'm from;

I am from dates, from Saudi Arabia and a projector in the lounge before cinema exsisted.

I am from behind the black door of secrets to the tall house with the crazy paving outside and tufts of grass sprouting through.

I am from the hugest cheese plant you've ever seen, the one that was rescued when it was the size of a fig, but grew to hide me and my dolls behind its paddle, green leaves.

I am from meza on coffee tables and over dramatic monologues, from Polly Phillpot and Suzy and a long line of Nemr.

I am from the never ending, overly detailed stories and sarcastic, black humour.

From pleases and thank yous cost nothing and be nice to people on the way up, coz youre sure to see them on the way down.

I am from always turn the other cheek. Always put others first.

I'm from Queen Charlottes and bits and pieces of other lands, spaghetti bolognaise and chicken and rice with salad.

From my nans cousin who was cut open on death to reveal a tumour the size of a football in her tummy, the great grandmother that filled the cemetary with her saint children and who named the next two after animals so they would live, and the Jido that laid the railways for the Queen in Palastine .

I am from albums in the cupboard on the right hand side in the living room, I am from old text books and paintings in the red trunk, I am from nans wooden box at Snookys that I wish I still had, I am from art with small fingers that I wish still existed, I'm from 'a mould that God broke' - or so my mother says!

Blessings to all
Bhagvati
xx

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