21. Hand in Hand, A Creative Moment

Have you ever walked by an elderly couple, sitting on a bench, and wondered what their life story is?  I have, and I find as a creative writer it intrigues me.  I wasn't planning to podcast today, but I found a poem I wrote a few years ago and decided to share it.  Unscripted, not filtered, just speaking from the heart and sharing my creative side. 

Thanks for listening!  This is a hobby podcast, with a positive vibe. No legal or medical advice is provided in this podcast, it's recorded for entertainment purposes only.  No cooking advice either - some things are best left for the professionals.  Have a great day! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Hi everyone, it's Lindy here. Welcome back to the podcast. As always, I'm absolutely delighted to be here sitting in the old podcast chair today, microphone beside me, sun shining down. It's just been a really great day so far. And I'd like to start out with a big thank you to you. Yeah, whoever it is that's on the other end listening to me right now, and I guess that means you, I'd like to say thank you because you've taken the time to find my little podcast and you've pressed that play button and you're listening. And that matters to me. I really do appreciate it. So yeah, thank you for being here. I hope you enjoy the journey. And just a quick reminder um I am a hobby podcaster. I do this for fun. I try to keep it lighthearted. I don't want to put any negative sensationalism. I keep out of the politics and all that stuff. Yeah, this is not the place for it. This is just a place where I can focus on things that are a little bit more positive, lighthearted, maybe thought-provoking, but definitely away from the negative crap. That's just not my cup of tea. All right. Um, so yeah, now that we've gotten through all that, today is a little bit of an extra episode. And I'm just going to give a quick background on it. Um, you're probably aware that I am a creative writer. I did self-publish my first book of short stories back in 2024. And yeah, I've I've actually recorded an audiobook. I've done a lot of writing over a lot of years, and I don't uh claim to be any, you know, perfect writer or anything like that at all. It's a hobby for me, and a lot of the things I do come from the heart. And it's kind of neat because I had a lot of great feedback this week. Oh, I've just had incredible feedback both on the podcast and on my book that I wrote, and all of it unsolicited, and it's just really made my days. So yeah, thank you, everybody. And today I'm gonna get going and I want to share something that I wrote. And I found this in my computer today. I got back from my bike ride and I just quickly popped open the computer. I'm like, okay, let me have a quick look here. I'm getting this urge to start writing again. And what is the last stuff that I wrote? I have so much that I've written and so much that I haven't shared. And I came across this poem that I wrote in 2023. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I kind of remember writing it, but I actually forgot that I had written it. Okay, I'm getting older. No, I think it's just that it's one of those things I wrote it, and then I put it aside and I never gave it a second look. Well, today I am, and I'm even going to go one step further. I'm going to share that poem with you. So before I get started, no matter where you're at, um, if you have a chance just to sit down, close your eyes, relax while you're listening to this poem, you might be able to absorb it a little bit better. Like if you've got your TV going in the background or radio going in the background, you're listening to this at the same time. There's a lot of noise around you, you probably aren't going to be able to absorb the poem the same way as you would if maybe you just had a cup of coffee and sat down uh quietly, or if you closed your eyes in a chair. Uh, if you're driving in a car listening to me right now, do not close your eyes. Keep driving and try to absorb it that way. Stay safe. Okay, I had to throw that in there because I know some people do listen to podcasts and they're driving. I'm like, whatever you do, don't close your eyes if you're driving. Okay, all right. I'm gonna get started, but hope you're relaxed and let's get going. My poem is called Hand in Hand. Hand in hand, side by side, greeting sunrise like an old friend without further ado. Mist rising, a transparent shield of many droplets glistens, leaving a kiss of welcome on the brows of the little old man and the little old woman sitting on the old park bench. Gaze into the looking glass. Calm water brings a reflection of peace and tranquility, a sign of hope after storms of yesterday. Storms plural words unspoken scream out a melody of sadness. In harmony, two lost souls bring their fingers together with a gentle squeeze to speak of love and care without condition. All is calm. Soft breeze awakens the leaves on the old oak tree. Sparrows harmonize a simple song of endless gratitude. Morning has emerged hand in hand side by side, sitting on the old park bench like a scene from a love story. One hand pulls away but only for a moment. Hint of coffee blends with aroma of purple lilac. Hot cout burns her lips, drink quietly, maintain ambience. Silence is broken. Solitude dissolved with the sound of light panting and footsteps on the trail behind the bench where the little old man and the little old woman sit holding hands. One smile greets no hollow. There is no time for the woman with the shapely legs wearing purple shoes and a bright pink cap to slow down, as she only has thirty minutes of scheduled calm. Runner disappears. Silence returns. On the old park bench on a warm sunny day his focus never shifts. Staring at the glassy green water reflections on the journey of a young boy who came into the world on no one's terms and lived through an endless war he could not speak of outside the home. A troubled boy with covered up bruises and no one understood why the young child with the broken bones and shattered spirit could not find a world where calm existed. Hand in hand, he stares ahead, thinking, wishing existing, grieving the loss of a child who lives. Anguish prevails and he cannot see the white gull sitting on the side of the water pulling the flesh from the little grey fish. Snap Snap The photo is taken. An image captured by a budding young photographer. Two old people sitting on the bench How cute they are Snap Snap. The image in the newspaper captures the hearts but does not tell the true story. It never does. A shadow cast on the image removed with the click of a mouse. No eraser in life, only hope that tomorrow will soon bring peace. The world awakens around them. Birds chatter freely in the trees singing a call to action. Laughter in the distance, sound of running shoes strike the concrete path breaking the silence and the hollow stair. Another scene ends. The love story remains. On a warm sunny morning the little old man pats the shoulder of the little old woman and says it's time to go home. Together they go. The little old couple from the old wooden bench hand in hand by me, Linda Leverman. I'm happy I shared that with you today. And you know what? When I just read that to you, I hadn't even read it front to back before I sat down at the podcast and decided to read it aloud. It's kind of cool for me to go back and read things that I wrote a few years ago. And often when I write things, it's because something hit my heart that day. There was something in my heart that I wanted to share, or something in my heart that inspired another thought, and then it inspired another thought, and it inspired another thought. And that's how it works for me as a creative writer. That's how it works for me with a creative mind. When I get this urge to write, the urge is there, and I absolutely have to do it now. And whether it's perfect or not perfect, it's perfect by me because it's perfectly my words. Not AI, not anybody else's imagination. It's the words that came to my mind on that given day. I wonder what happened in the world of those people, the little old people sitting on the old wooden bench. It often makes me think of things I think about when I'm out walking around, and I'll often see elderly people walking and holding hands. I'll see people of all ages holding hands, people of all walks of life holding hands. And it's funny, sometimes as a creative writer, I'll look at it and think, geez, I wish I could just sit down and say, hey, can I get your story and share your story? I would love to just sit down someday and just have a booth somewhere where I can just sit down and capture the life stories of everybody because I love that kind of thing. And I love to know the stories of what's behind everybody. You know, when you go out and you sit in a mall and you see people walking by, if you see someone going by and they look like they're dressed really sporty and they got on the fancy sporty leggings and the sporty shoes and their hair's all done just right, everything's perfect, and you automatically assume their life is perfectly fine because they're wearing something sporty. Does it mean their life is perfectly fine? Not necessarily. What you see on the outside isn't always what you see on the inside. When we see an elderly person sitting on a park bench and that elderly person is sitting there, we just assume because that person has a nice smile and they look like they're comfortable that their life has probably always been okay. And often that person sitting on the bench, especially when they get to be my age or even older, I'm I'm just turning 60 this year. Imagine somebody who's 70 or 80. Imagine all the things that they have lived through. And if you're in that age group, you're probably nodding and you're probably thinking, yeah, she's right, I've lived through a lot. A lot of people at different ages have lived through a lot. A lot of positive times, a lot of challenging times, a lot of negative times. I've lived through a lot of challenging times, positive times, and negative times, but I do my best right now to focus on the positive times. And I do my best to focus on the things that are going to bring me happiness and hopefully bring happiness and joy to people around me as well, too. Um, yeah, as well too. There you go. I am a writer, despite my vocal grammar, but hey, remember, this is not scripted. I'm just sitting down and sharing my thoughts as they come to me. So I don't know. I'm just, I'm feeling really creative right now. I feel like I want to get back to writing. And often it is life stories, it's things that have happened that drive my creativity. And it's kind of neat because I think if you're an artist, often there's something in your life that you've seen or you've witnessed that has got you sitting down with that pen and paper or sitting down with the paintbrush. We all have a different creative side inside us, and we all have a different story to share. Um, for you, the person who's on the other side, I hope you have some good stories to share. I hope you have lots of really good things in your life that you're able to reflect on and you can look back and think, if I could write some happy stories about my life, I'm gonna write about this day, or I'm gonna write about that day, or I'm gonna write about the day that this happened. I really hope you have stories like that that you can share because it's really great when we can build great memories, great times, and when we go back to reflect that we can look on really positive things. And there isn't one of us in this world who hasn't had something that's been really challenging to deal with. And it could be anything from loss of a job, loss of a friend, loss of a loved one. It could be something that we've dealt with physically, it could be a financial issue. There's all kinds of challenges that are out there, and no two people walk the same path. No two people can judge each other because we've never walked in each other's shoes. Yeah, I remember seeing this thing one time. It was out on a, I don't know, it was a meme that I saw out somewhere and they said something about walk a mile in my shoes or something like that, leave your shoes behind, I'll take them. I can't remember. It was something like that. Sometimes I mess those things up. But yeah, it just goes back to that thing about walk a mile in my shoes. Yeah, we've all walked a different path. And it is really hard to know what somebody else is going through when we haven't uh walked their path or their journey. But anyway, that's just it. That's just a short little podcast episode today. I wanted to share hand in hand. And when you go out today, um, I hope that you have somebody in your world that you can grab their hand, hold their hand. I hope you have somebody that you can say I love you, whether it's a family member, whether it's a friend, yeah, I even tell my friends I love you. I have lots of ladies who are my friends, I have men who are my friends, and I have no problem saying I love you because I do care for my friends and I love my friends, and I have no issue saying I love you to my family because I do love my family. Um, so if you have somebody that's in your world that you really care about, never be afraid to say I love you. Don't wait for that person to say it first. It's like, ah, they haven't said I love you for a week. I'm not saying I love you till they do. No, I always say don't do that because you never know. Things change. Tomorrow may not be here. That person may, something might change, and you might not have that person in your world tomorrow. So don't ever hesitate to say I love you to somebody that's close to you. And on that note, I'm gonna wrap it up. Time to call it a day. I hope you enjoyed my poem. Thank you so much for tuning in. And uh please do come back, catch more episodes in the future. I am gonna start sharing more of my writing as well as my thoughts. And if you enjoyed the episode today, just a quick note, um, if you're listening on a podcast app, if you have a chance to give a review, a positive review would be really appreciated. If it's not positive, please don't do it. But if you can give a positive review, I would really appreciate it. I know a lot of podcast apps have a place where you can do that. Um, and also, depending on what app you're listening on, there is a little place in the show notes where if you read the description to this podcast, you'll see a little line at the beginning that says share your comments. Um, some of the apps will allow it to link and you'll be able to click on it and get through where you can share your comments. If you can't, because the link is blocked through your podcast app, you can always go to my website. It's www.grayroots and chicken boots.buzzsprout.com. So it's B-U-Z-Z-S-P-R-O-U-T. That's how you spell BuzzSprout. So greyroots and chicken boots.buzzsprout.com. That's where my website is. And if you listen to episodes through there, you are able to submit your feedback through there as well. But I do know there's lots of great podcast apps out there where you can catch my podcast as well. And and lots of people like doing that, especially when they're out walking or hiking or whatever or in the car. All right, that's it. I better run. Have a great day, everyone. Thank you so much again for listening. And remember what I always say as I head out smiles come in all languages and in all colors. All right, take care. Have a great day.