It occurs to me of late that, of all the struggles that peeps at HopeScope have grappled with over the years, self-harm is one of the most - perhaps the single most - intractable. We have had a fair mount of success in managing it, or even sometimes eradicating it, over the years, but there is no magic bullet. Harnessing or banishing self-harm seems to have more to do with the harmer coming to understand, accept, and love themselves than trying to purge some resident demon. The resultant control over one's environment that self-knowledge and self-respect can afford seem to, almost by default, have a medicinal effect on self-harm.
Some little while ago, I had written a verse on the subject of this healing - this transformation - that occurs when self-harm succumbs to self-regard, often with an assist from a consistently supportive environment. I had placed it on the forums, but I thought I'd share it here as well.
TC
Scars to Scrollwork
White hot from hurt, glowing as raw bars of ore they have found their way to new hands, patient, warm, and skilled.
Gaudy sparks rejoice, mirrored in kind eyes, as soothing tongs and hammers draw seething souls to length and width, turning pain against itself, rendering beauty from fear and quenching it in a loving bath borne of tears.
Hope's tender balm becalms the newly crafted forms as they are embellished by temperate smiths, scars wrought into singular and stunning flourishes, flashing ebony vines and blossoms on silver palettes.
Indelible faith makes a fine grip, as pearlescent as tomorrow's dreams, and adorned by gilded guards to shield the loving hands that shall christen and release these gentle swords, these new victors over darkness, these children who have suffered and been molded anew by hands and hearts to whom their beauty has never been a mystery.
I thought it might be useful to share here a link to what has developed, on the Forums, into a mature and useful discourse among adults and young people on the matter of the emergency contraceptive, known as Plan B, being withheld from over-the-counter status for girls under 17 in the United States. The decision is controversial because it seems to have been taken unilaterally, and because it has been taken on the advent of an election year, but most importantly, because of what... Continue reading...
This has to be one of my favorite Christmas songs of all. Actually, though, it was not initially conceived as a Christmas song, as you can read here, where there are some interesting remarks by Greg Lake about its intended meaning and his surprise at its success, especially as it was widely misinterpreted as an anti-religious song.
Today, I have added comment functionality to the HSFO Presents page.
When you click on any blog entry, thereby expanding it, you'll see the
DISQUS comment box below it. You must log in to post comments, but
you'll be able to use any of several social media accounts, including
Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Twitter.
This is an experiment here at the HopeScope gateway site, so we'll see how it goes. Please feel free to join in!
(Note to all visitors: I ask only that all comments be ci... Continue reading...
One of our 'Scopers shared a video on the forum that imparts a beautiful and sorely needed sentiment any time of year, but it seems especially fitting at the Holidays. That said, without further ado, I'd like to share it here as well. and Happy Holidays to you.
Last year, right before the Holidays, I had been working on learning a Martin Tallstrom arrangement of Silent Night.
I had made what I felt was a fairly successful pass at it for the
peeps on my support forum, and thought I might share it here as well
this year.
Like very few other arrangements of Tallstrom's, it's not technically
difficult, really, and therefore is within my capabilities, but it's
very hard to make it sound really good. I like his arrangement a lot,
but ... Continue reading...
I wanted to share with you the first pass at a chord-melody piece that I have been writing for my HopeScope peeps for the past few weeks. I also hope that it will serve as a special "thank you" to Harmony and Marcel for all the time that they have been giving me over the past several years in helping me to teach myself to play guitar. It's called Willow.
Here is a little footnote about Willow's inspiration:
In the late 19th century, Hans Christian Andersen wrote a story called Under... Continue reading...
I have been wanting to do another recording, and had a bit of time because Tracy had to go to Boston, and it's raining here, so I thought I'd share with you something that I have been working on. Also, I wanted to make a sample recording of how my Seagull MJM6 (Mini-Jumbo) sounds in baritone tuning; I put heavy strings on it so that I could tune it down to B. The strings are D'Addarios, uncoated and not of my preference, but they'll do for this trial. I do love their tone... just no... Continue reading...
Who's in the mood for a bit of George Harrison? :)
I have been working on this song forever, it seems, and find it very difficult... it's a busy piece, really... more so than you'd think! But I thought I'd have a go and record what I have thus far. I have tried to do an appreciable job of it. I'm trying, George... I swear!
I seem to have resolved an annoying recording noise issue, but there are a few "data clicks/pops" that I think have to do with my failure to set the software's latency in... Continue reading...
At our former HopeScope Family Online gateway site, which had become very difficult to upgrade and back up because of my time constraints and limited knowledge of DotNetNuke (hence my current experimentation here at Yola), we have been proud to host some of the creative efforts of our members over the years. We have 'Scopers who write prose, poetry, those who play music, and some who are involved in visual arts. As an aspiring guitar player, I have also occasionally shared some of... Continue reading...
