So, Now What?

So, Now What?

BR Chitwood

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Another move!

Sold our beautiful South Mountain Retreat – could not turn down the price…yeah, I know, money is not everything! Couple it, however, with home prices ‘through the roof’, a body getting older and less functional with each passing day plus a handsome payoff and a temporary move-in with our good and wise daughter, my wife doing all the work (I know, I know! I’m worthless!) and me sitting sprawled on my ‘lift chair’ already typing this short post… A lovely couple, Blake and Claudia along with their beautiful Lab, Sami, are the new owners – Blake, a Clinical Psychologist and, Claudia, a Registered Nurse – beautiful people from the far west.

Aging of course comes with strange catalysts, like, a sudden fall or short memory recall…just laying the foundation like it is, the result of a couple of falls, some aches and pains.  I can still walk and get around, have family who cater to my needs – and, wow, I use this to the greatest ‘poor me’ extent possible. Actually, the place I feel still secure within myself, still viable in my writing, is when I open this laptop gadget and start my pecking.

You can take this to the bank: I shall know when my words become too mundane and without any solid penmanship…maybe this short post will give one pause as to the viability of my writing…,

  That is when I will ‘rock you’ with a scintillating short story, flash fiction, and/or poetry. Writing has been such a strong force for so many years, it would be sacrilege not to obey its enticements.

So, no earth-shattering piece here, just some facts of my aging life for my small cadre of readers and writers.

 My wife did all the work, so why am I so damned tired?

Just saying!

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BR Chitwood – May 9, 2022

Go to Word Press for synopses of my twenty books, over 400 blog posts, short stories, flash fiction, and poetry.

https://www.brchitwood.com

Always With Love

Always With Love

BR Chitwood

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It is difficult to imagine where I would be in this life without the woman in the picture above, my wife, assuming my existence in this life at this point in time.

Sure, it is just another sentimental prosing of a hopeless ‘Romantic’, but this lady, Julie Anne, is all the trumpeting I’m doing here, and, more. She has been with me through the writing of twenty books in different genres, hundreds of blog posts, short stories, and flash fiction, reading it all, offering helpful comments along with her praise…in the meantime, preparing our meals, caring for our pets, and still managing to be a mother to our many children.

My immersion in the writing brings at times outbursts and childish behavior…she simply smiles gently and wanders off to tackle other chores.

Now, near the final years of aging, I still do some writing. Julie Anne does a lot with her genealogy efforts, communicating with people from all over the globe…Genealogy fascinates her, and her glee in finding new people who belong to her ‘tree’.

Julie has written about the pets we have owned through the years – “Animal Crackers in My Bed” (the book is on Amazon).

She has also compiled a history book – “The World After World War 1” (a ‘Tome’, really) of letters written by her grandmother and two sisters of her grandmother. One of the sisters serving overseas in the Red Cross during ‘World War One’. The letters brilliantly depict the history of the time – 1918-1921…also on Amazon. (A copy of one of the letters, written by James Thurber to the Red Cross sister, was acquired by Ohio State University for their historic documents of major importance.

Julie is a unique and beautiful lady, and, for some forty years, she has been there to help and encourage me in my writing, to love me, and a mom of the highest order… I am a most lucky man…

BRC

https://brchitwood.com

ired But Still in the Fight

Tired – But Still in the Fight

BR Chitwood

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The softness, sweetness settles within me

On this still, slumberous, summer day…

The sky above is clear and convenient

 To my aging heart and soul of wandering.

The big windows out of which I peer

Display the birds, quails and rabbits in

Their daily missions for food and play,

          Forever watchful as the coyotes are fast         

 Afoot, canny, can spring from the idle

Brush, Ironwood, and Palo Verde Trees.

*

Here, in the comfort of A/C and luxury,  

My mind ponders the plurality of messages

My outside view might reveal through

This tired heart and soul that have borne

Witness to so much my Gracious God

Has so generously shared along my way…

The joy of love and family, the search

For fame and glory that has shown in

Quantities never as large as one might hope,

Never the prominence foolish pride allowed.

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So, it seems this beauty outside my windows

Is occasionally followed by rain and wind…

Perhaps, more in hope and longing, nay, in

Truth and Faithful days and nights of dark

And wistful thoughts, witnessed by the moon

And brilliant stars outside another window…

After prayer, a truth emerges, vague, tingling,

And, suddenly, my bedroom wall to the East,

 An amorphous cloud slowly passes, my eyes

Widen: an image of Jesus gently smiling…

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BR Chitwood –

https://brchitwood.com

You Are Your Moods

You Are Your Moods

BR Chitwood

You are your moods…just sharing some of mine…

My mother was a gentle, generous, and kind woman from a large loving family of four boys and four girls, the matriarch of the brood fervently involved in her Protestant Faith. The father was a quiet, gentle, corpulent man, a railroad foreman for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, a most pleasant person who seldom interfered with the demands of his pious wife who each day offered a loud, long, tearful, prayer to her Father in Heaven, with all present kneeling for her long wailing wishes for blessings and forgiveness of sins committed by her and her brood. Despite the parental toughness of her ways and the seriousness of her moods, she was a kind and gentle person.

Two of the four boys would serve their country in World War Two, one ferrying our brave warriors to the shore at Omaha Beach. The youngest of the brothers was murdered as he was closing down his ‘Filling Station’ late at night in Knoxville, Tennessee. Stanley was his name and a most wonderful Uncle. Uncle Stanley saw me through some difficult times in my early life. I loved this good man and think of him often through all these years.

Uncle Stanley and my mother were so much alike, both holy of heart, soul, and honorable in their daily living…

My Mom was a boarding house cook and a Bell Telephone Operator/Supervisor. Because of economic conditions at the time my mother had to rely on the state of Tennessee and my grandparents for boarding and financial help – it was a necessary procedure for many families at the time.

My most memorable years came when my mother brought my sister and me to live in a lovely home across from a beautiful college where I played tennis with some of the students and attended elementary school. Times got better for our small family. My sister blossomed early and wanted all that went with a pretty face and desirable body…problems, yes, but the family worked through it.

Much of my life was molded from those early days, still given to thoughts of a past with too little good and a lot of ugliness. I served my country, got through college, taught writing to high school seniors, did some acting, commercials and film, married a few times, sired three beautiful kids who constantly amaze me with their goodness, settled at last with a lovely lady who is all a man could possibly want.

Oh, and I have written twenty books, many based on true crimes, mystery and romance, a couple of memoirs, some 375 blog posts, many ‘flash fiction’ pieces, short stories, and poetry.

Okay, had this quiet afternoon of reflection, felt like writing some of it down, and I feel better…and, I just felt like sharing it with people who might be reading my posts.

All of my books are on: https://brchitwood.com

Hope you can read some of my books…and perhaps leave an Amazon review if so inclined…

Too Much to Absorb

BR Chitwood

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A better person than I can parse and understandthe confounding nature of our world, how we arrive at a multitude of decisions as a disjointed group of politicians handle affairs of our nation from a position of power, personal goals, anger, and disassociation from a particular item of high importance to the people for whom they represent.

 It is my belief that our government handlers are anything but centered to their life-long political biases and hatred for their counter-parts, many so paralyzed by their animosity they would deny their nation responsible representation.

An Appalachian transplant, who am I to have such thoughts?

I saw it at recess on the grounds of my elementary and high schools, in the classrooms, in the halls stalked by bullies… Unlike today, we young people were taught ‘Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic’ so we were spared today’s wide-spread indoctrination of blame, of how and who to hate for society’s slide into racial issues, kept alive and more viable to our youth by an almighty ‘National Association of Teachers Union’.

Okay, sure, we must allow for environmental differences, low IQs, high IQs, parental inability to carefully cultivate and fine-tune tolerance and care for a multitude of beliefs. We are built in our early years and that inculcation en masse make for the world we build.

So, we migrate, spread our selective fine-tuning to other cities, other countries, and the centuries roll on with our human sacrifices, wars, famine, and ultimate destruction and re-building…until!

What?

Our ‘Religions’ speak in different tongues, views that see ‘life and death, heaven, hell’ in totally sharp contrast…

Life goes on.

Death goes on.

Zealots go on.

Will freedom and liberty go on?

Can love conquer all?

Can a ‘Cosmic Wave’ pass over the world, instilling in each of us a predominant theme for living?

Does this ‘Cosmic Wave’ erase all of the frailties of the world?

Does Jesus return to make all things right?

Does another planet in another Solar System come to create a true Eloi?

Are we a ‘Lab Experiment’ that has gone wildly awry?

There is so much good in the world – can it not be an unbreakable bond for humanity?

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BR Chitwood

https://brchitwood.com

http://twitter.com (@brchitwood)

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Really, Why Wars?

BR Chitwood

Really, Why Wars?

BR Chitwood

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Why would someone far away from the bomb bursts, flying bullets, and so much human suffering dwell on a Putin-pressed war in Ukraine…for that matter, why so many in the world dwell on this manic and corrupt event?

While pedestrian and immediately naïve, I need to put my words down because it is Sunday… Why, Sunday? A holy day for most of us, a day to dwell on our sins/transgressions, a day to pray for hope, for personal salvation, and for entire World Peace.

Of course, we have enough fret and worry of the ‘Infidel Killers’ and other groups who love to hate and kill.

With’ Putin’s War’, the ‘fret’ becomes more fierce, more difficult to calculate actions and reactions. Much of the world views Putin as a ‘Mad Man’, capable of actions leaders of nobility would never consider. The worst descriptive words for this beast of humanity have been used up by people of the world who follow his atrocities…it is difficult to imagine him long for this world. His sly eyes and demeanor, all that he is, there for the world to see. A reasonable person would assume this cold and distant Satanic collaborator could not be long for this global pool of humanity.

I pretend no great expertise on this Russian dictator and only rely on the years of ‘News Reports’ for this deeds and death tolls, like those being registered in Ukraine today and throughout his tenure in this world. I am just a man, imperfect in many ways with sins I must ultimately account for, sins far below the standards of this leader of a great nation.

So, I’m but an American Patriot who has served his country in our armed services, compelled in this modest monologue mostly by anger and by empathy and sympathy for the savagery being done to a Ukrainian nation of people of simple lives and loving families…

Shall I say, I just needed to vent my emotions and at least convey my humble and best wishes to those good and humble people subjected to this ‘Power and Ego-fed’ dictator.

I pray for the Ukrainian people a quick end to these hostilities and a return to normalcy – if it can ever be so…my heart grieves with yours.

BR Chitwood – March 7, 2022

https://brchitwood.com

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The Author’s Mission

For Me, I Write

BR Chitwood

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Since my mobile and turbulent childhood my head fills with the events and movements of the days, the emotions that come and stay with me until I write about them from some subliminal heart/mind connection the words flow onto the screen of my laptop. I accept them and allow them entry on the page – as though they were destined to be there, an outlet for the subtle joy and pain of the soul…it is my belief that all artistic endeavors come from that similar sort of tingling.

As some subscribers to my blog posts might allow, most of my writing has a ‘Romantic’ cant, from my murder mysteries (some taken from actual crimes) to genres with historical essence, love, poetry, murder, and current events. My writing heroes of the past are many – …Hemingway, Steinbeck, Crane, DeMille, Grisham, to name a few. For Poetry, my favorite is an ex-Priest named James Kavanaugh.

I have written twenty books, their ‘buy sites’, 375 blog posts written over the years, plus poetry and tribute pieces to Arnold Palmer and other notables. That Website/Blog site address is:

https://brchitwood.com

 I hope you will visit my website/blog, look over some of the book synopses, posts, poetry…perhaps you will find something you would like to read…

At least, I can hope!

Wishing all writers and readers my best wishes.

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BR Chitwood – February 28, 2022

https://brchitwood.com

So – Will Sanity Come?

So – Will Sanity Come?

BR Chitwood

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         So Many variable Genes and Hiding Places!

         So Many ‘Wiring Distinctions’ in the Brain!

         So Many Insatiable Appetites for Pleasures!

         So Many Idiots in High Government Places!

         So Many People Shocked by Sexual Change!

         So Unacceptable are our Leaders’ Response!

         So Many Selfish leaders serve their purpose!

         So Many Splinter Groups erupt in Madness!

         So Much Chaos and Madness Follow Globally!

         So When Will We Ever Learn? When Do We End?

         So, When Does True Wisdom Finally Come?

So, Does Death Bring Us the Ultimate Truth?

         So, Is This Life I Truly Love Really Simple?

So, Do People Insist on Making Life Difficult?

BR Chitwood – February 21, 2022

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Visit my Website/Blog to view my 20 books, 375 blog posts, short stories, and Flash Fiction.

https://brchitwood.com

https://twitter.com @brchitwood

https://facebook.com/Billyray/chitwood

The Prince of Darkness

The Prince of Darkness

BR Chitwood

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‘The Madness Monster’, or, some might call ‘The Prince of Darkness’, has arrived to lead our ‘Land of the Free’ and ‘Home of the Brave’ closer to its ‘Final Breaths of Freedom’. The Bible – particularly, The New Testament, and a Scottish Professor predicted a sad and lonely demise of our great Democracy, and there are some clear signs that our country is well underway to collapse around us. At least, early stages appear evident.

Our United States Constitution began to form when a group of people arrived on our shores from England and other latitudes, people who envisioned a country that would be a Democratic Republic where Freedom and the crude idea that everyone was created equal by their Maker, that laws and documents could be devised to protect those who lived by the dictates of those laws and documents.

So, a group of very special Patriots fought relentlessly to protect the gains from their labor, to untie the tight bonds from their former unwieldy ‘Monarchal Rule’.

The Great Experiment (Democracy) began and would last for years amid Political Chicanery, Slavery Struggles, questionable leaders, and wars.

I love our country, its majesty and territorial options – oceans, mountains, prairies, deserts, and I understand that all our citizens are not in ‘lock-step’ with many political views and mandates. Still, I worry about our choices of leadership, particularly those who have reached levels of senility, corruption, and questionable choices.

There are times when my mind takes me to the gray areas of thought. Can we all think so differently that we exchange a leadership that has positive momentum, logical criteria for options of healthy growth, solutions to pressing problems, positive avenues of further innovation and hope and promise for our people.

My mind also recognizes that we are ‘where we are’ and we must live within the framework of some illogical conditions. My mind also reminds me that there is so much I do not know about the dark shadows which our government puts before us.

In short, our founding fathers gave us golden words of suggestion on how to create a ‘perfect union’. What my mind unfortunately perceives is that our lovely America has fallen to greed and unprincipled actors in our government, more interested in their own personal gains than in staying true to the principles of our finely-tuned ‘Constitution of the United States’.

There is no need for me to dwell on ‘The Prince of Darkness’ – (our good people are not so blind as not to see of whom I write) – the clarity of all I would write here is seen daily in those journals who print the truth and the Cable News Networks who tell us the unvarnished truths that mock us each day.

I have nothing but my words to utter…useless though they might be.

Hope, however, still dwells within this aging body that somehow, some day soon, we will awaken to the principles that can never fail us – that is, ‘Truth’ in Action and Deeds as revealed in our revered documents which were forged in the struggles and blood of our heroes during the most noble battles that forged the ‘Constitution of the United States’!

BR Chitwood – January 30, 2022

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My 20 Books in different genres, my over 375 blog posts, my short stories, Flash Fiction, and Poetry can be found in one place:  

https://brchitwood.com 

I am also on Twitter: @brchitwood

Facebook: https://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood    

Until the End

Until the End

BR Chitwood 

So, it seems I shall be ending this fascinating life adventure as I entered it, confounded by the sounds of jubilation and tears, yet, without a kindly grandmother slapping my rear end to bring the breath of life to a reluctant new birth in a small clapboard house in Appalachia, a saw mill hamlet of dirt roads and a railroad spur for bringing logs to the primary employer of most of its scant population of farmers, most of whom were in a prolonged ‘Great Depression’.

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As a man ready for his final destiny, a man with precious little of consequence for the reader who might chance upon these few words I write here, the words will have little historic value or any other kind of value that would perpetuate a useful understanding except for some amusing and pathetic experiences. At best, the words herein have been written by many others facing their final breaths of air on this orbital craft that ended up with the name of ‘Earth’.

So, skipping over my apathetic problems with school and teenage acne, some good buddies, and a couple of young ladies I was too dull and dim-witted to approach, and an early entry into the United States Navy, marriage to a ‘Navy Wave’ with her own confused history, college, teaching, and emotional experiences that not only paralyzed me but would put me on the path of unrighteousness…yes, alcohol and lovely women of the night – indeed, a shameful and wonderful foray into an almost every night ‘Whoop-de-do’.

Mistakes of a shameful quality?  

A ‘big time’ Uh-Huh! Years of willful neglect to career and inner peace. Still, it was fun and disaster – now, you know where the phrase came from, wait for it! ‘Honkytonk-Heaven’ or, ‘Neon Madness’.

So much time wasted?

I suppose – but it was my life for a time. Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias wrote and performed the lyrics and music For All the Girls I’ve Loved Before. It is a song I should have written. In other words, I could not have written a better epilogue for my life.

 My good wife of nearly forty years has encouraged me in my writing efforts, always steadfast and loyal. She also with her love and unselfish nature brings a smile to each new day.

Somehow, in the aging process, I found the gift of writing, much of it venting moments of my life.

Twenty books – some based on true crimes, some in different genres, give glimpses into my life…Romance, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Sci-Fi, Biography.

Short Stories,  FlashFiction., Poetry and over 375 Blog Posts!

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Perhaps, I have atoned for some of my ‘low spots’ in life… Regardless, my writing speaks ‘Truth’, and it is my hope that readers can find in my books not only the joy of reading but some essence of inspiration. All my writing can be found at: https://brchitwood.com complete with synopses and Amazon Buy Sites.

Wishing everyone a happy and frustration-free 2022, with the scourge of Covid and Omicron all in our rearview mirrors.

• BR Chitwood – January 20, 2022
• https://www.brchitwood.com (Website/Blog/et al)
• https://Twitter.com @BR Chitwood
• https://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood
• https://Linkedin.com – BR Chitwood