My animal companions over the years have been the dogs I had when I was growing up along side my fascination much to my mother’s horror, with gerbils. The Gerbils only lasted until I got my first cat named Bonkers sometime during the 1980s. No Bonkers and later his companion Smokey did not eat the gerbils but that was only because my parents moved the gerbils to their bedroom. One day my Dad said to me Deborah your gerbil (by then I was down to one) is not moving. Taps for the gerbil.
Time went on and eventually I finally left the nest and moved into my own apartment in 1990. My parents had gotten rather attached to both cats and insisted on keeping them. I had visitation rights. Sadly before that decade ended both my parents had gone onto their heavenly reward and my cats came to live with me. Unfortunately cats do not live as long as humans and over the years I’ve had to part with several feline companions. Currently I had on Purrfect Buddy. That Talented Terrific Tuxedo known as Sylvester. He is Pawsome!!
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My best friend and life time companion is my brother Stephen, an Autism Guy who is my heart, soul, mind and everything to me. As anyone who has followed/subscribed to my blog for any length of time knows Stephen is my whole world. Since our parents died all we have is each other. He accepts me for who I am. I don’t have to wear a mask around him. He is always eager to see me. We are a team that cannot be separated!! I Love You Stephen Vincent Palmer!!
Art Collage
Stephen as Robin Hood October 30, 2015
Sailor Stephen
Sailor Stephen
Stephen as Scarecrow
Stephen, Me & Daddy 1977
Me and My brother Stephen December 1961
My Brother Stephen standing next to a Kehinde Wiley painting at the Brooklyn Museum
Both my parents were good for the “Old Sayings” however my Dad Edward G. Palmer had a knack for them. But my Mom Mable Palmer was not far behind. Now as I’m older I find myself remembering these words of wisdom and repeating them.
Edwardisms
If you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas.
Straighten up and Fly Right.
I complained because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.
It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.
You made your bed now lie in it.
Mableisms
If you can’t say something nice about someone don’t say anything at all.
You never know who you may have to call on.
If you mess up you clean up.
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.
That’s a “Change of Life” Baby.
All that glitters is not gold.
Old Wives Tales
My mother had a great respect and fear of thunderstorms. Torrential rain, thunder and lightening had Mom calling us indoors to sit silently with the blinds and curtains drawn, the TV, Lights and radio off nor were we allowed to make phone calls or answer the phone. Mother used to say that thunder and lightening was God working for the devil beating his wife. Now I would say that God is always working and I was surprised to learn that the devil had a wife!! It is raining now in New York but all my lights are on. However my mother was born in West Virginia and raised in Dayton, Ohio. Maybe that’s were those expressions came from.
Both
There’s no Fool Like an Old Fool.
She’s No Spring Chicken.
The Gift of Selective Hearing
Totally UnRelated or Things That Make You Hummmm……
One of my duties as a museum security guard is to check the elevators at the end of the day. We must make sure that no museum visitors get left behind when the building closes.
I have the gift of hearing things that no one has said. At the end of one day my co-worker & fellow guard said to me, “Is there anybody in the elevator.” I heard, “Elvis is in the alligator.” So perhaps Elvis is in the elevator and the alligator ate him!! Or maybe this is all part of the “Insanity Claus.” Kris Kringle’s Mad Twin Brother! Go Figure?!! LOL!!
They’re Coming to Take me Away Lyrics
Miss you much Mom & Dad. Wish I could hear your voices once again.
No Matter What Other People Think or Say About Me, God Loves Me with a Sense of Purpose. The words of the enemy mean nothing to me only what God has to say about me. My writing and photography are my Passions and my Purpose. My brother Stephen is often my Muse.
My Raison D’être
Habakkuk2:2-3
New King James Version (NKJV)
The Just Live by Faith
2Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.
With your answers, please remember we are in the SYW world and which may not always match our reality.
When do you feel most connected with others?
I’m a Loner and an Solitary so it is very rare for me to be or feel connected to others. Rather I’m connected to Nature. I prefer being outdoors in good sunny weather taking photographs. However one instance that stands out for me in terms of connectedness was last January when I attend the New York Paid Family Leave Rally where New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Vice President Joe Biden spoke. The bill just recently became Law in the state of New York and will take effect January 2018. At least I feel like I helped to accomplish something.
What daily habit would you like to introduce to your life?
More Sleep and exercise!!
What one mini-little-adventure would you like to have in the coming week?
That some kind, gentle and generous soul would take me out to the beauty and nail salon. I need to have my hair, fingernails and toenails done!! Having a Fully Paid Free for Me Day of Beauty would be a wonderful thing!!
List things or events that changed your Life: It could be as simple as a book or meeting a certain person?
Committing my Life to Jesus Christ.
Joining the military and serving in the United States Army.
The deaths of my Beloved parents Edward & Mable Palmer.
Having and surviving a minor stroke at age 49.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I am grateful that my court case went well and had a successful and victorious outcome. I’m also grateful for meeting and dancing with the Lost Samurai! That was fun!!
As for this upcoming week looking forward to just getting through the work week with the least amount of pain and making it to the weekend.
Why do you create? Publish a post about your artistic raison d’être.
I create and in creating give Praise to the Master Creator!! All that I have and all that I am comes from God!!
I also give Thanks to my most excellent parents Edward & Mable Palmer who encouraged my creativity. Growing up during the 60s/70s I was a very active child. Actually if I was a kid now I’d probably be diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. During the PTA conferences the teachers would tell my parents that I was a very smart child but I kept finishing the lessons too early, going ahead in the books, helping the other kids in the class and reading the books in the small classroom library. My parents only heard or chose to hear the words smart and intelligent. Mom taught me to read, spell and write at an early age. I believe by the time I was three or four I was reading above and beyond grade level. By the time I was seven or eight I had created my own special alphabet/language and using construction paper and markers made a book about a character named Mr. X.
My parents encouraged me to read. Thank goodness there were no cell phones, PCs, tablets or computers back in those days. I read voraciously! I was a lean, mean reading machine!! Still am!!
My parents and my paternal Aunts all felt I had artistic capabilities. Therefore Dad lavished me with all sorts of art supplies, drawing implements, sketch pads and when I became a teenager a drawing table. The ones that angle. I also received many arts & crafts projects like Latch hook rugs and various other art kits.
Now along with my brother Stephen I create Photo Collages. Stephen and I are working on a joint collage project. Below is one I created in 2012 as a solo project.
Family Photo Collage
Family Photo Collage
Then during High School I decided I wanted to be a writer specifically a poet. I created many poems. After I got out of the Army in 1981 I took video classes at a local arts center and made my first and only video poem. Somewhere either in storage or among my messy room is a VHS tape with me acting out the poem.
Fast forward into the future after my beloved Dad passed away in 1995 at age 36 I returned to college. Attending and earning my B.A. in English at Marymount Manhattan College in May 2002 at age 43. Over the course of eight years the professors at MMC worked me hard. The class work was demanding but I thrived on the challenge. My writing really began to bloom. Of course if you had to constantly write 25 page research papers on a regular basis you would either bloom or bust. I bloomed like a flower in the desert. My professors nourished me. I made the Dean’s List in 1999 and was recommended by then Dean Joan Brookshire for a special program called Women in Urban Leadership. Dean Brookshire kept telling me that I had a gift for writing. I was honored but did not take her words seriously because I was moving up the career ladder. Not until I was laid off from my great managerial job and found myself in a much lower paid and lower position as a museum guard at age 49 did once again did I not only return to my writing but found that with all my trials and tribulations my writing had matured. I suppose when you are struggling and barely getting by that gives you plenty of fodder and a new way of seeing the world.
No more fancy vacations. No more zipping around in my car. No more TV. Lost my apartment but at least I do have a place to live and my room-mate is an artist. On the surface it all seemed like a loss. But not so. I’ve gained more spiritually with each layer of material goods that has been removed. Everything happens for a reason and I believe the reason in my case was so that the following Bible Scripture Verse that the Lord gave me back in the late 1980s could come to pass.
Habakkuk 2:2-3
New King James Version (NKJV)
The Just Live by Faith
2 Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.
Also my genetic gift and talents for photography has been growing by leaps and bounds. My Dad Edward G. Palmer was an amateur photographer. I still have his Kodak Koda Chrome slides from the 1950s up to the 1980s. My genre is Street Photography. Please take a look at my photography blog Roaming Urban Gypsy. https://roamingurbangypsy.com/
You’re My Praise!! You’re the Song My Heart Keeps Singing!! You’re the Reason why I’m Living!!
Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit 