Pamela Jo Bowman

I have been archiving my movie clips and photos this week. Decided to take my own advice and back them up with hard copies. If I was really kind and motivated I would make copies for my family and friends. But I’m not. This kind of work is only possible while I multitask. Writing, researching, refinishing furniture, roughing out query letters, appling for jobs, eating M&Ms. Why did I buy those again? Guess I must have wanted to hurt someone real bad.

I digress.

Tonight, while archiving, I found some shorts I did a few years back. Four years actually. Almost to the day. That’s right, this week marks 4 years since we returned from Zambia. So, to honor the occasion and to humor myself that anyone even remotely cares, I am re-posting this little short. (The original blog entry of the poem can be found on the FilmZambia site.)

Click on the picture if you would like to see and experience Zambia.

It has been two months since Ben and Breann got married. It is fun watching them figure things out and loving each other more everyday. Life is tough. It’s good when you have someone to share the joy and divide the not so joyous. Remember to laugh everyday. It always ends up funny in the end anyhow!

Ciera thought we would be in more rain showers. Instead we have been enjoying the Oregon sunshine. We had a lovely evening on a boat ride. Were told to wear appropriate clothes for swimming. We did get refreshingly sprayed a time or two. Enough to curl my hair! Enjoyed a delightful dinner at a magnificent lodge up in the pines where we met some nice folk. And there were some people who Joan counseled me to punish her if she ever became “one of them.” Ciera didn’t care for them either. They were so very concerned that we were hoarding the food they couldn’t enjoy the abundance that surrounded them! So sad.

Ciera and I spent the days getting lost. We got pretty good at that. By the end of two days we successfully were able to find our way around….my iphones gps. A most useful invention. In the evenings Joan introduced us to the local sites. We are really enjoying being outside. Feels wonderful and refreshing.

Today we are heading south into California. Ciera will be reading to me. We will trade off between The Scarlet Letter and Eat, Pray, Love. I think I know which book we will finish first. Road trips. Don’t you love them?!

Do you know how many baby boomers there are? 78 Million. Amazing. Over 50% of the United States assets are owned by the baby boomers.

This site, if you care to take a look, holds a collection of photographs of people who had dreams once upon a time. Some came true, some didn’t. Many of the baby boomers are discovering new dreams. Some are realizing all that ever held them back was themselves.

As you look in your mirror maybe you will discover how wonderful and precious the moments of your life truly were and still can be.

It has been over three years since I have been here. What is true is this picture sits on my computer. I suppose that would be a form of self torture. Sometimes, I visualize myself on the raft pushing off those who challenge my reign as queen. I can recall the feeling of floating through the air on the swing especially flying off the swing! And sometimes I can hear the laughter of those being bombarded by pine cones late at night while hiding in the buck brush. Soon I get to look up into that sky and see those brilliant stars flicker through the swaying redwood trees. I try to convey the smell, but it is pointless. My children sometimes make me smell a piece of clothing and we smile at each other knowingly. What I remember is walking by myself singing, “I talk to the trees, but they don’t…” (mind my singing)

Ciera and I get to go there next week. It has been five years for her.

We have spent a lot of time with our Bowman relatives through the years. And I have enjoyed those relationships. Chris’s siblings and their children love their favorite aunt. That would be ME!

Through the years, I often have felt sad that I was unable to participate in weddings, funerals, births, graduations, and just daily associations that build stronger relationships with my siblings and their families. Next weekend I get to go to my great nephew’s birthday party. I have never met him. I might even get to be there for the birth of his baby brother. How cool is that? Very cool.

Family. It’s about time.

Yesterday Ciera offered me two different mints. I declined. Today she told me if she were to offer me two different mints in quick succession it means she is doing me a favor and to eat one of them. Good to know.

I hate that I am getting old, but not caring about having bad breath, kind of refreshing.

Mint?

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” Henry David Thoreau:

Happy Birthday Ciera Jo! So glad you are brave enough to sing your song. Keep singing.

One of the wonderful lessons I have learned during the last 4 years is the power of partnership.

This last week, my writing partner and I had some revelatory discussions. Honest dialogues. We have reached a point in this relationship where we know we can say what we really think or feel about a character or scene or whatever and we know we are safe.

I may not always agree with what she thinks and heaven knows she rarely agrees with me, but in the listening and sharing of opposing ideas a better and more viable idea often starts to develop.

I have learned to appreciate the difference.

That is what partners do. They talk. They listen. They learn that the work gets better in the discussion. It also makes work more fun. And if it stops being fun it stops being worth it.