Dance of the Masques

Dance of the Masques
precious pain like stained glass
fragile yet beautiful

cast aside your mask she says
gleefully tossing hers aside across the room

it lands with a bounce
upon the heart shaped bed

rose coloured glasses in the temple of doom
never in fashion you should know this by now

peeling and peeling she removes layer after layer
yet the task is never ending and the masks are countless

her head swims with numbers backwards and forwards
left and right ~ sideways and inside out

exhausted she collapses in a corner
with yet another masque in her hand

and one upon her face, and with a heaving sigh
she glances - at the masques all over the place

in disbelief shaking her head
"These cannot all be mine"

she peels another and another adding them to the mountain of masques
in the middle of the room and begins to cry.....

29OCT 2011
(c) all rights reserved 



There are days she feels like she's in a fishbowl with no water.
She struggled through and survived, healed from a long journey of pain and bad marriages, removed many masques...Still more remain to be removed.


Still she feels alone in this dry and barren fishbowl.
Where is her identity?
When will that last mask be removed to reveal her true-self to the world??
Will it ever be safe enough for her to remove the very last one?

Just because I have a voice...

#NHBPM #HAWMC Day 12 Prompt: Teach a class. 

What’s something that you’re uniquely great at and could teach a class on? 

Write the tutorial in a blog post. Bonus points for images, links to resources, and video.

First, I would like to say that the only thing I am uniquely good at is being myself. I would like to share a few things with you on communicating with those who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. I began losing my hearing many years ago and currently am closer to the Deaf World than the hearing. What frustrates me, even to tears some days, is when hearing people (Some, not all) give me the eye roll or some other *look* when I tell them I am unable to understand them, could they please repeat themselves...etc....I wear two hearing aids and I am only 50. People get this idea that I am too young to have this hearing loss and because I am able to speak I must be able to hear and understand them. 

Here are some basic guides for everyone when in conversation with a Deaf or Hard of Hearing person: HOH - Hard of Hearing.......

1) Take Your hand AWAY from your mouth We rely on facial expressions and when we cannot see your eyes and mouth we have no clue what you are saying.
2) Please only one person talk at a time. multiple conversations are very confusing.
3) Please don't tell us *Oh never mind, it wasn't important* when we ask you to repeat something. Often we feel unimportant and left out. 
4) Don't be afraid to make mistakes when communicating with us. If you botch a sign we will laugh with you. At least you are trying and that is appreciated. 
5) Well lit areas make it easier for conversations to take place.
6) If we are wearing hearing aids it does not automatically mean we can understand you. 
7) If there is difficulty getting your information across to the Deaf or HOH person then a notepad and pen are a fantastic and most acceptable resource. 
8) Please be facing us when speaking to us.
9)  Men - Moustaches - please keep them trimmed so it does not block your mouth and makes it easier to lip-read.
10) Please get our attention in some way before engaging conversation. Touch gently on shoulder or make other movement to let us know you wish to say something to us. 

Most Important - Make and Keep Eye Contact while conversing
http://www.fwdioc.org/ministries/deaf/Documents/communicating_with_deaf.pdf
Minnesota Dept Human Services

Excellent Channel to visit and subscribe to: She is  aK-12 Deaf Educator, Activist for Deaf babies and more..

http://www.youtube.com/user/avbria
Deaf Mom's World  A Great Blog to Visit!

This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days: :http://bit.ly/vU0g9J