Angelina,

You raise interesting conundrums and paradoxes. Other creators have created despite their daily- life problems and they were stifled by their limited ability to reach beyond a relatively small community. Some famously starved or went mad for their art.

Today, our reach is global and yet we can feel very alone.

I, recently, have been fairly dormant in in my publishing, if not my writing. Publishing requires a bit more involvement in the community of readers and writers, and I haven't been willing to share my turbulence with many people.

As I come to terms with my newer realities, I find myself more willing to "put myself out there" and damn the cosequences.

As Rilke said,

“Let everything happen to you

Beauty and terror

Just keep going

No feeling is final”

Perhaps it is not so much "letting go" as not greasping.

That which is persued often runs away all the faster.

Thoughts and memories of death

Death is a funny thing. The constant companion of the living is denied, feared, rejected, and vilified by almost every human.

Achieving the age of 60 surprised me. It wasn’t a part of the plan at 30.

As I have grown, now past 70, I…