Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!

I am Rapunzel...

I am locked here in this tower. The more I yearn for Prince Charming to ride by on his horse and notice me, the taller the tower rises and the thicker the bricks grow.

There must be an evil spell upon me. The more I desire something, the more unattainable it becomes.

When I look out my window, I am taunted by lovers walking in the woods holding hands. Young ladies walk by with pink-cheeked cherub babies that coo. Even the pigeons on the nearby rafters are mating.

I turn back inside and look into the small mirror above my dresser. I am Rapunzel...Rapunzel with a huge afro.

Joy

Joy is...

...cats happy fluffy tails up when I come home little furry interested whiskered faces full of questions like, "Did you have a good time without us?"

...first exploding bite of a sun-warmed strawberry

...kids at a water park

...surprise flowers

...Ben's face watching my face when the indoor elevator landed into his bedroom

...sunny Saturday good tunes all the windows rolled down

...first day of vacation

...new springy shoes on New Year's Day brown with a red flower

...the long-awaited phone call jolting thrill happy ring sound from the guy I'm in love with who's in love with me

baby carnival

I wrote this in an email to Ashley tonight, and I thought, Oh this is a good one.

I'm also having baby issues. It's like this: When I'm walking through Safeway, or along Broadway, and a baby comes along, it's as if the whole world has suddenly turned into various shades of grey and the baby stroller is a kaleidoscope of spinning colour (like a hallucination when you're terribly ill with fever) and a voice inside my head screams, "DON'T LOOK AT THE BABY DON'T LOOK AT THE BABY!"

17 years ago

May 30, 1989
Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Excerpt from Tracey with an E's diary from a list entitled, "Experiences I appreciated" after being in Haiti for a month:

11.) Understanding the need to give
- desperation on people's faces
- old men who have nothing
- children living by their wits
- tough old women, hardened by life, with no teeth

---------------------------------------------------
March 3, 2006
Vancouver, BC, Canada

I am human but I have love to offer.
The desperate faces are next door and down the road.
I am still leaving my mark.
Without love, I am nothing.
I feel the same as I did when I was 19.